Is Gilead, the maker of Remdesivir, waging war on HCQ (hydroxychloroquine)?
Attacks on the drug have been continuous ever since Dr. Didier Raoult used this quinine derivative to save the lives of COVID-19 patients last March.
The first attempt to discredit HCQ was a hastily compiled Veterans Administration hospital system study last April. Notably, one of the study’s authors had in the past received numerous grants from Gilead, with one grant in 2018 totaling nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
After deep flaws in the VA study were exposed, Surgisphere came to the rescue in May with a “15,000 patient” megastudy allegedly compiled from hospitals all over the world.
This strategy succeeded: Following its publication in the Lancet and the NEJM, all outpatient use of HCQ was severely restricted in the U.S., Australia, and most of Europe.
When the Surgisphere scam was exposed, both articles were quietly retracted and the editor-in-chief of the Lancet tried to wash his hands of this embarrassing incident by denouncing Surgisphere’s “monumental fraud.”
However only a few days earlier, Lancet editors played a major role in persuading WHO to suspend all trials for HCQ. Who put them up to it?
The study’s main author, Mandeep Mehra, also apologized for his reliance on a third party for the data. He may not have known the data was fabricated, but the hospital he directed was conducting two trials for Remdesivir. Was he under pressure from his sponsors?
These are the stakes:
A five-day treatment with Remdesivir costs around $3,000.
A five-day supply of generic HCQ costs around $10.
Drug companies have every right to recoup their cost of research and development, but lobbying to suppress access to a lifesaving treatment that is both cheaper and more effective is a crime against humanity.
Progressives mistakenly believe that socialized medicine protects patients from the abuses of big pharma, but the first nation to severely restrict access to HCQ was France.
This policy compelled Dr. Raoult to testify against Gilead’s disproportionate leverage over the medical community during a meeting of the French National Assembly last June.
Notably in the U.S., a third of the FDA’s budget comes from pharmaceutical user fees, and according to the NIH’s website, eight out of 55 members of the panel responsible for COVID-19 treatment guidelines are currently affiliated with Gilead. These government ties to Gilead more than triple when you include panel members with past associations.
Sooner or later there will be a reckoning for everyone who colluded in this disinformation campaign. If you are among the policymakers or physicians participating in this charade, you may want to dissociate yourself while you can credibly plead ignorance for tens of thousands of preventable deaths.
* * *
Access to HCQ varies by state. If you cannot get this drug from your doctor, America’s Frontline Doctors has kindly provided contact information for telemedicine physicians that are HCQ-knowledgeable. You can find these doctors by clicking on any state in their website and scrolling down to the bottom of the description.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3hyawv3 Tyler Durden
Over Half Of San Francisco Storefronts Closed As Pandemic Downturn Rages Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/26/2020 – 22:45
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson warned a “growth scare” for markets could be imminent, if that is in the “next several weeks/months.” If so, then all the instabilities of a slowing recovery, deteriorating labor market, waning consumer sentiment, and small business massacre will come out of the woodwork and shock investors.
On a micro-level, we want to share with readers a genuinely shocking, and deep economic scarring story developing in San Francisco.
BREAKING: Most San Francisco @Gap stores close permanently, including Market Street flagship.@Shwanika has the details here: https://t.co/DRHJtEsc3s
According to CBS San Francisco, citing a new survey via the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, “more than half of all storefronts in San Francisco are no longer in business due to COVID-19.”
“The survey showed only 46 percent of storefront businesses in San Francisco that were open at the beginning of the pandemic are still operating,” said Jay Cheng, spokesman of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Cheng said 1,300 stores have closed in recent months, with about 1,200 still open.
“There’s a lot of reasons for that. If you’re a fitness studio, you can’t open because of the pandemic. If you’re a retail space, you could open, but you might have decided that there isn’t enough foot traffic or enough customer base to make that worthwhile to reopen. So it’s become a very difficult situation,” he said.
Another San Francisco Covid causality, from my friend @markcerv
Cheng said business closures across the metro area have resulted in depressionary unemployment, with claims nearing 200,000, or four times then what was seen after the financial crash in 2008.
“And what’s really unique is that during the Great Recession, we knew what we had to do to get people back to work. We had to fix the housing market, and we had to get consumer confidence back up. Get people rehiring. Now, most of these 193,000 unemployment claims are unemployed because of the pandemic, said Cheng. “Until we get the public health crisis under control, we can’t get these folks back to work.”
Video: More Than Half of San Fran Storefronts Closed Due To Pandemic
When the growth scare strikes, sending markets into a panic, or mainly a blowoff of technology stocks, investors will search for evidence of deep economic scarring that has morphed the economic recovery from a “V-shaped” to one that resembles a “Nike Swoosh.” They will stumble upon the depressing situation in San Francisco of a business massacre.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3llXYZZ Tyler Durden
The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets. . . . The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.
