#2
The Bee has been serving up softballs lately. I think they are trying to lull us into a false sense of confidence and Reality is about to take a turn for the weird.
#3
i still wouldn't be surprised if these 'allegations' weren't part of the design to get him off the ticket.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/30/2020 11:47 Comments ||
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#4
But if they get rid of Joe, who will they put in his place? Hillary went down to ignominious defeat, Bloomberg got no traction, Sanders is a commie and the rest of them are all walking and talking jokes. Maybe they can get Pierre to cross over.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2020 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
Maybe they'll just let him fall on his face a la McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis...
I don’t think she is up to the rigours of even a short campaign, but if the Democratic party bigwigs want to play it that way, who are we to deny The Donald his chew toy?
#6
whatever ever did women do before there were sports bras?
The busty girls I knew who ran, back in the day, wore two bras and a tight shirt to try to control movement, and lived with the result, along with non-sex differentiated shin splints and chafing. But back then most female runners, like their male counterparts, were built like greyhounds.
I have to admit I never understood the joy of running, especially after Mr. Wife’s knees got bad enough that he had to give up marathons at age nineteen.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 10:56 Comments ||
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#8
My pediatrician dad always said you can get 80% of what running provides by walking. If you want the cardio stress, try spinning or rowing.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 10:58 Comments ||
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#9
I have to admit I never understood the joy of running
It feels so good when you stop. Actually, that's no joke. That kind of cardio exercise releases endorphins and it really does feel good.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2020 13:21 Comments ||
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#10
From the link:
Endorphins are involved in our natural reward circuits and are related to important activities like eating, drinking, physical fitness, and sexual intercourse. Endorphins also surge during pregnancy. They minimize discomfort and pain and maximize pleasure. This helps us to continue functioning despite injury or stress.
Unfortunately, sex is not always an option. Morphine and oxycodone require prescriptions, heroin is illegal, excessive eating causes all kinds of problems and I can't get pregnant. So I'm left with running...and whiskey.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2020 13:31 Comments ||
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#11
The good news is that, even after all these years of refusing to wear a sports bra, my man boobs are not yet too badly damages.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2020 13:47 Comments ||
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#12
Er, damaged.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2020 13:48 Comments ||
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#13
Or skip the rush, relax and have a cigar.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 13:52 Comments ||
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#14
I don't think I've ever seen a Jogger/Runner smile while Running. They always look pained.
[ArmstrongEconomics] Little by little, the truth of this contrived coronavirus crisis is emerging. It has always been about forcing climate change agendas. They knew they were losing, even after exploiting a 16-year-old girl. This ruthless agenda to deliberately destroy the world economy was the info I received from behind the curtain. There were people in the climate change arena who sold all stocks and bonds in January because they were going to exploit this virus into a global pandemic. In the United States, they have succeeded in throwing 50 million people out of work. Applying for unemployment benefits was designed to be complicated. After six weeks, people were just being denied. They hoped the people would vote Trump out of office in November, and then totally destroy the US economy so it could be rebuilt with ZERO CO2, which is impossible.
In Germany, Merkel has come out and admitted that she wants to combine the task of helping companies recover from the pandemic with the challenge of setting more incentives for reducing carbon emissions. She is willing to allow companies to fail if they do not believe in climate change. This is really climate change by sheer tyranny.
#1
Will she have the votes back home to act on this, or is it the usual blather heard at climate conferences? At the last one, the one the U.S. did not bother to attend, they did not manage to pass whatever toothless measure they’d touted as the purpose of the thing.
#2
Hard to say with Angi. Just when you think some of these pols are down & out, they get their noses back above the water. Angi needs to go, but I'm not too sure who the Germans (at least, her CDU party) have to replace her.
At point 25:25 she begins discussing the July 2019 Fort Detrick U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) lab shut down.
After having worked there for 22 years, I would say she should have some credibility. Wiki provides a most uncomplimentary review found here which claims she is an 'Anti-Vaxer.'
Some pretty frightening stuff to say the least, unless of course one actually believes in coincidences.
#1
She is obviously a 'disgruntled former employee,' further aggravated by the possible suspension of a security clearance due to legal charges. Book seller, yes apparently a best seller. Having said that, her story still needs to be told and the facts investigated.
