Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Apple Store vs. Repair Shop: What the Right to Repair Is All About

Hospitalizations


Moderna Creates Twice as Many Antibodies as Pfizer, Study Shows - Bloomberg

On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 9:21 AM Albertwrote:
Some good news for those who have taken the 2-shot Moderna vaccine.

Moderna Creates Twice as Many Antibodies as Pfizer, Study Shows - Bloomberg

https://apple.news/Ajr0IExTFRQ-plhfGnostFA


On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 1:59 PM John wrote:
It appeared that people had more reactions to the Moderna vaccine, so I wanted Pfizer.

The number of antibodies isn't the whole story.  Your body creates memory T-cells that provide long-term immunity.


From: Albert 

Most likely these are all moot points since we are just about to authorize booster shots for the original COVID-19 virus. Unfortunately, for us, COVID-19 will continue to mutate and we will have to stay ahead of the mutations. When the true "killer mutation" comes into being, our vaccines may be impotent and unable to save us. Thanks, China!

7 Ways To Pull Carbon From The Atmosphere


As soon as I post comments to this video, they seem to disappear.  It is possible that they are being censored because I am including links.

Here are my comments...

Iron Fertilization, in theory, can pull as much CO2 as we want from the atmosphere:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization

However, all this fuss over CO2 fails to understand the history of CO2 on this planet.  If you look at the atmospheric CO2 level over the last 40 million years, you will see that it is nosedive. (https://www.pnas.org/content/99/7/4167 Figure 4.)  This is because natural processes sequester CO2.  We were actually running out of atmospheric CO2.  During the last period of glaciation, the CO2 level dropped almost to the level where all terrestrial plants die.  The entire history of the Earth is one of massive CO2 decline.

All this fuss over global warming fails to understand the temperature cycle on planet earth.  Every 100,000 years the temperature of the planet quickly shoots up 8 to 15 degrees celsius.  Then it remains stable for 10,000 years after which it goes into rapid decline and then we get 80 to 90 thousand years of massive glaciation where half of North America is covered by ice.  All of the human civilization arose during the brief 10,000-year warm period that we are currently in.  Science has said that no matter what we do, we will be back to an ice age in another 10,000 years.   The period from 1500 to 1850 was actually known as "The Little Ice Age."  The earth appeared to be cooling until we interfered with all that pesky CO2.

What causes these changes?  The Milankovich cycles.  The other planets tug on the Earth's orbit and affect its tilt.  We are currently halfway between the maximum tilt (which melts ice near the poles) and the minimum tilt.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles)


Sunday, August 29, 2021

COVID

So today a friend tells me about a former coworker I knew who went to a family reunion with 25 people. The two people who were vaccinated had no problem, but most of the attendees got sick. The father died and the mother is in bad shape.

COVID is real. People tend to not take it seriously.

--

CNN: “There is no room to put these bodies,” Alabama health official says as COVID-19 deaths climb


"There is no room to put these bodies," Alabama health official says as COVID-19 deaths climb
The rate of Covid-19 deaths has increased in 42 US states in the last week, according to new data, as the spread of the more virulent coronavirus Delta variant has upended a spring of reopenings and led to increasing concern headed into autumn.

Read in CNN: https://apple.news/AWTntWpaaQOGf5U7Ub2n_fQ


Shared from Apple News


N95 masks

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John 

There is misinformation that has been around since the beginning that claims that trying to stop a virus with a mask is like trying to stop mosquitoes with a chain-link fence due to the submicroscopic size of the virus.  However, N95 masks are designed to stop 95% of all particles.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQmZou7TaVc&t=261s

In addition, all masks help stop infected people from expelling water droplets that carry the virus.

On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 3:20 AM wrote:
If you can smell a fart through your mask, how is it going to stop a microscopic COVID-19 virus? It's not. Your most likely to get covid by touching a covid infected surface and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.


Saturday, August 28, 2021

US Coronavirus: 'There is no room to put these bodies,' Alabama health official says, as Covid-19 deaths climb - CNN

The state activated two of its four refrigerated trailers for the first time since the pandemic began, Harris said, in Mobile and Baldwin counties this week.