Such a move would certainly put an end to the alleged fraud and abuse. It would also deprive gun owners of a powerful political ally.
David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, has taken to the WSJ editorial page to defend the NRA from James’s suit, highlighting the danger of allowing elected officials to target and dissolve political nonprofits they oppose. As Cole notes, “If the New York attorney general can do this to the NRA, why couldn’t the attorney general of a red state take similar action against the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, Common Cause, or Everytown for Gun Safety?”
Cole writes:
Our democracy is premised on the right of association. The First Amendment protects not only the right to speak, but also to band together with others to advance one’s views. Making or resisting change in a democracy requires collective action, and a healthy democracy therefore demands a robust “civil society.” The right to associate can’t survive if officials can shut down organizations with which they disagree. . . .
[W]e believe Ms. James has also gone too far. Dissolution of a nonprofit is the most extreme remedy state regulators can seek. It has historically been reserved for organizations that are essentially false fronts for personal gain. . . .
Dissolution is proper only where a corporation is so subsumed by waste, misuse or fraud that it no longer fulfills a charitable purpose. There is simply no precedent for such extreme action against an organization like the NRA, which, whether you like it or not, has been serving charitable purposes very effectively (indeed, many of its opponents would say, too effectively) for a century and a half. And even if the threat of dissolution is meant only to gain leverage for a deal, threats of unconstitutional action ought not be a part of the attorney general’s arsenal.
Cole is correct. If specific NRA officials have abused their positions they should be removed. If they committed crimes, they should be prosecuted. But the ability of the NRA’s members to associate and pursue their political priorities should not be impaired due to the malfeasance of NRA officials.
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You have to hand it to the sociopaths running U.S. foreign policy, they are very adept at creating no-win scenarios for their opponents. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was just handed a major defeat at the United Nations Security Council, who voted down a resolution to extend the arms embargo against Iran.
That embargo is set to expire in October as part of the U.S. unilaterally pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known colloquially as the Iran Nuclear Deal.
But Pompeo and President Trump only wanted that vote, in my opinion, to force out into the open their ability to impose the ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran which is a major component of the JCPOA.
Pompeo and Trump, with this vote, are now, disingenuously clawing their way back into the JCPOA by saying they have the right to invoke those sanctions on all signatories. This tact is unlikely to succeed so what’s the game plan then?
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif cuts to the heart of the matter in a recent article:
The U.S. administration’s disinformation campaign — including false and forged claims regarding a regional consensus … is a ruse to disguise its real, more malevolent motivations: having failed to collapse Resolution 2231 after over two years of the most brutal “maximum pressure” ever imposed on a nation…the U.S. now hopes to abuse its mal-interpretation of the provisions of the same resolution it abandoned in 2018 to finally destroy it. This deeply malicious U.S. behavior is evident throughout the UN, where it seeks to use the UN itself to effectively destroy the world body.
Trump wants the JCPOA gone and he’s willing to blackmail most of the U.N. Security Council to get it. Because if the arms embargo is lifted then he and Pompeo will then use their expanded sanctions capability under CAATSA to cut even more of the world out of the U.S. financial system.
And I’m not talking about little things like cutting Iran and/or Russia out of SWIFT.
Those are already on the table and game-planned for by both countries. He’s not stupid enough to cut China out of SWIFT no matter how badly relations deteriorate short of open, kinetic war.
I’m talking about harsh sanctions on European persons and companies akin to what they’ve already done over something as miniscule as the Nordstream 2 pipeline to get the results in the U.N.S.C. they want.
This feeds into Trump’s growing distrust of the EU and a resurgent Angela Merkel in Germany, who he knows is actively working against his re-election. There is zero love lost between these two, since Trump has clearly targeted Merkel as his biggest enemy in Europe.
Now I’m no fan of the U.N. or most of the other post-WWII transnational institutions like the World Bank and the I.M.F. but this push by Trump and Pompeo to break the U.N. now that it no longer acts as a rubber stamp agency on U.S. foreign adventurism is the height of duplicity.
The reason for this push to extend the arms embargo on Iran is simple, both Russia and China are deep in negotiations with Iran to upgrade both its air and air defense capabilities. China is ready to deploy over $400 billion in Iran while Russia stands ready to ‘sell’ the Iranians new Suhkois and S-400 missile defense systems.
And there’s no way to pressure Iran to the negotiating table and create a new JCPOA to Trump’s liking if it can credibly defend itself from Israeli and U.S. aggression. But this feeds into Trump’s re-election strategy of brokering an historic peace deal between the UAE and Israel while making headlines with troop withdrawals in Afghanistan and Germany.
Now at the same time, Trump and Pompeo have been very active across Europe rewriting the U.S. troop deployment map there to pressure Russia into signing new INF and START treaties under threat of U.S. expanded deployments in Poland.