On the surface, Dr. Mikovits appears to have been a target of the Deep State, not unlike Mike Flynn.
Perhaps a good place to start would the the USAMRIID closure. I seem to recall the closure was shrouded in mystery at the time.
#8
Has anyone looked into what data went into the predictive models? Output is only as good as input and we might find the input was all nonsense, or mostly nonsense, or just has one wild guess that threw it way off.
#9
Life is for the living. Let the dead bury the dead.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 10:44 Comments ||
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#10
Dr. Mikovits is apparently a brilliant research technician whose discovery of the connection of the XMRV retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome turned out to be another overpromised chimera, and the backlash destroyed her career. Here is the 2011 Science retraction of her team’s paper:
Science is fully retracting the report “detection of an infectious retrovirus, XMRV, in blood cells of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome” (1). Multiple laboratories, including those of the original authors (2), have failed to reliably detect xenotropic murine leukemia virus–related virus (XMRV) or other murine leukemia virus (MLV )–related viruses in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients. In addition, there is evidence of poor quality control in a number of specific experiments in the Report. Figure 1, table S1, and fig. S2 have been retracted by the authors (3). In response to concerns expressed about Fig. 2C [summarized in (4)], the authors acknowledged to Science that they omitted important information from the legend of this figure panel. Specifically, they failed to indicate that the CFS patient–derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) shown in Fig. 2C had been treated with azacytidine as well as phytohemagglutinin and interleukin-2. This was in contrast to the CFS samples shown in Figs. 2A and 2B, which had not been treated with azacytidine.
Given all of these issues, Science has lost confidence in the Report and the validity of its conclusions. We note that the majority of the authors have agreed in principle to retract the Report but they have been unable to agree on the wording of their statement. It is Science's opinion that a retraction signed by all the authors is unlikely to be forthcoming. We are therefore editorially retracting the Report. We regret the time and resources that the scientific community has devoted to unsuccessful attempts to replicate these results.
In 2015 research efforts turned toward an abnormal immune response to a triggering event or situation, such as an infection, chemotherapy, or severe stress. It appeared that in some cases, for unknown reasons, the patient’s immune system does not reset back to normal after after fighting an illness, but for about three years continues operating full blast; after three years production of some but not all types of T-cells falls significantly. I’m not aware of any major discoveries since then that resulted in an actual diagnostic test or treatment, but in various corners of the medical community research continues.
#11
She does not believe that a vaccine is needed to prevent COVID-19[2] and claims that the coronavirus was "caused by a bad strain of flu shot that was circulating between 2013 and 2015"
Interesting...
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/30/2020 12:15 Comments ||
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#12
Come on TW, you - of all people here - should know how it works - the lab tech always takes the blame.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 12:46 Comments ||
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#15
The guy with an erudite quote for everything surely should not have a problem now...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2020 12:48 Comments ||
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#16
Come on TW, you - of all people here - should know how it works
So many PhDs, so limited grant money... In the old days chasing down a blind alley long enough to prove it was so was considered a good thing, since so many scientific alleys turn out to be blind. But nowadays it’s a career killer, especially for someone riding the hot new thing gone suddenly cold. And lab scientists as a group are not media savvy or socially courageous, so having someone to throw to the wolves becomes desirable.
[Fortune] The COVID-19 crisis certainly feels unprecedented, and in most ways it is. Never has the world faced a health crisis that has moved so quickly across continents, overwhelming complex health care systems, and putting entire economies on hold. But this isn’t the first pandemic the globe has faced, and it likely won’t be the last.
Together, humanity has stood on the precipice of many uncertainties caused by different unrelenting viruses. But no matter what the challenge—the Spanish flu in 1918, the flu pandemic in 1957, the HIV/AIDS crisis, West Nile, SARS, swine flu, Ebola—there has been a light at the other side and lessons to be learned.
These various pandemics all pose the same question: What has the past taught us that we can apply to future crises?
[American Thinker] - Xi and the CCP thugs running China committed a deliberate act of war the moment they banned air travel from Wuhan to all other Chinese cities while allowing international flights to proceed unmolested to the far corners of the globe. They did this despite knowing those flights out of China comprised desperate souls escaping a homegrown pandemic and a communist regime willing to let them die to save face. It was an artificial diaspora intended to seed humanity with the Xi Plague.
