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Tuesday, July 25. 2023

Oppenheimer, from 1948

Burn Some Witches; Save the Planet

Retract "Proximal Origin?" No, says Nature Medicine editor

Our society’s ‘top brains’ have gone mad — and dysfunctional politics is the result

The subways are an insane asylum on wheels — we must get the mentally ill off the trains

Fed-up NYC businesses sound off as migrant crisis causes chaos in the streets, hits shops’ wallets: ‘Enough is enough’

China is counting on America’s suicidal immigration policy

Stories like Russiagate and the Hunter Biden affair play into the paranoid underbelly of American politics. For those Americans that look for the hidden hand of a deep state, these scandals are proof that the system itself is rigged.

Hanania, Rufo, and Conservative Strategy - Going after the Deep Left

The Jaw-Dropping Hunter Biden–Investigation Revelations

"We Need A Real Investigation" Of Biden Bribery & Burisma; RFK Jr Says Mainstream Media Criticizing Him More Than Trump

Austria: Ukraine is a bottomless pit

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:50 | Comments (30) | Trackbacks (0)

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"The subways are an insane asylum on wheels - we must get the mentally ill off the trains"

A big problem in Toronto as well.

Notice how politicians invariably respond to incidents with second-order solutions: dealing with homelessness, more social workers, counselling, etc., etc.

All very fine but the first-order solution is: protect the commuter.

#1 JJM on 2023-07-25 10:10 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Austria {Austrian Freedom Party}: Ukraine is a bottomless pit

Let him have Austria and maybe the Sudetenland, that's it, in exchange for peace in our time. That should satisfy him. He seems nice.

#2 Zachriel on 2023-07-25 10:18 (Reply)

When everything looks like a nail, you will only use a hammer.

#2.1 mudbug on 2023-07-25 10:51 (Reply)

Why don’t you go to Ukraine and fight for the cause? Do something useful with your life.

#2.2 B. Hammer on 2023-07-25 10:59 (Reply)

mudbug: When everything looks like a nail, you will only use a hammer.

Sure, it's possible to over-apply the historical analogy. Let's take a look:

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has invaded Georgia and still occupies part of the country, annexed Crimea, sent "little green men" into the Donbas region of Ukraine, then mounted a full-scale invasion in an attempt to take Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. They have also conducted cyberwarfare against NATO countries in an obvious attempt to undermine confidence in their governments.

However, the analogy ends there. The obstinance and deft defense of the Ukrainians and the incompetence of the Russian military means it doesn't parallel the German invasion of Poland.

#2.3 Zachriel on 2023-07-25 11:23 (Reply)

"[The] incompetence of the Russian military means it doesn't parallel the German invasion of Poland."

Indeed. It's hard to conceive of a Wehrmacht that had failed to seize much more than Danzig and parts of the Polish Corridor and was still engaged in trench warfare with the Poles in February 1941.

#2.3.1 JJM on 2023-07-25 11:59 (Reply)

Georgia was also seeking NATO membership when Russia invaded. What part of 'no NATO troops on our doorstep' don't you warmongers understand? Russia has been invaded twice by western powers at great cost in the past 200 years. As for Russian forces being 'incompetent' you need to look at a map. They have an 8:1 kill ratio and have total control of the territories they set out to take back including a land bridge to Crimea. The Ukrainian counter offensive hasn't even breached the first line of Russian defenses. Now they're looking at the traditionally Russian cities of Kharkiv and Odessa. If the west keeps escalating this nightmare they'll push all the way to Polish border if they have to. Give your brain a chance.

#2.3.2 Lord Heathen on 2023-07-25 12:01 (Reply)

I believe you are incorrect about the 8:1 kill ratio. Russia is losing about as many fighters as Ukraine. There are sites on the internet engaging in misinformation that may be where you got that from. Russia has already lost more soldiers in Ukraine than the U.S. did in the entire Vietnam war.

#2.3.2.1 JustMe on 2023-07-25 15:48 (Reply)

You're wasting your time with that one.

He's a Kremlin-bot.

#2.3.2.1.1 JJM on 2023-07-25 19:12 (Reply)

JJM: Indeed. It's hard to conceive of a Wehrmacht that had failed to seize much more than Danzig and parts of the Polish Corridor and was still engaged in trench warfare with the Poles in February 1941.

That's right.

If Kiev had toppled, as Russia fully expected, then every nation in Eastern Europe would have been vulnerable. Ukrainian resistance stopped Russian aggression.

Lord Heathen: What part of 'no NATO troops on our doorstep' don't you warmongers understand?

We replied to this in our response to Aggie. See 2.4.1.

Lord Heathen: If the west keeps escalating this nightmare they'll push all the way to Polish border if they have to.

In a way, you've made the point. Russia wouldn't have stopped at Ukraine, but they would have pushed as far as they thought they could.

#2.3.3 Zachriel on 2023-07-25 12:18 (Reply)

ChatGPT yesterday.
ChatGPT today.
ChatGPT forever.
You will not replace us.