The recent upheaval in Belarus fits into this thesis perfectly.
While I’m sure the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko wasn’t as overwhelming as the official polls suggest, I don’t for a second believe he actually lost the election.
That said, what is happening in Minsk is similar to what happened in Kiev in 2014, Venezuela in 2019, and what’s happening in the U.S. against Trump himself, a manufactured color revolution that can only reach the levels we’ve seen if the government itself wasn’t fundamentally corrupt.
It’s a color revolution nonetheless and the hypocritical responses from the U.S., France and Germany over the ‘violence’ in Minsk verges on the cartoonish, especially given the level of civil unrest at home in all of those places.
Things have progressed to the point in Belarus where Russian President Vladimir Putin also has no good options in the near term. Opposition to Lukashenko is strong enough, because he is a terrible leader, that Putin can’t openly support him while at the same time he can’t wait too long to make a move lest Lukashenko be ousted from power, bringing a U.S. puppet, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, to power.
For his part, Lukashenko has finally seen the light. Caught trying, as The Saker so trenchantly put it, “to sit between two chairs.” Lukashenko has only himself to blame for this coup attempt.
He’s the one that courted the West, inviting Pompeo to reopen the U.S. embassy, thinking he could blackmail Putin into giving him more treasure from Russia’s coffers. And he has resisted for nearly two decades Putin’s offers of a Union State where Belarus and Russia would be far more integrated partners than they are now.
And now, after being set up by Pompeo, Lukashenko sees things clearly and is ready to cave to Putin immediately on everything because if he doesn’t Belarus will become another failed state just like Ukraine is today.
It’s touch and go right now as to whether Lukashenko can hold onto power long enough to get this done but he’s already offered to leave office and reform the constitution, which is the only path he has left. From a report at TASS:
Meanwhile the incumbent president vowed readiness to redistribute power through a constitutional process. “Of course, I will go away someday. In a year or two. But we can’t give up the constitution to some nobody. Because it will be a disaster. This is what I am afraid of the most,” Lukashenko pointed out, as cited by the BelTA news agency.
Reiterating readiness to “share” powers, the incumbent head of state was clear though that this would never happen under pressure. “We need a new constitution. I’ve been proposed two variants, but rejected both of them, because they barely differ from the current one. The work on the third variant is underway. Come, let’s sit and work on the constitution and put it to a referendum. And I will relegate my powers to you by the constitution. But not under pressure and not through the streets,” he said.
Trump will happily go along with this regime change operation in Belarus to get Russia to the bargaining table over energy, security and everything else. He won’t meet with Putin between now and the election because there is no upside to it for him politically.
Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron want the situation in Belarus because it feeds the narrative that NATO is still necessary to ‘contain Russian aggression’ and counter Trump’s criticisms. Poland and the Baltic whiners love this as well.
The EU would love to poach Belarus for the European Union.
NATO itself wants this conflict for the same reasons.
The problem is that Belarus is not Ukraine. There isn’t the same kind of ethnic division, there is a single language and long, historical ties to Russia. And this color revolution can be countered easily with swift negotiations of the Union State proposal and outlining a path for Lukashenko to leave office peacefully.
The longer he stays in power the more likely the situation will defuse itself. The same goes for Iran and the JCPOA. The longer Iran does nothing in the face of Israeli and U.S. aggression the more likely the outcome moves in their favor. Pushing Iran today carries no weight after the events surrounding the assassination of General Soleimani in January.
Everyone knows Trump is not going to war with Iran unless one of his rogue underlings, like Pompeo or a general, force his hand. This is not out of the question, especially if it looks like he’ll win re-election.
That’s why I see these moves in the U.N. as being more directed against the EU than Iran itself. Trump has a bigger problem on his hands, however. The chaos he’s unleashed in his quest to remake European and U.S. relations is something his State Dept. under Pompeo can’t control either. And he won’t be in any position to do anything more than what he’s doing now, win short-term victories and lose the long-term war while global capital abandons the U.S. and moves east.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32yocQe Tyler Durden
Traces Of COVID-19 Found In Abandoned Apartment Bathroom Offer New Clues About How It Spreads Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/26/2020 – 22:05
Still haunted by the memory of SARS, contact tracers in Guangzhou, China, have worked diligently to monitor the outbreak in their community. So, when a group of researchers happened upon an unusual situation – a group of five family members who all tested positive living below an apartment that had been unoccupied for months.
Researchers decided to do some research, and have published their findings as a case study in Environmental International, which was picked up by Bloomberg.
In the latest research to support the notion that the virus coronavirus in the bathroom of an unoccupied apartment in Guangzhou, China, suggests the airborne pathogen may have wafted upwards through drain pipes, an echo of a large SARS outbreak in Hong Kong 17 years ago.