"These are typically held in case of a mass casualty event for example, when a large number of bodies appear at one time. This is actually a situation that is happening in Alabama hospitals now," Harris said.

Antibodies waning? The immune system has a backup plan for that

The team noted that antibodies gradually ebbed, but that the shots generated durable immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in the form of B and T cells that increased over time to help ward off serious illness.

Afghanistan: British Army surgeon used new parenting skills to comfort baby passed over barbed wire

Every effort was made to unite the children with their parents - and the baby girl was reunited with her mother, who are both now safely home.

He Was On The Fence About The Vaccine, Then THIS Happened

Friday, August 27, 2021

China Warns of Retaliation Ahead of U.S. Report on Virus Origins - Bloomberg

WW3 fears: Chinese state media urges Beijing to ramp up its defence amid Joe Biden threats | World | News | Express.co.uk

Reeducation

From: Larry

A great read...

There are a lot of words like this on the Left, seemingly radical words that, on further examination, stand for nothing in particular. Consider the proliferating calls to "decolonize" things as varied as universities, museums, the wellness industry, and your bookshelf. Or maybe, if you've spent time on certain parts of Twitter, you've seen calls for "reeducation" or been threatened with it yourself. There are many, many things you can be reeducated out of: white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia. The big one is being a "settler," and reeducating settlers is a crucial step toward decolonization.

"Settler" is a disparaging term for white Americans (even later white immigrants are considered settlers, since they eventually assimilated into settler society). Its popularity owes a lot to Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat, a 1983 polemic by the American Maoist J. Sakai. If you "read Settlers," you'll learn that all white people, regardless of their class position, are oppressors and enemies of the "true" proletariat, i.e., black people, indigenous people, and other people of color. In other words, according to this view, the majority of Americans are illegitimate occupiers whose interests, opinions, and preferences can be safely dismissed with a wave of the hand (pending their reeducation).

It's difficult to wrap your head around what any of this might mean in practice. In an influential essay, the academics Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang insist that "decolonization is not a metaphor." It is not a grandiose way of talking about reading more authors of color, for instance. It is a literal demand for the decolonization of the United States, which presumably entails the abolition of all its existing political, cultural, and economic structures.

If decolonization really isn't a metaphor, then you might ask how, exactly, a real-world settler could be talked out of owning a house. But such questions just go to show you're still thinking like a settler. Tuck and Yang finish their essay by advocating for what they call an "ethic of incommensurability," which "stands in contrast to aims of reconciliation." "Reconciliation," they write, "is about rescuing settler normalcy, about rescuing a settler future. Reconciliation is concerned with questions of what will decolonization look like? What will happen after abolition? What will be the consequences of decolonization for the settler? Incommensurability acknowledges that these questions need not, and perhaps cannot, be answered in order for decolonization to exist as a framework."

There is something I deeply admire in this paragraph, something rather wonderful about how smoothly it twists itself out of the way of any incoming questions. The most delightful part is the innocent little "perhaps" hiding in front of "cannot" in the last sentence. As rationalizations go, it's surely one of the more elegant examples you could find. Decolonization and its cousin reeducation are supposed to be opaque, and this is supposed to cause discomfort.

Of course, this vision's combination of vague menace with a total lack of any specifics makes it singularly unappetizing to the average person. But one shouldn't assume that it's intended as a real vision of the future or, indeed, that the Left has any real interest in such a project. Like all dystopian fiction, it is not so much a warning about the future as it is a description of the present, when the vast majority of Americans are already quite "uncomfortable" and subject to constant "reeducation" by their self-styled betters in politics and media.

Words such as "reeducation" and "decolonization," that is, are not descriptions of things that are going to happen but of things happening right now. They drape in romantic and revolutionary garb the dreary reality of human resource struggle sessions, moralizing lectures, and bureaucratic behavioral nudges. "Reeducation" is particularly versatile, as it conjures images of Gulags but can also describe something as innocent as a simple conversation. One can deploy the former meaning as a chest-thumping snarl — "Even some leftists are going to find themselves up against the wall when the reeducation comes" — and then, when the objects of your threats are uncooperative, pretend to be wounded that they don't even want to have a discussion.

