Monday, October 11, 2021

Disintermediation Project

 Shorted Again,


Why Shortages Are Permanent: Global Supply Shortages Make Fantastic Financial Sense, Charles Hugh Smith
The era of abundance was only a short-lived artifact of the initial boost phase of globalization and financialization.
  Global corporations didn't go to all the effort to establish quasi-monopolies and cartels for our convenience--they did it to ensure reliably large profits from control and scarcity. Not all scarcities are artificial, i.e. the result of cartels limiting supply to keep prices high; many scarcities are real, and many of these scarcities can be traced back to the stripping out of redundancy / multiple suppliers of industrial essentials to streamline efficiency and eliminate competition. Recall that competition and abundance are anathema to profits.

John Michael Greer is very much in his element here. Here are some of his insights.
That Untraversed Land
  If you want people to put up patiently with long hours of drudgery at miserably low wages, subject to wretched conditions and humiliating policies, so that their self-proclaimed betters can enjoy lifestyles they will never be able to share, it’s a really bad idea to make them stop work and give them a good long period of solitude, in which they can think about what they want out of life and how little of it they’re getting from the role you want them to play.  It’s an especially bad idea to do it so that they have no way of knowing when, or if, they will ever be allowed to return to their former lives, thus forcing them to look for other options in order to stay fed, clothed, housed, and the like.​..

​  So there’s a labor shortage, and it’s concentrated in exactly those jobs that are most essential to keeping the economy running.  These are also the jobs most likely to have lousy pay and worse conditions.  This isn’t accidental. It unfolds from one of the most pervasive and least discussed features of contemporary economic life: the metastatic growth of intermediation.
​  ​Let’s unpack that phrase a bit. The simplest of all economic exchanges takes place between two people, each of whom has something the other wants. They make an exchange, and both go off happy. If what one of the people brings to the exchange is labor, and the other person brings something the first person wants or needs in exchange for labor, we call that “employment,” and the first person is an employee and the second an employer, but it’s still a simple exchange. So long as there’s no overt or covert coercion involved on either side, it’s a fair trade.
​  ​What happens as a society becomes more complex, however, is that people insert themselves into that transaction and demand a cut.  Governments—national, local, and everything in between—tax income, sales, and everything else they can think of. Banks charge interest and fees on every scrap of money that passes through their hands. Real estate owners drive up the cost of land so that they can take an ever larger share of the proceeds in rent and mortgage payments. Then you have a long line of other industries lobbying government for their share of the take.​..

​  Ultimately, of course, employment itself becomes a form of intermediation. By and large you aren’t hired by people who want what you produce, you’re hired by a corporation that inserts itself between you and the purchaser, takes most of the money, and gives you a pittance, while directing a big share to managerial staff. Since the corporation is also subject to intermediation, other shares go to governments, banks, and a whole ecosystem of other intermediaries who insert themselves into the same transaction. In the end, you get a small fraction of the value of your work, and that fraction has been shrinking steadily with each passing year.
​  ​There’s some history behind that. The spectacular growth of intermediation in modern times became possible for two reasons. The first was that fossil fuels made it possible for the labor of a single person to produce more wealth than ever before in human history.  The second was that fossil fuels also enabled the world’s industrial nations to take over and exploit more of the planet than any previous empire in recorded history, first through conquest and colonialism, and later on through manipulative economic arrangements that left other countries notionally independent while they were being drained of wealth to support the industrial nations.
​  ​The impact of these factors on economic life is almost impossible to overstate.  Before the coming of the industrial era, it took on average the productive labor of ten people to support one person in an economic role that didn’t produce necessary goods or services.​..

​  The difficulty is that the torrents of cheap abundant energy that made that sort of metastatic intermediation possible depended all along on the breakneck exploitation of nonrenewable resources.  Now fossil fuels are not so cheap as they once were, nor so abundant.  There’s very little slack left in the fossil fuel sector—as current shortages and price spikes are making very clear—nor are renewable energy sources able to pick up the slack effectively—as current shortages and price spikes are making equally clear.​..

​  All this imposes an existential challenge to the economy of intermediation, and to the millions upon millions of well-paid jobs that depend on intermediation. That challenge first began to bite in the 1980s, and it was met by driving the working classes into poverty and misery. It bears repeating and remembering that half a century ago in the United States, one adult with a high school education and a working class job could support a family of four in relative comfort.​..

​  The difficulty, of course, is that you can only take that so far before it’s no longer worth anyone’s while to do those poorly paid jobs on which the whole system depends.  Here in the United States, we’ve reached that point, and not just for employees. Go to any town in flyover country and walk down the streets, past the empty storefronts where businesses used to flourish. There are millions of people who would love to start their own business, but it’s a losing proposition in an economy in which governments, banks, and property owners demand so large a cut that most small startup businesses can’t break even. The same is equally true, of course, for employees, whose wages no longer even pay the basic costs of getting by in today’s America.​..

​  Thus the economy of intermediation is strangling the economic activity on which it survives.  To change that would require the people whose jobs depend on intermediation to accept a drastic and permanent loss of status, influence, and wealth, and the number of them who will accept that loss willingly can doubtless be counted on the fingers of one foot...

​  ​But it’s the quiet dissolution of working class employment, the recognition by the people who keep the economy running that they have better things to do than prop up a system that treats them as disposable components, that strikes me as most important here and ​​now.

​  ​Many of them are finding work in the underground economy.  That’s a huge economic sector these days. How many people make a living doing work outside ordinary employment and getting paid “under the table,” as the phrase is, is for obvious reasons a hard question to answer, but it’s quite possibly in the tens of millions.  Working in the underground economy is an effective way to get out from under the burden of intermediation, so that both parties in an economic transaction can keep most or all of the value they exchange.  That’s going to become even more significant a fraction of the economy in the years ahead.

​  ​In a declining economy, one person’s productive labor can no longer support the vast teetering structure of intermediation that’s been heaped on top of it. As decline proceeds—and as we have seen, it will proceed for many years to come—so will the contraction in what each person’s labor can support.  If we’re lucky, the decline will bottom out before it gets down to the medieval level—some of our scientific and technological achievements are potentially sustainable, and might keep economic life above the sheer subsistence level if they’re preserved and deployed in time—but in any possible future, the great majority of people will be producing goods and services for their own use and for that of their neighbors, rather than laboring for the benefit of the vast and unsustainable government, corporate, and institutional juggernauts of our day.