#2.3.3.1 Zachinoff on 2023-07-25 12:38 (Reply)

Zachriel: What doesn't it know?

Astrophysicist, property lawyer, affirmative action expert, search engine, newspeak dictionary, constitutional scholar, carrier of Trump Derangement Syndrome, master of the non sequitur, pretentious movie critic, high school civics teacher, financial analyst, the ackchyually guy, nitpicker, Historical art critic, armchair economist, poverty expert, theoretician of science, Covid apologist, speech therapist, climate scientist, military historian.

#2.3.3.2 eeyore on 2023-07-25 14:55 (Reply)

".....Because everything I don't like is Hitler !"

#2.4 Aggie on 2023-07-25 11:38 (Reply)

Aggie: ".....Because everything I don't like is Hitler !"

You may have missed our response to mudbug where we granted the limitations of the analogy, showed where it applies, and where it doesn't apply.

We will also grant that Russia's view of historical invasions across the Great European Plain colors their strategic view. Note how Russia can bottle up aggressors from the West by occupying Poland, but that having aggressors in Ukraine means their frontier is much too wide to defend.

Such thinking is old-fashioned and doesn't account for how modernity has changed relations between nations. Once upon a time, the wealth of nations was in the resources that could be taken through conquest. Today, the wealth of nations is in its society, economic and political. (The Nazi analogy is helpful here, too. The Nazis thought they could make up for the cost of mechanized conquest through pillaging the resources of the conquered provinces. But gold teeth and used shoes don't make up for the economic contribution of the people.)

#2.4.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-25 11:57 (Reply)

ChatGPT yesterday.
ChatGPT today.
ChatGPT forever.

You will not replace us.

#2.4.1.1 Zachinoff on 2023-07-25 12:42 (Reply)

It has all been lies. The government "fundamentally changed" after the 2008 election. All of the alphabet agencies were stacked with left wing activists and laws and presidential proclamations allowed and even mandated lying to the public. Conspiracies and grifts were foisted on the American citizens. Our government began actively working against us. Opposition was "lawfared" out of existence. The MSM was bought by billionaires and foreign interests and the great looting began. It has only accelerated since they pulled off the 2000 election coup. It will get worse.

#3 Anon on 2023-07-25 10:18 (Reply)

QUOTE:

thanks to honorable people, the system is also working.

- Eli Lake

Quick search show that the FBI employs over 20,000 agents. Two of them come forward as whistleblowers, and Eli Lake tries to gaslight me into believing the system is fair. Give me a break. The math on that is pretty simple. Where are all the whistleblowers from the rest of the federal government? Scared to death of losing more than their jobs, or working actively for the Party; the utopian cause. By any means necessary is the motivation for the left. Truth, as Dennis Prager points out, is not a Leftist value. And to anyone paying attention, the government at all levels is chalk full of leftist people.

Mr. Lake talks about the FBI loosing credibility. That is a good thing. The FBI along with many other three letter agencies should be destroyed. The covert acts by deep state agencies that have become public knowledge are bad enough. What about the hundreds that we don’t know about?

Our government has way too many secrets that it keeps from the public eye. What are they hiding? Why is it legal for the FBI to lie to you, Mr. Citizen, but illegal for you to lie to them? Why is it so easy for them to intimidate, manipulate and entrap you in ridiculous ‘crimes’? We need more brave whistleblowers. Remember when the whistleblowers were Times persons of the year? Oh, that was 2002, a republican was in the White House. Now the left barely contains the disdain for whistleblowers. Why would that be?

#4 B. Hammer on 2023-07-25 10:49 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Retract "Proximal Origin?" No, says Nature Medicine editor

The paper is sound based on the evidence they had at the time. Newer evidence that may (or may not) change the findings doesn't constitute a valid reason for retraction.

QUOTE:

We now have contemporaneous Slack messages and emails where the authors not only express doubts that what they were writing was true, but that prove they thought that the claim they were making–that COVID arose naturally without human interference and that it spread from an animal to a human being via natural processes–was likely not true.

If you read the threads in context, it is normal to have various opinions which eventually converge on a conclusion. That's how science works. They do find that the virus being purposefully manipulated was implausible. However, do they not rule out accidental release, though they did note that a natural origin is consistent with the evidence and represents a more parsimonious explanation.

#5 Zachriel on 2023-07-25 11:33 (Reply)

ChatGPT ...

You will not replace us.

#5.1 Zachinoff on 2023-07-25 13:00 (Reply)

#5.2 eeyore on 2023-07-25 14:58 (Reply)

"That's how science works."

Indeed.

“Given the s–tshow that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release, my feeling is we should say that given there is no evidence of a specifically engineered virus, we cannot possibly distinguish between natural evolution and escape so we are content with ascribing it to natural process,” Dr. Andrew Rambaut, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Edinburgh, wrote in a Feb. 2, 2020, Slack message to co-authors Dr. Kristian Andersen, Dr. Edward Holmes and Dr. Robert Garry."

