2022-03-17

Cool

• NASA releases first image from an in-focus Webb telescope

• 1,872-Piece Lego DeLorean Is Packed with Back to the Future Details

etc

• Ammo.com Data Study: U.S. Ammo Sales Surge Following Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

• Find more ways to be an outsider

Horseshit

• California city may declare Chick-fil-A a ‘public nuisance.’

• What happened to Starbucks? How a progressive company lost its way

• Slobbing out and giving up: why are so many people going ‘goblin mode’?

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing

• What You’re Feeling Isn’t A Vibe Shift. It’s Permanent Change.

  • What If This Is Just the Way Things Are Now

• The Current Thing – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

• Trolls Aren’t Like the Rest of Us

• Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop confirmed in New York Times report

  • The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop -- Falsely Called "Russian Disinformation" -- is Authentic

  This disinformation campaign about the Biden emails was then used by Big Tech to justify brute censorship of any reporting on or discussion of this story: easily the most severe case of pre-election censorship in modern American political history. Twitter locked The New York Post's Twitter account for close to two weeks due to its refusal to obey Twitter's orders to delete any reference to its reporting. The social media site also blocked any and all references to the reporting by all users; Twitter users were barred even from linking to the story in private chats with one another. Facebook, through its spokesman, the life-long DNC operative Andy Stone, announced that they would algorithmically suppress discussion of the reporting to ensure it did not spread, pending a “fact check[] by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners” which, needless to say, never came — precisely because the archive was indisputably authentic.

  That this cache of emails was authentic was clear from the start. Any doubts were obliterated by publication of Schreckinger's book six months ago. Now the Paper of Record itself explicitly states not only that the emails “were authenticated” but also that the original story from The Post about how they obtained these materials — they “come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop” — “appears” to be true.

  What this means is that, in the crucial days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, most of the corporate media spread an absolute lie about The New York Post's reporting in order to mislead and manipulate the American electorate. It means that Big Tech monopolies, along with Twitter, censored this story based on a lie from “the intelligence community.” It means that Facebook's promise from its DNC operative that it would suppress discussion of the reporting in order to conduct a "fact-check” of these documents was a fraud because if an honest one had been conducted, it would have proven that Facebook’s censorship decree was based on a lie. It means that millions of Americans were denied the ability to hear about reporting on the candidate leading all polls to become the next president, and instead were subjected to a barrage of lies about the provenance (Russia did it) and authenticity (disinformation!) of these documents.

  • Blue-checked investigative journo might want to change jobs after reading NYT’s Hunter Biden story and confessing that ‘he didn’t see this coming’ – twitchy.com

COVID / VaxCult

• The surprising link between Covid-19 deaths and internet access

  This March, researchers at the University of Chicago published a study in the journal JAMA Network Open that showed one of the factors most consistently associated with a high risk of death due to Covid-19 in the US was the lack of internet access, whether broadband, dial-up, or cellular. This was regardless of other demographic risk factors like socioeconomic status, education, age, disability, rent burden, health insurance coverage, or immigration status.

• As Virus Data Mounts, the J.&J. Vaccine Holds Its Own: Once dismissed as less effective, the vaccine now seems to be preventing infections and illness about as well as the two mRNA options.

• People with Medium-Covid – Caught in a Gray-Area of Recovery with Little Support

• How Korea Is Beating Covid Despite 600k New Cases a Day

• Will ‘open-source’ vaccines narrow the inequality gap exposed by Covid?

• Glenmark launches Nitric Oxide spray against COVID

• WHO says global rise in COVID cases is ‘tip of the iceberg’

• Even Mild COVID Can Increase the Risk of Heart Problems

• No Underlying Conditions in 63% of Young Kids Hospitalized During Omicron

• Eschaton: MORE THAN ONE THIRD

  There has been just been months and months of this, with most media coverage painting the minority of whining freaks who hate masks (what other restrictions have there been, anywhere, really?) as the Majority Opinion, AKSHUALLY.

