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Gestalt #203

Vlad’s futile warnings

Putin is issuing scary nuclear war warnings on almost a daily basis. I don’t think he is bluffing. I think he may actually use tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. However, his warnings will not achieve his goal of influencing the US public for one simple reason – the US media isn’t reporting them. Had these same warnings been given by a Russian leader back in the 1950s through the early 1990s, they would have received tremendous publicity. Americans would have been digging fallout shelters and moving out of cities or launching massive “give peace a chance” rallies depending on their individual inclinations. Now, the American public has no idea what is going on in Europe other than that there is a war in Ukraine. The days when you would have news bureaus staffed with knowledgeable reporters in foreign capitals are over. Now, you have the occasional trust fund recipient playing foreign correspondent to impress his friends who reports whatever he wants when he wants because he doesn’t cost the Networks anything. Even simple web searches would provide far more information than you will see on the news. A true picture of the threats facing us would be bad for advertisers, and most News organizations won’t cover anything that would disturb the buying public. So, Vlad, threaten away. Then watch our news. Your bone-chilling warnings won’t be covered. Instead, you can relax and watch yet another scintillating report about Taylor Swift.

Hiding H5N1 Human Cases – Biden administration policy?

The CDC has prohibited studies of wastewater from hospitals which would allow us to determine if H5N1 is infecting people as well as animals. The CDC only monitors wastewater from locations where the source of H5N1 could have been animals or people. The CDC and FDA are deliberately creating barriers to clinical testing for H5N1. Is it possible that the Biden administration is not simply doing a bad job of tracking H5N1 cases in humans, are they actively attempting to prevent the US public from finding out how many H5N1 cases in humans are occurring? Is this an attempt to keep a lid on bad news until after the election in November? I think this is possible.

First a whimper, then a bang

I have recently done a personal study of fast food restaurants. It started with one bad experience and then became an intentional survey of multiple chains in multiple States. Something is going on, in my opinion. Food quality has decreased dramatically and orders are frequently screwed up. It is clear that the quality control measures that used to be in place in chain restaurants, which is the only reason anyone ever ate at them, have been abandoned. Restaurants are not being inspected by health agencies. This is apparent to anyone who has seen what their kitchens look like or gotten sick after eating at one of these formerly safe restaurants. This erosion of quality and safety extends to many domains. Predatory businesses are preying on older people and the less well-educated without restraint or fear of prosecution. Prescription drugs are more expensive than they need to be and harder to obtain. So hard, that some people may actually be dying while jumping through unnecessary hoops to get them. What is the Bureau of Consumer Protection doing? What is the Attorney General doing? What is OSHA doing? Nothing, as far as I can tell. When such and such country is labeled as “third world”, many people mean an unsafe place with low standards and a lot of corruption. This increasingly describes the United States. The perception of the US in other countries is not what most Americans think it is. People in many other countries are increasingly viewing the US as lacking in the rule of law, as unsafe and corrupt. Our enemies sense weakness in our low standards and increasing disunity. This may encourage them to attack us. Whimper now, bang later.

References

Putin Issues Nuclear Warning to West. June 21, 2024. Isabel van Brugen. Newsweek.
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-nuclear-doctrine-weapon-use-west-nato-1915765

From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 bird flu. May 1, 2024. Denis Nash, John Dennehy, Monica Trujillo, and Leopolda Silvera. STAT.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/01/h5n1-bird-flu-hospital-wastewater-surveillance/

Experts blast CDC over failure to test sewage for signs of H5N1 bird flu virus. Susanne Rust. Los Angeles Times. May 10, 2024.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-05-10/experts-blast-cdc-over-refusal-to-test-sewage-for-signs-of-h5n1-bird-flu-virus

‘We’re Flying Blind’: CDC Has 1M Bird Flu Tests Ready, but Experts See Repeat of Covid Missteps. June 20, 2024. Amy Maxmen. KFF Health News.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/cdc-bird-flu-tests-covid-repeat-concerns/

My Health Insurance Company Is Trying To Kill Me. Jonna Jerome. The Huffington Post. June 22, 2024.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/health-insurance-no-surprises-medical-debt_n_665cdbb5e4b01ea28f32c18f

How PBMs Are Driving Up Prescription Drug Costs. Rebecca Robbins and Reed Abelson. The New York Times. June 21, 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/prescription-drug-costs-pbm.html

Gestalt #202

Germany Prepares for War

German officials have released a 67-page document which outlines how the outbreak of war will affect the civilian population, in particular those in professions that can support the army.