According to the research, traces of SARS-CoV-2 were detected on the sink, faucet and shower handle of a long-vacant apartment situated near the apartment of the family mentioned above. The contaminated bathroom was located directly above the home of five people confirmed a week earlier to have COVID-19. The study was carried out by researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The scientists conducted what they described as an “on-site tracer simulation experiment” to see whether the virus could be spread through waste pipes via tiny airborne particles created by the force of a toilet flushing.
They found evidence of these aerosols in bathrooms 10 and 12 levels above the infected family’s apartment. Two cases were confirmed on each of those floors in early February, raising concern that SARS-CoV-2-laden particles from the infected family’s stool had drifted into their homes via plumbing and managed to successfully infect others.
For those who don’t understand the physics behind aerosol particles, the study’s authors offered a visual guide.
Here’s an abstract from the report.
As public health teams respond to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), containment and understanding of the modes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission is of utmost importance for policy making. During this time, governmental agencies have been instructing the community on handwashing and physical distancing measures. However, there is no agreement on the role of aerosol transmission for SARS-CoV-2. To this end, we aimed to review the evidence of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Several studies support that aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, and the plausibility score (weight of combined evidence) is 8 out of 9. Precautionary control strategies should consider aerosol transmission for effective mitigation of SARS-CoV-2.
It’s just the latest piece of evidence suggesting that the coronavirus is indeed “airborne” – that is, it spreads via tiny particles called “aerosols”. Like the abstract reflects, the data collected in this experiment suggest that the chances of aerosols being a significant means of infection are 8 in 9.
At one point in the paper, the Chinese researchers take a swipe at organizations like the WHO, which has been slow to recognize the risks surrounding aerosol transmission. This is a dangerous assumption, especially considering the fact that transmission via surface contact and large-droplet transmission (which inspired the mandatory mask orders) has almost no actual evidence to back it up, but rather are the results of early assumptions that have endured for various and sundry reasons.
Current evidence on SARS-CoV-2 has limitations, but is strongly indicative of aerosols as one of several routes of COVID-19 transmission. It should be noted that the equivalent evidence for contact and large droplet transmission is not available, but has been an unproven assumption from the outset. Epidemiologic and experimental data continues to be obtained at a rapid pace, and the role of aerosols in COVID-19 transmission should be revisited in light of the emerging evidence.
The study also attacks another alleged misconception: the notion that SARS-CoV-2 spreads mainly through respiratory droplets, spatters of saliva or discharge from the nose.
But since the first weeks of the pandemic, scientists in China have warned that virus in an infected person’s stool can help spread it. Studies in Guangdong province have found evidence of the virus in the stool of the infected.
This means that bathrooms could be a key breeding ground for coronavirus transmission, because they “may promote fecal-derived aerosol transmission if used improperly, particularly in hospitals,” the China CDC researchers said. They cited a fluid-dynamics simulation that showed a “massive upward transport of virus aerosol particles” during flushing. This creates a “fecal plume” that could be particularly infectious.
Though, to be sure, the extent to which people are infected by these plumes isn’t known. But readers can find the study in its entirety here.
The only way to control a substantial population is to murder enough that the rest are terrified into submission. But it isn’t really the control that’s the objective, it’s the murder. At root, murder stems from a grotesque hatred of one’s self, which animates a craven fear of anything and everything, particularly death, and paradoxically, a psychotic desire to kill one’s self and every other value. Only by understanding our enemies do we have any chance of defeating them.
The twentieth century and the two decades of this one offer ample material to study the psychology of evil.
In the nineteenth century, Fyodor Dostoyevsky masterfully plumbed those depths. In the barren desert that constitutes today’s intellectual life, the study of history has been discarded and great literature ignored or burned. They’re casualties in the war being waged on anything that helps us understand ourselves. In one sense Dostoyevsky couldn’t have anticipated the collectivist charnel houses of the century to follow, but in one sense he did. He knew charnel houses were the work of individual souls, and one couldn’t grasp the one without examining the other.
With many minority groups claiming historical injustices against them and demanding remedial recognition and reparation, with official endorsement by many institutions of those claims and demands, and with their propagation via all major channels of communication, no voices have been raised in support of the indisputably smallest and most persecuted minority group – the individual. “Individual” and “individual rights” are words that must not be spoken.
Any recognition of the individual draws attention to the fundamental and massive violation of individual rights stemming from coronavirus totalitarianism and governments’ encouragement of riots, vandalism, and violence. In a Peanuts cartoon, Linus exclaims, “I love mankind… it’s people I can’t stand.” The game is always the same. In the name of some collective greater good—safety, anti-racism, fill in the blank—the wealth, property, work, rights, freedom, and lives of individuals are stolen. Of course the alleged greater good is never realized, but that was never the point.The fountainhead of any collectivist ideology is the hatred these lovers of mankind have for people and their pursuit of happiness.
