Weekend Unthreaded

9.3 out of 10 based on 16 ratings

Florida: schools to teach downside of communism: unis to teach goodside of unfashionable ideas

Science of Civilization Lesson #2: What’s the most deadly kind of government on Earth?

“Big Government”

One third of millennials approve of communism, probably because they don’t know what it is:

January 2020: Poll of young Americans found 70% will “vote socialist” and half of them think communism is OK

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

Gulag in Latvia     |               Image Rakoon.

According to a poll commissioned by the Washington, D.C. area nonprofit Victims of Communism, 70 percent of Millennials say they are likely to vote for a socialist while one in three view communism favorably.

The same poll also reported that 27 percent of people believe President Donald Trump is the biggest threat to world peace. The survey placed the U.S. president over North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

According to YouGov, 36 percent of millennials say they approve of communism. That percentage is up almost 10 percent from 2018.

Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, has a plan that students in his state should understand why Cubans swim to Florida more than Floridians swim to Cuba:

DeSantis signs bills requiring Fla. schools to teach horrors of communism, ‘patriots’ who escaped

Douglas Ernst, Washington Times

US Flag, Flying.

“We have a number of people in Florida, particularly southern Florida, who’ve escaped totalitarian regimes, who escaped communist dictatorships to be able to come to America,” Mr. DeSantis said Tuesday. “We want all students to understand. Why would somebody flee across shark-infested waters, say, leaving Cuba, to come to southern Florida? Why would somebody leave a place like Vietnam? Why would people leave these countries and risk their life to be able to come here?”

At a guess, the move is likely to unify immigrants and non-immigrants more than burning down Wendy’s does.

University diversity test coming:

How radical. Instead of marking universities on their diversity of skin color, DeSantis wants to mark them on their diversity of ideas. Florida will require universities survey staff and students on beliefs.

The survey will examine “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented” in the state universities and colleges — and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,” according to the bill, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Think of it as a scorecard for the university, with the promise of financial support for universities that pass:

But DeSantis and bill sponsor Sen. Ray Rodrigues suggested that budget cuts could be imminent if universities and colleges are found to be “indoctrinating” students.

“That’s not worth tax dollars and that’s not something that we’re going to be supporting moving forward,” DeSantis [said].

Imagine a situation where a university has an incentive to teach both sides? Spread this idea around….

Western Civilization is not dead yet.

 

10 out of 10 based on 88 ratings

Defund The Academics! CSIRO, Australian Unis had worked with Wuhan Lab too (and they forgot to mention it for 18 months?)

Well here’s a surprise. A year and a half later and now we find out that Australian labs were also helping China?

Covid, Coronavirus, Bioweapons.And tonight, 520 days after China shared the genetic sequence of SARS-2, Australian scientists are suddenly very concerned about how Australia might still be doing gain-of-function work with viruses? Minister Greg Hunt is asking for a “review” of gain-of-function research in Australia? Did he even know?

It’s amazing what the power of a good reporter can achieve. Hail Sharri Markson and The Australian.

For 500 long pandemic days some publicly funded scientists had millions of reasons apparently, not to talk about how the virus might have been a lab leak.  These public servants may have been publicly scoffing at the idea the virus may have leaked from a lab,  but they didn’t think to mention that they’d worked with bats, and gain-of-function viruses and even the Wuhan lab itself?

They were ethically bound to speak up. Did they say nothing, or did they talk to Morrison and Hunt in private? After which, given the government’s role, possibly none of them wanted to let that bat out of the bag?

Public trust in these institutions might be about to dive…

The CSIRO has even been forced to correct itself. Somehow it didn’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the Senate Estimates Hearing.

CSIRO, unis in 10 joint research projects with Wuhan lab

Sharri Markson and Liam Mendes, The Australian

The CSIRO has been forced to correct evidence it gave at a Senate estimates hearing after initially denying its researchers had undertaken work on live bats with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab at the centre of growing international concern it was the source of Covid-19. CSIRO chief operating officer Judi Zielke admitted the organisation had “undertaken research on bats previously”.

“Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness did undertake research on bats in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016-17,” Ms Zielke said.