According to the document, national conscription would return to Germany and the employment agency would have powers to force skilled citizens over-18 to work in certain fields – and prevent them from quitting if their work is useful to the war effort.

The German government would also ration food allowing for at least one hot meal per day, and would rely on secret grain stockpiles to maintain food security.

German businesses would be required to switch towards defence production, while hospitals would be told to prepare to receive a large influx of war casualties from the eastern front.

Conscription and rationing: Germany’s plan for war with Russia. The Telegraph. James Rothwell. June 6, 2024

H5N1 kills cows

Dairy cows infected with avian flu in five U.S. states have died or been slaughtered by farmers because they did not recover, state officials and academics told Reuters.

Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek June 6, 2024. Reuters

Eggs rationed in Australia

Victorian supermarkets have begun restricting the number of egg cartons customers can buy as the bird flu outbreak continues to wreak havoc.

Herald Sun. June 9, 2024

Dr. Redfield Speaks

“When people say all the evidence points towards spillover, I say, ‘What evidence?'” Redfield told “Saturday Agenda.”

“There really is no meaningful evidence to support spillover; there’s a lot of opinions for spillover, and there was a lot of people who put their thumb on the scale: Tony was one of them — Fauci and [National Institutes of Health director Francis] Collins,” Redfield added. “They really put their thumb on the scale of this very rapidly.”
…
As a virologist, I have no doubt in my mind … that the origin of this epidemic, sadly, was a consequence of science and a laboratory leak.”

Newsmax.com. Nick Koutsobinas. June 8, 2024

The tragedy of Anthony Fauci – and his critics.

Many politicians and “pundits” are missing the point on Dr. Fauci and the pandemic response.

Yes, Dr. Fauci is arrogant and did a terrible job communicating during the pandemic. However, his critics are using his deficiencies to spread their own misinformation. Criticizing a liar doesn’t make your own lies OK.

Did the 6 foot rule make any sense? No, it did not. However, that doesn’t mean it was perfectly safe to go into a crowded bar during the height of the pandemic when no one had been vaccinated and hospitals were overrun with sick and dying people. The virus was spreading as an aerosol. Being in any enclosed space with a lot of people greatly increased your risk of infection. The 6 foot rule was a stupid attempt to pretend that crowded buildings were safe if only you followed it when clearly they were not.

Did asking small children to wear loose paper masks make any sense? No, it did not. However, that’s not because a properly fitted N95 doesn’t work, it is because it was unrealistic to expect small children to wear a N95 properly. Although children were less at risk than others, some children did die of Covid. Many teachers also died. Should we forget them?

Was it accurate to suggest that the Covid vaccine would stop transmission of the virus and that that the vaccination would last indefinitely. No, it was not. However, vaccination did slow transmission and did protect, to varying extents during the pandemic, the vaccinated from serious illness. Repeated vaccination at intervals of about 4 months greatly reduced the risk of death and Long Covid. And why do none of the pandemic revisionists mention Long Covid and the brain damage and other health risks it causes?

With a few notable exceptions, Members of Congress are missing the most important point about NIH funding of EcoHealth and the transfer of grant funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Dr. Fauci did not plan to create a pandemic. He’s not in league with the Chinese government. The funding of EcoHealth was intended to gain cooperation of Chinese scientists to identify new strains of virus that might pose a threat to the United States in exchange for instruction on how to manipulate viruses in the lab. However, given the nature of the Chinese government, this plan was dangerously stupid, and did not receive proper review.

Dr. Fauci and many other scientists know little about international politics or the ideology of the Chinese government. Dr. Fauci’s hope that the Chinese government would cooperate to warn the world about new viruses was naive. The Chinese government is aggressively seeking to create biological weapons with which to “clear the world” of non-Chinese. Xi Jinping is a genocidal maniac and so are many members of the Chinese government. Their racism includes a belief in a separate, and superior, evolution of the Chinese people, something they are rarely called on. Our intelligence agencies should know about this and should be warning anyone who has dealing with the Chinese government about this belief system. Frankly, the American people should know about this as well.

The NIH did arrange for money to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which intelligence agencies knew, or should have known, was engaged in biological weapons research. More importantly, NIH through its grants, facilitated the transfer of knowledge on how to engineer viruses to make them more dangerous from US scientists to Chinese scientists. This transfer of gain-of-function knowledge, without any review of potential danger by NIH or US intelligence agencies, is the most important fact for Congress to focus on. Until the US Congress, intelligence agencies and the Defense Department take biological weapons seriously, and I can assure you, they do not, presently, we will be at grave risk from attack after attack. We also have to stop pussyfooting around about the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and government. They are evil. They look at the Nazis as a cautionary tale. Not because the Nazis did evil things, but because the Nazis didn’t go far enough. Our government needs to start saying this, out loud.

