Jerri-Lynn here: Yves again thanks readers for their interest in her progress.
The short version is:
1. The Hospital for Special Surgery is a phenomenal hospital. Nurses normally come in less than 5 mins when called, at worst, 10 mins at shift change time. The same MDs check up on her. She sees 3 most days, an MD on the surgeon’s team, later the surgeon, and in the PM a more generalist MD (the same one who did her pre-op testing).
2. The procedure was trouble-free. She has no memory of the procedure.
3. She was released from the recovery room in record time. Staff on duty couldn’t recall another double hip case being transferred to a regular room the same day
4. She has no pain except for a bound-up back which big time interfered early on with required sleeping on her back and normal soreness when trying to walk. The staff is a bit mystified about her lack of pretty much any pain at the 2 incision sites. particularly given the terrible condition of her hips prior to surgery.
5. However, she is frustrated by how little she can do now. She is staying in NYC longer than originally planned and will remain in NYC until late next week, not due to any lack of progress with her recovery (her surgeon had actually wanted her to stay in NYC for two weeks) but rather due to her failure so far to find PTs in Alabama who will come to her house.
*****
ESCAPING INTO BRITISH HUMOR IS THE PERFECT BALM Crime Reads. I adore Wodehouse, not only for the laughs and the madcap plots but also for his limpid prose.
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. Berfrois. George Orwell. From 1946; still germane.
Four Moptop Yobbos London Review of Books
The City That Never Sleeps Wants a Nightlife Museum WSJ
Covid-free Auckland, New Zealand, crowned world’s most livable city WaPo
Left-Wing Trade Unionist Pedro Castillo Will Be President of Peru Jacobin
The Crystal Hunters of Chamonix Outside
Hunters join forces with conservationists to call on B.C. to protect fish and wildlife habitat The Narwhal
Alaska’s ‘mushroom of immortality’ BBC
MTA bus lodged into Brooklyn brownstone turns into oddball attraction NY Post. Just a half block away from where we live.
Why the Portuguese administrators in India tried to stop the handover of Bombay to the British Scroll
Army to authorize beards if vaccine goal reached by July 4th DuffelBlog
#COVID-19
SOCIETYCOVID-19 Deaths: Who Wasn’t Counted? Capital & Main
Goldman Sachs requires US bankers to disclose vaccination status FT
Boris Johnson urged to keep English Covid rules in place beyond 21 June Guardian
A COVID-19 outbreak closed a hotel where some members of the G7 delegation and media are staying in Cornwall Business Insider
G-7 nations expected to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world AP
Brexit
Macron warns Johnson ‘nothing is negotiable’ over Northern Ireland protocol Guardian
Migrant Watch
The lost children of Ceuta and the “warehouses of shame” Qantara
Class Warfare
Noam Chomsky: The Elites Are Fighting a Vicious Class War All the Time Jacobin
WaPo Obscures Republican Role in Killing Equal Pay FAIR
Poverty Is A Weapon Of The Powerful: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone
Let the Apes Have Wall Street TK News. Matt Taibbi.
There is no competing with China without a competent state, and a state that cannot tax its powerful is not a competent state. https://t.co/lJoeLIYkkN
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 10, 2021
Big Brother IS Watching You Watch
How I Lost Control Over My Own Face Der Spiegel
TikTok changed the shape of some people’s faces without asking MIT Technology Review
Official: Lady Dorrian Rules Courts Should Apply Different Standards to Bloggers and Mainstream Media Craig Murray
Biden Administration
Harris gets tough reviews over border on first foreign trip The Hill
U.S. Lifts Sanctions on More Than Dozen Former Iranian Officials, Energy Firms WSJ
What to expect when Biden meets Erdogan Asia Times
A Biden Climate Test on the Banks of the Mississippi New Yorker
Gore pressed Biden to stick with climate plans as liberals fear White House is softening its agenda WaPo
Deal or no deal? Confusion rules Senate infrastructure talks Politico
White House briefed on bipartisan infrastructure deal but says questions remain The Hill
Waste Watch
Contested California packaging bills stalled, other recycling bills survive Waste Dive
Health Care
Lauren Aguirre on the Future of Alzheimer’s Research Lit Hub
India
Under Modi, Politics of Polarisation Takes Over Development Narrative During Pandemic The Wire
Delhi’s brutal Covid-19 wave took away their loved ones – and wiped out their savings Scroll
Solhan massacre exposes failure to tackle Sahel crisis Al Jazeera
“People Collected Severed Arms, Legs and Heads” Der Spiegel
UN says 350,000 face famine in Tigray, millions in danger Deutsche Welle
China?
