Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Antiviral
2. Epps
3. Game
4. Pot
5. Fentanyl
6. Salvation Army
7. Takedown
8. Pebbled
9. Don’t Look Up
1. Antiviral. A tip from a subscriber suggested today’s opening. Word of warning, things medical are pretty far out of my field of expertise, so while I’m not necessarily making it up as I go, the likelihood of error is up a notch. With that in mind, one of the cynical thoughts I had with Pfizer’s COVID pill was how much Ivermectin it had in it. As it turns out, that answer may be both a lot and none at all. One of the techniques used to fight viruses is something called a protease inhibitor. A virus is a reproduction machine, but it doesn’t have the equipment necessary to reproduce. Instead, it attaches and injects its genetic material into cells in the body, turning them into virus factories. Protease inhibitors make this attachment and injection activity more difficult. Make it sufficiently difficult, and the virus is unable to reproduce. It turns out that Ivermectin and Remdesivir are both protease inhibitors at some level. It also turns out that the 3 anti-COVID drugs are also protease inhibitors at some level. Pfizer, creator of one of them has a decent graphic of how this works. The FDA approved Pfizer’s Paxlovid for use last week. They did the same for Merck’s molnupiravir a day later. Looks like the drugs are pretty nasty, and treatment is limited to 5 days of symptom onset, meaning they will not be available to the general public, nor will they be available for prophylactic use like HCQ or Ivermectin. The FDA was careful to say with both approvals that neither drug was a substitute for vax. From here, there appears to be a little game underway between Pfizer, Merck and the FDA. To put this in perspective, you need to take a close look at what Purdue, with what (to me) appears to be the tacit agreement and participation of some unknown and unindicted number of people at the FDA, managed to do to push OxyContin onto the general public. They made up data. They participated in kickbacks. They carefully chose peer reviewers. They flat out lied to the general public. For some reason, they were finally outed and pled guilty in federal court Nov 2020 to three felonies – defraud the United States, violate the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. It is always Good to work hand in hand with the federal corruptocrats. And things always go swimmingly until the corruptocrats decide you are expendable.
2. Epps. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Jan 6 event, more and more questions are raised about the involvement of federal informants and employees in the planning, execution, and staging of the event. Revolver did a pair of very long, detailed pieces entitled Meet Ray Epps. Epps is one of the prominent leaders of the entry into the Capitol building. He was a prominent leader of the breach team that prepared the way into the Capitol starting 20 minutes before the end of Trump’s speech. The FIB removed his name from their Capitol Violence Most Wanted List July 1 following a Revolver expose of FIB protection of Epps associate and Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes. Revolver has photos and video of Epps working alongside several other unindicted individuals who removed police barricades blocking entry into Capitol grounds including keep out signs, all before the crowd from the speech showed up. Epps is a retired Marine Sergeant living on a ranch in Arizona who appears to be an agent provocateur who urged protesters into the Capitol. A second Revolver piece on Dec 18 looked into other unindicted leaders of the breach. It profiles an additional 5 people who appeared to have leadership roles in the breach, egging on the crowd. Some of these were on top of a scaffold in front of the Capitol steps with megaphones exhorting the crowd to enter the building, something that has led to almost a year in jail for 500+ Americans. But none of these guys have been even arrested, much less charged. The parallels with the absolute corruption of the Whitmer kidnap hoax are stunning. No wonder the feds continue to sit on 14,000+ hours of video taken during the event.
3. Game. Interesting piece out of Don Surber last week entitled Manchin shows Biden’s dangerous. Surber makes the case that it is Biden playing a little game with Americans, hiding behind the notion that he is a befuddled, Alzheimer’s ravaged husk of a human being. Yet he keeps signing all manner of awful documents, continues to make some of the most ugly, divisive speeches since O’Bama infested the WH, and continues to do what he is doing. Surber believes that Biden knows his role and is playing it well. The mental impairment dodge is a convenient one, allowing him to do whatever he wants to do, while blaming it all on his staff. If you are seen as a puppet, you are never accountable. Even Manchin, who claimed to have negotiated directly with the WH on the BBB legislation, blames the failure on WH staff rather than Biden himself. Surber also talked about the world-sized ego Biden brought with him from the senate. While he has physical and mental challenges, my guess is Biden is a lot more in charge than any of us would dare to believe, and he has perfected the role of hiding behind his infirmity.
4. Pot. Where else but California could government action kill off the newly legal pot industry? Pot in Cali is an $8 billion industry, half of those sales illegal. Since legalization, prices of legal pot have spiked, now more expensive than the product from the cartels. Things are so bad, vendors are asking for relief from taxes and regulations. These include a cultivation tax on growers, an excise tax that prohibits expansion of shops, and barriers to expansion of dispensaries. Local governments authorize sales and production. So far, they are only taxing and regulating it. The industry claims the entire system “is rigged for it to fail.” Taxes have driven up prices to double that of the illegal pot sellers. And as customers once again take their business elsewhere, the newly created legal side will wither and die on the vine, killed by micromanagement, high taxes and regulations. This isn’t actually killing off the golden goose. Rather, it is eating the egg shortly after it was hatched.