Anthony Fauci is 83 years old. 20 years ago he was an able administrator. 40 years ago, he was an outstanding scientist. Now, however, he is a bitter old man with an inflated ego, a pathetic need for attention and a failing brain. His agency was poorly run before and during the pandemic. Funding EcoHealth alliance and teaching Chinese scientists the techniques they needed to make biological weapons was a huge mistake, but not an intentional one, on Dr. Fauci’s part. What was intentional was the cover up. Dr. Fauci’s reputation cannot be saved by any politician, no matter how well meaning. However, all the “personality stuff” about Dr. Fauci is not really important. Please, Congress, focus. The Chinese government means us ill. They are working on biological weapons. SARS-CoV-2 was likely an in-progress project that escaped through sloppiness. It is not the only project they are working on.

Focus. Focus. Focus.

References

THE STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES OF CHINESE RACISM: A Strategic Asymmetry for the United States. Mr. Andrew Marshall Director OSD Office of Net Assessment. January 7, 2013.

The Han Chinese ‘Master Race’. Charles Burton. The Dorchester Review. October 20, 2023.

Chinese Persecution of the Uyghurs. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

China committed genocide against Uyghurs, independent tribunal rules. December 9, 2021. Joel Gunter, BBC.

State Department cables: Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted classified research. Emily Kopp. June 14, 2023. US Right to Know.

Long-Term Effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the Brain: Clinical Consequences and Molecular Mechanisms. Granholm, A-C. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2023.

Gestalt # 201

Dr. Morens Speaks

The following are a selection of quotes from emails written by Dr. Morens, senior advisor to Dr. Fauci. In the emails below, “Tony” refers to Dr. Fauci. “Peter” refers to Dr. Daszak. Most of these emails are in reference to EcoHealth Alliance, led by Dr. Daszak, and the grant money it received from the NIH and funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. FOIA stands for Freedom of Information Act. This is the act which allows any US citizen to obtain unclassified information held by the federal government.

In his own words, Dr. Morens:

You are right, i need to be more careful. However, as i mentioned once before, i learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.

The best way to avoid FOIA hassles is to delete all emails when you learn a subject is getting sensitive.

PS, i forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can send stuff to Tony on his private gamil,or hand it to him at work or at his home. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.

I suggested Arthur try to interview Tony directly and connected him to our “secret” back channel. He emailed Tony a few hours ago.

email from Morens to Daszak and Keusch—with the subject line “NIH awards $7.5 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance, months after uproar over political interference”

Ahem … do I get a kickback???? Too much f*g money! DO you deserve it all?

Peter from Tony’s numerous recent comments to me, and from what Francis [Collins] has been vocal about over the past 5 days, they are trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputations.

You may be amused at the following aside that was a big surprise to me. He [Dr. Fauci] was asking my opinion about what is wrong with CDC and in the process said, out of the blue, that it was HE who got Rochelle Wolensky her job as CDC director by lobbying for her to Ron Klain.
Well, she does wear a skirt… I poured a little cold water on her
but he was undeterred in thinking she is the cat’s pajamas…

Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the US Military

A former U.S. Navy vice chief of naval operations has been arrested on charges that he accepted bribes to steer work to a company while he was commander of naval forces in Europe and Africa, Justice Department officials said in a Friday statement.

Robert Burke, 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, along with two business executives, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger of New York, were each charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.

“Burke is also charged with performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States. If convicted, Burke faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, and Kim and Messenger each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison,” the statement said.

Former vice chief of naval operations arrested on bribery, conspiracy charges. Bradley Peniston, Defense One. May 31, 2024.

Meghan Messenger and Yongchul “Charlie” Kim are senior executives at a company called “Next Jump“. After reading content at their web page, I found it difficult to determine what they actually do. Their website is filled with psychobabble about “leadership” and “decision-making”. They apparently offer “training” to improve decision making. Seems like patent BS, to me. In addition to the US Navy, they also list the US Air Force as a customer. Given the recent arrests, I think one can fairly ask whether anyone in the US Air Force was also involved in improper behavior.

Setting aside the bribery charges, why does the US Air Force and the US Navy need leadership lessons from such a BS company? Shouldn’t the US Air Force and US Navy be giving leadership lessons in their own training and by example? Do they not know how to do this anymore?