The same organisations with the same grant games to play wouldn’t have an interest in not telling the whole truth on climate models? Different researchers, but the same process, same incentive, and same organisations?

Go Matt Canavan:

Under questioning from ­Nationals senator Matt Canavan on June 3, the CSIRO initially gave evidence that it “does not undertake research on live bats at ACDP”. However, Senator Canavan later presented the CSIRO with an excerpt from a scientific paper written in conjunction with the Wuhan lab stating: “Wild caught P Alecto bats were trapped in Southern Queensland, Australia, and transported alive by air to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria, where they were euthanised for dissection.”

And this research helped us, how?

The CSIRO and the Wuhan Institute of Virology collaborated on several projects on bats’ antiviral immunity in 2011. The purpose of a study was to understand why bats remained asymptomatic to viral infection that was capable of spillover to other susceptible mammals “with lethal consequences”.

Indeed, the ten projects were spread over ten years but one researcher at the University of Queensland was involved with that Wuhan Institute of …”Bioweapons” itself  as recently as August last year. US intelligence had already warned the whole pandemic might be due to a lab leak, and yet Dr Hume Field was working with the very same Professor Shi (the Batwoman) and Peter Daszek (the Fauci favorite). Dr Field is an advisor to the infamous “EcoHealth Alliance”.

Origin and cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses in China

Spot the names…

Something about the way we fund our scientists is seriously screwed.

Professor MacIntyre said there needed to be more community consultation on this research.

You don’t say…

Keep reading  →

9.5 out of 10 based on 117 ratings

Thursday Open Thread

9.6 out of 10 based on 12 ratings

Ivermectin may prevent 86% of Covid cases, and the UK will do a hobbled trial of it

The new super meta review of Ivermectin is out. It’s 27 pages of fine print detail and 144 references, and it’s very impressive.

Ivermectin, Chemistry, molecule.

Ivermectin…. by Fvasconcellos

Bryant et al soaked themselves in 24 studies involving 3,406 people and found that ivermectin use reduced deaths by a very nice 60% with “moderate certainty”. But ivermectin appears to be at its best when used to prevent infections in the first place. There was “low certainty”  but with prophylactic use Covid infections were reduced by an average of 86% . But by the time patients were “in need of mechanical ventilation”, the data, while muddy, suggested ivermectin was not much help.

The bad thing about Ivermectin is that there are not many bad things. It’s too good, too cheap, too safe, and too far out of patent to be profitable.

Given the evidence of efficacy, safety, low cost, and current death rates, ivermectin is likely to have an
impact on health and economic outcomes of the pandemic across many countries. Ivermectin is not a new
and experimental drug with an unknown safety profile. It is a WHO “Essential Medicine” already used in several different indications, in colossal cumulative volumes.

We can almost hear the frustration as Bryant et al compare how easily other drugs get approval to treat Covid:

Corticosteroids have become an accepted standard of care in COVID-19, based on a single RCT of dexamethasone.1 If a single RCT is sufficient for the adoption of dexamethasone, then a fortiori the evidence of 2 dozen RCTs supports the adoption of ivermectin.

RCT means a Random Controlled Trial. Sometimes one trial will do, other times 24 trials isn’t enough.

h/t to Ian and Phillip

Meanwhile, the BBC has announced that  Ivermectin will be studied as possible treatment in UK

Hold off on the champers. The Principle Study appears to be a holding pattern to fend off questions about “why they weren’t studying Ivermectin”. Good reporters will want to ask why the trial will allow people to join up to 15 days after they get symptoms when the best results come with early treatment and even prophylactic use. If only there were good reporters left at the BBC.

The trial will also allow people who are vaccinated to join which is a good way to dilute the results. If we compare 2000 vaccinated people with 2000 also-vaccinated people the difference between placebo and drug may not be very significant. And if the vaccine “is the ticket to freedom” why invite vaccinees to join the trial? Is it, perhaps a back route to reducing deaths in vaccinees who get breakthrough infections? Let’s just hope for the vaccinees sake, that the docs don’t wait until they’re on the ventilator.