...Did China deliberately unleash COVID-19? I doubt it. Hanlon's Razor dictates that one should never put off to malice what can be explained more easily by incompetence. No, COVID-19 is not a deliberately created biological weapon. While the infectious nature is perfect, its kill rate is minimal, rendering it marginal as a weapon of war. The actual weapons being worked on in China's labs are likely much more deadly.
The WuFlu was a viral study gone awry — an accident that escaped the lab because although China is a first-world manufacturer, it is a third-world country with a per capita income not much greater than Botswana's. China is a nation where tens of millions of people still live in caves and half the population still does not have indoor plumbing or toilets.
Once the virus was out, China had a choice. It could seal the borders to protect humanity and fight to halt its progression in China, which would mean that China alone would bear the brutal economic costs. It did shut down much of its economy for a month while it isolated the disease and learned from it. Or it could remain silent and share with innocents the world over the misery it had created.
...China needed time. With the first case in the city of Wuhan on November 17, the country used the ensuing six weeks to learn exactly what it had and how it could be turned to China's advantage. China kept mum long enough to acquire sufficient knowledge to understand the parameters of the pandemic.
What the Chinese discovered in that time is exactly what we in the West had discovered during the previous six weeks. Although ignored by the Dem-left-media cabal, the virus presents as extremely contagious, while, for the vast majority of those afflicted, it exhibits asymptomatically and results in a kill ratio between 1 and 3 out of every 10,000 infected. Those deaths almost entirely comprise people over 65 and suffering from other morbidities, such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and poor lifestyle choices.
Pretend you are Xi. You have used the years since you rose to power to consolidate and eliminate rivals and enemies. You have become the "capo di tutti capi" of the mafia-like CCP. But it is not all lollipops and rainbows, especially since America elected a new president not terrified of his own shadow and willing to see China for what it is and act accordingly. Your economy has suffered under Trump and his insistence that China play fair, keep its word, and not cheat on every deal and promise it makes.
Your scientists tell you the Wuhan Flu is a pandemic candidate that infects many but kills few. As an added benefit for a nation soon to have the oldest population on Earth, it kills primarily the old and infirm. Bingo! Who's better than you? Your country is suffering dramatically from an aggressive American president who called you on your game and acted on your thievery, unfair trade practices, and all around "China wins, and everyone else loses" attitude.
You could take the hit, bear the additional damage the WuFlu will do to an already suffering economy at the hands of the American dogs in addition to the effect it would have on your — some say — precarious hold on total power. Or you could share your baleful bounty with the rest of the world, knowing that you alone understand what other nations do not. There is a good chance that if you keep your mouth shut, throw your propaganda apparatus into overdrive with meaningless diversions (the virus originated in America, a benevolent China bought the world crucial time), and continue to reward American politicians and media figures, America can be convinced to overreact and commit economic suicide, leaving China the last man standing.
#3
I don't see the writer providing any options for response, just the same old ConservaCommentariatClickbait that Con, Inc. always shovels out.
My response to these "thought leaders" is:
"Yes, I know. What do you suggest we do about it? And if you can't come up with something, can we at least count on you to not screech 'That is not who we are!' if someone else does?"
It is my opinion the China Strong! agents are being tapped to not just protect the Made in China brand, but to deter/erode support for some sort of international class action damages suite.
I would think there is precedence for accidental deaths, such as shooting down a passenger plane. Also, organizations being responsible for industrial accidents.
No cash on hand? Garnish any debt. Usually that is a no-no both legally and financially but I think countries could make a good case for it without ruining their own credit that it isn't a default but an legal asset payment.
This is a really strange article with a bunch of weird takes on America. I thought it was worth posting here, sorry if it's not appropriate.
War on the Rocks is the op-ed side about policy and national security for general readership of the Siamese twins produced by and for the University of Texas. Texas National Security Review is their scholarly publication.
[WarOnTheRocks] Europeans have been watching America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic with alarm.
F-24: Europeans have been watching America’s response to X with alarm.
Last week’s news that the United States plans to freeze funding for the World Health Organization was seen as yet another piece of evidence that the United States is shedding its traditional, global leadership role.
That role being Uncle Sugar paying for whatever it is, then stepping forward to take the blame.