There is serious rot in the US military. We have “powerpoint” generals who need lessons in leadership from BS, psychobabble companies instead of people who lead by example. There are members of the US military who have led their troops into battle and prevailed in difficult circumstances. Shouldn’t generals and admirals ask proven combat veterans how to lead? Vast sums of money are being wasted on companies like “Next Jump” while enlisted personnel struggle to feed their families. Just so sickening.

Gestalt #197

H5N1 virus has been found at very high levels in milk. Is it safe? We don’t know.

There is no data on whether or not pasteurization inactivates the virus. There is no indication that there will be any such studies.

Three and a half weeks after first announcing the startling news that cows from a milking herd in Texas had tested positive for H5N1, the government agencies involved in the investigations have not yet revealed what research shows about whether pasteurization of milk kills this specific virus.

Helen Branswell, STAT News, April 18, 2024

H5N1 is spreading cow to cow and cow to poultry. Pigs are at risk.

Virus has been found in nasal swabs from cows, so it could be spreading to the respiratory systems of cows. Pigs, which are mixing vessel that are known to produce human adapted strains of flu virus, are not being tested for H5N1.

Pigs are a linchpin in flu surveillance, many experts noted, as they are susceptible to both bird and human flu. They might act as “mixing bowls,” enabling H5N1 to acquire the ability to spread efficiently among people.

The U.S.D.A. is not testing pigs or asking farmers to do so, Dr. Sifford said.

Apoorva Mandavilli, Emily Anthes NY Times, April 19, 2024

We may be closer to nuclear war than is realized

Iran has everything it needs to make nuclear weapons within a few months.

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/iaea-chief-says-iran-could-produce-nuclear-weapon-within-months-209316933854
NBC News, April 19, 2024

Gestalt #196

Nuclear War – A review

I read the book “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen in one day. This fictional scenario was better written than most thrillers. Plot spoilers ahead. The book does not have a happy ending. The great strength of the book is its meticulous description of the procedures that would govern our response should the United States come under nuclear attack. These are quite frightening as they appear to be antiquated and not suitable for the 21st Century. The author suggests, and I agree, that even if a nuclear war begins “small”, it will likely expand to large scale launch of many nuclear weapons. There are just too many potential failure points and too little time to make decisions to stop at a limited war. Where I disagree with the author is her assumption of a nuclear winter that lasts five years. Maybe this will happen, but I don’t think this is the consensus. The truth is, we really don’t know what will happen. Certainly, some level of cooling will occur for at least a few months, which, in itself, will be devastating to countries that must import food to survive. However, the dire prediction that she makes is not well-supported by the available evidence. There are lots of activists pushing the same scenario. I get that she wants people to be scared enough to try avoid nuclear war. But frankly, there isn’t much her readers can do about stopping it from happening. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un are the men who will decide whether or not to start a nuclear war, not us. They are not smart or especially rational men. They are all megalomaniacs who live in echo chambers surrounded by eunuchs who tell them exactly what they want to hear. We can’t control what they do. However, we can decide to survive what they do. The truth is that deaths due to famine from nuclear winter will be unequal. Countries dependent on external inputs will do the worst. Countries that are well-prepared and self-sufficient in food production will do the best.

Where is Cesar Chavez when you need him?

For those who don’t know, Cesar Chavez was a labor activist who advocated on behalf of Mexican farm workers. He sought better working conditions for people who had been exploited by agribusinesses. Right now, farm workers in the dairy industry are being exposed to H5N1 without adequate protection. Farm equipment is thought to be aerosolizing contaminated milk. This is thought to be how the one documented human case occurred. How many undocumented cases have there been? We don’t know because no one is bothering to check on the farm workers many of whom are themselves, undocumented. Do the “liberals” in the media care? Don’t make me laugh. They could not care less. Evidence: how many stories do you see of uber wealthy elites like Anderson Cooper going down to the farms and exposing the lousy working conditions for workers. Do the “liberals” in Congress or the White House care? Please, stop. I need to breathe. Evidence: the White House controlled-CDC has done absolutely nothing to help get PPE or H5N1 tests to the farm workers. “Liberals” don’t really care about the poor or working class.

Where is Ronald Reagan when you need him?