This is the real "ethic of incommensurability." Discomfort is at once the mark of guilt and the desired outcome of every behavioral intervention. Our rhetoric and actions are intended to make you uncomfortable, and the fact that they actually make you uncomfortable is proof that you are a deserving target of our aggression. Translated into art, it's like a rather good M.C. Escher drawing. But in the interpersonal realm, it's the hallmark of an abusive relationship.





China's aggressive territory grab

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Comedy Cancel culture

From: Larry 

"It's very dicey. It's very tricky," Spade responded. "You used to have to say anything to go as far as you could, to push the envelope, to get attention, and people would be like, 'I like this guy. He's pushing it.' And in comedy clubs, audiences really appreciate that."

He added: "Now you say the one wrong move and you're canceled. It's a very tough world out there."

"I think all the comedians have gotten together, in a way, to say we just have to keep doing what we were doing, and the people that come to the shows will appreciate it," he explained. "But you get an outsider that comes in and goes, 'I was so offended.' The intent is not to be mean… If the intent is to do it as a joke or a spin on something, and it is mean to people, but you're just making fun of that, I don't think that's horrible. I've been in the business doing it for 20 years, so I hope comics are allowed to be comics. I really hope so."

From the comments section....

All humor is strictly VERBOTTEN by our Regressive Hitler Youth who were created and programmed by the most powerful and corrupt corporate oligarchs in human history! So much for their lame cry that they're "speaking truth to power"! It's now "speaking propaganda for the BENEFIT of power"


“Inescapable” COVID-19 Antibody Discovery – Neutralizes All Known SARS-CoV-2 Strains

Monday, August 23, 2021

What immunity did having COVID give me? Do I need a vaccine? - WHYY

A prior infection offers protection in the range of 80%, compared to about 95% for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, said Dr. John Wherry, director of the Institute for Immunology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. That means about 15 to 20 out of every 100 people who have previously had COVID-19 could get reinfected, while 5 out of every 100 people who got an mRNA vaccine might get infected.

It is not clear to me why a prior infection wouldn't be more effective at preventing the disease.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Rev Jesse Jackson in hospital with Covid-19 | Jesse Jackson | The Guardian

re: Peak COVID cases

On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 3:51 PM Albert wrote:
 I keep hearing more and more reports of people transmitting the disease unaware that they are infected by COVID. This worries me a lot. I enjoy playing chess, but not at the expense of getting sick while doing so.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John 

The vaccines are still effective at preventing serious illness, or at least mostly effective.  I am counting on a combintion of vaccination and caution.

I think that it is likely that we will get a new spike in cases worse than anything we have seen before.  If this happens, we might have to shut down the chess club temporarily.  At the very least, mask mandates will come back and many hesitant people will get vaccinated as the death toll goes up.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey




Saturday, August 21, 2021

An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19 | PNAS

Conclusion

Our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of widespread mask use as source control to reduce community transmission: Nonmedical masks use materials that obstruct particles of the necessary size; people are most infectious in the initial period postinfection, where it is common to have few or no symptoms (45, 46, 141); nonmedical masks have been effective in reducing transmission of respiratory viruses; and places and time periods where mask usage is required or widespread have shown substantially lower community transmission.

The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures, could successfully reduce ReRe to below 1, thereby reducing community spread if such measures are sustained. Economic analysis suggests that mask wearing mandates could add 1 trillion dollars to the US GDP (32, 34).

Models suggest that public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high (39). We recommend that mask use requirements are implemented by governments, or, when governments do not, by organizations that provide public-facing services. Such mandates must be accompanied by measures to ensure access to masks

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118

During past national crises, persons in the US have willingly united and endured temporary sacrifices for the common good. Recovery of the nation from the COVID-19 pandemic requires the combined efforts of families, friends, and neighbors working together in unified public health action. When masks are worn and combined with other recommended mitigation measures, they protect not only the wearer but also the greater community. Recommendations for masks will likely change as more is learned about various mask types and as the pandemic evolves. With the emergence of more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants, it is even more important to adopt widespread mask wearing as well as to redouble efforts with use of all other nonpharmaceutical prevention measures until effective levels of vaccination are achieved nationally.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536

I suspect that mask-wearing is marginally helpful, mostly to prevent the infected from spreading droplets, but not near as good as vaccination.  I find that wearing a mask for more than an hour to be pretty uncomfortable around my ears.  I am going to try to see if I could find a more comfortable mask.