China’s anti-sanctions law ‘can target individuals, families, organisations’m South China Morning Post
UK Hypes China ‘Threat’ While Selling Country Billions in Military-Related Equipment Consortium News
Boris Johnson’s China balancing act faces test as G7 comes to town South China Morning Post
Trump Transition
Hunting Leaks, Trump Officials Focused on Democrats in Congress NYT
Here was the contrived liberal outrage over Trump’s indisputably accurate comments that the US commits very similar crimes to those attributed to Putin. The outrage over Rep. Omar’s similar remarks – coming from neocons & some Dems – is just as dishonest:https://t.co/BevuJcXlk4
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 10, 2021
Antidote du Jour (via):
And a bonus video (The Rev Kev):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
175 comments
Comments are closed.
>Poverty Is A Weapon Of The Powerful: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone
Once you’re clear that human behavior is driving us into extinction via nuclear war or climate collapse, once you’ve really grokked into the reality of what this means, it’s hard to take the sectarian ideological stuff seriously. We’re fucking dying, people. Quit dicking around.
Is it “human behavior’ or “collective human behavior” that is driving us to extinction. I meet strangers and for the most part they seem decent. You’re gonna die one way or the other, dicking around or not. Personally I feel like I’m entering into a Dr. Strangelove mode of viewing the crazy “ideological stuff” and just learning “stop worrying and love the bomb.” Yes the human race is tethering on self-annihilation, but I watch the birds building nest outside my window and grok there are other life forms that will give “glory to God,” if you’ll pardon the religious allusion, life, either on this planet or out there in the cosmos, will keep on keeping on to where ever this river flows.
Caitlin is super intelligent and a good writer, but I’m with you. Most people are chugging along in life, dealing with their lumps and making meaning wherever they can.
Climate change is one thing. But It’s hard for me to take seriously this idea that we are on the edge of nuclear war. Where is that coming from? Because of US and China relations? We don’t even have a proxy war with China at the moment, so why the hand wringing? Call me when there’s a war in East Africa.
The more I scrolled through that article by her, the more it just bled together into doomer ranting.
I suggest both of you read the Noam Chomsky interview. He says essentially the same things Johnstone says but with considerably more hope.
As for nuclear war? I wouldn’t count out that possibility. Remember that the elites don’t die in wars, but the more unfortunate of them do die in revolutions. If there was a massive move towards ending inequality in this country, I don’t think it would be much of a stretch for the elites to create a war to deflect against a popular uprising. Anyone remember “Wag the Dog”? I seriously don’t think they are as afraid of nuclear destruction as the rest of us are – they can afford the nicest and most secure bomb shelters.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html
Found the perfect mine recently to hang out in if we blow ourselves up real good…
It’s flat & around 60 feet long and curves towards the end-a failed copper mine from about 150 years ago adjacent to a waterfall, and a 5 minute walk from the road to get there. The only issue being there’s around 6-10 inches of standing water, so ideally you’d want to bring a couple of wood pallets and a blow up mattress in order to make it more caveman comfortable.
When it comes to nuclear war I think the living would envy the dead.
I have a similarly-situated storm drain in mind here in the Bay Area. 30 feet underground, 12-15 feet wide, and only a tad bit of water. Wouldn’t be pleasant but much better than being above-ground if the SHTF!
Fair enough. I went and read it. But his solution/answer seems to be that Biden is malleable and that there’s real progress going on with Biden. I had to look at the recording date, which they indicated is “earlier this year.” Someone further down the comments had a similar observation
It doesn’t seem to have held up. In just a few months, Biden has lost steam. Maybe Chomsky bought the fdr marketing.
