JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Biden’s picking Sen. Harris for VP moves the ticket ever farther left. They seem to think there are a lot of votes over there but I doubt that very much. Climate trillions may actually be an issue this time. I wonder if the parties have ever been this far apart before?
212
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/does-anyone-else-find-ironic
Biden ingeniously picked the one black candidate whose parents are not from America, whose ancestors had slaves, and who spent her career locking up black men…
301
The greens have noticed the Prosecuter Problem. See para four here:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11082020/kamala-harris-joe-biden-election-2020-climate-change?utm_source=InsideClimate+News&utm_campaign=56fe398c80-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-56fe398c80-327531733
Being somewhat black (mostly Indian some say) makes it worse. Lynching her own, as it were. I read that in CA the fraction of blacks in the prison pop is five times that in the general pop. This may haunt her.
102
Is it possble that a form of unconscious self loathing, by projection, exists for some people?
Or is it just that some people just think they are beter than others?
40
Her mother was Indian and her father a combination African/Causasian.
So the “mostly Indian” would be correct as the biggest slice of racial heritage being 50%.
But reality is she’s 100% American …… whatever American is.
40
I doubt very much that Biden had a say in the picking of his running mate.
160
I thought he did all his own “Hair Sniff” tests.
40
Interesting article on zero hedge but I don’t know the players well enough to judge whether it’s entirely accurate or mostly fake news, but still worth a read
20
Mostly lefties here consider the choice a move right.
American progressives, from what I see, view the the Biden/Harris ticket as forced on them by the party establishment.
An obscure establishment.
i don’t see this ticket as the product of an open referendum of the citizen members of the Democratic party.
John Smith in America
80
Several progressive scorecards have her Senate voting record well left of Biden’s. But she is no Sanders or AOC, either of whom I was hoping he would pick.
Seems it is four am in Oz so we North Americans have the floor. It is Saturday afternoon yesterday here.
181
Just all so yesterday! 😉
41
Dr. Wojick:
Just an FYI, and nothing else. AOC is, at this time, ineligible to be a Vice-Presidential candidate or nominee. As the Vice-President must be able to take the Presidency in the event of the incapacitation of the President, this person must have achieved their 35th birthday, as required by the US Constitution.
I think that when elected to Congress, AOC was about 29 or so. She is a potential candidate when 2024 rolls around, from what I’ve heard, so she must turn 35 on or before the date of the November, 2024 election.
Hope that helps,
Vlad
10
I’ve been waiting for years to say this, after reading every Wojick column because they are so good — you’re finally wrong, Wojik, Kamala is further left than AOC on climate change, believe it or not.
My article with details is here
http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com
10
I think trump is a very unpleasant person but that doesn’t mean he is always wrong as is often claimed. Biden however seems a very pleasant person but judging by the times I have seen him I do wonder if he is in the early stages of dementia. If not he is a bit of an idiot.
How our closest ally can come up with these two for president is worrying.
76
A lot of us really like Trump. He is a showman. Much of what he says should be taken in that light. For example he uses Twitter to press lefty buttons. A joke they still do not get.
322
David
I am more pro trump than many Europeans but I certainly would not call him a pleasant person and he does say things, then deny it and he does make some very rash decisions.
I approve of his stance on Iran and Korea and theWHO and climate change and for those reasons alone I might edge towards him if I had to vote. But I think it reasonable to think America could throw up two better candidates than these.
Trump has not had a good pandemic and Biden should be striding ahead but if he did I suspect he would fall over,
Presumably trump hopes to get Biden into televised debates? If Biden is wise he will stay clear of these as he is likely to stumble badly which presumably his minders, or are they nurses, realise
52
As a strategic analyst I have worked with a lot of chief executives. Their being pleasant was never a consideration. Most were too driven to be pleasant.
221
Having been subjected to a clip today on the box of Biden sniffing at some obviously unwilling woman’s hair, I don’t think he is at all a pleasant person, yuk.
Having seen another clip of the running mate walking in time to Biden, wearing a Hillary pantsuit, yuk again.
150
Trump is a salesman.
I hate salesmen.
He is obnoxious.
He often sounds dumb.
He knows almost nothing about climate science.
He brags about himself way too much.
He is now bragging about the improving US economy.
There were 32 million collecting unemployment
… and now there are 28 million — not his fault
but still awful unemployment numbers.
I have not voted for any Republican since 1980
Or any Democrat for even longer.
I’ve been a libertarian since 1973.
I’ve never told people how to vote.
But in this election I am asking
people not to vote for Kamala Harris
and her buddy, Hiden’ Joe Biden.
Because as a team, they make
Trump look good, and that’s hard
to do.
Trump does have a knack for
making Dems act like crazy people,
and I do appreciate that.
Meanwhile here in the US,
carbon dioxide, the staff of life,
is still officially a pollutant !
It is a disgrace for Biden to announce
he was going to pick a woman,
eliminating at least 50% of possible
candidates … and then he was pressured
to pick a black woman, eliminating
over 90% of possible candidates.
This implied Kamala Harris
was the “best” candidate … after
eliminating over 90% of the other
possibilities.
Whatever happened to picking
a VP based on their character,
rather than skin color or sex,
or better yet,
one that would help win
electoral votes in a key state?
California, Harris’s home state
always votes Democrat anyway.
51
Maybe, but he was smart enough to get the US out of the Paris Agreement.
I reckon Trump knows a lot about the AGW scam/hoax, unlike our leaders in Australia.
161
GD
Trump should have stayed in the Paris Agreement and not sent them more money for the green slush fund.
The agreement is just empty promises with no penalties for missong targets.
Meamingless virtue signally so there was no reason to pull out.
Next Dem president will move back in.
In the US, CO2 is still called a pollutant by the EPA.
That’s the real problem.