For coronavirus, the blueprint has been to test restrictive measures in one jurisdiction, see if they fly, and then move to universal implementation. China’s lockdown was the model for global lockdown.
Sweden was condemned and smeared for refusing to follow the crowd, but its condemners have no more concern for the Swedish population than they do for any other population.
Sweden has demonstrated that lockdowns are unnecessary. Its death rate is no higher than other European countries, and would have been substantially lower, perhaps cut by one-half to three-quarters, had it done a better job of protecting its elderly and nursing home patients. Unlike Andrew Cuomo and several other Democratic governors who made the same mistake, Swedish officials have admitted theirs.
Swedish openness is antithetical to coronavirus commissars bent on propagating propaganda and enforcing draconian dictates. However, the ultimate danger to their regime will come when a vaccine arrives. After almost five months of what were supposed to be two weeks of lockdowns ostensibly sold as necessary to “flatten the curve,” it’s obvious the lockdowns are meant to prevent herd immunity, keeping people away from sunlight and fresh air, both of which bolster the immune system, and enforcing isolation and loneliness, which impair it. In other words, they’re designed to make the outbreak worse. If you’re surprised—regular readers won’t be—welcome to reality.
When the vaccine arrives, the Swedish people will have achieved herd immunity (apparently they already have in urban centers), which traditionally has been the way humanity has dealt with viruses. An immune herd doesn’t need a vaccine and while the Swedish government probably won’t prevent anyone who wants one from getting one, it probably won’t be mandatory, unlike most of the rest of the world.
That will prompt unwelcome questions among the thinking remnant. If herd immunity works, why did we have to lockdown? Why can’t we just complete the herd immunization we’ve already started? Will a vaccine, like lockdowns, make the outbreak worse? Why are we running the risks and bearing the enormous expense of a vaccine that’s been rushed to market and inadequately tested, will be only partially effective, will be adulterated with unhealthy preservatives and adjuvants, and will undoubtedly have unanticipated side effects, some of which may be severe? What’s the rights-destructive, life-threatening agenda behind the vaccine?
While China was the beta test for lockdowns, apparently New Zealand and Australia serve as such for the next iteration of totalitarianism. China’s draconian measures were instituted in Wuhan, which actually had a serious coronavirus outbreak. New Zealand’s and Australia’s coronavirus death rates are infinitesimal: 4 per million in the former, 18 per million in the latter (Worldometers.info). Despite these scant numbers, New Zealand is under lockdown and has postponed an election (nobody has died of the coronavirus since May) and Melbourne has instituted, “the harshest lockdown conditions of all Western democracies” (“Letters From Melbourne, a ‘Ghost Town Police State’ Under Brutal Covid Lockdown,” Robert Bridge, strategic-culture.org). Here are Melbourne’s restrictions, the preview of coming attractions that will eventually be rolled out around the globe:
Despite the extremely low death rate, Melbourne residents – or shall we call them what they really are, prisoners – must adhere to the following rules:
– No traveling more than 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from their homes;
– No traveling to other states inside of the country;
– Those under house arrest are permitted to leave home for just one hour each day for exercise;
– Only one person is permitted to go shopping per family each day; shopping is to be done within 5 kilometers from home;
– Unlike traditional prisons, visitations are not permitted to house arrestees;
– All school activities are to be conducted online;
– All businesses, services and construction cancelled;
– Organized sport, forget it;
– In the case of funerals, try and delay your demise if at all possible, otherwise, expect just 10 guests;
– Ditto for weddings;
– Curfew in effect between 8 pm and 5 am.
These restrictions will be in place for (at least) six weeks.
So much for pompous invocations of the “traditional Anglo-American protection of freedom and individual rights.” It also gives the lie to the desperate delusion to which millions still cling: that these measures have something to do with health and safety. They are all about power and control, which is why their proponents are uninterested in research that demonstrates their measures are ineffective or counterproductive (or demonstrate that the cheap, readily available drug hydroxychloroquine, used with an antibiotic and zinc, is an effective prophylactic and treatment), and censor such research. In the US, that hypocritical indifference was made clear when coronavirus totalitarianism was relaxed for politically approved George Floyd protests and riots.
The often unstated objective of power and control is death. It’s easier to see when rioters are allowed to loot, destroy, and murder with impunity. Coronavirus killers hide behind doctors, scientists, and public health officials making scary predictions and pronouncements, “greater good” justifications for bankruptcy, unemployment, and misery, cloying propaganda that turns professionals charged with caring for the afflicted into “heroes” for caring for the afflicted, and sheep-like compliance with draconian, ineffective, freedom-destructive edicts to combat tiny risks. It’s the difference between a quick execution and slow but deadly poisoning.