It’s also hard for me to take seriously the idea that Chomsky can cast a critical eye on labor politics when the lockdowns of 2020 caused one of the worst labor situations of my lifetime, while billionaires thrived. Class divisions have never been starker than at this moment post pandemic.
Chomsky has more faith in the progressive movement than I have. Maybe he’s right; I don’t know. Since I have been sick and now moving, I haven’t kept up with what is happening out there.
I personally think we have gone past the tipping point – that nothing we do now will save ourselves and that this will end as it has ended historically – with the destruction of our government and the takeover by dictators. We’ve lost control and now we just have to ride it out.
Well I don’t think you’ve missed much, because not much has changed! There’s less obnoxious tweeting, but all the promise of Biden’s FDR moves has evaporated as his legislative agenda has hit a wall.
Re: riding it out, from my study of history, and maybe yours, I think the best thing is to stay as far away from the notice of power as possible. Creeping totalitarianism is an easy prediction. But even the worst totalitarian regimes are usually much more impotent than they make themselves out to be.
But to your earlier comment, I concur with David below. He said all the things on my mind! Nuclear war just is not a threat like it used to be. So I choose not to worry about it. There’s very little I could do if I did worry about it.
Biden’s “legislative agenda” has not “hit a wall,” except maybe in the sense that he and his minions had no intention of forcing any of the supposed campaign promises, and can now hide behind “Manchinism” and the bogey man of Republican intransigence. The amount of effort the Biden regime has put into moving that promised “legislative agenda” is diddly-squat.
It begins to appear that Team BidenDem brought their own Bouncy Wall with them so they could have something for their “agenda” to hit if they couldn’t find a real wall to run their “agenda” into.
While I don’t think we’re a dead species walking, I do believe we are -for the time being- ensconced in a moribund ideology/mythology/paradigm/ still functioning -for the 1%.
If some breeding pairs of Ituri Rain Forest Pigmies survive in the Congo, or some breeding pairs of Aymara alpaca herders survive in the High Altiplano, then Species Man is not yet dead; and the Human Future will be in their strong hands.
Imagine…spending all the time aquiring wealth to spend your last days, and it would be the last (have to eventually come out or never get out) in a bunker with people not at all impressed by your wealth.
Hasn’t been thought through any more than the plans about “green” this and “green” that.
I think you’re right that the elites fear nuclear war less than revolution, and maybe- I don’t know- some think that nuclear winter might counteract global warming? It doesn’t seem such a reach, considering this is one of their hair-brained ideas: https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/01/11/bill-gates-backed-climate-solution-gains-traction-but-concerns-linger/?sh=5f78ab53793b
I wanted to read the Jacobin article until I saw that Anna Kasparian is a co-author. F-Anna (in reference to her smear of Aaron Mate.) Nope.
The frightening thing, the reason I fret about nuclear war, is the constant provoking of adversaries. The most dangerous provocation that stands out in recent memory was the proposal, apparently revealed by anonymous sources (as is most government propaganda), to conduct a “bloody nose” nuclear strike on North Korea’s missile testing range. Obama’s decision to proceed with the “modernization” of nuclear forces was bad enough, but the claim that we could fire a single nuclear weapon without unleashing the holocaust, much less a catastrophic conventional war in South Korea demonstrated that we are governed by lunatics. They seem to believe that everything we were taught about the effects of nuclear war during the Cold War is a lie to frighten the “sheeple” into compliance. They cannot conceive of emerging from their nice underground bunkers to find that the world they knew does not exist, and their money and connections no longer work to protect them.
“We don’t even have a proxy war with China at the moment, so why the hand wringing?”
Understatement of the year. From where I watch, there is a lot more than just a proxy war going on. But then, one has to be paying attention. Biden said – climate change is the main threat; he got corrected by the military brass – oh, no, Russia and China are the main threats!
Plus there certainly is a war in east Africa – Ethiopia and Tigray. There may be a proxy war in Myanmar. I wish I could have your optimism!
Yep, I predict that the next real proxy war, starting with deployment of troops in “advising” roles for local forces, is by AFRICOM in support of one side or another in the Ethiopia/Eritrea/Tigray region. Maybe in a N+S Sudan conflict, who knows. China has a huge interest in the region, so it only makes sense for us to go ruin some lives over there.