11
Why is Trump an unpleasant person? Because he is forthright? And why is Biden a ‘very pleasant person’? Because he mouths party platitudes?
Trump began his career with an inheritance and turned it into an empire. He then almost single-handedly became POTUS.
Biden? Biden has been a senator for thirty years and achieved nothing, except for this.
282
Even Obama seems to have big reservations about Biden
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
I suspect Hilary Clinton regrets she didn’t decide to go for the big prize this year rather than in 2016 as despite her many faults she would probably have won. Biden however is capable of losing this from a strong position.
23
Whoops, wrong link about Biden, here is the correct one
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8630561/Dont-underestimate-Joes-ability-f-things-Obama-shares-private-doubts-former-VP.html
20
Yes, even Obama doesn’t support Biden. Pushing Biden as the candidate is elder abuse.
For God’s sake, let him live out his life in a safe environment, not the highly-charged environment of the up-coming presidential debates.
60
Once again, Tony, I can’t agree with you.
Hillary as the candidate in 2020 would have been laughable. Trump’s strong record of economic achievement throughout 2016-2020, along with his slashing of red tape and green tape regulations, which in part have enabled industries to get back to work in the USA, instead of sending manufacturing to China.
160
Tony, the media in Europe echoes the New York Times almost exclusively. Research shows that the election of Obama dragged “Progressives” further left, into Marxist territory, and the media and Democrat party went with it. Reaction? Trump wins! (Thanks to publicly shamed but secret support.)
What you’ll be most surprised to know is that Trump’s approval ratings have often been higher than Bush and Obama’s first, second, and third years in office. The media don’t tell you this. It’s not the approved narrative, yet it’s true.
Why? How could this be? Very traditionally, Americans vote the economy or their pocket book. Thus, the median middle class income grew under Bush by only $400; $1200 under Obama; and a whopping $4400 under Trump in just three years. Plus, another $1200 tax credit for the working middle class (ie, earning under $40,000 per year). Unemployment reached 50 year lows, and record lows for blacks and Mexican Americans. Trump said he was for the middle class, and he has benefited the maligned — and as Hillary Clinton said, “the Deplorables” — and much neglected middle class!
In addition, the fake media always makes Trump out to be the worst! They lie, literally. Example? His July 3rd Independence Day weekend speech at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. “Racist!” Trump, cried the media. There was nothing there to support this outrageous lie. Instead, he gave a great history speech about great Americans. We ought to LOL! They we’re rubes!
It’s shocking and shameful journalistic malpractice. Survey data shows media is the least trusted profession in America today. 8% for local print, 11% for local broadcast. (How did this happen? Rotting education has gone to teaching propaganda. Journalism Schools are nothing but Hate America First Marxists….the scummy ground level details I’ll spare you.)
In early June, the Voice of Switzerland, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung in an editorial declared the New York Times is no longer a serious newspaper because they censor dissenting opinion, such as a piece by Trump ally, Senator Tom Cotton — a certain future Republican Vice Presidential candidate or even Presidential candidate.
The inmates are running the asylums now. Yet the NY Times is the information gatekeeper from the US to the world? Could anything prove more distorting for the perception of US life?
What’s really going on in America? In Trump, the US elected an unprecedented outsider to be President. Previously, every President had been elected to office or else was long in high public service (eg, WWII General Eisenhower in 1952). And this outsider power threatens the well-connected Ruling Class and their client groups (the bureaucracies, education, “private contractors” in industry, NGOs), and jeopardises their class privileges and security.
Are they really a ruling class? The emergencies of 9/11, the trillion dollar wars, the Great Recession (and GDP growth under Obama was virtually the same as during the Great Depression years of the 1930s) — all of these events conspired to swell Federal government powers, dependency, and spending to the greatest heights ever.
Metrics? Record high federal debt, not seen since WWII, for one. A Cato Institute study (circa 2008) found that Federal jobs including benefits were double the private sector’s compensation for the same job. And most of the richest 5 counties by income in the US surround the out of touch capitol, Washington, DC. And in DC itself, 95% voted Hillary; and more votes went to all minor parties put together than voted Republican! Just think of that.
Trump really is the ultimate outsider, riding to power in a city whose bureaucracy voted his party in third place? Yes.
What’s going on in the US is clearly a climactic class war or class conflict: Obama’s vision was a future of managed decline and the subsuming of American government under transnational World government. He mocked and laughed at the idea of revitalising US industry! Manufacturing jobs were gone, never coming back, he said. What is Trump gonna do? he mocked. ”Wave a magic wand?”
Trump’s vision is the opposite: independent America, innovating and growing America, a land of opportunity again. Trump’s plan was to recreate the Reagan era that revitalised our economy during the 1980s, after the decline and miasma of the 1970s. Even “Make America Great Again,” his 2016 campaign slogan, was taken directly from Reagan’s campaign in 1980.
Incredibly, criminal Hillary was supported by 95% of all billionaires! Just three supported Trump. The Ruling Class rich are that out of touch with the people. Democrats vision of the future for America is the same as California’s reality, a one party state, a feudal economy of the very rich, and the very poor (today, two-thirds of people on welfare in the US live in Cali!), leading to the current dysfunctional reality of failing infrastructure, and schools that are the worst in the US, and a state where the middle class flee. (30 years ago, Cali was the polar opposite.)
And speaking of Hillary, the former Secretary of State who used a private web server in Denver to leak out all her classified documents? Instead of a secure federal secure server that the law commands? Which everyone in communication with her then would know was being violated because they read her email address? How bad was her “exoneration” speech by then FBI Director James Comey in 2016? Day’s before the July 4th Independence holiday?
No less than two trial lawyers told me that they thought Director Comey would indict her on espionage…until Comey concluded with “no reasonable prosecutor” would indict because “she didn’t intend to violate the law,” he claimed.