• COVID-19—lessons for zoonotic disease

• S.Korea looks to end COVID restrictions despite record surge in cases, deaths

• White House warns free Covid treatments are at risk as subsidies run out

• What is killing the millenials? - by Jessica Rose

• Moderna best mix-and-match Covid booster shot, Taiwan study finds

• 'Overwhelming' Need To Investigate COVID-19 Vaccine Tinnitus: Researchers

• Quebec's Medicago Covid-19 vaccine faces WHO rejection over company tobacco ties

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Who Qualifies For $6 Billion In Student Loan Forgiveness Announced By Biden Administration

• Adam Carolla: Here’s the Real Reason Kids Were Forced to Mask in Schools – PJ Media

  “Well, just remember this phrase, Megyn: ‘crate training.’” He elaborated, “You cannot train a dog when it’s middle-aged. You got to get them when they’re puppies. And get them trained up and into that crate. And that’s what we’re doing with kids. Because this will not be the last emergency. And it will not be the last time the government and the governor and the mayor need to exact their power.”

Media / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Facebook Is Killing Journalism and Democracy

• MPs, not tech bosses, will decide what is “legal but harmful” content

TechSuck

• Clockwork raises $21M to keep server clocks in sync

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Federal Reserve hikes interest rate by 25 bps, first hike since 2018

• Ford will start shipping Explorers without all the parts – and add them later

• Russia says it made a Payment to avoid Default

• Feeling the pinch: Ways to budget during an inflation wave.

• Homes Earned More for Owners Than Their Jobs Last Year

• Russia Avoids Default After $117 Million Eurobond Coupons Funds Sent To Citigroup

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Biden Makes Bizarre Comment About 'Naked' Blackmail That Has Everyone Talking – RedState

• Soaring gas prices are hurting Americans. It’s time for more stimulus checks.

• All 25 Jewish Congressional Democrats Decry Amnesty Director’s ‘Disturbing’ Remarks That Israel ‘Shouldn’t Exist as Jewish State’ | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com

• Congress just gave itself a 21% pay raise as the citizens are punished by the surging inflation that Congress created.

• Will Joe Biden Oversee The Collapse Of The U.S. Dollar?

• Biden officials fear “mass migration event” if COVID policies end.

• Tennessee State Official Threatens to Seize Town over Ford Motor Co Investment

• Everyone Surprised by the Senate Passing Permanent DST. Especially the Senators

  The Senate’s unanimous passage of a bill to make daylight saving time permanent stunned many Americans, not least of which the senators themselves. In a twist the Founding Fathers likely did not anticipate, quirky Senate conventions and a decision by staff in Sen. Tom Cotton’s office may result in an overhaul in the nation’s time zones.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

• 1989 Tiananmen Square protester fatally stabbed by legal client

• Bizarre harassment of couple by eBay was ‘clearly criminal,’ company admitted

• National Forensic Academy teaches to dowse for the dead

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Xi considered invading Taiwan this fall: Leaked FSB document | Taiwan News

• U.S. Has 'Significant' Cyber Vulnerabilities – But Russian Cyber-Attack Unlikely

• US supplied bomb that killed 40 children on Yemen school bus

• Ukraine War Is Leading To Massive US Military Buildup In Europe

• US and NATO Girding Against Errant-Drones and Unintentional Conflict with Russia

World

• This was supposed to be Xi's big year. Instead, he's dealing with Covid and war

• As U.S. Focuses on Ukraine, Yemen Starves

• France ends gas heaters subsidies

• UK Ferry service P&O cancels services and tells ships to stay in port - BBC News

• These Afghans Are Using a Giant Slingshot to Shoot Drugs Across the Border

Health / Medicine

• Superbug-Infected Chicken Is Being Sold All over the US

• Stronger hands lengthen your life

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Saharan dust turns skies orange over Europe

• So long, city slickers

Ukraine War

• Kyiv Under Heavy-Attack as Ukraine and Russia Say Negotiations Indicate Progress

• Russia moves to Seize hundreds of Planes from foreign-Owners

• Russia-Ukraine War – What happened – March-16-2022

• John Helmer: "Zelensky Himself Is Now in Polish Hands;" March 15 Summit with Polish, Czech, and Slovenian Prime Ministers in Przemysl, Poland, Not Kiev | naked capitalism

  The summit meeting of East European leaders, hosted in Kiev by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on March 15 was fabricated by the Polish government, with Polish secret service agents playing the part of journalists, and fake photographs of the meeting, press briefing, and train journey prepared by Zelensky’s press office.