But! It doesn’t seem like it’s started yet. So I don’t see the point in worrying about nuclear war right now. Or, really, ever, since the average person has zero control over it.
There’s a proxy war going on in Syria and Iraq and all around Iran, also Libya, lest we all forget. And the warring with US covert involvement will go on in Afghanistan. And all those other places where CENTCOM and AFRICOM and the rest are doing their dirt.
It may not be war, but there is a battle of narratives via Uighurs and Hong Kong civil unrest. There’s also the flexing militarily between China and U.S. in the South China Sea. Then there’s the situation with Taiwan. Add it all up and it becomes clear that the U.S. and China are increasingly in conflict. I don’t see this conflict leading to nuclear war. I think it’s more likely that the U.S. and Russia engage in nuclear war before China, though perhaps that risk is lowering now (if Nordstream is an indicator).
As much as I enjoy reading Caitlin Johnstone’s articles, I think she misses the mark with this part: “Preventing the rise of any other nation has been the foremost priority of the US empire since the fall of the Soviet Union. All the other little chess moves on the board have revolved around this ultimate goal. China is the only nation in a position to surpass the US.”
The wealthy elite that control the U.S. and its policies completely opened the door for China’s rise with the dissolution of the post-WWII trade structure, creation of NAFTA, and introduction of China into the WTO. The wealthy elite have made money hand over fist through these economic policies, but they’ve sold out long-term U.S. economic power and its people in doing so. Their greed has been both their biggest strength and weakness. It appears they’re now trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube since they can foresee a paradigm shift with China’s rise, enabled by growth in the real economy over the financial sector, but that horse has left the barn.
The elite may use the U.S. military as a blunt instrument in what is fundamentally an economic ideological war with China, but as noted by John Dolan, there’s no straightforward way to win and maintain control. It’s kind of a fool’s errand. So, if push were to come to shove, the elite would use that instrument to damage China in hopes for concessions but once underway, they would flee the U.S. for their bunkers in New Zealand, yachts in Monaco, homes in London or Caribbean, etc. They have no allegiance to the U.S., they only wish to leverage U.S. power in their interests. In other words, the U.S. is just a vehicle to get what they want, they don’t give a hoot about the people or land that make up the U.S. Hopefully, through labor strikes and taking to the streets (and other means), the plebes of the U.S. can wrestle some control away from the wealthy elite before they push buttons that only make matters much much worse than they already are.
The US has spent decades and billions building a missile shield around Russia and China, and fully intends to engage both in military conflicts with the goal of maintaining its hegemony. Both conflicts are going to involve looking down the barrel of a nuclear exchange.
Every day puts the US at a disadvantage in competing with China. It’s on borrowed time, and knows it, which is what is driving record breaking Pentagon appropriations year after year, even as it flounders in every direction. The US has been withdrawing from its Cold War anti-nuke treaties with Russia and has been revamping and expanding it’s own arsenal.
Just because you haven’t been paying any attention doesn’t mean that we aren’t heading towards nuclear war.
Spot on Vlad. Their tax dollars in action. But tax Bezos et. al. to address actual problems that the States have, no way.
China will break the US economically and they’re well on their way to do so.
I don’t see that making a nuclear exchange less likely. The more the US feels economically at risk, the more likely they may play the nuclear card, or at least use it as a bluff.
Er, where’s this missile shield exactly? It hasn’t had much media coverage in the western media, at least.
As long as our adversaries put transponders on their MIRVS and don’t deploy any counter measures our boys will bat 500. Oops …
I wonder if Johnstone has any idea what it was actually like to live through an era when nuclear war seemed not only possible, but imminent, and when there were times when you went to bed not knowing whether you would wake up a radioactive crisp. We’re farther away from nuclear war now than perhaps we’ve ever been, largely because elites have simply stopped being as terrified and paranoid of each other as they were then. The current bad-mouthing between the US and China wouldn’t even have made page five of the world’s heavyweight newspapers in the 1960s.