Fact: that’s not what the law says, and it’s not what Justice does. For example, in the middle of the decade, there was a Navy seaman who was a nuclear submarine engineer who took a photo of his work station to show friends and family. (My best friend in high school did that job during the1980s.) He didn’t intend for enemies to get it! But he went to Federal prison for violating the Espionage Act. And it’s really worse for classified document handlers like Secretary of State Hillary: they get retrained on proper handling of these secrets every month, and they must sign off on having been instructed and reminded about all the rules they must follow.
Well, laws are for the little people! The serfs aren’t supposed to understand! Know your place you ingrate prole!
Very dangerously, the Obama years have left us with a two-tier or Banana Republic system of law: one set of laws for the citizens, and a different one for Democrats and their well connected clients. Even this summer, if you’re among the approved rioters and arsonists and ”protest” aggressively against Trump’s federal government in many cities, like Portland? Then no prosecutions or arrests for you! But try protesting for work, for opening business, or church, then arrests for thee! No mercy.
The Marxist media covers up the ugly truth, instead calling them “mostly peaceful protests,” but causing $100 million dollars of damages in New York City and LA, and $50 million in Portland and Seattle. Right, peaceful protests with 4,000 buildings destroyed and 30 deaths (half of 1991s South LA race riots) are peaceful. They lie!
So, the failed Ruling Class rich shovel lies to sell their feudal underclass client groups into buying their “protection” from a nonexistent “White supremacist” threat and against “racism” among the most tolerant people on earth, where 1 out of 50 marriages is interracial. (Chippewa Indian and black in mine.) Yet, Only 17% of BLM protesters are black, and last week the Gallup poll found 80% of Black people are against that Marxist group’s goals to defund the police and abolish the family. Yet, this is the Democrats’ platform? Yes, it is.
So, Trump is the restore Rule of Law man, grow the jobs and lets MAGA Again man, and the CCP virus crisis man? Yeah, our crazy (or smart) President and Secretary of State Pompeo have a legal-economic plan to force the CCP to fall! Thereby defending various people’s and increasing US and world security from a bad actor.
Yes, he intends to do to the Communist Party Of China what Reagan did to Soviet Communism, end it. This is recent weeks news. In short, the scheme is to kill their trade like the US has done to Venezuela and Iran, other pariah states.
The demonstration case will be Hong Kong: because if we can ”do it there, then you’re next” and this is the expected arc of the New Cold War. Multi-party rule in China is the hope, but I wonder if rejecting a President Xi for life and serious reforms might be enough?
Thus, it really is all about Trump and his policiesg. He’s like a People’s Tribune today, hired to reform government and make it answerable to the forgotten middling sort, the Great middle-class again.
The worst of the Federal government’s overreach constitutes an unconstitutional fourth branch of government called the Administrative State by Columbia University Law School scholar, Philip Hamburger, for 20 years in many books, and elaborated by many others.
The popular name is ”The (bureaucratic) Swamp” or “the Deep State”, the Permanent class of elite bureaucrats that are Obama’s power center, still functioning in Federal government, who bow to his bidding, and sabotage Trump’s rule and reforms. It is likely focused on the 8,000 member Senior Executive Service — the Generals level of civil service, like in France.
What is to be done about that evil? (Yes, it remains an unanswered question.)
The months and hopefully year or two ahead will see Obama, Biden, and their bureaucratic comrades exposed — and possibly prosecuted — for sedition and even treason. For what? Political Spying against Trump’s campaign with the most powerful and feared arms of investigation and the law: the CIA, State Department, Justice, and FBI in the worst scandal in American history, an internal coup plot against the duly elected president.
The “Russia, Russia, Russia!” and Special Investigative Council and Impeachment (charging Trump with, literally, invented crimes, eg, there is no crime of “Obstructing Congress”), was the establishment’s preferred narrative for three years. But a corresponding counter-narrative has replaced it with Russiagate, then Spygate, and now Obamagate scandals, such that the Marxist media has fallen silent about the reporting of the real news (eg, FBIs lawyer Klinesmith pleaded guilty, a man who from his powerful perch wrote about the President-elect Trump, “Viva la Resistance!”)
Spend 16 minutes and listen time this interview by Britain’s Sebastian Gorka, who served in Trump’s White House and then started in talk radio, with historian Victor Davis Hanson (from May and not up to date, but the most vivid and accessible primer). The title sums it up thusly, “Donald Trump broke the establishment elite”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQOQFafkBWo
Such are the stakes in November’s US election for president.
120
I hate to say it, but a US civil war seems the only way to rout the cancer of the extreme Left from america.
If Trump wins and it kicks off, as the Left will have an even bigger tantrum than currently, then given the average right wing voter ( which is a lot of the population ) can shoot and owns guns and the left seemed to be confused about which toilet to use, the hard Left will earn a well deserved darwin award.
We should look forward to Nuremberg-like trials of those who have funded and organized the internal destruction of a democratic nation.
Ironically after the civil war I think people will rediscover the meaning of freedom and liberty.
82
Bearing in mind the violence when Trump won first time round I do agree that if he won again violence would sharply escalate but hopefully not into a civil war. I can see prolonged rioting and insurrection though that could last weeks
40
Tony, here’s Scott Adams discussing civil war and the media’s extraordinary ability to disappear stories,- majority of US voters don’t know about the FED attempted coup to take down the POTUS.
https://www.scottadamssays.com/2020/08/16/episode-1094-scott-adams-witches-and-video-three-civil-wars-scheduled-low-information-voters-firenadoes-homeschooling/
10
There’s a lot for Trump to do in his next term managing mischief at home and abroad; thanks for the comprehensive outline Orson.
20
The interview is swamped by ads so I downloaded it and then was able to listen to the uninterrupted stream.