President Reagan, regardless of what you think of his policies on other issues, was a strong foe of the Soviet Union and the threat it represented to the free world. He must be turning in his grave to see Members of Congress who call themselves “conservatives” kissing up to Vladimir Putin, a man who seeks to re-establish the Soviet Union that Reagan helped dismantle. Win one for the Gipper? Not these clowns. They’re Red alright. Commie Red. Make careful note of who votes against helping Ukraine prevent the rebirth of the Soviet Union and you will know who the Communist Sympathizers are. Or worse. People who have betrayed the US – for what?

Gestalt #191 – Nuke News

President Trump and Nukes

During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday, Trump said he was worried about the safety of his supporters.

“I worry about their safety too,” he said during the town hall event, which reached more than 3.2 million viewers on average, according to Fox News. “These people, everybody in this room is in great danger right now. We have a nuclear weapon that if you hit New York, South Carolina is going to be gone too.”
Giulia Carbonaro, Newsweek, Feb 22, 2024

I have no idea what President Trump could be referring to. Guesses, anyone?

EMPs and Nukes

It’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which an EMP strike from Russia comes as a calculated response to something which unfolds on the battlefield because the implication of such a strike would be WWIII.

But in a moment of weakness or madness, it’s possible that Putin, if backed into a corner with power slipping away and opponents closing in, could in haste authorise such a strike.
David Averre, Daily Mail, 23 September 2023

This possibility has been suggested by S-2 FLU.

Nuclear bombardment from space

Fractional Orbital Bombardment System

A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) is a warhead delivery system that uses a low Earth orbit towards its target destination. Just before reaching the target, it deorbits through a retrograde engine burn.^[1]

The Soviet Union first developed FOBS as a nuclear-weapons delivery system in the 1960s. It was one of the first Soviet efforts to use space to deliver nuclear weapons. In August 2021, the People’s Republic of China tested a weapon that combined a FOBS with a hypersonic glide vehicle.^[1]

Wikipedia accessed February 23, 2024

Gestalt # 190 – Nukes in Space

By now, everyone has heard that Putin plans to put nuclear weapons in space. Supposedly, this is to blow up satellites in case of war with the US. However, given that this is a gross violation of existing treaties and that he is anticipating war with the US, why should we believe that he wouldn’t put nukes in space with the intention of dropping them onto the US? Would nuclear bombardment from space offer a superior first strike capability? One wonders.

The soothers are out in full force, angry that the American people were told the truth about their danger.

House Freedom Caucus member Andy Ogles asked Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday to probe Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner’s decision to reveal a “serious national security threat” to the American public that could involve Russian space nukes.

Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote a letter to Johnson (R-La.) demanding a formal inquiry of the disclosure and accusing Turner (R-Ohio) of doing so with “a reckless disregard of the implications and consequences said information would have on geopolitics, domestic and foreign markets, or the well-being and psyche of the American people.”
New York Post, Feb 15, 2024

Translation: If the American people know how much danger they are in, they won’t buy as much stuff. They also might get the heck out of big cities and move somewhere safe.

Well, my fellow preppers, I hope you have moved to your safe space. Your well-being and psyche will be better off if you have.

Gestalt #189

The decay of American politics

One of the most disappointing features of the 21st Century is the decay in the quality of American politics. Both the politicians themselves and the media coverage of politics has descended to Third World levels. Compare the two currently likely candidates for President in the general election with John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon:

Compare also the anti-vaccine nonsense of a current Kennedy candidate with this statement by his uncle:

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkpof-036-047

Compare the quality of political analysis of the “pundits” with the intelligence of William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal:

The intellectual capacity of the people who lead us matters, greatly. Pretending it doesn’t won’t make the problem go away.

Our distorted economy

The vast majority of office jobs in the US are phony, make work jobs. If you look at the tasks that people actually do, almost all of them could have been automated out of existence back in the 1980s with the computers available back then. AI was not needed. At some point, the government, both federal and local, decided to sacrifice the obvious gains in productivity that could have been obtained by appropriate use of technology for the sake of apparent full employment. They did this by providing powerful financial incentives to companies to employ as many people as possible, regardless of whether this made any sense from an economic perspective. To meet government quotas, companies then created make-work jobs that involve useless box checking and paid workers as little as possible to maximize government funding and minimize the expense of paying the drone-“workers”. Instead of automating factories and dealing with predictable complaints by Unions, companies simply closed their factories, unbolted the machines and sent them to China where there were no Unions and no enforcement of environmental regulations. Upper management skimmed the cream from these schemes, hence the widely reported income inequality. This isn’t a result of market forces. This is the result of backroom deals between elite executives and politicians, of both parties. We are now in a situation where we don’t have enough people to do the jobs that need to be done (trucking, construction, law enforcement, health care, etc.) while millions sit in cubicles doing useless tasks and breathing in brain-destroying virus. I don’t know if there is any politician with the brains and the guts to tell the American people the truth and end the charade.