If the UK Ministry of Big Pharma Health really wanted to test Ivermectin, they’d offer it to people in high risk areas who weren’t sick and weren’t vaccinated, and compare like for like cases without Ivermectin in the same area.

But that might show good results.

h/t Steve,

Indonesia however is poor enough to approve Ivermectin use. Without access to $5000-dollar-a-day ICU beds, or mass experimental vaccines, Indonesia is looking down the Delta variant barrel. They have been given Sinovax, the Chinese vaccine, but seemingly that’s not much (as it wasn’t it the Seychelles, or in Chile either).

Production capacity of Ivermectin is said to be 4 million per month. (Presumably they refer to doses?). But with 270 million people, that might not be enough, even if they are dished out to the highest risk people. With 15,000 new daily cases and doubling fast, they are racing against the tide. They would probably need a few million doses just for the current contacts.

Indonesia doesn’t just have two new variants of concern, they have 211.

Watch this space…. (and pray for the people of Indonesia). We have lift off. 🙁

We have to admire both Craig Kelly and Malcolm Roberts in Australia.

 

 

REFERENCES

Bryant, Andrew MSc1,*; Lawrie, Theresa A. MBBCh, PhD2; Dowswell, Therese PhD2; Fordham, Edmund J. PhD2; Mitchell, Scott MBChB, MRCS3; Hill, Sarah R. PhD1; Tham, Tony C. MD, FRCP4 (2021) Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection, A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines

American Journal of Therapeutics: June 17, 2021 – Volume Publish Ahead of Print – Issue –

doi: 10.1097/MJT.0000000000001402

 

 

 

 

9.6 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

Google funds virus research too, and with the same man who channeled money to Wuhan

Perhaps Google just wanted to help some medical researchers?

There’s nothing to suggest the Google charity funded the Wuhan Lab, or Covid, and Google says they didn’t. But the Google charity did send money to Peter Daszek and his charity which in hindsight doesn’t seem like a good place to put money. The EcoHealth Alliance is the one that Fauci helped fund, which did send money to Wuhan. And Daszek was the guy who joined the WHO team to “investigate” the origin and tried to quash the idea that it was a lab leak. He helped author a paper on Nature that said it was natural based in nothing much last February.

So it’s an odd fish for Google to have company with. Somehow there are millions of dollars of what appears to be careless money sloshing around in the system — and being divvied up for things that the careless funders might not have thought too much about. The Big Tech companies are acting like Dictators of medium sized nations but without the accountability…

These viral studies occurred in places like Japan, the US and Malaysia. One team worked on Henipavirus, which is also a bat borne virus. Another team worked on Macacine Herpes-virus (MaHV1) which has a mortality rate in humans of >70%. 

If Google has only honest intentions and wants to help — maybe it could stop censoring Doctors who have a different opinion? 

Google invested in monkey virus research.

….

Some of this research probably needs to be done somehow. But can any one company play both a Global Medical Director, and Ruler of the Town Square?

We didn’t vote for that…

REVEALED: Google funded virus research carried out by Wuhan-linked scientist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance for over a decade

Daily Mail

Keep reading  →

9.9 out of 10 based on 76 ratings

Minus 81 Celsius last week in Antarctica

It was ten degrees below normal at Scott Base, in June, and usually July is the coldest month.

Scott base, Antarctica

Pitch black, minus 81C and a howling wind.

Scott Base crew enduring near-record breaking Antarctica winter – 10C colder than usual

Spare a thought for the hardy crew who are wintering down in Antarctica, experiencing near-record breaking cold temperatures.

They’ve come very near to the coldest ever recorded temperature of -89.6C.

Cap Allon at Electroverse points out that some of that Global Warming has made it up to New South Wales where it had the coldest June day in 122 years two weeks ago. 

A few weeks before that, Dunedin Airport New Zealand hit a record of minus 8.8C in May. It was the coldest day ever recorded there in any month since records started in 1963. One cold day doesn’t mean a lot climate wise, but if Antarctica was close to record warmth would most of the worlds media have barely said a word?