The ads are straight out of Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, effecting a loss of concentration and eventual inattention to the topic at hand and are a very effective censorship tool.
The download is over forty megabytes so I won’t be emailing it anywhere. Too bad, it is indeed “the most vivid and accessible primer”.
00
Orson
Thank you for a very long and thoughtful comment very little of which I can disagree with.
However as a Brit I visit numerous other international sources of information, including here, which hopefully demonstrates that I do not rely on one biased source.
Having been involved in many elections over the years where, as a voter, I have to sort the mounds of wheat from the mountains of chaff I do have sufficient experience to do so. I do however worry about younger people ensconced in their social media bubbles receiving info from like minded media and people with the same opinions as themselves.
That is how we reach the situation whereby many of the young consider the only correct opinion is the ones they and their friends hold. Which is how we arrived at no platforming and the cancel culture.
How people can be persuaded to open their minds more to other viewpoints is beyond my pay grade as the internet seems designed to close down debate, not open it up, as in its early days
20
If you google the Creepy Joe Biden youtube vids you’ll see he maybe isn’t so pleasant in the Epstein kind of way.
40
I am very disappointed by the attitude of commenters on the CSIRO thread.
Here is the mauna loa co2 graphics
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
All that our friendly respective govts and scientists are asking you to do, for the sake of the planet and to bring dangerous co2 down over the next decade, is to make the small lifestyle sacrifices you did under covid in 2020
Then bank those 2020 co2 savings and in 2021 repeat the covid savings and add equivalent savings from other sources. Then in 2022 bank those covid savings from 2020 plus the ones in 2021 and add similar savings,then in 2023 …well you all get the idea.
So in ten glorious years as demanded by extinction rebellion, you will be ble to look again at that co2 graphic and scratch your head and say ‘ I can’t see that the rise has stopped’
Climate scientists and politicians will get out their magnifying glasses and claim that perhaps its a tiny fraction down if you squint and look sideways.
In the meantime you will have got used to no job, no house , an economy that lies in smoking ruins with attendant rioting and be in the market for my famous hair shirts guaranteed 10% less prickly than the average hair shirt and only ten dollars each.
We offer a discreet delivery service to politicians and climate scientists who by 2030 will be hiding in caves
190
This weekend our media in Canada was promoting young children to have a carriers in professional political activists. Training them young to follow the media’s propaganda.
So sad that they have no idea what anything else is except what they are being trained for.
20
Scathing indictment of the lockdown in the Australian today
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/coronavirus-were-paying-for-an-epidemic-of-stupidity/news-story/b403b6fa3b30879654a80d8e5c7aa6f0
40
Pay-walled Tony
00
Yes, but scathing. Ends with
Meanwhile, the rest of New Zealand has shut down so completely it has effectively removed itself as a nation from the international community. It’s as though the country had never existed. Soon it will be reduced to a fading Cheshire Cat image of its Prime Minister’s saintly sad face.
Let’s hope for the Kiwis’, and everyone else’s, sake a vaccine is found soon, although the World Health Organisation now warns we may never have one. It’s a tired line to repeat, but even after 40-odd years of searching we don’t have one for HIV-AIDS.
Which, if anyone needs reminding, still kills 2600 people a day.
140
MP
Interesting, but not over here in the UK!
10
He criticises the maths of ABC journalists then makes a mistake of his own. He says that at the rate of 1000 a day , it would take 18 years to infect Victoria. Forgets exponential growth.
Not a great article.It is critical of the shutdowns and ignores epidemiology.
32
Brenda;
who wouldn’t criticise the maths of ABC journalists? They, and all the Green commentators (an example appearing far too frequently on this blog) rely on wishful thinking about the future they want.
Also from the article
“Back in the good old days, the average person used to take pride in having a robust grasp of basic maths: enough mental arithmetic not to be overcharged at the shops, enough skill with pen and paper to make more complex calculations.
Not any more, it seems.
Cases, as a moment’s reflection reveals, do not equal sickness, much less hospitalisations. Until we are entrusted with the knowledge of how many are the results of tests on people who show no symptoms, they serve only to strike terror into the innumerate.
Indeed, why do we need to hear these figures at all? We don’t get daily updates for any other diseases.
Their primary purpose seems to be to post-rationalise our leaders’ devastating, simple-minded lockdowns and border closures, and to panic people into sporting their masks of obedience should they be sufficiently reckless as to leave their homes.
Perhaps the announcements, if they must continue, could give us real information: “There have been 637 new cases today, but happily 480 were young people who had no symptoms and didn’t know they’d been infected. Oh, and only two of today’s cases were serious enough to need to go to hospital.”
70
From an email just in
” A new and easy test for the horror of Covid-19
is doing the rounds and it’s simple, quick and positive (or negative if you see what I mean).
Take a glass and pour a Shot of your favorite Whisky into it; then see if you can smell it. If you can, then you are halfway there.
Then drink it. If you can taste it then it is reasonable to assume you are currently free of the virus because the loss of the sense of smell and taste is a common symptom.
I tested myself 7 times last night and was virus free every time than goodness.
I will have to test myself again today because I have developed a throbbing headache which can also be one of the symptoms.
I’ll report my results later.”
280
Could prove to be a popular test.
31
That would require me to have access to home delivery a system that I cannot avail myself of.
Any other patent methodology would be helpful.
00
Alan Jones has got himself some American friends.
Alans point of view pretty well sums up my view, if it was not called covid-19, would anyone know.
https://youtu.be/oXuk1eKfbYQ
61
Some history of the Wuhan P4 lab.
01
Latest English CV19 headlines.
5000 have been wiped off the CV19 death toll to avoid counting people that were once diagnosed positive but some time before, and incidental to, final death. Still leaves some interesting research to be done into the numbers as that further increase the unexplained excess.