Peak COVID cases

FYI.

On Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 12:22 PM Albert wrote:

It's just a matter of perspective. If you've been following the fall of Afghanistan, you may have noticed, no one in that country seems to be worried much about COVID-19 nor its variants. No one in Afghanistan seems to be wearing masks.  Just saying. The C-17 cargo jet had 600+ Unmasked passengers. There wasn't a single mention about mask mandates, vaccination requirements, social distancing, etc. Oh, wait a minute maybe I'm confusing this with Obama's 60th birthday party at Martha's Vineyard. He had 600+ unmasked guest, no social distancing, unvaccinated, etc. What about the plane load of Texas Democrats who went to Washington DC ? - the same: unvaccinated, no social distancing, a COVID-19 spreader event, etc. Nearly, a million illegal immigrants from our southern border, unvaccinated, untested, unmasked, no social distancing, transported throughout our country by our government, etc.

I'm sure the government appreciates you and I taking COVID-19 seriously. However, it's easy to see why people don't take the government seriously. Rules for thee, but not for me. The government's shotgun approach to requiring vaccines isn't going over very well the anti-vaxers. 

I'm in no hurry to get the booster. While other people are fearfully waiting to get access to the COVID booster shot. I'll just wait a few weeks and let the anxious ones get their booster and observe. If there are no apparent side effects and it proves useful in slowing the spread of COVID-19, I'll take the booster. 


From: John 
To: Albert

Because people find the government guidelines/mandates inconvenient, uncomfortable, and an infringement on freedom, they seem to latch onto any inconsistency to rebel against these guidelines/mandates and declare them illegitimate.  However, people lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with a deadly pandemic that has killed 4.4 million people   Things changed over time, and as more studies were done, the government guidelines changed and this was completely appropriate.  The fact that some people in power have been inconsistent or hypocritical doesn't by itself invalidate the recommendations.  

The reality is that things have gotten much worse, just because of the Delta variant.  We should be taking more steps to stop the spread of the virus.

You say that other people are fearfully waiting to get access to the COVID booster shot.  I have reason to be fearful.  I have family members to protect.  Also, I personally have had a very difficult time with respiratory illnesses, which according to my allergy doctor is because of asthma.  I feel like I am more at risk.  I know that the vaccine protects me to a certain degree, but according to a specific study, this protection is going to significantly decline over time.  So I am going to get the booster at my first opportunity, although that is still 3 months away.

The government isn't requiring everyone to get the vaccine, nor can they.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey




Friday, August 20, 2021

Hospitals pen letter to unvaccinated Tennesseans

As the healthcare systems of Middle Tennessee, we are banding together in one unified voice to ask you, to beg you, to get vaccinated against COVID-19. We have seen, firsthand, the unnecessary suffering this horrible disease wreaks on the human body. We have had many patients in our ICUs, with machines keeping them alive, who wished they had gotten the vaccine but at that point it's just too late. They, along with their families, are living with regret. Our caregivers are growing more and more saddened and frustrated that simple steps that could greatly reduce the loss of life are not being embraced.

Our clinical leaders strongly support the vaccine. They have studied the science behind it, and it is safe and effective. The likelihood of getting seriously ill, becoming hospitalized or even dying as a result of COVID-19 is greatly diminished if you are fully vaccinated.

Peak COVID cases



Indiana has 4,000 new cases daily. That is approaching peak pandemic levels. One out of 8 people in Indiana has had COVID. Bartholemew county is 1 out of 9.5. Nationally it is 1 out of 11, with 102,000 new cases daily.