Remember the poles are warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.

ht Climate Depot and Electroverse

10 out of 10 based on 80 ratings

Tuesday Open Thread

8.8 out of 10 based on 14 ratings

Using “Enviromentalism” and the UN as a trade weapon: China fires fake “Reef Scare” missile

Corals, Fish, at Flynn Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Photo.

Flynn Reef, Queensland, Photo by Wise Hok Wai Lum

Ever since Australia asked for an investigation into the source of Covid, China has been accidentally-on-purpose sticking pins into our trade deals. Pop went the wine, coal, beef, barley and lobster markets.

Now after concreting corals reefs in the South China Sea and plundering the Galapagos, China is suddenly concerned about the Great Barrier Reef.  Overnight Chinese players in the UN have pushed it to the top of a list that had 82 more fragile ecosystems ahead of it. Pop, goes the tourism trade as the headlines ring out that UNESCO says the Reef is “in danger”.

At the moment, the only tourists that could possibly be frightened away are a few New Zealanders, because no one else can easily get around the two week quarantine. But when flights reboot, Australia just needs to send photos of the glorious corals to the world and “pop” goes the UN and China’s reputation.

It’s time the West dumped the UN — it’s just a play tool for Sino power

That would “pop” some of the CCP web of influence. What’s a Veto of a dead committee worth?

How many other environmental scares have been pumped and carved to serve Beijing?

If China is so adept and willing to use fake environmentalism as a cold war weapon, what other environmental knobs have they turned?

China-led ‘ambush’ on health of the Great Barrier Reef

Ben Packham, The Australian

Australia has been blindsided by a push by a China-chaired UN committee to declare the Great Barrier Reef “in danger” without proper consultation or scientific process.

Any downgrading of the reef’s status would threaten the 64,000 jobs and $6.4bn in tourism revenue linked to the natural wonder in a normal year.

Australia is a member of the 21-nation World Heritage Committee, but the body – under the chairmanship of China’s Vice-Minister for Education Tian Xuejun – is considered likely to accept the recommendation.

China also holds the position of UNESCO deputy director-general, the presidency of ­UNESCO’s International Union for Conservation for Nature, and is head of Asia at the World ­Heritage Centre – all three of which contributed to the World Heritage Committee’s draft ­decision.

The World Heritage Committee has not visited the reef since 2012, and there has been no mention of an “in danger” listing since 2015.

Commenters at The Australian get it:

AndrewL:
Where is the UN Committee on Democracy Heritage, which could declare free elections (and everything else valued by champions of liberty) endangered in China? What a joke.
Mark:
Perhaps we should pour a heap of concrete over the reef and build a military base on it? China wouldn’t say no to that.

Image: Wikimedia, author Wise Hok Wai Lum: Flynn Reef 2014.

10 out of 10 based on 61 ratings

Nothing shows how pathetic solar and battery power are like the pitiful celebrations

Strap yourself in: Solar Power and batteries made a whole town 100% renewable (for 80 minutes).

It’s an Australian first!  Put out a press release. No seriously, they did:

Solar and battery microgrid takes WA town to 100% renewables in Australian first

Western Australia has again demonstrated its remote renewable energy generation chops, after successfully powering the Pilbara town of Onslow entirely on a combination of large and small-scale solar and battery storage for a total of 80 minutes.

Only 520,000 minutes short of a whole year.

“The milestone achievement was announced by WA energy minister Bill Johnston on Friday morning after being demonstrated by state government-owned regional utility Horizon Power, which established the solar and storage microgrid next to an existing gas plant.”

Onslow is a metropolis of 847 people sited in one of the sunniest zones in one of the sunniest countries in the world. With at least 3650 hours of sun a year, Onslow vies for a top ten position globally.

If solar power was going to make it anywhere, this would be it. But we all know what keeps the lights on in Onslow and it isn’t solar power.

The  renewable microgrid is made up of 700kW of customer generated solar, a 600kW solar array, and a 1MW (no MWh stated) Battery Energy Storage System.