The scientific method, according to Zachie-poo.

We all know what's going on here--you yourself, without quote or attribution, made repeated definitive declarations that the virus was natural and didn't result from a lab leak. Don't deny that--lots of us saw it, it's a public site.

Now that it's looking like you might well have been wrong (as many warned you likely were) you don't have the intellectual rigor or the ethics to simply say, "I might have been wrong about that--my ideology clouded my thinking."

Thank goodness you AREN'T actually any sort of decision maker--too many people with your lack of honesty and ability already are.

Just stay here and keep scorin' imaginary points on Maggie's Farm--the world will be a better place.

#5.3 SK on 2023-07-26 07:55 (Reply)

SK: Indeed.

The claim is that the paper should be retracted. For that claim to hold, you have to actually read what the paper says:

QUOTE:

Andersen et al., The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine 2020: In theory, it is possible that SARS-CoV-2 acquired RBD mutations (Fig. 1a) during adaptation to passage in cell culture, as has been observed in studies of SARS-CoV. The finding of SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses from pangolins with nearly identical RBDs, however, provides a much stronger and more parsimonious explanation of how SARS-CoV-2 acquired these via recombination or mutation.

They go on to discuss technical reasons why evolution in culture is unlikely. If you think the paper should be retracted, you need to reference the paper and the grounds for retraction.

SK: We all know what's going on here--you yourself, without quote or attribution, made repeated definitive declarations that the virus was natural and didn't result from a lab leak. Don't deny that--lots of us saw it, it's a public site.

He says without attribution. Please provide some a specific reference.

#5.3.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-26 09:04 (Reply)

You know full well you've made that statement multiple times around here, and so do many other regular readers. You're not even denying it now.

You're comically dishonest...hell, you're just plain comical.

#5.3.1.1 SK on 2023-07-26 12:13 (Reply)

SK: You know full well you've made that statement multiple times around here, and so do many other regular readers.

In other words, you made a claim you can't support.

A search finds most of our comments on the subject were to debunk claims that the virus was engineered and accidentally leaked or engineered and purposefully released by the Chinese in one of their own cities. We did find this mention: "Wuhan market was epicentre of pandemic’s start, studies suggest"

#5.3.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-26 12:37 (Reply)

We did find this comment which directly cites Andersen et al., but it concerns whether or not the virus was engineered. In the same comment, we also pointed to two other studies that support a zoonotic origin. In a follow-on comment, we noted, "Of course, Anderson et al. could be incorrect, but that would require looking at the study and seeing where they went wrong." That's the same problem here. If you think the study is faulty, you have to address the, you know, the actual study.

#5.3.1.1.2 Zachriel on 2023-07-26 12:43 (Reply)

Consider how other many other viruses have a zoonotic origin, such as the SARS outbreak in 2003, or outbreaks of other viruses, including the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920.
Consider how much SARS-CoV-2 has evolved in human populations in just three years.

That doesn't mean COVID didn't originate in a lab, but the genetic evidence argues against a manipulated virus. It could have been a natural virus that leaked from a lab, but then, that would still be a zoonotic virus.

China's inherent secrecy and the desire of people to avoid draconian accountability means that China would "act guilty" even if it wasn't a lab leak. The scientific evidence still points to a natural origin, though a lab may have been an inadvertent vector.

#5.3.2 Zachriel on 2023-07-26 09:53 (Reply)

Maybe society went crazy after the COV-LARP?
Jails and public areas have been the new mental health treatment for a long time.
The best government that money can buy changed after Year Zero and the Chicago Jesus, interesting it sounds like a Fundamental TRANSformation.
Ukraine is a bottomless pit of money and KIA for the War Pigs.
Online pundits say there was talk of a ceasefire and peace early on but bad hair Bojo showed up out of the blue and shot it down.
Those with no skin in the game want war, it's good for the bottom line.
The Kraine is also the test bed for all of the Great Reset Leap Forward or Global Soviet and pee pee piano Zelensky is acting like Abe Lincoln rounding up dissidents, journalists, banning opposition parties, and elections.
Never let a crisis go to waste as a Chicago CPUSA (D) comrade said.

#6 Napoleon In Rags on 2023-07-25 15:00 (Reply)

NY subways, streets, and shops ... you get all the grift and crime that you tolerate.

#7 indyjonesouthere on 2023-07-25 15:20 (Reply)

Nature medicine editor like the other "editors" printed what was left after the government censors were finished, if indeed they have ever finished.

#8 indyjonesouthere on 2023-07-25 15:25 (Reply)

Neither the US uniparty or NATO have been able to take a hint since Bush 1. Trump is the only president that hasn't joined the insane warparty of the NWO/WEF/BBB origarchy.

#9 indyjonesouthere on 2023-07-25 15:31 (Reply)

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Tuesday, July 25. 2023

Tuesday morning links