​  I opened with these two pieces because​ where we might go and how we might get there seem to be questions that I should personally work on, at street level, not a lofty perch. Right now, for the next 3 weeks, I am perched in a public health clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center, which began in 1970 as "The People's Free Clinic" in a church basement across the street from the UT campus. I remember going by there as a student, and seeing people waiting outside the basement steps for their friends. A friend of mine at the co-op where I lived, Sam, was proud to go there. There is a black and white photo of the volunteer staff in that basement one day in the 1970s, with some of their kids and babies; one fellow not wearing a shirt that day. I knew some of those people, and I know one of the babies. She's a Nurse, now. 
  The clinic, now in a very expansive, open and expensive new building, is effectively an arm of the federal government, and compliance is far more important to the survival of the clinic as an entity, than is taking care of any particular patient. It has become incorporated into a nationwide compliance bureaucracy, even as it has professed it's earlier ideals, with earnest countenance..
  There is no way out of this kind of success, not that I can see. It is what has happened to medicine. I cannot go see people for free, or what they can pay, because I would make about what a teacher makes, or less, and I would be breaking so many laws and regulations, that I would be a criminal for my efforts. I did something like this with support from Luling, Texas from 1992-1994. It was the hardest I ever worked. They paid 2 office employees and gave me half a mobile building for a clinic. I did hospital and ER work and delivered babies and did c-sections, and made what Jenny had made as a first through third year teacher. Texas Medicaid reliably paid me $19 per clinic visit and about $560 per baby delivered. Individuals and most insurance (Medicare and commercial) typically just failed to pay me. 
Those were the good days. They are over. I'm older, too.
  I am about to work the last 3 weeks before the vaccine mandate takes effect November 1, 2021. I am not seeing any job postings for unvaccinated doctors, and any place that is hiring now is in the "intermediation" business, and needs doctors to crank patients through the line, one-problem-per-visit, as if that's how people's needs are met. I've never been able to do that, and I'm sort of an old-dog at this point; unlikely to learn that trick.
 Jenny is still working as a school librarian. I have vegetable gardening, the Yoakum homestead, meditation/prayer and am assessing and chronicling the patch of history we are navigating together. I'm a good doctor, but without a format in which to legally practice medicine.
 I'll see if a practice opportunity presents itself   I'll work on vegetable gardening systems for central Texas, and on "the economy" at a personal and local scale, with as little "intermediation" as possible. 
  Cash is going to work better than digital central bank currency, at least for the persons, not for the central banks. Vote with your cash transactions.

You'll own nothing, have no privacy and be happy...
“Programmable Digital Currency”: The next stage of the new normal?The war on cash’s endgame is here: money replaced by vouchers subject to complete state control.
Building on the bitcoin model, central banks are planning to produce their own “digital currencies”. Removing any and all remaining privacy, granting total control over every transaction, even limiting what ordinary people are allowed to spend their money on.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/01/programmable-digital-currency-the-next-stage-of-the-new-normal/

How is the Davos World Economic Forum involved in the coronavirus pandemic?​ ...
​  ​First, the WEF was, together with the Gates Foundation, a sponsor of the prescient “Event 201” coronavirus pandemic simulation exercise, held in New York City on October 18, 2019 – the same day as the opening of the Wuhan Military World Games, seen by some as “ground zero” of the global pandemic. China itself has argued that US military athletes may have brought the virus to Wuhan.
​  ​Second, the WEF has been a leading proponent of digital biometric identity systems, arguing that they will make societies and industries more efficient, more productive and more secure. In July 2019, the WEF started a project to “shape the future of travel with biometric-enabled digital traveler identity management”. In addition, the WEF collaborates with the ID2020 alliance, which is funded by the Gates and Rockefeller foundations and runs a program to “provide digital ID with vaccines”. In particular, ID2020 sees the vaccination of children as “an entry point for digital identity.”
​  ​Third, WEF founder Klaus Schwab is the author of the book COVID-19: The Great Reset, published in July 2020, which argues that the coronavirus pandemic can and should be used for an “economic, societal, geopolitical, environmental and technological reset”, including, in particular, advancing global governance, accelerating digital transformation, and tackling climate change.
​  ​Finally, the WEF has been running, since 1993, a program called “Global Leaders for Tomorrow”, rebranded, in 2004, as “Young Global Leaders”. This program aims at identifying, selecting and promoting future global leaders in both business and politics. Indeed, quite a few “Young Global Leaders” have later managed to become Presidents, Prime Ministers, or CEOs (​Hey, there are lots of neoliberal prime ministers on that list, names we know, and Bill Gates, too​).

SouthWest Airlines cancels over 1,800 flights in 2 days amid rumors of employee ‘sickout’ due to Covid-19 vaccine mandate

“The pilot emailed following the first Southwest post today (and provided his SWA ID to prove his identity). He asked that I paraphrase the email. Essentially, the union cannot organize or even acknowledge the sickout, because doing so would make it an illegal job action. Years ago, Southwest and its pilots had a rough negotiation, and the union would not even let the pilots internally discuss the possibility of working-to-rule (which would have slowed Southwest to a crawl). But at the moment the pilots don’t even have to talk to each other about what they’re doing. The anger internally – not just among pilots but other Southwest workers – is enormous. The tough prior negotiations notwithstanding, Southwest has a history of decent labor relations, and workers believe the company should stand up for them against the mandate. Telling pilots in particular to comply or face termination has backfired.”

​Thanks for this story, H.E. The Amish of Lancaster County met COVID head-on in the spring of 2020, caught it, got done with it, and kept living by their  principles.
They fared no worse than any other group, had an economic boomlet and avoided hospitals. They humanly supported each other in person.  
​https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/10/amish-covid-no-hospitalization-isolation-or-vaccines-herd-immunity/

​After about 6 months, the antibodies from vaccination seem to benefit the virus, increasing infections, rather than reducing them. What's the next step in this progression?​
Latest UK Health Security Agency Report shows the Covid-19 Vaccine DO NOT WORK and have a NEGATIVE effectiveness as low as MINUS 86%
​  ​Last week we told you how the Covid-19 vaccines were proving to have a collective negative efficacy in everyone over the age of 40 in the UK as low as minus-sixty-six-percent. Today we can reveal that the latest report available from the UK Health Security Agency, which has recently replaced Public Health England, shows that the Covid-19 vaccines are now proving to have a negative efficacy in everyone over the age of 30 in the UK as low as minus-eighty-six-percent.
​ ​The efficacy of all available vaccines combined is as low as – 85.71% within the 40-49 age group, and as high as – 3.4% in the 30-39 age group. This shows that the Covid-19 vaccines are making people more susceptible to catching Covid-19, rather than preventing cases of Covid-19 by the claimed 95%.

“The FDA has clearly stated there is currently no fully FDA-approved licensed COVID shot available to the population. The Pfizer injection that is currently available in the U.S. is not FDA approved and remains under emergency use authorization  only. That means that people have the option to accept or refuse the shots.”
https://lc.org/newsroom/details/100821-no-fda-approved-covid19-shots-available

​Any doctor in New Delhi would take ivermectin based treatment these days. They are completely familiar with it.​
NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Merck & Co's (MRK.N) experimental antiviral drug molnupiravir has not shown "significant efficacy" against moderate COVID-19, a source with the Drug Controller General of India said.​..
​  ​Aurobindo Pharma Ltd wants to discontinue a late-stage trial of molnupiravir in moderate COVID-19 patients, the regulator's expert committee said on Friday.
"There is no significant efficacy against moderate COVID and the effective efficacy is towards mild cases," the source said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the discussions.

Ivermectin is so much safer than Tylenol.
​  ​As it turns out, all the scientists and doctors who insisted that Merck's "revolutionary" COVID drug molnupiravir is extremely safe weren't faithfully adhering to "the science" after all. Because according to a report published Thursday by Barron's, some scientists are worried that the drug - which purportedly cut hospitalizations in half during a study that was cut short - could cause cancer or birth defects.​  ​
​  ​Dr. Shuntai Zhou, a scientist at the Swanstrom Lab at UNC, said "there is a concern that this will cause long-term mutation effects, even cancer."
​  ​Zhou says that he is certain that the drug will integrate itself into the DNA of mammalian hosts. "Biochemistry won’t lie," he says. "This drug will be incorporated in the DNA."
​  ​Merck hasn't yet released any data from its animal studies, but the scientists believe that it would take long-term studies to show that the drug is truly totally safe.