You see it on the Internet videos of once great cities—New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, St. Louis—in their death throes. Coronavirus totalitarianism and the riots should be listed as causes of death, but there is common underlying comorbidity: statist collectivism. The productive tax base is fleeing, but it’s been milked and extorted for years by profligate, corrupt Democrat politicians (all of the above cited cities have been run by Democrats for decades) to line their pockets and buy votes. From each according to his ability to each according to his vote.
The heretofore insulated elites who prattle about social justice and defunding the police are now beset by “social justice warriors” destroying their neighborhoods, looting their shopping districts, and brutalizing innocents as pleas for protection go unanswered. The police-maintained barrier between the ghettos and the high-rent districts has been breached by thugs who drive, cell phones, instant messaging, flash riots, random destruction and violence, and plenty of cash and firearms. It won’t be restored and the elites know it. They can hire private security and hunker down or they can flee. A substantial percentage are fleeing.
The rest of us watch the urban detritus videos in horror: homeless encampments stretching for blocks, boarded up stores and restaurants, beggars, food lines, thieves, random violence, impoverished mothers and children, people urinating, defecating, masturbating, and shooting up in full view, discarded needles, broken windows, abandoned and burnt-out buildings, decimated neighborhoods, and the ubiquitous cockroaches and rats. Only if you understand that this is what the collectivists had in mind can you understand the chaos and unfathomable evil enveloping the world. Our dystopia is their utopia.
The carnage, chaos, and collapse in full bloom in American cities are the sum and substance of what the statist collectivists want. Is this the prelude to the imposition of a totalitarian order? By whom and with what? The cities are technically bankrupt, burdened with medical and pension promises they couldn’t pay when they had economies and tax bases, and now both are withering. They could turn to their respective states, but the states are in no better shape. That leaves the federal government—the world’s biggest debtor—and its magic central bank. They can create debt and exchange it between themselves but neither can create a dime’s worth of real production or employment. Anybody see the flaws in this arrangement?
That supposedly leaves only a totalitarian global superstate, headed by statist collectivists, to impose its brand of order, which is just another brand of death. A totalitarian global superstate and its cash-abolishing, cryptocurrency-issuing, transaction-monitoring central bank will still have the same old problem: neither one can create a dime’s worth of real production or employment. A fiat cryptocurrency is still a fiat currency and will go the way of all fiat currencies—debasement to worthlessness (see “Doubling Down On Failed Policies With Central Bank Digital Currencies,” Alasdair Macleod, goldmoney.com).
They’ll have what they call a demand management problem, that is, a lot of desperate, hungry people. One way to manage demand is to eliminate it, so expect them to take up the sport of tyrants—killing people—in earnest. They may clear homeless encampments with bulldozers without bothering to move the inhabitants out of their tents and boxes. Their vaccines might have side effects that wipe out a few million or billion—sacrifices must be made for the greater good (the tyrants will of course be exempt from such sacrifices). Perhaps a war or two. Records set by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao will be in jeopardy. They could Soylent Green their victims to feed the rest of the population; they’ll have to keep some of the drones alive.
Free, self-interested, productive people in a capitalist economy will always figure out ways to feed themselves and make their lives better. Collectivist statism brings only poverty, starvation, horror, and death. Beneath their rhetoric that’s what its proponents want. It’s better to realize this before the boarding calls for the socially distanced cattle cars and the socially distanced line for the gas chambers.
Power, as they like to remind us, grows out of a barrel of a gun, but moral legitimacy ends when that gun is aimed at the innocent. Nothing good has or ever will come from such evil. Dostoyevsky knew that it’s not history, or a socioeconomic system, or a political ideology from which evil flows, it’s the human soul. Recognize the homicidal-suicidal souls among us for what they are.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32r7RwY Tyler Durden
The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets. . . . The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.
Such a move would certainly put an end to the alleged fraud and abuse. It would also deprive gun owners of a powerful political ally.
David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, has taken to the WSJ editorial page to defend the NRA from James’s suit, highlighting the danger of allowing elected officials to target and dissolve political nonprofits they oppose. As Cole notes, “If the New York attorney general can do this to the NRA, why couldn’t the attorney general of a red state take similar action against the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, Common Cause, or Everytown for Gun Safety?”
Cole writes:
Our democracy is premised on the right of association. The First Amendment protects not only the right to speak, but also to band together with others to advance one’s views. Making or resisting change in a democracy requires collective action, and a healthy democracy therefore demands a robust “civil society.” The right to associate can’t survive if officials can shut down organizations with which they disagree. . . .
[W]e believe Ms. James has also gone too far. Dissolution of a nonprofit is the most extreme remedy state regulators can seek. It has historically been reserved for organizations that are essentially false fronts for personal gain. . . .