Plus a gas plant…

Keep reading  →

9.5 out of 10 based on 119 ratings

Weekend Unthreaded

9.9 out of 10 based on 8 ratings

Rumor: Top Chinese Secret Service man defected — says Covid was military bioweapon

It’s the sort of news that causes a Geopolitical realignment

China, dragon flag.

There are now three Chinese defectors saying Covid19 was deliberately created by the Chinese Military. The third,  Dong Jingwei, is possibly the highest ranking yet, and apparently talked to the DIA in mid February after flying into the US to visit his daughter.

The claims are that he has brought with him terabytes of data or “nearly 19 million documents”.  It’s potentially dynamite — allegedly containing studies of Covid, forecasts of spread in the West, and names of Chinese spies in the US with details of payments.

If this is confirmed, and the Chinese Military did release a deadly bioweapon on the world, as Paula Bolyard says, “it ranks as one of the worst crimes against humanity the world has ever seen” — and the media, and some intelligence agencies, helped to cover it up.

The DIA kept the defector a secret from the CIA and FBI because they believed there were Chinese spies within them.

BREAKING: Defector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Official

Paula Bolyard, PJ Media

According to RedState, the data includes:

    • Early pathogenic studies of the virus we now know as SARS-CoV-2
    • Models of predicted COVID-19 spread and damage to the U.S. and the world
    • Financial records detailing which exact organizations and governments funded the research on SARS-CoV-2 and other biological warfare research
    • Names of U.S. citizens who provide intel to China
    • Names of Chinese spies working in the U.S. or attending U.S. universities
    • Financial records showing U.S. businessmen and public officials who’ve received money from the Chinese government
    • Details of meetings U.S. government officials had (perhaps unwittingly) with Chinese spies and members of Russia’s SVR
    • How the Chinese government gained access to a CIA communications system, leading to the death of dozens of Chinese people who were working with the CIA

One third of Chinese students may be PLA assets? 

RedState again:

Again, according to sources, Dong told DIA debriefers that at least a third of Chinese students attending US universities are PLA assets or part of the Thousand Talents Plan and that many of the students are here under pseudonyms. One reason for using pseudonyms is that many of these students are the children of high-ranking military and party leaders.

Dong could be the highest ranking defector yet from Chinese Intelligence

Jennifer Van Laar, on RedState:

Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

The one thing that has always suggested it was an incompetent leak rather than planned dispersal was that it appeared so close to the Wuhan Lab that was working on it. If the Military wanted it to look natural it would have been easier to release far away in Yunnan. Perhaps the truth is a mix — and it was meant to be used, but leaked early, and was then fanned “towards the West” to make the most of a mistake. It’s hard to believe Military intel would assume they could leak it deliberately, then rely on the Democrats and media to help in an election year, and later fall back on an “accident” with plausible deniability. But then it’s hard to believe the Democrats would select Joe Biden.

It may be no accident that the Lab Leak theory is finally getting accepted

Given the timing of Dong’s defection, and the gradual spread of the details from that trove, it makes sense that news has finally grown legs from early May when the Nicholas Wade article appeared. That doesn’t change the fact that there was always enough evidence to treat the lab leak as a possibility all along.

If this is true, it may be just what the West finally needs to pull together against a real threat and to help identify the rot within. It will also put pressure on the Chinese Communist Party’s position in China.

9.7 out of 10 based on 110 ratings

People abandoning BBC propaganda for new UK Channel “GB News”

Signs of life in the UK outpost of Civilization

A new TV channel called “GB News” only opened on Sunday, to smashingly good ratings.  GB News outdid the BBC and Sky on its first day as 164,000 people tuned in to see if they got real news for a change instead of repetitive inane cliches approved by some middle level bureaucratic arts graduate who was pushing their own political agenda to pump up their grifting salary and impress their friends. The BBC got 133,000 viewers and Sky 57,000.

BBC hit by mass boycott as viewers flock to Andrew Neil’s GB News and cancel TV licences

by Laura O’Callaghan, Express

AVID fans of GB News have hailed Britain’s newest TV channel and vowed to continue their boycott of the Beeb as they seek information from alternative sources.