Merck Asks FDA For Emergency Approval Of New COVID Drug Despite Safety Concerns​ 
The $700 course of the pill is meant to be taken at home as four capsules twice a day for five days, constituting a total of 40 pills.​  (It costs 13 cents in India.)
​https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/merck-asks-fda-emergency-approval-new-covid-drug-despite-safety-concerns

​Aspirin is not safer than Tylenol, but one baby-aspirin per day is very safe.​ 
People already taking low-dose aspirin (81 mg) per day had a protective effect.
  The treatment reduced the risk of reaching mechanical ventilation by 44%. ICU admissions were lower by 43%, and an overall in-hospital mortality saw a 47% decrease...
​  ​Israeli researchers reached similar results in a preliminary trial at the Barzilai Medical Center in March. In addition to its effect on blood clots, they found that aspirin carried immunological benefits and that the group taking it was 29% less likely to become infected with the virus in the first place.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/aspirin-lowers-risk-of-covid-new-findings-support-preliminary-israeli-trial-681127

Bill Gates is a Wanker Song ("Protected political speech", as I understand it.)  Thanks P.D. 
I can't keep from smiling when this video plays.  :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72e-p3wn6WE

Little Guy  pictured with growing banana plants


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Thursday, October 7, 2021

Myocarditis Spotlight

 Caring Hearts,


Cardiologist Peter McCullough MD et al look at myocarditis events reported to VAERS following COVID vaccinations in children.
 ​ ​We used VAERS data to examine cardiac AEs, primarily myocarditis, reported following injection of the first or second dose of the COVID-19 injectable products. Myocarditis rates reported in VAERS were significantly higher in youths between the ages of 13 to 23 (p<0.0001) with ∼80% occurring in males. Within 8 weeks of the public offering of COVID-19 products to the 12-15-year-old age group, we found 19 times the expected number of myocarditis cases in the vaccination volunteers over background myocarditis rates for this age group. In addition, a 5-fold increase in myocarditis rate was observed subsequent to dose 2 as opposed to dose 1 in 15-year-old males. A total of 67% of all cases occurred with BNT162b2. Of the total myocarditis AE reports, 6 individuals died (1.1%) and of these, 2 were under 20 years of age - 1 was 13. These findings suggest a markedly higher risk for myocarditis subsequent to COVID-19 injectable product use than for other known vaccines, and this is well above known background rates for myocarditis.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0146280621002267#fig0004

My Med School housemate, Guy, sent this from his area. It's hotly contested.
​...​When Santa Rosa police arrived at the teen’s home, they found him unresponsive in his bedroom.
“The decedent had been in good health with no medical history and had received his second Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccination approximately two days before his death,” Verilhac wrote.
The doctor determined the cause of death to be “stress cardiomyopathy with perivascular coronary artery inflammation, due to unknown etiology in setting of recent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination.” Verilhac then stated that, “There were no other significant conditions contributing to the death listed.”​ ...​
​...​Despite the uproar, Sonoma County officials insist there is no proven link between the vaccination and the ​(15 year old)​ boy’s death.
​  ​“It’s a very sad and perplexing case, and our concern – and that of the family — is that the anti-vax community would misrepresent the facts in this case,” county spokesman Paul Gullixson said Tuesday. “The only reason that the vaccination was mentioned in the synopsis, and the only correlation to the death, was the timing.”
​  ​County health officer Dr. Sundari Mase acknowledged there have been demonstrated cases of blood clots in a small percentage of Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients, and an even smaller set of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) reactions in young people.
“But in this case,” she said, “CDC found no relationship between the vaccine and the death.”

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination-Associated Myocarditis in Children Ages 12-17: A Stratified National Database Analysis
​ ​Results​ ​ A total of 257 CAEs were identified. Rates per million following dose 2 among males were 162.2 (ages 12-15) and 94.0 (ages 16-17); among females, rates were 13.0 and 13.4 per million, respectively. For boys 12-15 without medical comorbidities receiving their second mRNA vaccination dose, the rate of CAE is 3.7 to 6.1 times higher than their 120-day COVID-19 hospitalization risk as of August 21, 2021 (7-day hospitalizations 1.5/100k population) and 2.6-4.3-fold higher at times of high weekly hospitalization risk (7-day hospitalizations 2.1/100k), such as during January 2021. For boys 16-17 without medical comorbidities, the rate of CAE is currently 2.1 to 3.5 times higher than their 120-day COVID-19 hospitalization risk, and 1.5 to 2.5 times higher at times of high weekly COVID-19 hospitalization.

Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine against Covid-19 in Israel​ (Pfizer)
​ Among 304 persons with symptoms of myocarditis, 21 had received an alternative diagnosis. Of the remaining 283 cases, 142 occurred after receipt of the BNT162b2 vaccine; of these cases, 136 diagnoses were definitive or probable. The clinical presentation was judged to be mild in 129 recipients (95%); one fulminant case was fatal. The overall risk difference between the first and second doses was 1.76 per 100,000 persons (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33 to 2.19), with the largest difference among male recipients between the ages of 16 and 19 years (difference, 13.73 per 100,000 persons; 95% CI, 8.11 to 19.46). As compared with the expected incidence based on historical data, the standardized incidence ratio was 5.34 (95% CI, 4.48 to 6.40) and was highest after the second dose in male recipients between the ages of 16 and 19 years...

​Myocarditis After COVID-19 Vaccination in a Large Health care Organization​ 
CONCLUSIONS
Among patients in a large Israeli health care system who had received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, the estimated incidence of myocarditis was 2.13 cases per 100,000 persons; the highest incidence was among male patients between the ages of 16 and 29 years. Most cases of myocarditis were mild or moderate in severity.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2110737

​Russian propaganda: 
Sweden halts use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for younger adults amid concerns over rare heart inflammation side effect
https://www.rt.com/news/536715-sweden-moderna-paused-covid-jab/

I wondered what happened with "President Biden's" UN COVID Summit last month. We got no news of it. 
It happened 6 days after the FDA expert panel advised for very limited use of Pfizer boosters. The plan was to "donate" a lot of the excess to Africans to benefit their parity with wealthier countries. The potential-beneficiary countries boycotted the get-together for some reason. (Losing Control Of The Narrative, perhaps?) Thanks Eleni.
General boycott of Covid-19 Global Summit
  On 22 September 2021, President Joe Biden held a virtual Global Summit on Covid-19 on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly.
  He had predicted the presence of at least 100 states and 100 organizations. In fact, only a handful of developed countries allied to the United States plus a number of assorted organizations showed up.
  President Biden has pledged to distribute an additional 500 million doses of vaccines to ensure that 70% of the population in every country is fully vaccinated...
  This is the first time that a meeting organized by the United States to hand out donations has been boycotted by potential recipients.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article214193.html

The Wall Street Journal Publishes an editorial with the evidence supporting the case that SARS-CoV-2 is a lab virus, and concludes that to probably be the case.
This implies to me that the dominant narrative is beginning to shift, but we do not see where the shift is going. How well is this being managed by our owners? 
How does social media like it? What's a trending escape route for the ALL-VACCINE agenda? Is there one? (Merck's new oral drug that's less effective and more dangerous (and unproven over time) than ivermectin-based treatment? (Note "Science" in title, first word.)
Science Closes In on Covid’s Origins
Four studies—including two from WHO—provide powerful evidence favoring the lab-leak theory.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-coronavirus-lab-leak-virology-origins-pandemic-11633462827?mod=djemalertNEWS