Dissolution is proper only where a corporation is so subsumed by waste, misuse or fraud that it no longer fulfills a charitable purpose. There is simply no precedent for such extreme action against an organization like the NRA, which, whether you like it or not, has been serving charitable purposes very effectively (indeed, many of its opponents would say, too effectively) for a century and a half. And even if the threat of dissolution is meant only to gain leverage for a deal, threats of unconstitutional action ought not be a part of the attorney general’s arsenal.
Cole is correct. If specific NRA officials have abused their positions they should be removed. If they committed crimes, they should be prosecuted. But the ability of the NRA’s members to associate and pursue their political priorities should not be impaired due to the malfeasance of NRA officials.
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Xi’s Fierce Anti-Graft Purge A Ploy To Enshrine Power As Restored “Chairman” Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/26/2020 – 21:25
Is China’s powerful president Xi Jinping laying the groundwork to resurrect Mao Zedong’s historic ‘Chairman’ title once again with himself more powerfully ensconced at the Communist Party helm?
Illustration: South China Morning Post, Henry Wong
New analysis in FT, citing Beijing-based analysts, says yes concerning a title which hasn’t been used in decades, which like Mao would certainly grant Xi the prestige to permanently enshrine his power (well beyond his presidential mandate) and purge internal rivals and enemies with ease.
Explains FT, this is likely ultimately what’s behind his ongoing his multiyear, anti-corruption battle which has just last month became more intensified. At moment, he enjoys the slightly less impressive title of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
“It’s preparation to establish Xi’s total authority over the party,” independent commentator and expert on China’s inner-workings, Wu Qiang, said.
“We cannot rule out that there will be further changes to the party charter or that Xi will get a new title to further emphasize his status above other leaders on the politburo standing committee,” he added.
The anti-corruption campaign launched last month to target the party’s legal and domestic security apparatus kicked into a higher gear last week when the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced a probe into Gong Daoan, the Shanghai police chief and the highest-ranking official to fall since Mr Xi’s second term began in 2017.
At least thirty top party officials have already fallen in Xi’s anti-graft initiative, which some say is reminiscent of Mao’s infamous first major party purge in 1941, dubbed the “Yan’an rectification movement” which paved the way for the founding father of the People’s Republic of China being declared chairman.
Similar to what’s been speculated of his Russian counterpart Putin’s grand long-term ambitions – and it should be noted the two have been increasingly chummy over the past few years as they find a common enemy in the United States – Xi’s path to a resurrected chairmanship title would ensure his clinging to power far beyond a second term.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ExN4j4 Tyler Durden
Last year, an extraordinary thing happened: for the first time in recorded history, astronomers and astrophysicists observed an interstellar object enter and leave our solar system. Over the years, they’ve documented plenty of comets, asteroids, and other cosmic bodies but all have been gravitationally bound to an orbit within our star system.
This object, named ‘Oumuamua, came from outside our system, from a star or molecular cloud tens or even hundreds of millions of light-years away, and then left.
However, the most mysterious aspect of ‘Oumuamua’ was the fact that it seemed to be gaining momentum, as though it were being propelled by some kind of propulsion system. At first, astronomers tried to explain this anomaly away by contending the object was a comet, which is often naturally propelled by the burst of gas caused by melting ice. But ‘Oumuamua didn’t have the tail so common to comets that are outgassing.
So if it wasn’t a comet, how was it demonstrating non-gravitational acceleration through our cosmic neighborhood?
There were other anomalies and unusual characteristics associated with ‘Oumuamua. Why had it just been discovered so recently, when the Pan-STARRS system should have been able to spot it before? Why is its local standard of rest (LSR) frame of reference, motion, and speed so unusual? Why is its extremely elongated, cigar-like shape – with a length up to 10 times larger than its width – so rare and unlikely? Why is its surface so shiny that it reflects brightness 10 times higher than usual asteroids?
But by far, the biggest mystery was determining what was giving ‘Oumuamua that extra push of acceleration, which some scientists believed could indicate an artificial alien origin.
Finally, a new hypothesis emerged that seemed to satisfy all the criteria. Astrophysicists Darryl Seligman and Gregory Laughlin wrote a paper in which they proposed that ‘Oumuamua is a frozen comet comprised almost completely of molecular hydrogen’. This would explain, they argued, why its outgassing wasn’t producing a visible comet tail and, more importantly, it would also explain the bursts of acceleration, as “hydrogen icebergs” are theorized to behave in such ways.
“Even though the hydrogen iceberg thing is a little exotic, it explains every single mysterious thing about ‘Oumuamua,”said Seligman in an interview.
But this explanation didn’t sit right with everyone precisely because of this exotic nature: hydrogen icebergs are hypothesized to be extremely rare in the universe.