--

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Rate of death

Heart disease1 in 6
Cancer1 in 7
All preventable causes of death1 in 24
Chronic lower respiratory disease1 in 27
Suicide1 in 88
Opioid overdose1 in 92
Fall1 in 106
Motor-vehicle crash1 in 107
Gun assault1 in 289
COVID
Pedestrian incident
1 in 520
1 in 543
Motorcyclist1 in 899
Drowning1 in 1,128
Fire or smoke1 in 1,547
Choking on food1 in 2,535
Bicyclist1 in 3,825
Sunstroke1 in 8,248
Accidental gun discharge1 in 8,571
Electrocution, radiation, extreme temperatures, and pressure1 in 13,394
Sharp objects1 in 29,334
Cataclysmic storm1 in 58,669
Hornet, wasp, and bee stings1 in 59,507
Hot surfaces and substances1 in 63,113
Dog attack1 in 86,781
Lightning
COVID Vaccine
1 in 138,849
1 in 62,400,000

Sources:  

MAWA

From Larry:

Violent crime is spiraling out of control in America's cities. COVID-19 cases are significantly rising throughout the country. Inflation is on the rise. Illegal immigrants are crossing the border in record numbers. The Taliban took over Afghanistan in less time than it takes to binge-watch the latest Netflix release. President Joe Biden has been on the job less than seven months, but his "Build Back Better" platform turned into "Make America Worse Again" very quickly






Monday, August 16, 2021

Fwd: Booster shots

FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 9:18 AM Albert wrote:
Most of the people I've spoken with have shown little interest in taking a booster. In their minds, the benefit of getting a booster is: you still wear a mask, you social distance, and you still get sick. So there are no benefits? What the heck!?


From: John 
To: Albert

Al,

Most areas are not requiring a mask.  Getting a vaccine provides much more freedom to do things that are much more dangerous without a vaccine.  If the vaccine starts to wane after 6 months then getting a booster is going to be part of that.

This sounds like defeatism to me.  It is like saying just because something is difficult, we're not even going to try.

--

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Delta variant: Pfizer Covid vaccine 39% effective in Israel, prevents severe illness

VFX Artists DEBUNK Pentagon UFO Videos

That Time a Science Fiction Writer Accidentally Almost Revealed the Manhattan project.


The author Robert Heinlein wrote a story about radioactive weapons of mass destruction midway into World War II.  He wrote about weapons that would kill people through radioactivity.  This was actually a pretty good story.   However, he considered writing about an atomic bomb instead but didn't do so because he thought that the U.S. government might be secretly working on such a weapon.  In science fiction, the idea of an atomic bomb predates World War II.

After the Trinity test, engineers at Polaroid noticed that radioactivity in the atmosphere was affecting their photographic film, and so they figured out that an atomic bomb had been detonated.  Since the light from the Trinity test could be seen from a great distance, the army had a cover story that a secret weapons depot had exploded.

In the early 1930s, Japanese comic books had stories where the Japanese would be victorious against the United States by destroying the American fleet in a surprise attack.


Fwd: COVID-19 argument


From a discussion on Facebook.  This person from Utah takes the same position as someone I know locally...


Jess,

I mean no offense, but I think that everything that you have assumed about this issue is wrong. You have it all backward. You way overestimate the danger of the vaccine, which is essentially harmless, and you way underestimate the danger of the virus. You assume that your immune system will protect you.

The real choice is to get the vaccine or get the disease. The Delta variant has an R factor of 8 to 9. Among the unvaccinated, it is spreading like wildfire.

I have a close friend in Farmington who is anti-vax, and he said that he would rather get the disease than take a chance with the vaccine. Well, he and his wife have had the Delta variant for 4 weeks and they have found it completely debilitating. He is sleeping 15 hours a day and his wife is worse. He doesn't respond to emails, phone calls, and texts because he feels so bad.

A friend of mine in Indianapolis said that he got the vaccine because he doesn't want to inadvertently kill someone else. I completely agree with this reasoning, and the anti-vax people seem selfish to me because they want to make the issue just about themselves. You might be fine if you catch COVID, although I doubt it, but you could spread the disease to other people.

Not everyone who gets the vaccine is fully protected, I have an 81-year-old mother who is the nicest person in the world, but she has leukemia and is immunocompromised. She has been told that her immunotherapy diminishes the effectiveness of the vaccine, and she has also been told that she would not likely survive COVID.