"Evidence based medicine" has replaced individualized diagnosis and treatment, based on physiologic understanding and clinical practice experience.
Only large , expensive trials are acceptable, and only as interpreted by experts, and only as accepted into certain journals. Pharmaceutical companies pay all the salaries, only study profitable products, and exclude other information and "lesser studies" as "not evidence based". 
Get it? Nobody "thinks like a doctor", as I was taught to do. 
Medicine is staffed by clerks and compliance-officers these days.  Check only the right boxes.
https://aapsonline.org/covid-19-response-and-the-tyranny-of-evidence-based-medicine/

Hey, this ain't supposed to happen. I wonder if the mRNA vaccines can pull the same trick as the virus. They are a whole lot alike...
Reverse-transcribed SARS-CoV-2 RNA can integrate into the genome of cultured human cells and can be expressed in patient-derived tissues

​Unexpected Reversal​
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Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Sympathy For The Vaccinated

 Mortal Humans,


​  ​Convention of States Action released the poll Wednesday, which reports that 65% of surveyed voters “do not believe Americans should lose their jobs if they object to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.” The poll also found 22.2% believe those who refuse the mandate should lose their job, while 12.8% aren’t sure...
​  ​Feelings on the mandate differed significantly based on political affiliation. According to the poll, “63.6% of Independent voters do not believe Americans should lose their jobs if they object to taking the COVID-19 vaccine, while 15.5% believe they should, and 20.9% aren’t sure.” ... 
​  ​The poll found 83.5% of Republican voters don’t want the unvaccinated to lose their jobs while 47.9% of Democrats feel the same way.
​  ​The mandate in question requires all federal employees and government contractors to be vaccinated. It also requires all businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or test them weekly.
​https://justthenews.com/nation/states/poll-majority-americans-think-those-refusing-vaccine-should-not-lose-job

​Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) of viral pathogenicity, is when antibodies from a prior viral infection, or vaccination, make the virus more infectious to the host.
Look at the recent Public Health England data, showing cases per 100,000 by age and vaccination status (2 shots or none).​
 As England’s drawn-out Delta outbreak drags on, the infection rates in the vaccinated continue to outpace those in the unvaccinated, reducing (unadjusted) vaccine effectiveness further. For the 60s age group, infection rates are 63% higher in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated, up from 53% last week, giving an (unadjusted) vaccine effectiveness of minus-63%. But that has been topped this week by the 40s age group, the vaccinated among whom now have an infection rate no less than 66% higher than the unvaccinated, up from 46% in last week’s report and 27% in the report for the month ending September 5th.
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/10/03/vaccine-effectiveness-hits-as-low-as-minus-66-in-the-over-40s-new-phe-data-shows/



  They don't mean "unrelated" , do they?  "Directly correlated" seems to be a good fit tor this data set.
Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States
​  ​At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days (Fig. 1). In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-021-00808-7

​Jessica Berg Wilson's obituary​: She was coerced into COVID-vaccination. Thanks Jeremy.
​  ​Jessica Berg Wilson, 37, of Seattle, WA, passed away suddenly on September 7th from COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT) surrounded by her loving family. Jessica was an exceptionally healthy and vibrant 37-year-old young mother with no underlying health conditions...
​  ​Jessica fully embraced motherhood, sharing her passion for life with her daughters.  Jessica’s motherly commitment was intense, with unwavering determination to nurture her children to be confident, humble, responsible, and to have concern and compassion for others with high morals built on Faith.http://www.hoffnerfisherandharvey.com/obituary/jessica-wilson

​"Build Nothing Ever"​
​  "​Biden’s​"​ ‘Build Back Better’ Act Proposes To Increase Fines On Businesses TEN FOLD For Non-Vaxxed Employees
Any company found in violation of the the Occupational Safety and Health Act will face a $700,000 fine PER VIOLATION
https://summit.news/2021/09/30/bidens-build-back-better-act-proposes-to-increase-fines-on-businesses-ten-fold-for-non-vaxxed-employees/

​Israel is one of those countries where high vaccination rates appear to be increasing the number of COVID cases.​ What's the exit strategy?
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel restricted its COVID Green Pass on Sunday to allow only those who have received a vaccine booster dose or recently recuperated from coronavirus to enter indoor venues. The new criteria mean that nearly 2 million people will lose their vaccination passport in the coming days. ​ ​
​ ​  Israel is the first country to make a booster shot a requirement for its digital vaccination passport. The move is widely seen as a step to encourage booster vaccination among those who have yet to receive a third dose. 
 ​ Under the new guidelines, people must have received a booster shot to be eligible for a green pass. Those who have received two vaccine doses, and those who have recovered from coronavirus, will be issued passes valid for six months after the date of their vaccination or recovery.​..​ ​
​  ​Scores of Israelis staged demonstrations around the country in protest of the green pass system, with convoys of cars clogging morning commutes as many Israelis returned to work Sunday after September’s Jewish High Holidays. Opponents of the system said it is a form of forced vaccination.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-middle-east-health-jerusalem-israel-25ec5e9141c72080876bfe4f481bf50f

​  ​Early combination therapy with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin reduces mortality in 10,429 COVID-19 outpatients
​...​March to December 2020 in adults with PCR-proven infection who were treated as outpatients with a standardized protocol. The primary endpoint was 6-week mortality, and secondary endpoints were transfer to the intensive care unit and hospitalization rate. Among 10,429 patients (median age, 45 [IQR 32–57] years; 5597 [53.7%] women), 16 died (0.15%). The infection fatality rate was 0.06% among the 8315 patients treated with HCQ+AZ. No deaths occurred among the 8414 patients younger than 60 years. Older age and male sex were associated with a higher risk of death, ICU transfer, and hospitalization. Treatment with HCQ+AZ (0.17 [0.06–0.48]) was associated with a lower risk of death, independently of age, sex and epidemic period. Meta-analysis evidenced consistency with 4 previous outpatient studies (32,124 patients—Odds ratio 0.31 [0.20–0.47], I2 = 0%). Early ambulatory treatment of COVID-19 with HCQ+AZ as a standard of care is associated with very low mortality, and HCQ+AZ improve COVID-19 survival compared to other regimens.
https://rcm.imrpress.com/EN/10.31083/j.rcm2203116

The Ivermectin Debate
​  ​To date, about 50 studies – among them about 30 randomized controlled trials and about 40 peer-reviewed publications – have been done on the use of ivermectin against covid. Most of these studies found that the use of ivermectin was associated with a positive outcome, such as a reduced risk of infection, hospitalization or death (see chart above; not all of these results were significant).
​  ​Based on these studies, several meta-analyses computed positive results, too. Most recently, a WHO-supported meta-analysis of 24 randomized controlled trials found a 56% mortality reduction overall and a 70% mortality reduction in patients who received early outpatient treatment.
https://swprs.org/the-ivermectin-debate/

