CDC Botched Covid - Now It Wants More Money And Power!
Thursday August 18, 2022
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CDC Botched Covid - Now It Wants More Money And Power!
Thursday August 18, 2022
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Twilight Of The Neocons? Liz Cheney Laughed Out Of Wyoming
Wednesday August 17, 2022
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The Problem with Marijuana Legalization
Wednesday August 17, 2022
Although the medical use of marijuana has been legalized in 37 states, its recreational use is legal only in 19 states. (South Dakota voters approved a recreational marijuana initiative in the 2020 election, but it was overturned by a state circuit judge and upheld by the state supreme court.)
That is still a lot of states with legal weed considering that it was not until 2012 that the first two states (Colorado and Washington) legalized the recreational use of marijuana. In just the last two years, eight states have legalized recreational marijuana use.
What is even more amazing is that the states have done this while the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) with “a high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use,” and “a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.”
But the problem with marijuana legalization on the state level is not that it is still illegal under federal law. The problem is that there are so many government rules and regulations on the state and local level that the marijuana market can hardly be considered free at all.
A case in point is the city of Denver — “ home to one of the most mature marijuana markets in the world, with $689 million in sales last year.”
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Alexander Bidenton’s Standing IRS Army
Wednesday August 17, 2022
The Biden administration’s “Inflation Reduction Act” will increase inflation with hundreds of billions in additional government spending and money creation by the Fed while making supply chain problems even worse with onerous new corporate taxes, especially on energy, and myriad new “Green New Deal” environmental regulations. Increased government spending and reduced production will cause higher prices, not lower.
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Is the United States Facilitating its Own Death?
Wednesday August 17, 2022
After 8 years of arming and training Ukraine’s army and air force, spending billions of tax payer dollars, the United States no longer has a viable strategy to defeat the Russian forces and compel Vladimir Putin to accept a humiliating defeat. Yes, the US and NATO are pouring a large amount of HIMARS, Army Tactical Missile Systems (aks ATACMS), tanks, vehicles and aircraft into the fight, but this is only prolonging the inevitable surrender of Ukraine. Worse, it is poisoning any chance of restoring normal relations with Russia.
Readers younger than fifty have little or no memory of the Cold War. During the 45 year period after World War II (1945-1990), the United States and the Soviet Union fought each other in proxy wars–Vietnam, Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan were major battlegrounds. Yet, despite the fighting and spying by each side in their respective efforts to subvert the other, the United States and the Soviet Union kept diplomatic channels open and succeeded in reaching critical nuclear weapons disarmament treaties. Both sides realized that a nuclear war would be a nightmare neither was likely to survive.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States took a victory lap. But instead of promoting policies to help restore the Russian economy, western entrepreneurs, with the willing help of Russian oligarchs, succumbed to greed and tried to loot Russia of its critical oil, gas and mineral deposits. A number of American capitalists and politicians made money off of that. Russia was still a nuclear power, but western leaders calculated they could bully Moscow without fear of retribution.
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One Year Later: Was Afghan Withdrawal A Mistake?
Tuesday August 16, 2022
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How, When, Do We Come Together Again?
Tuesday August 16, 2022
When 30 FBI agents showed up at Mar-a-Lago to cart off boxes of documents, it was an authorized, legitimate and justified procedure to retrieve national security secrets being illegally kept there.
Or it was an unprecedented regime raid on the home and office of the foremost political rival of President Joe Biden that called to mind a “Third World country,” the East German “Stasi,” the KGB or the Gestapo.
And Jan. 6, 2021?
That was a riot, a disgraceful breach of the Capitol, involving assaults on Capitol cops that deserved to be and are being punished.
No, it was more than that. Far more. It was an “insurrection,” a “fascist coup,” an act of treason led by far-right extremists to abort the transfer of power from the winner of the election of 2020 to the loser. It ranks right up there with the 1814 burning of the Capitol by the British.
Such is the magnitude of the divide in America, a divide that extends far beyond our clashing views of Jan. 6 and the Mar-a-Lago raid.
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Made in USA: The Coming Collapse of the European Union
Tuesday August 16, 2022
The Ukraine war is becoming the EU’s death knell as its leadership, accepting jointly with Europe’s main governing parties the US instructions on confronting Russia, has bet the house on a Russian military defeat in Ukraine and a political-economic collapse leading to regime change in the Kremlin. The EU leaders have dangerously and increasingly tied the fate of the European integration project to their belief (based on gross miscalculation or misled by Anglo-American intelligence) in an Ukraine victory and a Russian loss.
As this is unlikely to happen, and as a major crisis unfolds this coming winter due to growing population discontent with raising energy costs, food disruption and general economic malaise, serious political changes will affect the EU and Europe’s political leadership. At best, the EU will severely lose momentum towards further political integration and will become entangled in paralysis and institutional marasmus. At worst, growing dissatisfaction will prompt radical political changes and bring to power politicians with alternative views on the usefulness and relevance of the EU.
The US-led economic war against Russia as response to the Ukraine military operation has exposed and worsened the deep structural faults of the European Union (EU) architecture. In fairness these cracks manifested before, for instance during the Greek crisis starting in 2009, the Brexit process since 2016 and the growing disputes of Poland and Hungary with the EU administration. At the root of the EU’s problems is a governance structure run by non-elected officials which over decades has not only expanded but also developed its own survival logic at the expense of the bread-and-butter issues that do matter to the average European.
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The War On Kids: Spain To OK Gender Change Without Parent Consent
Monday August 15, 2022
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A Deeper Dive Into the CDC Reversal
Monday August 15, 2022
It was a good but bizarre day when the CDC finally reversed itself fundamentally on its messaging for two-and-a-half years. The source is the MMWR report of August 11, 2022. The title alone shows just how deeply the about-face was buried: Summary of Guidance for Minimizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Individual Persons, Communities, and Health Care Systems — United States, August 2022.
The authors: “the CDC Emergency Response Team” consisting of “Greta M. Massetti, PhD; Brendan R. Jackson, MD; John T. Brooks, MD; Cria G. Perrine, PhD; Erica Reott, MPH; Aron J. Hall, DVM; Debra Lubar, PhD;; Ian T. Williams, PhD; Matthew D. Ritchey, DPT; Pragna Patel, MD; Leandris C. Liburd, PhD; Barbara E. Mahon, MD.”
It would have been fascinating to be a fly on the wall in the brainstorming sessions that led to this little treatise. The wording was chosen very carefully, not to say anything false outright, much less admit any errors of the past, but to imply that it was only possible to say these things now.
“As SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to circulate globally, high levels of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools have substantially reduced the risk for medically significant COVID-19 illness (severe acute illness and post–COVID-19 conditions) and associated hospitalization and death. These circumstances now allow public health efforts to minimize the individual and societal health impacts of COVID-19 by focusing on sustainable measures to further reduce medically significant illness as well as to minimize strain on the health care system, while reducing barriers to social, educational, and economic activity.“
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