If you make this issue just about your personal freedom, then you might be refusing the vaccine for the wrong reasons. The only way that we are going to get past COVID is if the vast majority get vaccinated or if the vast majority contract the disease. The cost of the latter is too high. Immunity might only last 6 months to a year, which means that people will have to keep getting one or the other.

Best wishes,

John Coffey


Saturday, August 14, 2021

Determining truth

If a person were to say that he had a UFO that was going to take people to a paradise on Neptune, then there would be people who would believe this and follow him. I know this because this kind of thing has happened. Usually, the crazier the claim, the more eager people are to believe it. This is how you end up with Jim Jones convincing his followers to kill themselves.

People, in general, have a defect in their logical thinking called Confirmation Bias. If something fits with what a person already believes or wants to believe, then that person will take this new information as gospel. For this reason, you can't really determine the truth unless you are willing to question everything you know.
To determine if something is true, it must also be falsifiable, which is a fancy way of saying that it must be testable. For example, I could say that there is a parallel dimension where Leprechauns exist, but if we have no way of detecting this dimension then we have no way of determining if it is true. I could speculate all day about Leprechauns, but it would be meaningless.

I would have thought that a worldwide deadly pandemic would have brought us all together and unified our thinking somewhat. Actually, the reverse has happened and we have never been more splintered. In response to a youtube video emphasizing the need to vaccinate, the vast majority of comments in the comment section were anti-vaccine. The comment ranked most popular, claimed that a rare blood clot that happens in one out of million vaccinations proves that the vaccine is unsafe. The dumbest comment I saw claimed that the vaccine causes the disease.

Another almost universal human defect is that people overestimate their own competency. People who know very little about biology, or virology, think that they are experts on the subject.

Friends have sent me incredibly wild claims about COVID-19 vaccinations. There are no microchips. It is not going to permanently rewrite your DNA. It is not going to damage your organs. It is not going to cause infertility or miscarriages. You can't pass the spike proteins to other people. It is not the Mark of the Beast. Every single anti-vax claim that has ever been made, including the ones about the COVID-19 vaccines, has been disproven.

These vaccines are no longer experimental. They passed all three phase trials, and hundreds of millions of doses later we have a pretty good safety record.

The bottom line is that there is a minuscule risk with any vaccine. Your risk of catching COVID and having serious illness or death is far greater. The COVID-19 vaccines are incredibly successful at lowering the risk of illness, and are almost 100% effective at preventing death from COVID.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Should You Get Vaccinated NOW? | A Doctor Explains

The Genesis of the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic

This is interesting.  It is long, but I found it interesting.


AMA, JAHA, JAMA, et all go CRT

From: Larry

In Minneapolis, Hennepin Healthcare System removed gynecologist Tara Gustilo, of Filipino descent, from her position as chair of the OB/GYN department after members of her department questioned her "ability to lead." The demotion followed her series of Facebook posts criticizing critical race theory, Black Lives Matter and "How to Be an Antiracist" author Ibram X. Kendi, and her insistence that her department must strictly adhere to race-neutral policies with regard to patient care.

Gustilo has filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which she describes critical race theory as "a race essentialist ideology that presupposes zero sum racial conflict and seeks to remedy that by discriminating against individuals, so as to make group outcomes more equal." 


The AMA's 86-page strategic plan endorses critical race theory, intersectionality and equity as core elements of a medical school education. Consistent with those doctrines, the AMA's equity strategy repudiates equal treatment and meritocracy, denouncing them as "malignant," white supremacist ideologies that serve to obscure "true power and site of responsibility." The AMA condemns the "detrimental effects of colonization, racial capitalism, and enduring forms of supremacism" that contribute to a "persistent cycle of structural violence."


Colleagues and other doctors on Twitter denounced as racist University of Pittsburgh cardiologist and professor Norman Wang, who is ethnically Chinese, after his peer-reviewed paper last year critiqued affirmative action as illegal and discriminatory. The Journal of the American Heart Association, which published the paper, soon retracted it, alleging "deliberate misinformation or misrepresentation." Wang's employer demoted him from his role as director of a fellowship program for physicians, barred him from contact with fellows and residents, and temporarily prohibited Wang from contact with med students. Kathryn Berlacher, director of the cardiology fellowship program, reprimanded him in an email: "It is clear to us that any educational environment in which you partake is inherently unsafe, increasing our learners' risk for undue bias and harm." 

