News Round-Up
- “Free Covid tests for all will end when latest wave is over” – The Government’s strategy for living with the virus will see only very vulnerable groups offered lateral flow tests at no cost, but the cut-off has been pushed back to when the current wave has receded, the Telegraph reports.
- “Just ‘64% of people are now self-isolating after Freedom Day’” – Just 64% of people with Covid in England said they stayed home and quarantined for at least five days between February 28th and March 8th, according to the ONS, the Mail reports.
- “New Pfizer document shows immunosuppression in first seven days and natural immunity exists” – The Naked Emperor on a lone document released early ahead of the next Pfizer trial documents release which states: “Clinical laboratory evaluations showed a transient decrease in lymphocytes that was observed in all age and dose groups.”
- “Efficacy of a Fourth Dose of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine against Omicron” – An Israeli study in the NEJM finds “low vaccine efficacy against infections in health care workers, as well as relatively high viral loads suggesting that those who were infected were infectious”. It concludes: “A fourth vaccination of healthy young health care workers may have only marginal benefits.”
- “Why Hong Kong can’t escape Covid” – Chaos and incompetence are forcing citizens to flee, writes Philip Cowley in UnHerd.
- “The People Promising Us “Net Zero” Have No Clue About The Energy Storage Problem” – The storage problem is the critical issue that must be addressed if there is ever going to be ‘Net Zero’ electricity generation, let alone a ‘Net Zero’ economy based on all energy usage having been electrified, writes Francis Menton in the Manhattan Contrarian.
- “Now tedious nanny state bores want to crack down on cheap meat” – God forbid poorer shoppers might be able to afford some nutritious and protein rich meat to feed their families, says Ben Kelly in CapX.
- “England faces being carpeted with solar panels in Net Zero push” – Telegraph report that England faces being carpeted with solar panels covering an area close to the size of Exmoor under plans being considered as part of Boris Johnson’s green energy drive.
- “The rouble rebounds. Have sanctions failed?” – The rouble has steadily advanced back almost to where it was before the invasion while the Russian stock market has risen sharply since it partially reopened last week, raising doubts about the impact of Western sanctions, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
- “The incoherence at the heart of NATO” – The alliance spent years stoking a conflict with Russia it had no intention of fighting, argues Tim Black in Spiked.
- “NHS trusts ask men if they are pregnant before having scans” – Male cancer patients and those having X-Rays face “unfair” and “confusing” questions after this supposedly ‘anti-woke’ Government removed the word “female” from clinical guidelines, the Telegraph reports.
- “Why Britain shouldn’t pay reparations for slavery” – During the Royal visit to Jamaica, there were calls for the British to atone for the slave trade – but the demand contains one key flaw, argues Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “Black Privilege” – “Apparently it’s okay when a black man hits someone. Applauded even. My career was ended for saying England was a warm and tolerant place. I’m starting to wish I could swap some of my ‘white privilege’ for the one Will Smith benefits from,” writes Laurence Fox in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “‘This is wrong and must be called out’: Sharron Davies leads backlash in transgender cycling row” – Trans athlete Emily Bridges, who last month won bronze in a men’s race, will race in Saturday’s National Omnium Championships against Olympian Dame Laura Kenny, sparking a backlash and threats of legal action, the Telegraph reports.
- “Explorer and abolitionist David Livingstone condemned by Glasgow council for ‘links to slavery’” – The fate of his monument, which stands next to Glasgow Cathedral, hangs in the balance along with other “problematic” city statues, according to the Telegraph.
- “It’s absolute madness to even contemplate vaccinating these children” – Watch Professor Angus Dalgleish on GB News clash with Dr. David Strain, who draws doubt on his grasp of medical ethics by arguing: “It halves the risk of giving it to your granny.”
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Good morning all.
And a very good morning to you, hp.
Thank you kindly AE. I sneaked a double this am.
Top of the morning HP!
Thank you very much CG.