Naturally, the collectivist bullies have gone after the advertisers, and while many spineless corporate CEOs have folded to cancel culture, at least one team is fighting back.  Companies with weak CEOs include Kopparberg, Grolsch, Nivea, Open University, and Ikea.

Bravo to The Co-op which stood their ground 

The Co-op announced that it would not remove its advertising.

”Hi, we have developed a detailed and thoughtful advertising approach, which is driven by 3 principles:

    1. “We will not seek to affect the editorial independence of publications or channels.
    2. “We will not undermine the commercial value of our society for our members.
    3. “We will ensure our values and principles are clear and undiminished regardless of surrounding content.”

Former Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn tweeted that The Co-op had “knocked it out of the park” and he would be proud to shop at his local Co-op store.

As Sacha O’Sullivan says: GB News has been ‘cancelled’ and made a roaring success out of it.

In his opening introduction, Andrew Neil vowed to expose “cancel culture” and focus on the news that matters to people outside of the “Westminster bubble”.

Keep reading  →

9.4 out of 10 based on 99 ratings

Kim Jong Un Attends Ivy League University To Learn New Brainwashing Techniques

When only the best will do:

“I thought I knew all there was to know about communist indoctrination, but I was wrong,” said the ruthless dictator to reporters after sitting through a 2-hour lecture on why fidget spinners are a remnant of Western patriarchal oppression. “Your American college professors have this down to an art!” …

The murderous leader of North Korea plans to go back to his home country and start his own Ivy League school: Kim Jong UNiversity.

Thanks to the Babylon Bee. Click the logo to read the rest.

9.9 out of 10 based on 44 ratings

China suddenly puts brakes on climate action, wind and solar subsidies

It’s almost like China’s climate action was just window dressing. It seems to be unraveling…

Symbol China Map.China’s National Carbon Trading Scheme was supposed to go into full operation later this month, but now it’s been cut back by two-thirds. Instead of burdening 6,000 companies it will only afflict 2,000. And only a week ago, the Chinese government suddenly axed solar and wind subsidies, with the cuts starting just six weeks from now. Oilprice calls it “a crushing blow for wind and solar”. In a devastating move, there are even demands that solar plants have to sell electricity at the same price as coal power. The cruelty!

China produces three quarters of all the world’s solar panels, having subsidized-the-heck out of the global industry, exploited slave labor and driven the US leaders out of production.

Judging by the Wall St Journal story — in the last two months the paradigm has shifted from Environmental control to Economic priority. Perhaps solar power wasn’t much use for building ballistic missile submarines?

How different things would be if solar was actually cheaper than coal…

No new solar power plant subsidies. Just like that?

China to stop subsidies for new solar power stations, onshore wind projects in 2021

BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) – China will no longer grant subsidies for new solar power stations, distributed solar projects by commercial users or onshore wind projects from the central government budget in 2021, the state planner said in a statement on Friday.

And now solar power can only sell at the same price as coal power? Really?

Electricity generated from the new projects will be sold at local benchmark coal-fired power prices or at market prices, the statement said.

Probably the reason for the solar subsidy cuts is because the bill had heated up to $42 billion by mid last year. And those subsidies are largely paid by electricity consumer serfs who weren’t too happy*.

China Delivers Crushing Blow To Wind, Solar Power

June 11, 2021, Oilprice

The country’s finance ministry had previously committed to granting 57 percent more subsidies to solar power projects this year, although it did slash subsidies for wind power.

Keep reading  →

9.6 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

Thursday Open Thread

9.8 out of 10 based on 10 ratings

What really happened on Capitol Hill on Jan 6?

Entrapment on Capitol Hill: Did the FBI infiltrate and even lead the riot?

Capitol Hill Riot, Jan 6 2021. Congress.

Capitol Hill, January 6

A very strange pattern

Many people are still being held in jail, without bail, five months later, but some of the people who appeared to be the most aggressive activists at Capitol Hill didn’t even get indicted. Were these people legally protected because they were undercover operatives or informants working with the FBI? If so, how much did these actors instigate events and thus entrap genuine protesters?