"Rise up, colleagues!"Mayo Clinic cardiologist and diversity director Sharonne Hayes Tweeted in August in response to Wang's article. "The fact that this is published in 'our' journal should both enrage & activate all of us."


Placebo instead of Vaccine

Based on witness testimony, police investigator Peter Beer said there was "a reasonable suspicion" that the rogue medical professional had administered shots of saline solution to up to 8,600 patients who were slated to receive the COVID jab, Reuters reported.

"I am totally shocked by this episode," Sven Ambrosy, a local councilor, said of the alarming switcheroo, which reportedly occurred in March and April in Friesland in northern Germany.

It's unknown why the shot-blocker — reportedly a Red Cross nurse — had injected people with blanks; however, she had reportedly broadcast anti-vax views on social media, investigators reported.

And while the faux jab was harmless, it may have disproportionately affected elderly people, who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus.

Anti-vax nurse gave 8,600 people saline, not COVID vaccine: police (nypost.com)



Wednesday, August 11, 2021

BLM Is A Communist Garbage Organization

‘Whole New Level Of Stupid’: Crenshaw Levels Biden For Begging OPEC While Crushing American Oil | The Daily Wire

Communism in Cuba: A Brief History

The Fruits of Cultural Marxism | Prof. DiLorenzo

Everyone should watch this.



CPD Officer French Died because of TOXIC SINGLE MOM

MIC: These are the wildest vaccine conspiracy theories, debunked

These are the wildest vaccine conspiracy theories, debunked
Earlier this month, we awoke to a sobering New York Times headline about how the U.S. probably won't reach herd immunity, that long-awaited milestone when enough of us would be immune to the virus that we could return to normal, or something like…

Read in Mic: https://apple.news/AToXrZlHtSJyt6hT55qaWNg



Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Free Cuba!


I think that oppressive regimes' days are numbered.  The tide of history is moving against them.

I am normally against getting involved in foreign entanglements, but this is in our backyard, and I don't think that it would be that difficult for the United States to overthrow the Cuban regime.  Do we really want to let 11 million people continue to be oppressed?  We should have done it decades ago.

We could make Cuba the 51st state.  We could peaceably offer statehood to the country, although they would not accept.  Maybe with enough incentive they would.  

We could also threaten war if they didn't respect human rights.

It might also send a message to other countries about respecting human rights.  The one and only thing that I agree with Jimmy Carter on is to make human rights part of our negotiations.  China has spent the last decade turning into a much more oppressive country, after a previous period of improvement.  I don't think that we should trade with them, barring some concessions on their part.  Although it is true that we are dependent on China, we can adapt and there are many other countries that we can trade with.

PURE CRINGE: Shapiro Reacts To BIZARRE White House "Influencer" Video

COVID-19

A couple of people I know have just caught COVID-19. I take this as evidence that the disease is surging. The news reported that Texas pediatric hospitals are about to be full with COVID-19 patients.


Farewell, Andrew Cuomo. You're no longer essential.

Embarrassed! Hundreds Show Up In Support Of Star Wars Shop Owner & Hilariously Dwarfs Protestors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEfZBHOO4CE

This store owner had a sign that read, "If you are born with a dick, you are not a chick."

I couldn't agree more, but I probably would not mix politics with business.  

If men want to pretend that they are women, it is a free country, but that doesn't mean that they are allowed to make other people feel uncomfortable or threatened.  There was an incident where a naked man was in a female locker room in California along with women and girls.

Although gender dysphoria is considered a form of mental illness, I notice that the American Psychiatric Association webpage seems to define it in very woke terms.    https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria

I think that for the purposes of the law, men should be considered men, and nothing else.

An honest conversation on Apple, hashing, & privacy with Daniel Smullen


How is Apple examining the data on my phone any different than Wiretapping?

It is a federal crime to wiretap or to use a machine to capture the communications of others without court approval, unless one of the parties has given their prior consent. It is likewise a federal crime to use or disclose any information acquired by illegal wiretapping or electronic eavesdropping.