“The incoherence at the heart of NATO” – The alliance spent years stoking a conflict with Russia it had no intention of fighting, argues Tim Black in Spiked. The short term intention was “”overextending and unbalancing Russia”, the long term goal was always regime change leading to collapse into bloody chaos, as the US inflicted on the ME and North Africa. Here’s the RAND corp (US regime thinktank) 2019 report on best options for “overextending and unbalancing Russia”: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB10000/RB10014/RAND_RB10014.pdf Geopolitical cost-imposing options Top: Provide lethal aid to Ukraine Likelihood of success in Extending Russia: Moderate Benefits: High Costs and Risks: High Summary: “Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability. But any increase in U.S. military arms and advice to Ukraine would need to be carefully calibrated to increase the costs to Russia of sustaining its existing commitment without provoking a much wider conflict in which Russia, by reason of proximity, would have significant advantages.” [Some amongst the US regime oligarchs clearly decided that high risk/high return was the way to go in attacking Russia, given the active ongoing NATO-isation of Ukraine over the past few years, and the huge amounts of lethal aid that were… Read more »
💥
“None of this has been conscious or part of a deliberate strategy.”
This is the most incoherent sentence in this incoherent article.
They were and are stupid, but not THAT stupid.
They, the MIC, OGMC and the geostrategists knew EXACTLY what would eventually happen and wanted EXACTLY what’s happening now and they have already been richly rewarded:
A clear, high-profile common enemy, leading to much higher military spending, usury-style profits and bribes for decades to come, a, very profitable, halt to the fossile fuel exit and demonization and a breakup of the European//German&Russia closer cooperation so detested by Brzeszinski, the neocons and chickenhawks.
What’s not to like and what was not expected by these vile, stupid m*r*ns who couldn’t care less about Ukrainian cannon fodder?
The real, suicidal effects of the criminal sanctions and the disastrous closer Russia/China&co cooperation instead.
I can quite believe that individual politicians like Bozo may be unaware or unconscious. But not the permanent elite.
There does seem to be a common thread of desperation not to recognise “our side” as the bad guys. I suppose that’s human nature, as well as very convenient for those pulling the strings.
[As an aside, note the inherent incoherence of the recent coinage of “oikophobia” by apologists for neocon aggression in the US sphere – basically anyone who points out occasions when the US sphere collectively is at fault is mentally ill. It’s impossible by definition for “us” to ever be at fault.
Of course, those using the term apply it in a wholly self-serving and essentially arbitrary sense – criticism of the US sphere that they like or agree with is fine, it’s only criticism that they dislike that constitutes “oikophobia”.]
But refusing to recognise the very clearly systematic and coherent policy and intent behind the US use of NATO against Russia over the past 30 years is pretty remarkable in its sheer, wilful ignorance.
There are none so blind as those who are desperate not to see (including those whose status and livelihoods depend on not seeing).
‘They have no intention of letting this man go’: Pastor Artur has been in jail now for over 50 daysSheila Gunn Reid and Adam Soos discussed the latest on Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who has now been in jail for more than 50 days since he was arrested at his home in early February.
A reminder of the “western values” we are supposedly standing up for in Ukraine. Actually, this kind of corrupt totalitarianism represents the Ukraine quite well.
Gives ‘I stand with Ukraine’ a whole new meaning.
Not the only such example, either.
“Randy Hiller is one guy who isn’t corrupt; he’s always outspoken; that’s why he was sacked by Doug Ford, kicked out of the provincial Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Anyone who called out the lockdowns was.
Randy Hillier just wouldn’t bend the knee — not to Doug Ford, not to Trudeau, not to public health officials. He was noisy and he — gasp — wouldn’t wear a mask!
He was a friend to the truckers. Which is the worst sin of all.
So yesterday he was told to turn himself in at the Ottawa Police station.