Flu and non CV19 pneumonia are currently ~5 times more deadly in England than CV19, neither is significant and deaths all in are on the underside of completely normal.
Positive CV19 cases have gone up slightly for some time but deaths yet to really follow – this is almost certainly an illusion because of increased testing in non-vulnerable groups.
Imperial says 6% of England have had it on average, up to 13% of Londoners (seems a bit low to me).
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending31july2020
It certainly is not Spanish Flu!
41
Mr grim nasty
I don’t know if you ever read Toby youngs lockdown sceptics site?
https://lockdownsceptics.org/
You will also be interested in the highly sceptical article in the Australian above I posted earlier
30
The Imperial study used a finger prick test for antibodies. There is evidence of milder or asymptomatic cases not getting detectable antibodies in the blood so the real number of infected is probably much higher.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-three-million-people-in-england-have-had-covid-19-antibody-study-suggests-12048413
20
8 “facts” about Covid 19 which are actually lies.
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/8-facts-actually-lies/?utm_campaign=mmmm&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ig-ttav&utm_content=8-facts-actually-lies&a_aid=5e68005f1813a
50
A bit of a Koch-up, as these comments reveal:
Luzia Barclay:
Hi, came across your site and the 8 “Facts” About Coronavirus That Are Actually Lies.
…
Koch’s Postulate cannot be applied to viral diseases.
Viruses are very different to bacteria.
When Robert Koch wrote down the postlates people didn’t know that viruses existed because the electron microscope has not been invented.
1) Viruses can be found in healthy people.
2) Viruses cannot be grown in cultures, in order to replicate they need RNA or DNA of cells
3) Viruses do not neccessarily cause disease (only in people with compromised immune systems)
I am not sure about postulate no 4. The microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent???
…
Scott Wissman:
The argument about Koch’s postulate is not quite true in that as another example, poliovirus, which causes paralytic disease in about 1% of those infected.
Further compromising postulate #1 is the fact that infection with the same virus may lead to markedly different diseases, while different viruses may cause the same disease.
Postulates #2 and #3 cannot be fulfilled for viruses that do not replicate in cell culture, or for which a suitable animal model has not been identified.
…
Matt Wiseman:
Koch’s postulates apply for microbial disease, not viral.
The problem of course is, you can have the virus and not be sick.
I have Varicella-Zoster virus, a form of Herpes, in me right now. I’m not sick.
Once you get Chicken Pox (the common name for Varicella-Zoster virus), you never get it again.
20
Regarding Chicken pox. it is thought to be true that you cannot get it a second time,
however you can get shingles a variation of chickenpox which is the disease humans get when infected by the virus.
It is so easy to get virus and disease refereed to as the same thing!
01
Slithers: you can get shingles a variation of chickenpox
It’s actually more insidious. When you eventually “get over” chickenpox, the virus remains in your body dormant. You don’t “get shingles” like you get another, external virus, it’s just always there, waiting to be triggered. Shingles itself is not contagious.
20
Shingles itself is not contagious.
to clarify – if you have it, you always have it – it’s not curable. You do not pass it on while it’s dormant just because you “have it”. If it “breaks out”, you can transmit it at that point in time.
20
Meteorologist says AGW tipping points are highly unlikely to happen because the models are too sensitive.
https://notrickszone.com/2020/08/14/max-planck-institute-for-meteorology-director-not-worried-about-climate-tipping-points-worried-about-panic/
30
I don’t know if anyone has posted a reference to this before, but this article puts forward a hypothesis that overprescribing aspirin may have been a factor in deaths from the Spanish Flu. From Oxford Academic : https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441
“Abstract
The high case-fatality rate—especially among young adults—during the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic is incompletely understood. Although late deaths showed bacterial pneumonia, early deaths exhibited extremely “wet,” sometimes hemorrhagic lungs. The hypothesis presented herein is that aspirin contributed to the incidence and severity of viral pathology, bacterial infection, and death, because physicians of the day were unaware that the regimens (8.0–31.2 g per day) produce levels associated with hyperventilation and pulmonary edema in 33% and 3% of recipients, respectively. Recently, pulmonary edema was found at autopsy in 46% of 26 salicylate-intoxicated adults. Experimentally, salicylates increase lung fluid and protein levels and impair mucociliary clearance. In 1918, the US Surgeon General, the US Navy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended use of aspirin just before the October death spike. If these recommendations were followed, and if pulmonary edema occurred in 3% of persons, a significant proportion of the deaths may be attributable to aspirin.”
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Jet stream has straightened out and traditional winter rains have returned to normal.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic.jsp?d=0
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Marine heatwave forming in the north east Pacific, due to a persistent high pressure.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-138.54,42.66,1060/loc=-151.881,33.225
Under the AGW scenario these marine heatwaves will increase in size and intensity.
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I have just found these two items in the comments on an article from Chiefio on the Wuhan Virus:-
https://thebdf.co.nz/2020/08/15/coronavirus/why-everyone-was-wrong/
https://thefatemperor.com/ep91-emeritus-professor-of-immunology-reveals-crucial-viral-immunity-reality/
The first is a translation of a paper by Prof. Beda M. Stadler from University of Bern. The second is a long 1hour 20 mins interview with him. Both deal with data on the CV-19 and some interesting conclusions are drawn, which seem to me to make more sense than anything else I have come across. DES.
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I’m guessing quite a number of people have seen this?? Looks like Ivermectin, doxycycline and zinc in a capsule gets rid of the bugger….. So how about it big pharma??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93jI7Gl3yic&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1B28efV0SeJ51O79CpPwzIR9jsY60xVRsPasNrbMiYSoqWvH7JygDTn84
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Subtropical Ridge has broken down, its a Southern Hemisphere cooling signal.