• Russia Tells US 'We Have The Might To Put You In Your Place' As Turkey Seeks Putin-Zelensky Meeting | ZeroHedge

etc

• China has already decided to send economic aid to Russia, US officials fear

• A Ukrainian Town Deals Russia One of the War’s Most Decisive Routs

• U.S. President Biden on Russian President Putin – “I Think He Is a War Criminal”

• Russia's state TV hit by stream of resignations

• Analysis: Zelensky Taps National Psyches of Countries as Appeals To-Save His-Own

• Video shows Russian tank firing on an apartment building in Ukraine

• Russian spy chiefs ‘under house arrest’ as Putin turns on chiefs over invasion

• Odesa's Maze-Like Catacombs Could Be Bad News for Russian Invaders

• Russia bombs theater where hundreds sheltered and 'children' written on grounds

• NPM package compromised by author: erases files on RU / BY computers on install | Hacker News

• As Russian Troop Deaths Climb, Morale Becomes an Issue, Officials Say

• (Feb 27) Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom - by Bill McKibben

  New technology—affordable and workable—means Europeans can heat their homes with electricity instead of gas. And if we wanted to we could—before next winter comes—help enormously in this task. President Biden should immediately invoke the Defense Production Act to get American manufacturers to start producing electric heat pumps in quantity, so we can ship them to Europe where they can be installed in time to dramatically lessen Putin’s power. The most recent estimates from Europe I’ve seen is that the current electric grid could handle fifty million heat pumps. We’re not going to get that many over there in a year—but any large number hacks away at Putin’s power.

• Russia news: Putin’s desperate bid to replace McDonald’s exposed | World | News | Express.co.uk

• Airbnb's Pledge to Host Ukrainian Refugees Gets a Reality Check

• In Putin’s Russia, ‘fake news’ now means real news

• Russia War on Ukraine – Concern in Taiwan over Readiness for Conflict with China

• “We Cannot Remain Indifferent” – Russian Star-Ballerina Quits Bolshoi Ballet

• A Russian oligarch's superyacht stuck in Norway because no one will sell it fuel

• Russia's Strike on Ukraine Maternity Hospital Part of Terrible Wartime Tradition

• Escaping Putin

• Opinion: Zelenskyy is the leader of the free world now

• The Azov Battalion: Extremists defending Mariupol

• US rallies to Ukraine’s side as rescue expands after theatre bombing

  • NC comment:

  Mariupol is run by the Azov Batallion, so I’d trust anything that comes out of there as far as I can throw a concert grand piano, and that includes aerial imagery. These guys make our “Proud Boys” look like the cosplayers they are.

• The Russian ‘denazification’ PR disaster: How, why and what to do

• Exclusive: Secret CIA training program in Ukraine helped Kyiv prepare for Russian invasion

• NATO proposes a major force expansion in Europe to address the long-term threat posed by Russia

• Washington Is Ramping Up Its Campaign To Draw NATO Into War With Russia

• Kremlin: Many people in Russia are behaving like traitors

• 4-Ways China Is Quietly Making Life Harder for Russia

• Could Putin Fall?

• Kremlin: Reports Of Major Progress In Ukraine Talks "Wrong", Biden's Putin Remark "Unforgiveable"

• Koch Industries to stay in Russia, says exiting does ‘more harm than good’\

• PBS Frontline: Putin's Road to War

• Putin may be the wealthiest man in the world worth $200B

• What to know about the 100 US 'Switchblade' drones heading to Ukraine

• How the West is breaking through Russia’s propaganda wall

• M. T. Greene parrots Russian propaganda of Ukraine revolution as US-backed coup

• Russian propaganda on Ukraine's non-existent 'biolabs' boosted by U.S. far right

• Only NATO Can Save Putin

• Broke Oligarch Says Sanctioned Billionaires Have No Sway over Putin

• ExoMars rover launch axed over Russia tensions