The establishment has brought itself into disrepute. Politicians, judges, police, the media, everything. But where is the public outrage? Is this now who we are?”
https://www.rebelnews.com/ezra_levant_show_march_29_2022
Those Canadians are making Australia look almost decent!
Nobody on this site seems willing to say what happened to the (alleged) 35,000 trucks on the Canadian truckers’ protest.
How many trucks were there really? I have not seen a list, eg. of their registration plates or drivers/owners.
Where did they all go? What happened. Other than someone claiming they have regrouped to a ‘secret location’ it has been silence.
Oh – what happened to the UK truckers’ protest? Another one that seemed to fizzle out. Like the European truckers’ protest. And the Australian truckers’ protest. All come to nothing. If they even existed at all, that is.
About the rouble rebound story at the Spec.
This looks at the situation from another angle.
The G7 countries (including the U.S.) announced today they were demanding that Russia accept payment for oil and gas in euros and dollars. This is happening at the same time NATO is demanding (via sanctions) that Russia be blocked from accepting payments in euros and dollars.
Something is weird. Keep in mind, the same nations in the G7 are the same nations in NATO with the exception of Japan (G7 only).
The only way this conflict could make any sense, is if the G7 energy ministers realize that forcing Russia to trade in non-euros and non-dollars will structurally undermine the G7 unilateral hold of global finance and energy policy. In essence, the G7 see the non-sanction countries, particularly India and China, lining up to replace the petro-dollar, and that not only weakens their position financially, but it also weakens their climate change position.
Don’t think it’s particularly to do with climate alarmism – although that lunacy has big impacts on oil and gas issues, obviously. The idea I think was to exempt oil and gas to Europe from the sanctions, so that if the Russians cut off supplies they would get the blame. but the Russians’ insistence on taking roubles puts the ball back in Europe’s court.
Now if they refuse to pay in roubles and Russia does cut supplies, it’s much harder to paint it as entirely Russian malice. And who gets the blame and how much is going to be significant, as people around Europe face up to the costs of the policy.
It’s indeed ridiculous.
They don’t seem to understand that Russia accepting $/€ would effectively mean that they give their gas/oil away for free.
Why should they do that?!
And most also don’t seem to understand that this also means and requires buying these rubles via a third, non-sanctioned currency first.
Back the battle to stop healthy 5 to 11s being jabbed
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/back-the-battle-to-stop-healthy-5-to-11s-being-jabbed/
Beverley Turner
Stand for freedom with our Yellow Boards
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If you can access the Telegraph article there is a picture of Emily the trans cyclist. If you watch Time Team on TV you will know that forensic archeologists can distinguish male and female from surprisingly small amounts of skeletal remains. If you study classical art you will learn about the different proportions of male and female bodies. As a result of the needs of reproductive biology, women’s bodies need 9% more body fat than a man’s body. On all those scores, apart from the hair style, the picture of Emily the cyclist is a picture of a young man. You could not give birth with hips like that! And how many women do you know with shoulders that much bigger than their hips? I have recently spent ages decorating our stairs and landing, yes it looks a lot better, but it is still the same house, same foundation and same walls. You cannot change a fundamental structure by a bit of surface decoration. In some ways the trans issue seems minor, given all the horrors that are going on in the world but yet it does seem to typify how in so many ways we are expected to believe… Read more »
As a matter of true genuine interest, I remember my father who was born in 1920 talking about people who today are called transsexuals but in black country dialect were called “Willdews”
Do fellow sceptics have any knowledge of family or folk memories of similar word usage?
Willdews? Are you sure it wasn’t ‘weirdo’s?’
We are what we are. What we identify as is a totally different thing.
But if we choose to “identify as” something that is not what we are, then we are living a lie.
And that’s arguably our problem alone, until we try to impose that lie on others or coerce others into respecting our dishonesty.