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY65100.pdf
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Ivermectin – wonder drug…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93jI7Gl3yic&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1B28efV0SeJ51O79CpPwzIR9jsY60xVRsPasNrbMiYSoqWvH7JygDTn84
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Antarctic sea ice determined by cloud cover.
‘The researchers from China and the United States found that Antarctic sea ice had a strong rebound from 2011 to 2012.
“We quantified the effects on sea ice growth via a thermodynamic model based on reanalysis and satellite data and concluded that lower cloud coverage cooled the sea surface and accelerated the sea ice storage,” said Wang Yunhe, a researcher from the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Clouds are like a down jacket for the Antarctic to preserve heat during winter,” said Bi Haibo, a researcher from the institute. “Fewer clouds mean more heat is lost from the ocean.” GWPF
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O/T even for the WE Unthreaded:
Donald is walking out of the White House and heading toward his limo when a possible assassin steps forward and aims a gun.
A secret service agent, new on the job, shouts, “Mickey Mouse!”
This startles the would-be assassin, and he is captured.
Later, the secret service agent’s supervisor takes him aside and asks,
“What in the hell made you shout Mickey Mouse?” Blushing, the agent replies, “I got nervous. I meant to shout, “Donald duck!”
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I posted this on WUWT, and thought I would share here …
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/16/fight-for-planet-a-aussie-pm-retreats-from-scary-fast-moving-eco-warrior/#comment-3062420
What is very obvious with climate activism is it’s lack of concern for the issue that is claims is an existential threat, with its real focus seemingly on spreading Marxism and economic demise to western democracies. This lack of concern for climate change can be seen from the UN policy framework, right down to street protesters and is most evident in small emitting countries such as Australia, where insignificant emissions are met with hostile protest, whilst the big emitting socialist countries such as China get a free pass. One telltale sign of this free pass is the complete lack of any protesters on the lawn of the Chinese embassy in Canberra or in any other western country.
In terms of understanding the real intentions of the UN, its IPCC community and the alarmist community in general, I was recently thinking about the issue of emissions from a policy perspective, putting aside for a moment the reality that CO2 is not harmful. In terms of emissions, if the UN and general climate movement was serious about global emissions reductions, it would view each country from an emissions potential perspective. Emissions potential can be viewed as the total emissions of a country once it becomes developed. The emissions potential ultimately comes down to population size and it can be measured on a total country or potential per square km level.
In terms of CO2 management, each country should be listed by it’s emissions potential status. For example most western countries have been at 100% of their potential for many decades, and there is almost no further potential for emissions growth, however the developing countries are all in different phases of their emissions potential realisation curve. China for example is probably at around 70% of it’s total potential, but what we do know is that they believe they will reach their peak by around 2030, which is why they negotiated a deal with the UN and Obama to maintain their developing status beyond 2030, so as to allow them to reach peak emissions without constraint.
Why this concept of peak emissions realisation is important, is because it determines the future atmospheric levels of CO2 into the future, based on the development rates of countries such as China, India, SE Asia and African nations. Any policy framework that aims at CO2 reductions must therefore have it’s entire structure based around managing these emissions potentials, which of course it doesn’t. For example, using the population of the developed world, which is around 1.2B, and it’s total emissions of 35%, we can come up with a neat figure that 1B people will equate to an emissions total similar to that of China today (30% of global today) when they reach developed status. Thus, China with a population of 1.4B people, has potential to move up from 30% to almost 40% when it achieves full emissions potential in another decade.
Going back to 1992, the UN and climate community must have understood this basic concept of emissions potential when they formed the first climate convention and they knew that the risk for the next 20, 30, 50 and even 100 years, was not going to come from the developed nations, who had almost no further potential, but from the developing nations which have about 7x the potential of the developed countries today, but will have about 9x the potential in 2100 when world population reaches 11B, with almost all population growth coming from the developing nations. This means that back in 1992, the UN would have known that global CO2 was destined to rise by a factor of up to 7x it’s 1992 level by 2100, assuming the entire world reached its emissions potential by that time, and with all of those extra emissions coming from the developing countries.
Faced with this reality, the UN and climate alarmist community put in place policy measures that gave unrestricted emissions rights to all developing nations that would hold ~90% of the emissions potential up to 2100 and only placed restrictions on ~10% of emissions from the developed countries that had almost no further potential for growth. To make matters worse, they insisted that emissions must be measured on a per capita basis, which effectively locked in these potential emissions to be fully realised, as emissions potential is a factor of population size and has nothing to do with per capita measurement. To make matters even worse, they supported the abandonment of the only source of emissions free energy which was nuclear and insisted that all developed nations move to extremely low density and intermittent sources of RE that they know would lead to a hastening of industry relocation to the developing countries and result in a faster realisation of their emissions potential. Since 1980, we now have a situation where emissions have doubled as the developing countries move further up their emissions realisation curve, and yet there is still no focus by the UN and climate alarmist community on reducing this vast and growing emissions source.
Based on policy framework and current activism, one can only conclude that the UN and climate alarmist community in general are all climate skeptics and therefore are engaged entirely in a political campaign being driven under the guise of CC. There can be no other explanation. Of course, CO2 is harmless at levels being driven by humans, but what is not harmless are the policies being pursued and initiated in countries such as Australia by these fake green Marxist activists, that threaten the survival of the free world.
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Looks like some countries are achieving herd immunity.
Herd immunity thresholds for
SARS-CoV-2 estimated from unfolding epidemics:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160762v1.full.pdf
‘Our inferences result in herd immunity thresholds
around 10-20%’
00
visit to Wuhan
Or a virus that WIV researchers were studying, passaging, engineering, or otherwise manipulating, escaped.