​This looks good. Lets see what cancer rates and incidence of birth defects in offspring of recipients look like in 7 years. HCQ and ivermectin will do, for now.
Merck and Ridgeback’s Investigational Oral Antiviral Molnupiravir Reduced the Risk of Hospitalization or Death by Approximately 50 Percent Compared to Placebo for Patients with Mild or Moderate COVID-19 in Positive Interim Analysis of Phase 3 Study
https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-ridgebacks-investigational-oral-antiviral-molnupiravir-reduced-the-risk-of-hospitalization-or-death-by-approximately-50-percent-compared-to-placebo-for-patients-with-mild-or-moderat/

​"Rationalism" in US foreign policy?​ Now?  "Just try not to lose the world's leading chipmaker to the ascendant Chinese empire.".. Thanks Eleni.
​  ​Elbridge Colby, who was in Trump’s Pentagon helping devise its national defence strategy, has a new book, The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, making the case for a foreign policy that leaves the post-9/11 era clearly and decisively behind. The outer circle of the ‘periphery’ reduces to over-horizon, necro-tech management, and the ‘near provinces of empire’, such as Europe are dismissed as ‘sideshows’ to the main event – China. To focus on Iran or North Korea, he says, is simply misguided.
​  ​It is “a realist’s book, laser-focused on China’s bid for mastery in Asia as the 21st century’s most important threat”, Ross Douthat writes in the NY Times. “All other challenges are secondary: Only China threatens American interests in a profound way, through a consolidation of economic power in Asia that imperils our prosperity and a military defeat that could shatter our alliance system. Therefore, American policy should be organized to deny Beijing regional hegemony and deter any military adventurism — first and foremost, through a stronger commitment to defending the island of Taiwan”.
​  ​The Strategy of Denial presents a particularly unsentimental version of a rapidly consolidating Washington consensus. Biden’s speech justifying withdrawal from Afghanistan, in terms of an end to nation-building and focus on counter-terrorism – albeit more softly spoken – said the same as Colby.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/09/27/china-cold-war-will-unstick-america-glue/

​"You want your cash; you can keep your cash"​  (heh, heh, heh...)
Fed Prepares To Launch "Review" Of Central Bank Digital Currency That Could Render Cash, Privacy Obsolete
​...​Chairman Powell has done his best to push for caution, arguing that it's more important to "get it right" than be "first to market". Put another way: who cares if the PBOC roles out the "e-RMB" first? The dollar's role in the global financial system is much greater, which means the US is obligated to proceed with more trepidation.
​  ​Powell and others have said repeatedly that the Fed's research so far has been early and exploratory. Powell has also pointed to the fact that many Americans still use and prefer cash. Most importantly, Powell has addressed concerns that a CBDC would effectively allow the Fed to monitor the finances of every American.​    (I'm not reassured by that statement Powell made. He didn't say what they would actually do. He might feel uncomfortable.)​
​  ​"It’s our obligation to do the work both on technology and on public policy to form a basis for making an informed decision,” he said last month.
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/fed-prepares-release-report-fedcoin-could-render-cash-obsolete

​What could go wrong? They'll just patent some designer hallucinogens , make them a little addictive, and short-acting so you can get right back to work.​
The ‘Psychedelic Renaissance’ Is Entirely About Corporate Greed​,​​ Caitlin Johnstone​
​  ​“Money has begun flowing into companies intending to monetize psychedelic therapy as new research has increasingly shown that blowing one’s mind can alter it for the better,” reads a new article for the Los Angeles Times titled “Money is pouring into psychedelics. Meet the mystical hedge fund investor bankrolling the boom.”
​  ​“This scientific and commercial excitement rests on research showing that psychedelics can supercharge mental health treatment for PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction, and other chronic ailments of the mind, enabling patients to dive deep, confront their traumas and — a rarity for mental illnesses — return healed,” the article reads. “That goes for synthetic chemicals such as MDMA and ketamine as well as plant-derived drugs such as psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms), the South American plant brew ayahuasca, and the West African root-derived substance iboga.”​ ...
​  ​Terence McKenna once said, “Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”​ ...
​  Psychedelics are useful not for the hallucinations they provide but for the hallucinations they remove. At the shallower end of the pool they can help dispel the psychological illusions which feed into our depression, anxiety, and PTSD. At the deep end they have the potential to remove our fundamental hallucinations about ego, mind, separation, and consciousness. The gamble appears to be premised on building a high fence to keep everyone playing in the shallow end of the pool, where they are useful.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/10/04/the-psychedelic-renaissance-is-entirely-about-corporate-greed/

​Experienced
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Monday, October 4, 2021

Normalcy Migration

 Perpetually Mobile,


  When people think of Nazi Germany they typically think of 1939 to 1945, so when I liken the depersonalization of "the unvaccinated" in the west today, to how Jews and other minorities were treated under the Third Reich, I am taken to task.
  Today is more like 1932 than 1939, still pre-war, with the way forward not yet clear. The US is not Germany, and is not even the UK. 
Analogies can only be taken so far, but the process of depersonalizing a group of people, to blame them for things going bad, is a standard operating procedure.

  It has to become normal to blame the scapegoat group. Everybody has to know. 
It has to be common and accepted knowledge that this group made our current problems.
It looks to me like this is still in beta testing with blaming the COVID-unvaccinated.

  The US government today is more like the floundering Weimar republic in 1932, with divisions, and lack of a clear, guiding vision for the country. In 1932 the Weimar Republic did not have a majority in government, but it had the largest minority. Close upon its heels were the National Socialists and the Communist Party. 
The national Socialists and Communists were in opposition, and considered a political alliance. They did align on some things. Positions were not too different to reconcile, and the Deutschmark was not yet into hyperinflation.

  With the ongoing global great depression, the Deutschmark, unmoored from gold by necessity, and based on a property bubble, started inflating away so rapidly that it was an economic crisis. People were desperate for a solution. The US is not there yet, but it looks like it is on the horizon. The world does not need to pay the US for dollars. Other global trade arrangements can be made. Dark-money trades move a lot of $100 bills around, and have for a long time, but gold works, and always has.

  Gold and physical cash working as currency is a problem for global central bankers. They probably have a much better idea of how much dark-commerce is going on than we do. They launder the drug-money, for instance. They would prefer a cut of every single transaction. What central bankers openly want is global digital currency, under their control, for every participant and for every transaction. 
  The vaccine-passports are an opportune pathway into that for Central Banking. Blaming the unvaccinated enough for COVID to enact widespread digital vaccine passports looks like a concept that needs widespread acceptance as normal, for it to be the go-to solution in the upcoming reset. If the global digital currency function of vaccine-passports were in place when the global financial system collapsed, it could be built up as a solution.

  To me it seems that people don't invent completely new solutions in a crisis. Rather, they press into service whatever they have that can be made to work.
If cash and gold are eliminated, and only electronic transactions are possible, then global central bank digital currency can be made to look like the only alternative.  Most people would prefer cash, which gives them autonomy, if they think about it. 
  
  Most people don't have to think about it much these days. Credit cards work. 
In a crisis, people do think a lot more about their options and how they can protect their options and defend their resources from further predation.

  Before the overt crisis of global economic reset, here in the partly-contrived crisis of COVID-Pandemic-Unending, we might give careful thought to our positions in society, to how much normalcy migration we should roll-over for and permit. 

  I am not a victim, and I am sorry if I appeared to present my human experience recently in a way that made me seem that way, or seem as if I were putting on the identity-cloak of victimhood. I have intentionally decided to stand, immediately, with a scapegoated group, not least because I believe the group is right to resist conformity pressure, but because now is the time when a firm stance, before the onset of a real crisis, might be the most influential on the future course of society.