Exactly you can identify as you wish, wear a skirt, have long hair and a nice hair-do but that does not change your essential biology. For sporting purposes men’s and women’s bodies are hugely different and cannot be changed by power of thought or a few hormones. Women have wider hips to facilitate child birth, wider hips alter the whole geometry of your body. Conversely men have shoulders wider than their hips.
We have different sporting categories to allow people to participate on a fair level, male, female and disabled. We do not allow able bodied people to identify as disabled. For sport it should not be down to how you identify, it should be a case of what sort of body you have; male, female or disabled.
“Identify as” actually means “pretending to be”.
Someone who’s identifying as something he’s not is by definition lying about himself to others or – also by definition – deranged.
Perhaps showing my ignorance of all the intricacies involved here but one thing strikes me as obvious; how can you identify as a woman and be allowed to compete against women if you have a penis and balls? I mean, it’s stating the bleeding obvious to me, but we’re now in a world where idiot people, including many public figures, struggle to even define what a woman is when put on the spot. If this attitude wasn’t so damaging it’d be comical. The irony that a 5 year old can easily describe what a woman is but Rishi Sunak cannot?! Actually I’m gonna ask my 10 year old when she comes back from school, now I think about it. I’ll bet she doesn’t get all tongue-tied and “erm…uh…ah” moronic because she doesn’t want to offend anybody with ‘woke’ nonsense. So again, if the likes of Lia Thomas can be ranked 460th swimmer as a bloke then goes on to identify as a woman, despite still having all his tackle, stronger musculature and bone density, superior height and breadth etc, how the fcuk can he/she go on to race against women and beat them by miles each time so that he… Read more »
Sorry not sorry Dr Strain, but anyone supporting the jabbing of kids with this crap is deluded. Did he really just say admissions of kids due to Omicron is higher than with previous variants? And citing this “long covid” bilge…..has this guy got ties to Big Pharma I wonder? Anyway, I’m Team Dalgleish all the way, as is the host by the sounds of it. To me this is one area where the science really is settled. Healthy kids do not benefit from this experimental injection and this has been patently obvious for some time now.
Technically he could be right that more kids are in hospital with omicron than with previous variants. Almost all admissions in children will be incidental to their covid status, so a more contagious variant will therefore be found in more kids in hospital.
All irrelevant though.
But what he was inferring is that kids are being hospitalized *because of* Omicron when I’m sure the reality is that any healthy kid being admitted to hospital for something completely unrelated will get tested as per protocol and there’s a good chance that’ll come back positive. Same applies to adults of course and it’s always been this area right throughout the pandemic which is where the figures get totally fudged. How many are there because of Covid and how many are there *with* Covid, but they enter the Covid stats nevertheless. I really don’t think that Dr has a leg to stand on with is pro-jab argument, and citing Pfizer’s trial data is just laughable as we know. Both the safety and efficacy in clinical trials has been torn to shreds by many an expert now. This guy has been wheeled out before so it wouldn’t surprise me that if we scratch the surface he’s got some vested interests somewhere along the line. He sounds as biased as a drugs’ rep.
Strain also acknowledges that only 4 children at most may be hospitalised by this. Why bother continuing with the poison roll out then?
Initally we were big fans of GB News. They had an open goal to tell their watchers the truth and nothing but the truth. This as opposed to the Biased bbc, itv, channel 4 and sky news.
Instread they have reverted to nothing better than the sun rag in pedaling non news.
It really annoys us when the only ones worth watching, like Nigel, Mark and Neil, have finished their monologues, they then MUST have at least one obnoxious guest who disagrees with them.
The other annoyance is the usually have an unintelligible female with the most squeeky off putting voice. I listening to you DebbS – cannot.
Now I realise that we should be better than “them” and encourage issues to be debated from both sides, unlike the Lugen Presse and Media, but if GB News, is to remain a viable alternative to the propaganda broadcasters, it needs to up its game and be a real alternative.
As Neil Oliver is wont to say “These are just my opinions and let me know what you think”
Yes – initially I was optimistic for GB News as they seemed prepared to pick up the corona fraud baton and run with it, but lately they have really gone off the boil and I am very disappointed in them now.