Nuclear war is the only thing elites have ever really been frightened about, because it targets them: indeed, they are the primary targets. By the 1980s, governments around the world had pretty much given up hope of surviving in the face of a nuclear attack: the best that could be hoped for was for some kind of regional administration to survive, and to slowly piece the country back together over the course of several decades. Everybody I ever knew, from any country, who was involved with nuclear war planning, had basically the same response: I hope I’m under the first one with my family, because the aftermath will be worse than anything you can imagine. We’re not in that position now, thankfully, and it’s dangerous and misleading to believe that “human nature” is driving us there.
She may not have an idea about that specific fear, and we may be further from nuclear war than previously. Maybe. But billions of people still live in contstant fear of a random death from above as noted in the Der Spiegel link above describing what France is currently doing to the locals in Mali –
If you’re on the receiving end, does it really matter whether you were vaporized by nukes or ripped to shreds with conventional weapons?
Johnstone can probably only imagine what that’s like too, and the same goes for me, luckily, but that doesn’t make it less of an atrocity. Maybe using nukes was a poor choice to get her point across, maybe, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees here people.
Yeah, it’s just a few comments on a website, but the last couple days of calling Greenwald into question on a relatively minor quibble and now taking Johnstone to task on her choice of words while missing the major point, well it’s starting to look like that circular firing squad.
We hear “elect the least bad option and then hold their feet to the fire”. Then when some journos do that, they get torn down for not being perfect. We want people to fight in opposition to empire, to cut through the government propaganda coming from all sides and get the truth out to people, and when they do we argue over their choice of words. Greenwald has no doubt put his life at risk to get out some of the stories he has which is more than the vast majority of us anonymously commenting can say.
Let’s cut these people some slack, because when we we don’t, I guarantee you the Rupert Murdochs and Les Moonves and Jeff Bezos of the world and all of the other members of that big club that we aren’t in will be laughing their asses off as they continue to count their money.
” We’re farther away from nuclear war now than perhaps we’ve ever been, largely because elites have simply stopped being as terrified and paranoid of each other as they were then. “
I understand where you are coming from with this sentiment, and certainly the mouthpiece ecosphere would want everyone to believe, but I find the opposite conclusion from the lack of terror expressed. It takes less than the push of a button to commence a nuclear war, it just takes a decision, which happens in the mind of some ape in a suit. Suspecting those particular apes are not terrified makes that decision easier.
I think the point is that, during the Cold War, there was an irrational and paranoid fear of attack by the other side. This was very obvious in the West (and to anyone in government at the time it was everywhere) but what we only learned after 1990 (though some us had long suspected it) is that the Soviet Union was equally, if not more, frightened of the West. For example, we discovered that Soviet and East German armoured units in the DDR were on two hours notice to move out, because the official judgement was that that was all the warning they would get of a NATO attack.
The juvenile level of mutual hostility being displayed now, tiresome as it might be, is just not comparable. Since a nuclear war means, by definition, the end of the world, there are few incentives to start one as things stand: for which we should be grateful. I’m human, you are human and I rather imagine that the rest of us here are too: none of us, I think, want a nuclear war either.
The US Admin has so many apes in decision making positions who won’t think twice about recommending pushing the button. With a senile President or an uninformed one he/she would go with the recommendation. BOOM!
I thought the movie “Threads” expressed this well.
My kid is a horror movie fan, and has asked me what the scariest movie I’ve ever seen was; that’s it right there. Nothing else comes close, if you ask me.
I guess you pooh-pooh the atomic scientists and their Doomsday Clock, currently set at 100 seconds to midnight after some pretty informed and careful consideration by people who are actually in the business of scrutinizing risks of nuclear and other kinds of war and other ongoing calamities. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
Yup. The last time I looked, nuclear physics and the practical study of politics and government were two very different disciplines. In my (limited, admittedly) experience, few people understand less about the problems of the world than atomic scientists.
A nuclear war between USA-Russia that starts by accident or miscalculation is pretty unlikely now. Both sides have robust triads and communication and surveillance systems (spy satellites, radars, aircraft reconnaissance). Plus both sides talk to each other regularly, at multiple levels of hierarchy. By contrast, the 1950s and early 60s were really precarious. Only bombers. No satellites for early warning, just (quite primitive) radars and visual detection (remember “The DEW Line” and “The Pinetree Line”?). Very little communication, except via the embassies in DC and Moscow. Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” was not such a wild fantasy. We are much safer now, at least in this one respect.