  If we resist the normalization of unfair scapegoating every time it is attempted, then we resist being divided against each other by the owners. When the crisis hits in earnest, they need us to be divided against each other, in order to maintain their positions of power and ownership over us and over the physical world and it's life forms. I am able to stand firmly against vaccine-mandates and vaccine passports because the kids are all in their careers, we own the house in Yoakum, and have low taxes there, I have vegetable gardens, and we have been practicing different life patterns, growing, harvesting, storing and preparing food. We have modest retirement savings, no debts, and are about to get the attic insulation updated, the last major maintenance project on the homestead. The plumbing, electrical wiring, roofing, flooring, internal and external repair and paint have all been done, roughly in that order. It is a sturdy 1957 house, which has withstood every storm since then without appreciable damage. 
Jenny's position as a school librarian does not appear threatened. We are able to subsist on her salary alone.

  I am doing everything I can to ease the transition of care for my patients at what began in 1970 as a free-clinic, and what is now a largish Federally Qualified Health Center. I may or may not be employable, and I have learned better than to think I could run a business long ago. It's not my nature. The near future is in a fog bank. Things are not usually this way. We need to not run into an iceberg while we await the lifting of the fog, and the improvement of visibility. 

  There is a lot that we can do each day which is productive and useful to ourselves and others. Much of it is really mundane, but it facilitates human repatterning, which is our own self-guided migration of normalcy. We can even choose to migrate towards historical normalcy. It might be a good start.

  This Saturday Jenny and I experimented with the new technique of shelling black-eyed peas, which Dan and I worked out last weekend on the dried black beans, which had been very slow going for hand shelling. We harvested about 6 five-gallon buckets in June, and managed to shell 3 of those since then. 
Some people stomp black beans on a threshing floor (messy). The most promising technique I found online was to put them in a burlap bag, beat it mercilessly, then pour the loose beans out of it. 
  We experimented with that. The sharp black bean pods poked out through the burlap, spear-like. Wrong kind of burlap bag? The beans didn't pour out so well, either, and the beating process seemed like we could do better. Dan started pounding the black bean pods in the 5 gallon bucket with an axe handle, not hard, just tap, tap, tapping. That seemed to be working pretty well. I did some hand mangling to loosen up remaining beans, and picked off a lot of the chaff from the top.
Dan had dropped the axe head down by then, which seemed to work better-still. We processed all 3 buckets pretty quickly, while working this out, then poured the buckets into a clean wheelbarrow, across the brisk wind of a fan, which blew away the chaff. We cut our processing time to about 10-20%, which made it look ok to grow black beans again, though we will experiment with pinto beans next spring.

  The black-eyed peas did not respond well to the pounding-in-bucket technique. The pods seem to be more flexible, less dry and crispy. The "peas" don't separate out easily that way, but they do separate out well by hand, just splitting the dry pod and stripping the (African) beans out with one's fingers. The traditional way seems to be fairly efficient for low tech. Weevils mess with that. Old world beans are poorly defended against new world weevils. The wind-winnowing step works after  hand shelling. They are a lot easier to hand shell than black beans are. Some pods shell easier than others. Some beans are bigger than others. Some varieties seem more resistant to weevils than others. One would desire large pods, with large beans, which shell easily, and are minimally susceptible to weevil damage.

  Jenny took this picture of me before dawn this morning with "Red Ripper" black-eyed peas and "Mississippi Pink Eye Purple Hull" field peas. 
It is late in the season to judge weevil susceptibility, having planted in July (gave up on Mackey Peas). Both kinds shell readily when dried. The Purple hull peas are much larger, so the same amount of shelling gets more dried "peas". They taste fine, but the smaller Red ripper "peas" have a nice, appealing nutty flavor.
We will have to see how they do against weevils next summer.

Re-humanizing



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Thursday, September 30, 2021

Self Identification

 Witnesses,


​  ​An NBA Star and New York's Governor Show That Liberal COVID Discourse is Devoid of Science​  Glenn Greenwald​    ("Science")
The view that the unvaccinated are all stupid, primitive and ignorant is getting more difficult to sustain, especially as liberal policy contradicts its own core premises. 
,,,Governor Kathy Hochul, when announcing her intent to use National Guard soldiers to replace health care workers fired for refusing the vaccine, told her audience: “yes, I know you're vaccinated, you're the smart ones.” She then said those who refuse to get the vaccine are not just stupid but have turned their back on God: “there's people out there who aren't listening to God and what God wants.” Gov. Hochul added that the vaccine “is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God,” and said to her "smart” vaccinated supporters: “I need you to be my apostles.”​ ...​
  ​The attempt to equate being unvaccinated with stupidity and ignorance suffered a massive blow on Wednesday night when NBA star Jonathan Isaac was asked why he was hesitant to take the vaccine. Like many unions, the NBA's player union has refused a vaccine mandate, and Isaac, the 23-year-old player with the Orlando Magic who previously had and recovered from COVID, gave a stunningly compelling, informed, well-reasoned and thoughtful exposition on his rationale for not wanting the vaccine. Isaac also defended the right of individuals to make their own choice.​ (very brief video clip)

​Jedd Bezos owns The Washington Post.  Wassup?  Shifting alliances?  Hedging bets?  Testing responses? Vigorously debated comments section.
Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so.
People making decisions about their health deserve honesty from their leaders.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/15/natural-immunity-vaccine-mandate/

No Significant Difference in Viral Load Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated, Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Groups Infected with SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant​  (preprint)
Abstract​:  ​We found no significant difference in cycle threshold values between vaccinated and unvaccinated, asymptomatic and symptomatic groups infected with SARS-CoV-2 Delta. Given the substantial proportion of asymptomatic vaccine breakthrough cases with high viral levels, interventions, including masking and testing, should be considered for all in settings with elevated COVID-19 transmission.

World Council for Health has this:
  Maintain a healthy immune system with good nutrition, fresh air, and simple supplements like Vitamin D, C, Zinc, and Quercetin.
Use the medicines and supplements that are available to you.
Be prepared! Keep a good supply of healthy food, supplements, and medicines so you will be ready if you become infected.
Treat Covid-19 early if you become symptomatic or receive a positive test. Early treatment helps reduce the severity and duration of Covid-19 infection.
Treat Covid-19 using a combination of therapies that address the complex nature of the illness:
Antiviral/antimicrobial therapies such as ivermectin
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen and N-acetylcysteine
Immune-balancing medicines and supplements such as Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc, Quercetin, and Melatonin
Anticoagulant medicines such as aspirin
Symptom support such as cough mixtures, acetaminophen, nasal sprays, and mouthwashes
Seek advice from your doctor if you are concerned about Covid-19 symptoms or for early treatment options.
GO TO THE HOSPITAL if you are short of breath, have difficulty breathing, or are experiencing chest heaviness or pain.
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/resources/early-covid-19-treatment-guidelines-a-practical-approach-to-home-based-care-for-healthy-families/

The Market Crash Nobody Thinks Is Possible Is Coming​  Charles Hugh Smith   (but exactly when, sir?)​
The banquet of consequences is being served, and risk-off crashes are, like revenge, best served cold.
​  ​T​he ideal setup for a crash is a consensus that a crash is impossible--in other words, just like the present: sure, there are carefully measured murmurings about a "correction" but nobody with anything to lose in the way of public credibility is calling for an honest-to-goodness crash, a real crash, not a wimpy, limp-wristed dip that will immediately be bought.
https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-market-crash-nobody-thinks-is.html