And if the FBI knew this event was going to happen, on “the most important day ever in Congress”, why didn’t they stop it and let Congress debate the question of whether the election was stolen? Seven US states had sent in dual electors, effectively choosing both Biden and Trump, and a growing number of Senators in five of those states had upped the ante by calling for an official decertification. All that Donald Trump, Rudy Guiliani and 88 State Senators were asking for, was a ten day delay so those key states could consider the new evidence and vote again and choose one set of electors.

Look who benefited from the Capitol Storming?

As reader Chris says:

The last thing genuine Trump supporters, or Republican constitutionalists wanted was to disrupt this critical sitting and the tabling of election fraud evidence.

But, the last thing the SWAMP wanted was the tabling of election fraud evidence.

Revolver takes a close look at the two different types of protestors at Capitol Hill:

Unindicted Co-Conspirators in 1/6 Cases Raise Disturbing Questions of Federal Foreknowledge

Revolver

The first category is the group of mostly harmless tourists who walked through already opened doors and already-removed barricades, and at most were guilty of minor trespassing charges and light property offenses. The second group consists of those who were violent with police officers, broke down barricades, smashed windows, belonged to a “militia” group engaged in military-style planning prior to the event, discussed transporting heavy weaponry, and so forth.

What’s at stake in these investigations:

If it turns out that an extraordinary percentage of the members of these groups involved in planning and executing the Capitol Siege were federal informants or undercover operatives, the implications would be nothing short of staggering. This would be far worse than the already bad situation of the government knowing about the possibility of violence and doing nothing.

Instead, this would imply that elements of the federal government were active instigators in the most egregious and spectacular aspects of 1/6, amounting to a monumental entrapment scheme used as a pretext to imprison otherwise harmless protestors at the Capitol — and in a much larger sense used to frame the entire MAGA movement as potential domestic terrorists.

Must see TV: Tucker Carlson

Bitchute link

Meanwhile the ABC News said nothing, and SBS News told Australians tonight that “White Supremacy” is the single greatest threat the US faces.

There was a practice run three months earlier in Michigan led by the FBI

Remember the strange “Governor Whitmer Kidnapping Plot?” One third of those that Stormed Michigans Capitol turned out to be FBI agents or informants, and many of the people at that storming also came to Capitol Hill on Jan 6th.

…what if we told you that scarcely three months before the 1/6 Capitol Siege, the FBI arrested 14 people for planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the State Government — and that the alleged conspiracy to overthrow the State government involved storming of the State Capitol?

And what if we told you that of the 14 individuals who allegedly plotted the “kidnapping” and overthrow of the state government, at least five were undercover agents and federal informants? And as if that’s not enough, many of the individuals allegedly involved in this plot appear to belong to the “Three Percenters,” one of the very same militia groups now blamed for storming January 6.

And, as the cherry on top, what if we told you that the director of the Detroit FBI Field Office, who oversaw the infiltration operation of the Michigan Plot, was subsequently granted a highly coincidental promotion to the D.C. office, where he is now the lead FBI agent for all 1/6 cases?

As crazy as it sounds, all of this is true…

What did the FBI know, when did they know it, and were they involved?

  1. Did the FBI infiltrate the militia groups and protesters at Capitol Hill and how many agents were there?
  2. Why are some people who were there being kept in solitary confinement five months later, while others, who appeared to be leaders on the day, are able to go free?  Is it because these people were FBI agents?
  3. Why are federal agencies hiding 10,000 or more hours of security camera footage of what happened on January 6th at Capitol Hill? Including, probably detailed footage of the pipe bomber the FBI supposedly want to catch.
  4. Who killed Ashli Babbit?

January 6 became the reason the Biden government claim they need to use law enforcement to crush anyone who opposes the Biden government.

Read the whole Revolver account, and watch Tucker Carlson.

h/t David, Bill in AZ, and Chris D

9.6 out of 10 based on 67 ratings

Bunions and broken bones: medieval shoes show price Homo Sapiens fashion victims willing to pay

x-ray of bunions.