I recommend Daniel Ellberg’s very readable book “The Doomsday Machine,” which lays out the many, many instances (still recurring) of accidents with nuclear warheads that come close to setting off one of them. It’s not a geopolitical threat so much as a screwup-because-we’re-human threat.
However, that and the apparently intractable climate crisis have led me to edge toward agreement with you and zagonostra. If civilization or the human species comes to end in X number of years or decades, well, we’ll have had a good run. Our story will be inscribed on the parchment of the universe as life in other forms goes on.
Meanwhile, if I were young enough to reproduce and so inclined, I would cheerfully do so. Things might pan out better than I expect, but even if not, my progeny would only meet the same fate that we all meet. And their stories would then add a bit to the wealth of the human story.
Just before WWI, European elites were certain that, just as war scares for the past 40 or so years had been No Big Deal, so this would pass, and if a war did come up, it was sure to be short and manageable.
There was a whole school of thought, very well argued and well-developed, which held that a general European war could not last longer than a few months, as all sides would quickly run out of money. (They were right – judging by pre-war financial methods. The argument didn’t take into account just how far European governments would go, just so that they could keep on fueling the slaughter.)
Well said!
“PRIME MEMBER Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space mission ridiculed after people liken Blue Origin rocket to a giant penis’ ”
Not many people realize it but Jeff Bezos has already taken a test run of this rocket some time ago. It caused quite a stir at the time-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t4_a7tESf4 (58 secs)
Maybe he’s taking an evil looking, small version of himself. Jeff will call him mini me.
wall st is dr. evil, ….jeff is already mini me… he’s riding the coattails of the greedy who came before him
I hear he’s already texted a picture of his “Blue Origin” to Melinda Gates, looking for a hookup…
Once you realize the Amazon logo is a penis, you can’t not see it. Delivery vans and tractor trailers driving across the country showing everyone what a d-ck Bezos is.
I noted this before, but watch what that logo does underwater in this ad that aired at the Superbowl. It happens right at the end at about :58. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNxqveseyI
Like you said, once you realize it, you can’t unsee it. Bezos is one big walking dicpic. My offer from yesterday to take a sledgehammer to any of this penis-themed spyware still stands.
So glad to hear that Yves is doing well. All other NC bloggers are doing great in her absence!
Quoting from Above: [S]he is frustrated by how little she can do now.
To which I say: That’s our Yves! And good for her!
Yves, I have one more thing to say: Keep on recovering, because we miss you!
Madam Smith, please get your rest while you can. Looking forward to the next CALPERS episode.
I am so happy for her. And I figure this is nature’s way of making her take her recovery at a human pace rather than her preferred superhuman one!
I admit to looking forward to Bionic Yves taking on CalPERS and other usual culprits.
Haha. The next SitRep could have the ominous promise at the end of it-
“I’ll be back!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZdVWKM1ILs (12 secs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz_DT54sfAo
Who is the Iceman?
https://bionic.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman
: )
The back trouble after the replacement sounds familiar — after the period of healing and strengthening, stretching the soas muscle gave me significant relief.
Actually the back was getting really tight in the week before the surgery due to compensating for my formerly better leg going to hell rapidly. That plus flying plus weird body position during surgery pushed it into a worse state.
Doc says no psoas stretches till 6 weeks out. He is giving me strict speeches about doing only what I am told and not getting too frisky: “I would put you in a bubble if I could.”
Oh, no! She’s back!
We are SO busted now. Better get back to work, everybody!
A great deal of back pain and tightness comes down to postural issues and with your hip problems I’m sure you had them in spades. With luck it should be self-correcting over time now, although you may have residual bad habits that will need fixing (I’m sure the PT can help you tackle those).
Glad to hear things went well!
“She has no memory of the procedure.”