“Take a bat coronavirus that is not infectious to humans, and force its selection by culturing it with cells that express human ACE2 receptor, such cells having been created many years ago to culture SARS coronaviruses and you can force the bat virus to adapt to infect human cells via mutations in its spike protein, which would have the effect of increasing the strength of its binding to human ACE2, and inevitably reducing the strength of its binding to bat ACE2. Viruses in prolonged culture will also develop other random mutations that do not affect its function. The result of these experiments is a virus that is highly virulent in humans but is sufficiently different that it no longer resembles the original bat virus. Because the mutations are acquired randomly by selection there is no signature of a human gene jockey, but this is clearly a virus still created by human intervention.” -Nikolai Petrovsky of Flinders University
Passaging is the placing of a live virus into an animal or cell culture to which it is not adapted and then, before the virus dies out, transferring it to another animal or cell of the same type. Passaging is often done iteratively. The theory is that the virus will rapidly evolve (since viruses have high mutation rates) and become adapted to the new animal or cell type. Passaging a virus, by allowing it to become adapted to its new situation, creates a new pathogen….
(By contrast,) in gain-of-function research a novel virus is deliberately created, either by in vitro mutation or by cutting and pasting together two (or more) viruses. The intention of such reconfigurations is to make viruses more infectious by adding new functions such as increased infectivity or pathogenicity. These novel viruses are then experimented on, either in cell cultures or in whole animals. These are the class of experiments banned in the US from 2014 to 2017. Some researchers have even combined GOF and passaging experiments by using recombinant viruses in passaging experiments (e.g. Sheahan et al., 2008).
Petrovsky does not mention it but Zheng-Li Shi’s group at the WIV has already performed experiments very similar to those he describes, using those collected viruses. In 2013 the Shi lab reported isolating an infectious clone of a bat coronavirus that they called WIV-1 (Ge et al., 2013). WIV-1 was obtained by introducing a bat coronavirus into monkey cells, passaging it and then testing its infectivity in human (HeLa) cell lines engineered to express the human ACE2 receptor (Ge et al., 2013)….
In 2017 again (as with Baric in 2014) the Shi lab at WIV reported successfully infecting human (HeLa) cell lines engineered to express the human ACE2 receptor with four different bat coronaviruses. All these experiments were conducted in cells containing human or monkey ACE2 receptors. The overarching purpose of such work was to see whether an enhanced pathogen could emerge from the wild by creating one in the lab. Zhengli in 2014 with Baric) with the intent of identifying bat viruses with ACE2 binding capabilities, the Shi lab at WIV reported successfully infecting human (HeLa) cell lines engineered to express the human ACE2 receptor with four different bat coronaviruses. Two of these were lab-made recombinant (chimaeric) bat viruses. Both the wild and the recombinant viruses were briefly passaged in monkey cells (Hu et al., 2017).
The most recent such grant (NIH to WIV) proposed that: “host range (i.e. emergence potential) will be tested experimentally using reverse genetics, pseudovirus and receptor binding assays, and virus infection experiments across a range of cell cultures from different species and humanized mice” (NIH project #5R01Al110964-04).,,,
On June 4 an excellent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists went further. Pointing out what we had overlooked, that the Shi lab also amplified spike proteins of collected coronaviruses, which would make them available for GOF experimentation (Ge et al.,
2016)…..
One of Daszak’s co-authorships is on the collecting paper in which his WIV colleagues placed the four fully functional bat coronaviruses into human cells containing the ACE2 receptor (Hu et al. 2017). That is, Daszak and Shi together are collaborators and co-responsible for most of the published high-risk collecting and experimentation at the WIV….the WHO, the US CDC, the FAO, the US NIH, including the Gates Foundation, is either an advisor to, or a partner of, Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance. If the Sars-CoV-2 outbreak originated from the bat coronavirus work at the WIV, then just about every major institution in the global public health community is implicated. https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/the-case-is-building-that-covid-19-had-a-lab-origin/
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My Aged care situation update.
The test results came back negative thank goodness, BUT
with different methods being used by different levels of staff and the residents not being kept informed effectively meant there were holes in much of the protection afforded.
Virus very small; holes quite large, who let that virus in?
I am pressing for an urgent review of who gets told and how the security protocols are applied as they cannot be different for different people.
70
Good luck with that, ‘in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ George Orwell
00
Peak Covid!
The world wide rate of Covid infections appears to have peaked about 3 weeks ago and has been decreasing slightly since then.
The world wide case mortality rate was about 20% initially and much higher in a few places (eg Brazil – 96% on 26 March). The case mortality rate has been steadily declining and now stands at 5%.
Here in Australia the case mortality rate has increased slightly over the past 2 months and is now about 3%. The case mortality rate is calculated form all diagnosed cases which had an outcome (ie died or recovered). It does not recognise people who might have had nil or minimal symptoms and did not get a test.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
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And…it does not appear to include the vast majority of “case’s” of those who initially tested +ve ?
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“Study shows frequently used serology test may not detect antibodies that could confirm protection against reinfection of COVID-19”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/16/study-shows-frequently-used-serology-test-may-not-detect-antibodies-that-could-confirm-protection-against-reinfection-of-covid-19/
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Is anyone in the bureaucracies, here or in the US, ever going to be asked point blank:- ‘How many people are you willing to kill, through not allowing HCQ or Invermectin therapies to be used, just out of a need to defeat Trump, or other non leftist politicians?’
It’s just a question.
70
A very good question. How many indeed?
10
The main reason for not allowing HCQ or Ivermectin isn’t TDS. It is because of government, media and the medical establishment kissing the backsides of the pharmaceutical industry who do not want cheap off patent generic drugs being used. They are responsible for the majority of Covid deaths.