  Tomorrow marks the start of my last month of work at the clinic, since I am COVID-unvaccinated.
It was announced in an email that I would be leaving, but not why, so I added that it was involuntary, and explained my moral position of "standing naked with the Jews", likening this to WW-2 Germany. I've been judged pretty harshly, by people I have known for years, for "being hurtful", and probably 20:1 judged me and did not reply. I have been respectful, explained our family tour with bikes and backpacks visited the Anne Frank House, Dachau and Tuol Sleng torture museum, in Cambodia. I take this very seriously, and I bear the responsibility for my actions and my statements. One younger black man, working at the clinic, came to me yesterday, asking about my decision, and explaining that he had made the same choice, because he distrusts what is being forced upon people.
We agree. 
Perhaps people who see what is going down in this suck-out before the next tsunami-of-history should hold hands and walk to higher ground..

Unprepared to Surf
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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Self Help

 Autonomous Life Forms,


​  ​COVID-19 mortality risk correlates inversely with vitamin D3 status, and a mortality rate close to zero could theoretically be achieved at 50 ng/ml 25(OH)D3: Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis
Conclusions The two datasets provide strong evidence that low D3 is a predictor rather than a side effect of the infection. Despite ongoing vaccinations, we recommend raising serum 25(OH)D levels to above 50 ng/ml to prevent or mitigate new outbreaks due to escape mutations or decreasing antibody activity.

​​I keep my vitamin-D in the upper normal range (5000 U/d for me), take a little zinc with morning supplements​. I​ get quercetin from garden veggies and green tea.
20-Week Study of Clinical Outcomes of Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Prophylaxis and Treatment
Results.
​  ​While both groups were moderate in size, the difference between them in outcomes over the 20-week study period was large and stark: Just under 4% of the compliant test group presented flu-like symptoms, but none of the test group was COVID-positive; whereas 20% of the non-compliant control group presented flu-like symptoms, three-quarters of whom (15% overall of the control group) were COVID-positive.
...​The core supplementation formulations included zinc; zinc ionophores (quina plant bark extract and quercetin); vitamins C, D3 and E; and l-lysine. Sourcing for these components was, except as noted below, from a range of well-known manufacturers of name brand supplements.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2515690X211026193

Preprint: "The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to vaccines"​  ​
​...​We analyzed … 16 anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies, and found that none of the anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies could recognize Delta spike … In contrast, when we analyzed the binding of the anti-NTD infectivity-enhancing antibodoies … eight out of ten anti-NTD enhancing antibodies bound to Delta spike at levels comparable with wild-type spike …
​  ​The situation, then, is precisely this: The vaccines gave billions of people antibodies to legacy spike proteins, including anti-NTD neutralising antibodies and anti-NTD enhancing antibodies. Delta is evolving to escape the neutralising antibodies, but not the enhancing antibodies. Which is what you would expect. We have sown antibodies against one viral protein in the lungs of half of mankind, and that protein has now evolved slight modifications to use those antibodies to its advantage where it can, and to escape the rest.​..
​  There are, however, Delta strains with key escape RBD mutations. The authors of this preprint find that four such mutations, already out there in various Delta sub-strains, are sufficient for Delta to evade the anti-RBD antibodies more or less completely.
​  ​In sum: Beneath the surface, Delta has evolved to use anti-NTD antibodies, like those elicited by BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines, to enhance its infectiousness. So far we have not seen any effect, because the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines still elicit anti-RBD antibodies that hurt Delta on balance. But, all the mutations necessary to escape these crucial anti-RBD antibodies exist. All that remains is for a single Delta strain to pick up the right combination of them, and BioNTech/Pfizer antibodies will provide “weak neutralization only at the highest concentration”. Otherwise, they will enhance infectiousness.

  ​A "pangolin lineage" SARS-CoV-2 variant, with multiple vaccine-escape mutations popped up in Moscow early this year. It's hard to tell how that might have happened. No link between distant pangolins and the circulating virus has been found. It's getting around pretty well in the world. I wonder where it came from.​
A new SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.1.523) capable of escaping immune protections
​  ​The authors of this study have reported that the B.1.1.523 variant harbors a new combination of concerning spike mutations that are present in many currently circulating VoCs. Many of these mutations are concerning and are associated with the evasion of immune protection. This is critical, as these developments could challenge the effectiveness of available vaccines

​Victoria, Australia: ​Health Minister Foley announced 867 new COVID cases recorded yesterday.  During the statistical outline Foley identifies 375 people as hospitalized, 81 people in intensive care and 61 people on a ventilator.   Then comes the statistic everyone in government and media ignore.  Amid the recorded cases “78% of the hospital cases are fully vaccinated, and 17% are partially vaccinated (1 dose)”….
  That means 95% of the COVID patients in Victoria hospitals are vaccinated.
356 people out of 375 patients are vaccinated, yet 81 people are still in intensive care with 61 on a ventilator...
78% of the hospital patients are fully vaccinated, that’s actually a higher percentage than the population vaccinated as a whole.

Biden's Vax Mandate To Be Enforced By Fining Companies $70,000 To $700,000?​   Wait, did I vote for THAT?

Democrats provide much higher vaccine efficacy estimates than Republicans (88% vs. 50%), and unvaccinated Republicans have a median vaccine efficacy of 0%, compared with 73% for vaccinated Republicans.

Only 45% of respondents said they trust the president to provide accurate information about the virus, down from 58% in January. The result of this poll is exemplified in Biden's outlandish comment on Monday about pre-pandemic life can only return if 97% of Americans are vaccinated.
Compared with rating earlier this year, Biden is losing trust among Democrats (an 11-percentage point decline to 81% trust a great deal or fair amount) and Republicans (a 10-point drop to 11%). He has experienced the most significant decline in confidence among independents (a 17-point decline to 42%).
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/americans-trust-president-biden-provide-accurate-covid-info-tumbles

​Lt. Colonel Theresa Long MD, an Air Force Flight surgeon​ files a Military Whistleblower affidavit seeking a court injunction, on the basis of the fact, presented in evidence, that current COVID-19 vaccines produce heart damage in pilots and flight crews, and that all of those vaccinated need to be grounded until medical studies can be carried out, at least MRI, because the majority of myocarditis and lesser damage is not overtly symptomatic. The pilots and crew members that have died within 2 days of vaccination, so far, did not die flying. 
This is a courageous and principled stand, and the end of her military career, no matter what the court may ultimately find.
https://www.deepcapture.com/2021/09/affidavit-of-ltc-theresa-long-m-d-in-support-of-a-motion-for-a-preliminary-injunction-order/

"Oh Canada..."
​  ​Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public, a newly released Canadian Forces report concludes. The federal government never asked for the so-called information operations campaign, nor did cabinet authorize the initiative developed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, then headed by Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau. But military commanders believed they didn’t need to get approval from higher authorities to develop and proceed with their plan, retired Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gosselin, who was brought in to investigate the scheme, concluded in his report.
https://nationalpost.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-leaders-saw-pandemic-as-unique-opportunity-to-test-propaganda-techniques-on-canadians-forces-report-says/