That Doctor supporting jabbing children is talking absolute tripe. When he says “there were only 14 adverse effects” he doesn’t mention that is 14 adverse effects (ands I don’t believe that figure for a nano-second) that didn’t need to happen. If there were no deaths from Covid, which he actually confirmed, but 5 from jabs he’d still say “It’s only 5 deaths”.
He talks about “preventing children being off school” but it doesn’t because people still get Covid if they’ve had 4 jabs and, in fact, the jabbed are far more likely to catch it than the un-jabbed. Besides which, the main reason the children were off school was because of Unions and idle teachers who fancied a year off on full pay. Note how they only went back to work when the sun wasn’t shining?
Then he talks about “Granny” as though some 5 year old is a wanton wrecking ball scything down old people with Covid when the truth is that Granny will get it anyway because she has been jabbed to the eyeballs.
Why are the NHS so intent on lying?
Well when they have to wheel out that tired old argument that kids should get injected to protect the oldies then you know it’s coming from a place of sheer desperation. The jab zealots really will sink that low in using emotional blackmail and guilting people into getting their kids jabbed, the inference that if granny dies it will somehow have been the kid’s fault by inadvertently bumping them off by breathing on them is just unethical and sick, frankly. It also has no basis in scientific fact either. How can they simultaneously frighten the elderly into getting continuous jabs to protect themselves whilst somehow justifying kids getting the jab to protect their grandparents? That’s not even remotely logical and is just contradictory in the extreme.
Everybody seems to have forgotten that in cases without other illnesses (comorbidities, de jour) the treatment is two weeks max, off school/work. That’s it. End of and the free prize after two weeks is lifelong immunity.
There is no need for any big issue palaver. Two weeks on the sofa – max – done and dusted.
The price of Roubles in Euros is almost bound to go up – because they have stopped the Bank of Russia transacting in them. Who do you think was keeping the price of roubles down in the first place?
The Eurozone has decided it doesn’t want to export Euros or anything else to Russia. Yet it wants gas in return. A floating exchange rate is the balance between those two forces.
Eliminating the “Euro saver of last resort”, who issued Roubles against Euros – keeping the exchange rate down and aiding Russian exporters – will strengthen the Rouble.
That then makes Gazprom less profitable since it will require more Euros to buy the Roubles to pay its staff.
Thats the reason for moving pricing of Russian output to Roubles. They expect the rouble to rapidly appreciate
https://tomluongo.me/2022/03/28/got-gold-rubles-russia-just-broke-the-back-of-the-west/
India explores ‘rupee-rouble’ exchange scheme to skirt Russia sanctions
https://rumble.com/vyvu36-india-explores-rupee-rouble-exchange-scheme-to-skirt-russia-sanctions.html
tonyheller
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David Livingstone should have starved to death as a boy rather than work for a man with links to slavery, apparently.
From the propaganda machine…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60917585
ONLY 36% of the public are satisfied with the NHS wails the BBC.
FFS, the story (which would resonate with all of us here as more accurate), is why on earth are more than 1 in 3 of the public STILL satisfied with a dishonest, manipulative, bullying, woke obsessed organisation that has completely failed to serve the taxpayer in any meaningful way for a long time now, the past 2 years just being the icing on the cake?
Using caveats with this story apply obviously given where it comes from; is it true, what demographic polled, questions asked etc, etc.
Ps…..rhetorical question obviously…..the 36% (if indeed they exist) are still asleep.
“The People Promising Us “Net Zero” Have No Clue About The Energy Storage Problem”
Well worth reading in full, including the comments which note that the maintenance and replacement costs of energy storage run to over 10% of the sticker price per year.
These are the kind of back-of-an-envelope calculations that I also enjoy doing, and the numbers that come out – generation, storage and cost – are so mind bogglingly high that it emphasises that the people pushing Nut Zero are either complete cretins, or completely corrupt.