In over one hundred interviews, emails, and texts with policymakers, analysts, and colleagues across the European continent, we have found universal shock and disappointment over both America’s failure to lead in this crisis and its systemic failures at home.
Dear Dr. Mohan,
We were talking about the situation over lunch, and we simply cannot understand why the latest cowboy your commoners elected is saying such judgmental things about us. Please take him firmly in hand or we will have to put our leader at a different table for the banquet at the next conference.
Yours most regretfully,
The COVID-19 crisis is raising questions about American power, reliability, and trustworthiness that stand to shape the future of the transatlantic relationship for years to come. The leadership role is what the world doesn't like about America. Who asked us to be chief oppressor? Did someone take a vote?
Remember how President Obama sent the US Air Force to execute the plans concocted by Britain, France, and Italy when they decided Libya’s Khadaffy was no longer acceptable? That is what President Trump is refusing to provide.
However, as the center of the pandemic shifts from Europe to the United States, there have been aspects of America’s response that Europeans have found to be both deeply disheartening and alarming.
Oh dear.
Irrespective of who sits in the Oval Office, Europeans tend to look to the United States in a crisis because of its unique and longstanding ability to bring the world together. In 2014, it was the United States that pulled nations together to combat Ebola. In 2001, under President George W. Bush, it was the United States that led U.N. efforts to create a global fund to combat AIDS. In this crisis, however, the United States has been, as one Italian analyst told us, "MIA." Europe is free to craft its own solutions, free of interference. I don't know why this is a bad thing.
The Trump administration failed to call for emergency meetings of the G7, the G20, or any other international grouping. When the foreign ministers of the G7 did finally convene, the United States prevented them from issuing a statement because of its insistence that the virus be labeled the "Wuhan virus." The United States is consumed with a war of words when it could be harmonizing global travel restrictions, coordinating a global economic response, or working with partners and allies on a vaccine. Similarly, criticism of the World Health Organization for believing in and actively promoting Chinese disinformation is fair, but Trump’s solution — threatening to withdraw from the organization altogether — doesn’t help anyone. The real vacuum of global leadership — by both the United States and China — means the process of recovery will be harder and longer for everyone. At a moment when America should have created coalitions with Europe and other partners in the Indo-Pacific, it retreated. Bullying them would have just created more resentment. It's never the solution. The next paragraph is worth taking apart in detail.
Beyond the Trump administration’s abdication of global leadership, Europeans have been disturbed to discover that their supposed close relationship with the United States counts for little. They never thought themselves our friends.
As tens of thousands of Italians died from the disease and Rome pleaded for help in early March, Washington stayed silent. China, seeing an opportunity to burnish its tarnished reputation born out of its initial handling of the virus, immediately sent assistance. While European papers widely covered China’s "mask diplomacy," the United States captured headlines for allegedly diverting masks meant for Europe. If China wants to waste its money sending aid to wealthy countries, let it do so. Why should we?
Although the US company in question later denied these reports, the damage was done, leading a German politician to accuse the United States of "modern piracy." All so effortlessly they switch right back to the old rhetoric of despising us. A few paragraphs ago they were shocked and disappointed.
It is important to note that Europe isn’t looking at offers of Chinese help without a critical eye. Reports of faulty testing kits and masks sold to Italy,Spain, the Netherlands, and elsehwhere(sic) have damaged China’s credibility. The European Union’s top diplomat even called out China’s "politics of generosity" as a ploy to gain influence in Europe. We tried politics of generosity and got nowhere, China shouldn't expect any gratitude.
But, while China is present on the scene with planeloads of equipment and teams of doctors , the United States is completely absent or, worse, seen as acting only in self-interest. Europeans can act in self-interest but we can't.
Rumors that the White House tried to secure exclusive rights to a vaccine being developed by a German company has only further damaged America’s reputation. That was fake news. I'm not surprised European media didn't print retractions and they still believe it.
Adding insult to injury, the United States criticized Spain for buying faulty testing equipment from China without offering an alternative or even a little sympathy. Finally, the Trump administration’s callous decision to double down on steel and aluminum tariffs in the middle of a global pandemic has left Europeans to conclude that the distinction between ally and adversary is quite small. That lesson has rattled even the staunchest European supporters of the United States, including conservatives in Poland who worry what these failings say about U.S. security guarantees. We just established that generosity gains no thanks from Europe. Does this person not know she is contradicting herself?