The Great Game Moves On    (The western goal is now to contain China, to allow island nations to maintain independence from China.)
  Following NATO’s defeat in the heart of Asia, and with Afghanistan now under the Taliban’s rule, the Chinese/Russian axis now controls the Asian continental mass. Asian nations not directly related to its joint hegemony (not being members, associates, or dialog partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) are increasingly dependent upon it for trade and technology. Sub-Saharan Africa is in its sphere of influence. The reality for America is that the total population in or associated with the SCO is 57% of the world population. And America’s grip on its European allies is slipping.
  NATO itself has become less relevant, with Turkey drawn towards the rival Asian axis, and its EU members are compromised through trading and energy links with Russia and China. Furthermore, France is pushing the EU towards establishing its own army independent of US-led NATO — quite what its role will be, other than political puffery for France is a mystery.
  It is against this background that three of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership have formed AUKUS – standing for Australia, UK, and US — and its first agreement is to give Australia a nuclear submarine capability to strengthen the partnership’s naval power in the Pacific. Other capabilities, chiefly aimed at containing the Chinese threat to Taiwan and other allies in the Pacific Ocean, will surely emerge in due course. The other two Five Eyes, Canada and New Zealand, appear to be less keen to confront China...
 But gathering intelligence and building naval power in the Pacific won’t defeat the Chinese. All simulations show that the US, with or without AUKUS, cannot win a military conflict against China. But AUKUS is not a formal model on NATO lines which commits its members by treaty to aggression against a common enemy. While Taiwan remains a specific problem, the objective is almost certainly to discourage China from territorial expansion and protect and give other Pacific nations on the Asian periphery the security to be independent from the SCO behemoth.​..
...​While the US may not like it, if RCEP goes ahead, freer trade will almost certainly undermine a belligerent stance in due course. Despite hiccups, the progression of trade dealing in the Pacific region promises to prove Mackinder right about the prospect of a more balanced world. All being well and guaranteed by a balance of naval capabilities between AUKUS and China, a free-trading Pacific region will render the European and American trade protectionist policies an anachronism.​..
...​Having failed in their land-based military objectives, America’s undeclared tariff and financial wars against China are also coming to an end, to be replaced by a policy of maritime containment through the AUKUS partnership. Attempts to stem strategic losses in Asia have now ended with the withdrawal from Afghanistan and from other interventions. ​ 
​  The change in geopolitical policy is not yet widely appreciated. But the parlous state of US finances, dollar market bubbles, persistent and increasing price inflation and the inevitability of interest rate increases will make a policy backstop of maritime containment the only geostrategic option left to America.

John Ward has some insights. China is the largest coal user in the world, by far. China is the largest coal producer, but has low reserves. Chinese imports of American coal (at low import duty) just increased ninefold, after Australian coal imports were halted for a trade dispute. 
China is having rolling blackouts from lack of coal-power recently, and expects them to last, "new normal". Coal choke-hold?​
https://therealslog.com/2021/09/29/now-here-is-some-news/
​
At least 20 Chinese provinces and regions making up more than 66% of the country’s GDP have announced some form of power cuts. Guangdong province, the southern industrial hub, is cutting ~10% of its peak power demand.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-provincial-governor-pleas-more-coal-imports-resolve-power-crunch

P​epe Escobar, A New World Order Takes Shape, Part 2 - Eurasian Consolidation Ends The US Unipolar Moment
​  ​With very little potential to contain China now that it’s been all but expelled from the Eurasia heartland, the fallback position had to be a classic maritime power play: the “free and open Indo-Pacific”, complete with Quad and AUKUS, the whole set up spun to death as an “effort” attempting to preserve dwindling American supremacy.​..​
​  ​The Global South is not impressed. Addressing the forum in Dushanbe, President Putin remarked that the portfolio of nations knocking on the SCO’s door was huge, and that was not surprising at all. Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are now SCO dialogue partners, on the same level with Afghanistan and Turkey. It’s quite feasible they may be joined next year by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Serbia and a cast of dozens.​..
It’s no wonder the process irks the Empire immensely, because Greater Eurasia, led by Russia-China, is a mortal attack against the geoeconomic architecture of Atlanticism. And that leads us to the nest of vipers debate around the EU concept of “strategic autonomy” from the US; that would be essential to establish true European sovereignty – and eventually, closer integration within Eurasia.

​  Taiwan makes the chips and systems that the world needs. Taiwan has to keep making them, but China would like to control them, and so would the US. 
Nobody wants to destroy that capacity, but to own it. Taiwan can probably buy whatever missiles it wants, but not from China.
​  Taiwan's Defense Minister Demands Long-Range Missiles For The Island To Repel China
​  ​"The development of equipment must be long-range, precise, and mobile, so that the enemy can sense that we are prepared as soon as they dispatch their troops," Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told parliament in Taipei on Monday

The AUKUS preparing a nuclear war to sustain Taiwan​  ​by Thierry Meyssan​      Thanks Eleni.
​  ​The AUKUS Pact seems to be designed to come to Taiwan’s aid if China tried to take it back by force. General Sir James Hockenhull, commander of Her Majesty’s Military Intelligence, confirmed that British armies were recruiting Asian agents.

All of Central Asia is re-setting towards the SCO, EAEU, Russia and China. The former is now ‘lost’ to the U.S., Alastair Crooke writes.
​  ​In a very real sense, Washington was the hub: and states – particularly Gulf States defined themselves more in relation to the hub – than to each other. Now those relationships, and associated policies, many of which were geared to pleasing and being favoured by the hub, are up for radical review.​..
...​if there was doubt about where the U.S. ‘is’, consider this: The stunning betrayal of France by America over the eleventh hour surprise provision of nuclear submarine technology for Australia signals a huge geopolitical shift in U.S. strategy. In its growing confrontation with China, a ruthless Washington has demonstrated that what matters to it now is not Europe, but the Indo-Pacific region. This is wthe new Cold War is to be fought.here 

For Israel, the problem is more acute as former Ambassador, Michael Oren, has outlined:
​"​The new Israeli government is facing this doomsday nuclear threat [from Iran]. In five years’ time, it will be worse: Iran’s programme will be further along. [This conflict] is going to happen eventually, of that I am absolutely certain, so I prefer it happens now, rather than in 5 years’ time – when it will be more difficult for Israel to respond​"​ …
“With the U.S. focusing its efforts on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Iran is liable to reach the conclusion that as a nuclear threshold state, it will not be the target of a military retaliation. And if sanctions are imposed on it – it can look to other world powers for help, such as China and Russia. If Iran reaches the conclusion that there is no point in developing real nuclear weapons because this could produce a frontal clash with the U.S. and the West; yet still become a nuclear threshold state, the challenge to Israel is liable to be particularly difficult”.

Are We Really So "Rich"? A New Way of Defining Wealth​  Charles Hugh Smith​
What if our commoditized, financialized definition of wealth reflects a staggering poverty of culture, spirit, wisdom, practicality and common sense?
​  ​The conventional definition of wealth is solely financial: ownership of money and assets. The assumption is that money can buy anything the owner desires: power, access, land, shelter, energy, transport and if not love, then a facsimile of caring.
​  ​The flaw in this reductionist definition is obvious: not everything of value can be purchased at any price--for example, health, once lost, cannot be purchased for $1 million, $10 million or even $100 million.

​Health Practitioner​
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