Same with vitamin D and other alternatives. If they recommended everyone get their vitamin D high in the range and made vitamin D available for free, there would be less customers for any future Covid vaccine. Flu/pneumonia deaths would also drop greatly, less people would get the flu vaccine, less seasonal affected disorder, less depression meds prescribed and so on. More people would try alternatives to pharmaceuticals for other ailments. Bad for big pharma.
30
Isn’t it about time the authorities stopped the charade about searching everywhere for a cure for CV-19 but deliberately not wanting to see Hydroxychloroquine. The evidence for its efficacy,and cost effectiveness is in abundance yet it qualifies as the much clichéd elephant in the room for those that are tasked with our health and welfare. Yet another example: See link below:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1294438462423273473
The big worry for some, though, with vested interests of the totalitarian kind, is that a simple cure like Hydroxychloroquine might conflict with the schemes of: Big Pharma, Bill Gates, Globalists in general, The Left, The Progressives and definitely the Andrews Government and The Lockdown We Had To Have fanatics.
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More on that
“HCQ – an immorality tale”
https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/17/hcq-an-immorality-tale/
And the link
Summary
”
A public health establishment, showing extraordinary risk aversion to medications and treatments that are extremely well-known, and had been used by billions, suddenly throwing caution to the wind and endorsing the roll-out of treatments that are entirely novel—and about which we literally can’t possibly know anything, as regards to their long-term effects. Their manufacturers know this well themselves, which is why they have aimed for, insisted on, and have already been granted indemnification—guaranteed, by those same public health officials and government that they will not be held legally accountable should their product cause injury.
From unheard of extremes of caution and “unwishful thinking,” to unheard of extremes of risk-taking, and recklessly wishful thinking, this double standard, this about-face, is not happening because this issue of public safety is really so complex a problem that only our experts can understand it; it is happening because there is, right now, a much bigger problem: with our experts, and with the institutions that we had trusted to help solve our most pressing scientific and medical problems. Unless these are attended to, HCQ won’t be remembered simply as that major medical issue that no one could agree on, and which left overwhelming controversy, confusion, and possibly unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands in its wake; it will be one of many in a chain of such disasters.
You do know it’s almost entirely about Trump and about almost nothing else.”
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This link points is a very full and quite detailed article covering the basic needs of local Public Heath facilities (as compared to local personal health facilities), disease testing strategies, and statistical processes that can tame the huge numbers involved with references as to how these processes grew from problems encountered in previous infectious disease outbreaks.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/how-to-test-every-american-for-covid-19-every-day/615217/
The references to the pros and cons of present testing strategy are a must read if you want to feel safer and surer that your neck of the woods is doing what it needs to do to allow normal service to be restored as soon as possible. It doesn’t seek to kill off SARS-CoV-2 ; it seeks, via testing regimes, to properly communicate our personal Covid-19 status on a very regular basis not to bring fear but to bring confidence. A refreshing change to the usual stuff, IMHO.
20
Warragamba Dam has reached 97% capacity.
10
Interested to hear your thoughts on this article, Jo https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300084632/us-death-valley-soars-to-544-degrees-potentially-earths-highest-temperature-since-at-least-1931
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“UNSW Academic Repeats Tired “Dams will Never Fill” Climate Change Myth”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/16/unsw-academic-repeats-tired-dams-will-never-fill-climate-change-myth/
00
I truly dislike how our governments are constantly being untruthful in just about everything…
Our farmers labour shortage is mostly do to our governments different labour policies which are very different with foreign workers.
To hire a Canadian worker, the farmer must follow all the health and safety laws with work boots,
hardhats and safety equipment(they have expired dates on equipment) and pay into workmans compensation and minimum wage.
This does not apply to foreign workers which makes our citizens to expensive to work in our own country totally made by our politicians.
50
Many of our manufacturing by our manufacturers also use foreign labour on top of companies getting government grants for a variety of programs. Even restaurants can hire foreign students as the owners get subsidies.
Is it any wonder the average Canadian is flat, broke and busted economically?
On top of the steady inflation.
30
CLINTEL issues Great Charter of Universities for research freedom
By David Wojick
Here is the beginning:
The climate change debate might be one of the worst cases of academic suppression in history.
We see these days a lot of complaints about threats to academic freedom, but very little action. So it makes a lot of sense that CLINTEL has taken a positive step forward. CLINTEL has issued the Magna Carta Universitatum 2020. This short document is basically an aspirational code of conduct for freedom of inquiry and speech at universities.
There is some impressive history here. The first Magna Carta Universitatum was issued in 1988 and to date at least 889 universities have signed on to it. CLINTEL notes that it is building directly on this precedent, to fit “the special challenges of today”. It is spot on that CLINTEL’s MCU 2020 is primarily directed to the present university leadership.
The original Magna Carta was in fact the Magna Carta Libertatum or Great Charter of Freedoms. It dates from 1215, showing that protecting freedoms is far from new.
The scope of CLINTEL’s Magna Carta is twofold. The main body is focused on five principles, each of which is stated and then discussed. This content is general in nature, applying to all sciences. But for each principle there is also given a climate science example, indicating that political authority and economic power today are suffocating climate science.
CLINTEL argues in its preamble that universities have become a primary source of prosperity in their region. The higher the scientific level realized, the larger the contribution to prosperity. Universities, therefore, should promote excellence at all times. This means that they should not settle for followership, but aim at leadership in their scientific expertise. And leadership in research and teaching does not follow political and commercial pressure.
Here are the five principles of Magna Carta Universitatum 2020:
Sound scientific research is open-minded and is characterized by a wide variety of viewpoints without dogmas and prejudices
Professors that criticize the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis are excommunicated.
Students and speakers are shouted down.
The rest is in the article.
Please share this.
David
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Forgot the URL! Working outside on a beautiful day. Is that climate change?
https://www.cfact.org/2020/08/17/clintel-issues-great-charter-of-universities-for-research-freedom/
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