As Europeans have monitored their own disparate approaches to grappling with the virus within their borders, they have also looked across the Atlantic to see how American doctors, governors, scientists, and hospitals are tackling the virus. Why? America is a backwards country of hillbillies.
While many Europeans have complimented individual governors, they have been shocked to see the inadequacies of the American system laid bare. This is the real howler right here. How can they be shocked? Europe maintains a cottage industry of denigrating, mocking, and generally highlighting every inadequacy of America. Now they're suddenly surprised? I'm not buying it.
Needless to say, the images of nurses wearing garbage bags and of field hospitals being set up in Central Park have, as one E.U. official diplomatically said to us, "dimmed the appeal of the U.S.-model." They have been quite loud about how much they despise the US model. Again, pretending to be shocked.
The stark inequalities across American society, the limited safety net for the millions of Americans out of work, and the disproportionate way in which the crisis has impacted African-Americans are altering European views of American power and strength. There it is *again*. It just effortlessly slipped back into the European sneering without any recognition of doing so. As Le Monde described in one of its headlines, "America has never seemed so fragile." You know what's missing from this piece? You've noticed it, haven't you? There is absolutely no discussion of the American people or what they want. Not a word.
Of the two authors, Julianne Smith is a Europe policy specialist and was a senior policy advisor for the Obama administration. Garima Mohan is an Indian who took advanced degrees in London and Berlin, where she has settled.
#3
It wouldn't break my heart to see the US shed its "leadership role". But these Euro-pukes are the first ones to cry when the US isn't "doing enough" when there's a (pick a crisis).
But the joke's on Europe (EU). They are too busy deciding on the specifications of cucumbers.
#4
Leading is what lead to the destruction of the written Constitution. So much power and authority was racked up in Washington since 1948 that it distorted what the founders had given. The ugly fight before us now is between what is the Constitutionalists vs the Globalists.
#7
/\ EXACTLY. I can only hope this lack of support out of Bruxelles nudges bella Italia to leave the EU as soon as f'in possible. That was a disgrace.
#13
In America when the president pushes Federalism the state Governors complained Washington should be doing their job for them, then eventually did their job.
Guess European leaders are lower on the totem pole than State Governors as they are still at the complain that Washington isn't doing their job for them stage.
#14
I believe that the Europeans want us to do the heavy lifting, pay for it all, get it all done wrapped up with a bow for them, while they get to sit on the sidelines and mock us, fling their feces at us while we're working, hinder us as much as possible, and in general behave like entitled, spoiled children.
[National Review: Victor Davis Hanson] On today’s episode, Victor discusses his new NRO piece, “Our Corona Project,” the continuing media effort to belittle theories that the virus may have come to the U.S. earlier than believed, press conference advice for Donald Trump, the value of Stanford University colleague John Ioannidis, and explosive news about the FBI’s look-pretty-corrupt actions in investigating General Michael Flynn.
SACRAMENTO, CA‐Governor Gavin Newsom has instructed detention facilities across California to begin releasing violent felons to make room for skateboarders, surfers, and other people who have committed the heinous crime of going outside.
Thousands of cells have now been freed up for "the dregs of society," as Newsom referred to people who go to the beach or skate at a skate park. As the felons left the prisons, they laughed at the skaters and surfers entering their previous cells. The skater bros just said, "Dude, not cool" and the surfers said, "Totes not stoked bra, major kook move dude."
"We need to free up those prison cells for the really dangerous people, like beachgoers," said Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference. "We can't have those dangerous people who sit on the beach for a few hours or do doozy flipkicks and 630 spinaroos out on our streets."
The felons went out and immediately committed crimes, but many were undocumented immigrants and so were given a stimulus check instead of getting arrested. This is the Bee, but not necessarily satire.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[National Review: Victor Davis Hanson] On today’s episode, Victor discusses his new NRO piece, “Our Corona Project,” the continuing media effort to belittle theories that the virus may have come to the U.S. earlier than believed, press conference advice for Donald Trump, the value of Stanford University colleague John Ioannidis, and explosive news about the FBI’s look-pretty-corrupt actions in investigating General Michael Flynn.