Now there’s a new twist in the mystery, as astrophysicist/cosmologist Avi Loeb is once again arguing that the hydrogen explanation is unlikely and that it’s just as possible that ‘Oumuamua really is a piece of advanced alien technology, such as a light sail-propelled spaceship. From the beginning, Loeb had argued that the object’s outlandishly rare characteristics made it seem artificial in nature
The chair of Harvard University’s Astronomy Department has co-written a new article in which he argues that ‘Oumuamua really may be humanity’s first encounter with advanced aliens, even if there are no living biological beings on-board. Loeb attempts to debunk the hydrogen iceberg theory by pointing out that such a large size would not be able to sustain chunks of frozen hydrogen, as starlight would prevent them from sticking together. More importantly, he argues, the journey from a “giant molecular cloud” – the only place where a hydrogen comet could form – would be too long for such an object to have arrived here intact.
Seligman and Laughlin countered by trying to find an origin for ‘Oumuamua, identifying relatively nearby molecular clouds formed 30 million to 45 million years ago.
“Shortening the distance that that H2 iceberg needs to travel does not solve the problems we outline in our paper, because the H2 iceberg would have formed when its parent planetary system formed, billions of years ago,” and in the time since then the comet would have fallen apart.
Loeb says that as incredible as it may seem, the leading explanation for ‘Oumuamua is that it was created as some kind of transport system or interstellar observatory for an advanced alien species. His forthcoming book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” will likely expand on his reasons for believing this.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3hDRvYg Tyler Durden
Watch Live: RNC Day 3 “Land Of Heroes” – Kellyanne, Crenshaw, & Pence Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/26/2020 – 20:45
After the media described (oddly universally) night 1 as having a “darker tone,” and night 2 full of racists and abuse of power, RNC begins night 3 with the theme “Land Of Heroes“:
Tomorrow history will be made by President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence as they officially accept the Republican nomination for President and Vice President.
Today, though, we pause to celebrate another national milestone: on this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment became law, finally granting women the right to vote.
The first 100 years of women directly shaping our democratic system has fundamentally rewritten the American Dream to include women, which has proven critical to the prosperity of every American. And on this centennial, women continue to break barriers and shatter glass ceilings.
As a former New Yorker, I built my career in a time when I was often the only woman in the room — sometimes the only woman on the entire team. Now, we see a major shift in that dynamic with women empowered to make their voices heard in seats at the head of the table. During my time serving in the White House as the Director of Management and Administration, I saw this firsthand. Just as the administration did then, the Trump-Pence Administration continues to prioritize the representation and respect of women in all roles, especially leadership.
In the Republican Party, women are leading in historic ways. Our Republican women heroes, like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Staton and Lucy Stone, who spent their lives fighting for suffrage, would be so proud of where we stand today. As President and CEO of the Republican National Convention, I am humbled to be among the likes of Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Chairwoman for the Committee on Arrangements Toni Anne Dashiell. Together, we make up the leadership team for convention, and for the first time in history, this team is composed entirely of women. Ronna and Toni Anne have been instrumental in paving the path forward in the Republican Party, and I am proud to lead alongside them as we work with President Trump and Vice President Pence to continue winning for the next generation of women.
This president recognizes that women are action-oriented and results-driven. He knows that all issues are women’s issues. That is why the administration has negotiated trade deals to benefit all American workers, lifted countless Obama-Biden era burdensome regulations off small businessesand lowered drug costs to ensure all families can access the care they need. At the same time, the president has championed policies like paid family leave, passedlandmark tax reform, which doubled the child tax credit, and has directed more than $200 million per year to technology education grants for women and programs that encourage participation in STEM careers. Leadership that produces results rather than pandering is what woman want, and that is what we have in President Trump and Vice President Pence.
As we honor 100 years of “votes for women” and recognize the fierce allies women have in President Trump and Vice President Pence, we celebrate the heroes, rising stars and the next generation of Republican women. We hope that you join us in commemorating all that has been accomplished in the last 100 years and all that is still to come as we – women nationwide – answer the call and continue the fight our heroes began for our ideas in this democracy and the prosperity of our nation.
Vice President Mike Pence is the headline speaker, joining the convention from Fort McHenry, the national monument in Baltimore best known as the site of a battle during the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Other scheduled speakers include:
Second lady Karen Pence
Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem
Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik
New York Rep. Lee Zeldin
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell
Kellyanne Conway, adviser to the president. Ms. Conway said late Sunday she was leaving the administration at the end of the month, and it wasn’t known whether she would keep her slot at the convention.
Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, the vice president’s national security adviser
Madison Cawthorn, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district
Clarence Henderson, a civil rights activist who participated in the 1960 Greensboro Woolworth’s sit-in
Lara Trump, campaign adviser and wife of Eric Trump
Watch Live:
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3gyCBB8 Tyler Durden