5. Fentanyl. The CCP’s war on America continues apace, as fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in Americans 18 – 45. Roughly 79,000 people died 2020 – 2021. Comparatively, COVID killed just over 53,000 in that age range in the same period. This fentanyl is manufactured in China. We know who is doing it. We know where the factories are. We have demanded the CCP shut it down. They ignored the request. The product makes it into Mexico where the cartels mix it with heroin and more recently in counterfeit opioid pills. Fentanyl is 50 x more powerful than heroin, leading to overdose deaths. Somebody is going to have to address this problem. Sooner would be better than later.
6. Salvation Army. The latest iteration of Get Woke, Go Broke comes courtesy of the Salvation Army, which went hard woke last fall, asking its donors to apologize for being racists. Donations and volunteer numbers are down from last year, during the height of the lockdowns. While the organization did remove its smear of America and white Americans, under the excuse that it was all just a big misunderstanding, they haven’t backed away from the complete embrace of CRT and anti-white racism. Red kettle campaigns are down around 75% in many states. A shortage of bell ringers has also hit nationwide. The Christmas season is generally the largest fundraising time for the Salvation Army. Not so this year. Appeasing anti-white bigots, anti-Christian racists, is a poor lifestyle (and business) choice for an ostensibly faith-based organization.
7. Takedown. What do you call it when government leaders collude with the media to attack and attempt to destroy experts who do not hew to the government adopted solution? Some would call it fascism. Some would call it worse. Either way, we find that both the CDC Director Collins and Fauci coordinated what they describe as a harsh takedown of the authors and signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD). The Declaration was an expression of concern by epidemiologists, public health scientists about the damaging and destructive impact of prevailing COVID-19 policies. It also recommended an alternate approach. As of today, there are over 900,000 signatories, including at least one Nobel Laureate. The technique here is important. Rather than have a public debate with all data presented for public consumption, the two most powerful public employees, federal bureaucrats chose to partake in messenger shooting, trashing the reputation of the signatories via leaks to a compliant and supportive media. This could not be more wrong. And it could not be more corrupt. Media has become an active and aggressive arm of the government.
8. Pebbled. Gen Mark Hamilton wrote a series of articles entitled Pebbled in Must Read Alaska chronicling the destruction of the Pebble Mine in western Alaska. His latest missive details a series of decisions made by the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA which made the mine impossible to start. He refers to the curious decisions as “something happened.” The initial development plan bypassed a road across Lake Iliamna. Two years later the Corps selected an alternate route around the lake as the preferred route, significantly increasing its environmental impact. About the same time, the EPA elevated approval of the EIS from the regional to the federal level. Relations between Pebble and the Corps cooled markedly upon that request. Pebble really liked their EIS. Unfortunately, the Corps required mitigation in such a way that it was impossible to do, which ended up killing the mine. Coincidence? I think not. Collusion? Very likely. And this final act was done by the Trump EPA and Corps of Engineers.
9. Don’t Look Up. I don’t often do movie recommendations, especially end of the world sorts of shows, but have one to suggest today. The movie is a comedy, Don’t Look Up, available on Netflix. The show is generally about a planet killer, inbound comet, as large or larger than the body that killed off the dinosaurs that is going to hit. Once the discovery is made, the astronomers who found it try to convince someone, anyone that it is indeed the end of the world, and they need to do something about it. What follows is the most devastating takedowns of popular culture, Big Tech, social media, media, and politicians that I have ever seen. The only villain is the Big Tech mogul, ostensibly a Goolag or FakeBook CEO, who is in complete control of the president. It is written and played so that both sides of the political divide can point say their particular worldview is supported, though the director is a Bernie Bro aiming at the political right. Those on the left claim it is a parable about climate change (manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions) and that the president is a Trump simulation, which (at least to me) she isn’t. The most overtly Hollywood scene is one where a crowd listening to a presidential speech exhorting them not to look up (to see the inbound comet) are portrayed as working-class Trump supporters complete with red hats, IOW, Hollywood’s view of Trump supporters. This lasts for a couple minutes until they actually look up, see the comet, figure they’ve been lied to, and pelt the speaker with overripe fruit, veggies, etc, driving him from the stage. With the exception of some technology at the end of the movie, everything you see is possible today. Nothing new is required. And at the end, everybody dies, or is about to. Action takes place through the end of the exit credits, so watch the whole thing. Worth your time, I think. Two thoughts about the flick. The first is the utter fecklessness of humanity depicted. I don’t think this is overstated. Nor do I think it is anything new or awful (opinions on awfulness vary). I think it well describes how we got from Africa a couple million years ago to where we are today and is one reason we have things like religion as a solution. Note that the single evangelical depicted, a young slacker, is done quite well. Over most of that history, humanity made progress based on the brilliance of the occasional human. But overall, progress was grudgingly slow. Today, that progress can take place a LOT quicker simply based on nothing more than the amount of information and tools to do something with that information available to us today. The other thought is social media. It may be that social media is a tool that allows us to return to our base nature, ancient poor behavior, a lot easier than society has celebrated in a while. This is not necessarily a positive outcome.
More later –
- AG