Who will win WW III?

The answer is simple: whoever has the most smart, well-educated people producing the most advanced technology. You think the US can avoid this war because others fear us? They don’t. I have heard this from the horse’s mouth. You think we will automatically win because we are the good guys? You haven’t read much history if you think this. The strong win, the weak go the wall. It doesn’t matter who is the good guy or the bad guy. The winner will write history and the loser will decay into compost. The anti-intellectualism prevalent in the US today is poison that will destroy us if we don’t wake up. We need Science. We need Engineering. And we need them now.

弱肉強食

Gestalt #188

The continuing human toll of COVID-19

A Canadian study suggested that for people infected three times or more, long COVID rates were around 38%.

Dr Rae Duncan, a consultant cardiologist and long COVID research clinician at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, warns that studies are beginning to suggest serious complications from COVID that could lie dormant for years.

“COVID is a spectrum and long COVID is only one end of that,” Dr Duncan says.

“It’s never been just a cold. The more times you’re infected, the higher your cardiovascular risk, neurological, and endocrine risk. These can all result in life-altering conditions.

“Some may have underlying silent organ damage, which is asymptomatic, meaning people are not aware of it. It needs more research but it’s very concerning.”

snip

One piece of research suggested babies born to COVID-positive, unvaccinated mothers had a 20.3% risk of neurodevelopmental delay by age, compared to 5.9% of babies whose mothers did not catch COVID while pregnant.
The virus is still evolving at an incredible rate’: How widespread is COVID now – and how many people are dying with it? Lara Keay, and Joely Santa Cruz, Sky News. January 31, 2024

Don’t let anyone tell you the pandemic is over. The consequence of repeated infections and the lifetime disability that will occur in children is just now starting to be felt. It will get worse.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The DRC, formerly known as Zaire, is a large country with a population of 111 million people. It has a tropical climate and a rainforest that is home for a wide variety of important animal species. It is also one of the poorest, most corrupt, violent and poorly run countries in the world. Few seem to be paying attention, but there is a version of monkeypox spreading among and killing children in the DRC that could easily spread to the rest of the world. There are two “clades” of mpox (monkeypox), clade 1 and clade 2. Clade 1 is much more lethal than clade 2, but clade 2 has spread more widely than clade 1. The recent epidemic that affected the United States and Europe is clade 2. However, clade 1 is starting to spread at a much greater rate in the DRC.

“The scale of the epidemic was outlined in new figures published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday: last year, more than 14,600 infections and 901 deaths were reported in the central African nation, compared to 5,600 cases and 213 fatalities in 2022.

The data also showed that, in 2023, some 65 per cent of cases and 75 per cent of deaths were in children under 15 years old, who spread the disease while out playing with one another.”
Children at centre of dangerous mpox outbreak ‘accelerating’ in DRC. Sarah Newey. The Telegraph. 30 January 2024

Vaccines for mpox that will be effective against clade 1 are urgently needed in the DRC. Getting the vaccines there and dealing with the corrupt government and anarchic situation on the ground will be difficult. However, it is in our interest to overcome these challenges. We ignore what is happening in the DRC at our own risk.

The Chinese Economy and the Timetable for Invasion

The Director of the FBI recently mentioned 2027 as the year we especially need to be concerned about with respect to China. This is likely in part due to reports from inside China about Xi Jinping’s timetable for invasion of Taiwan. However, circumstances change and the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry. There are reports that widespread corruption within the Chinese military has left it in a state of unreadiness. This would seem to give us more breathing room. However, the Chinese economy is finally imploding, as China-skeptics have been predicting for years. Both its property sector and its stock market are collapsing. These are the two areas where Chinese investors have been allowed to put their money for retirement. Since China, although a communist country, does not have a significant safety net, China’s aging population is looking at an economic disaster. Young people, despite being more educated than their parents, can’t find decent jobs and are increasingly pessimistic about their futures. There are not obvious fixes to China’s current economic crisis – other than scrapping the Communist Party and trying democracy and the free market, for a change; this seems unlikely any time soon. Xi Jinping is absolute dictator of China. He is responsible for China’s current mess. How will he save his own skin? The most obvious solution to that problem is War. I do not expect that he will wait for when it would be best for China to attack, which is probably never. Instead, he will attack when he decides the timing is best to save his own life. That may be before 2027.