Would you like bunions with that?   |  Photo: Mshirk

Believe it or not, Medieval shoes tell us something important about modern civilization. The hyper-gregarious Homo Sapiens might be able to walk on the moon, but ultimately a large proportion of the species just want to climb the social ladder. And the smarter, higher order sapiens might paradoxically be willing to pay the most stupid price.

In this case, being “progressive” in the 14th Century meant wearing pointy shoes that left 4 out of 10 people buried at the friary with bent and sometimes broken bones. Bunions make it harder to balance so they increase the risk of falls.  The undeniable benefits of scoring social fashion points were apparently worth spending decades distorting foot bones. Before you dismiss this as a teenage girly thing, ponder that two thirds of the victims were men.

The social competition to have the pointiest shoes became so dangerous that in 1463 King Edward IV passed a law declaring toe-points had to be 2 inches or less within London.

Ancient Near Eastern copper statuette of an unknown horned deity with corresponding pointy shoes (proto-Elamite 3000-2800 B.C.)

Pointy shoes in a statue from 3,000 BC.   | Camocon

The pointy shoe fashion bubble has struck all over the world: Japan, China, Sweden, Turkey and even in the 20th Century. The horned statue to the left is from the near East circa 3000 BC.

In the battle of stupid fashion trends the best weapon is free speech. If the King makes pointy shoes an employment criterion, even smart men who know the price will still pay it to get the girls and the goodies for their offspring. It’s a cold cost-benefit calculation, not a religion.

It’s quickly cured if the court jester can mock the King. Once the price is named out loud the race is over, and all the contestants lose.

Medieval shoe trend brought ‘plague’ of bunions to Britain

Keep reading  →

9.5 out of 10 based on 25 ratings

Climate fears stop new gas plants in Europe, then cold hits and they go back to coal

God’s joke on governments that try to control the climate with their electricity grid: 

Europe talks itself out of building gas plants in order to stop global warming, then after an extra cold winter, they also run out of gas, and now they have to go back to burning coal.

Spooked investors weren’t funding many gas plants now that the glorious renewable era was here and policy makers were all wearing their Hydrogen badges, and waving their carbon capture wands. In the last year all the geniuses of the European Investment Bank, the IEA, the European Commission were saying “gas is over” and it would be a stranded asset.

One month ago, Nina Chestney was predicting a gas supply crunch:

Gas faces existential crisis in climate wary Europe

May 14, 2021, , Reuters

Europe faces the prospect of higher electricity bills and a supply crunch, as utilities struggle to finance new gas-fired power plants unless they meet tougher emissions criteria imposed by banks pressured to stop financing fossil-fuel projects.

…Gas projects worth some 30 billion euros were cancelled, delayed or indefinitely postponed last year as they struggled to find funding.

The costs of renewables are expected to continue falling, while gas plant owners are exposed to EU carbon prices, which have hit record levels above 50 euros a tonne, and volatile wholesale energy prices.

But in Europe, where coal is already hard to finance, lending institutions and governments have moved on to tightening requirements for funding gas projects.

The European Investment Bank, Europe’s largest public lender, has revamped its lending policy to largely exclude new gas infrastructure from the end of this year.

“To put it mildly, gas is over…Without the end to the use of unabated fossil fuels, we will not be able to reach the climate targets,” EIB president Werner Hoyer said in January.

And so the shortage came to pass:

Not only was there a shortage of gas plants, but also a shortage of gas too. Winter was freezing, and Russia was sending more gas to China, and less through the old pipe to Europe through Ukraine. Plus the pipes from Norway were under heavy maintenance.

Gas Is So Scarce in Europe That Coal Is Making a Comeback

Bloomberg

Europe is so short of natural gas that the continent — usually seen as the poster child for the global fight against emissions — is turning to coal to meet electricity demand that is now back to pre-pandemic levels. Coal usage in the continent jumped 10% to 15% this year after a colder- and longer-than-usual winter left gas storage sites depleted, said Andy Sommer, team leader of fundamental analysis and modeling at Swiss trader Axpo Solutions AG.

EU Gas Supplies

GIE European gas storage: percentage of full

Keep reading  →

9.8 out of 10 based on 87 ratings

Tuesday Open Thread

9.3 out of 10 based on 15 ratings