Even the vaunted massive tesla battery in Queensland is a miniscule project that can provide about 15 minutes of the State’s demand – it’s little more than a smoothing capacitor.
I doubt there’s enough lithium, cobalt and rare earths on the planet to “save the planet”. To get around that, New York are simply assuming and asserting that some new form of cheap, long term mass storage will appear by 2030, as if by
magicscience. They have no idea what it will be, but they know that they will call it a “Dispatchable Emissions Free Resource”. Apparently if you say it three times while looking in a mirror, it will appear.They also have no idea why they want to store it, what happens when it leaks, how to dispose of it. The most interesting is that the data simply does not add up, man made climate change simply does not exist, there is no evidence at all about CO2 and the entire planet would die without it. They say “the science is settled” but they base that on a paper that was discredited 20 years ago and assumes there will never, ever be any changes in the environment or human actions re the environment. it’s a pile of Prof’ Ferguson in simple terms: Bullshitimus Maximus.
Hear, hear.
Indeed, well worth reading in full. I sent it to my brother and it received an unbelievable thumbs up.
Rare praise.
There is a strong physiological reason why children should not be vaccinated, even if the Pfizer vaccine was 100% effective and that is the presence of methyl pseudouridine in the mRNA. Pseudouridine (denoted by the Greek character psi) can be found in the body as it is an isomer of uridine.
Pseudouridine itself attenuates the innate immune system, however when it is methylated in the form used in the Pfizer compounds the attenuation of the innate immune system is more pronounced. As children depend significantly more on the innate immune system, particularly those at the younger age range, then there is a significant risk of them becoming more unwell with other infections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudouridine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1-Methylpseudouridine
great post John!
Dr David Stain-on-humanity.
There’s no truth in the rumour that there’s going to be a remake of Dad’s Army with Captain Mainwaring being played by Boris Johnson, Corporal Jones by Matt Hancock, Private Fraser by Neil Ferguson and Private Godfrey by Keir Starmer
Russia sanctions redraw shipping routes, cleaving East from West
The tone of this article is very much adhering to the US sphere line on Russia, but the substance is what matters. All these politically imposed changes mean the world getting poorer.
Just as with all the productivity-destroying covid lunacy, these are colossal reductions in efficiency. While there will always be winners and ,losers, in the end the latter will far outweigh the former.
The question is, who will gain and who will lose, and by how much.
Refusing to use far cheaper Russian energy will make European production far less competitive than it already is, versus Chinese and Indian production, where they are not much affected by this ideologically sourced, manufactured lunacy.
excellent analysis of the judo/chess global finance game on show from Those Pesky Ruskies
https://tomluongo.me/2022/03/28/got-gold-rubles-russia-just-broke-the-back-of-the-west/
According to the Telegraph, free COVID tests for all will come to an end once the current wave of people using free COVID tests to test themselves repeatedly is over. Presumably, that’s when they’re all dead. 🙁
Re. Ben Kelly in CapX… what utter tripe this article is – pun intended! The argument put forward totally misses so many points about meat-eating. People’s health should be under greater consideration – as a nation, we seem to be particularly unhealthy at the moment. If that means not eating cheap meat as cited in the article, so be it. We should value meat more highly as a foodstuff to be enjoyed occasionally. Industrialised meat production is cruel, and wrong and produces an inferior product. Cheap sausages and burgers are not a treat but are bought because that’s all people can afford – or so they think. For example, they could afford offal, which is a rich source of protein and many other nutrients, but nobody knows how to cook this anymore. Expensive meat can be made to go further in many ways and the cost would then work out as spending the same amount on nasty, additive-filled, badly produced meat. Again people seem to have lost the knack for cooking like this. When I was growing up, my parents would buy a free-range chicken from the local butcher. It would be a roast on Sunday, eaten as cold meat… Read more »