This is generally to be desired. My hip replacement surgeon told me that one of his patients requested an epidural rather than a general anesthetic so that he could watch his own hip replacement operation. I don’t recall whether or not this was allowed. I, OTOH, am of a more squeamish nature and prefer to be as far away from myself as possible when undergoing such procedures.
As a child, I injured my knee while playing. I remember crying and being in paid, then, I remember stopping my crying as the skin on my kneecap slid away to reveal the knee joint itself. I was fascinated at being able to see my own bones and joint, just like I had read so much about in The Little Golden Encyclopedia.
Medical grade anesthesia administered by a professional is one of the few bright spots of surgery. Enjoy it.
They allowed me to stay awake for a while but for a 4 hour surgery, it’s too much for the patient because they are put in a really weird position on top of all the other weirdness. I did anticipate that they’d have to put me under at some point but I thought I would be able to tell them when I couldn’t take it any more or was too bored.
They did give me the twilight sleep briefly at the top because even getting in position for the epidural was painful. They had to put me under again a couple of times later before they did it for the duration. I apparently complained every time I woke up about having been knocked out. I don’t remember any of this. I woke up in the recovery room and (again) started complaining about being knocked out for what I mistakenly believed to have been the entire procedure.
The people at HSS are so nice that the anesthesiologist visited me in the hospital to explain what happened…as if he needed to apologize when I had been the bad actor.
Looks like Yves is as feisty as ever and that is a GOOD thing!
Yves, can’t tell you how wonderful it is to hear from you. Sending all good karma!
Yeah, I always shut my eyes before getting a shot, on the theory that the unexpected pain is much less than the anticipated (for a long time) pain.
Bipartisan group rules out tax hikes on high-income earners on infrastructure proposal
and
There is no competing with China without a competent state, and a state that cannot tax its powerful is not a competent state.
Something tells me a lot of this spending perhaps especially the subsidies going to rich gigantic chip makers for the purpose of increasing production, who are suffering the unbearable pain of having a product to sell at almost any price they choose because it is very short in supply, these govt subsidies will make there way to stock buybacks and CEO bonuses and rewards to top management.
House and Senate people have been shown to spend more time raising funds than they do on the following:
1. Writing legislation – that has prepared armies of lobbyists for a long time.
2. Interacting with constituents, beyond the donors.
Without an independent press, expect 1 and 2 to remain static. Greenwald, Taibbi and others have raised the issues but without the reach that would engage more voters.
> subsidies will make there way to stock buybacks
well, if interest rates have to rise, this might be a way of keeping equities prices aloft.
So many tools in the toolkit!
I like to presume the least one it comes our Congresscritters. It conjures to mind the scene from Blazing Saddles.
“Gentlemen we must protect our phoney baloney jobs! Harrumph harrumph!! I didn’t get a harrumph out of that guy. A harrumph for the governor, please.”
I recommend the inflation post, it’s wonkish but makes good points about the political playing field
How about “Group of Multi-millionaires Rules Out Tax Hike on Themselves”. This saves time. You can go do your laundry or feed the cats. You know, something productive.
“If you don’t oppose western imperialist agendas against China,” Caitlin Johnstone writes in her most recent post, “then none of your other anti-imperialism matters. All of the western empire’s aggressions on the world stage are ultimately about smashing China; that’s checkmate on the global chessboard in the eyes of the empire…. The western empire has been acutely aware that China would need to be smashed since before the empire had its headquarters in Washington.”
Johnstone next, to great and rather shocking effect, proceeds to quote Churchill on China: “I think we shall have to take the Chinese [Churchill said] in hand and regulate them. I believe that as civilized nations become more powerful they will get more ruthless, and the time will come when the world will impatiently bear the existence of great barbaric nations who may at any time arm themselves and menace civilized nations. I believe in the ultimate partition of China—I mean ultimate. I hope we shall not have to do it in our day. The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.”
Churchill, we should remind ourselves, stood at the end of a massive tradition of Western expansion, and he was expressing the same view of us the civilized vs. them the barabarians which we find in Aristotle: “There is another sort of monarchy not uncommon among the barbarians,” Aristotle wrote (Politics 1285a, Jowett trans.), “which nearly resembles tyranny. But even this is legal and hereditary. For barbarians, being more servile in character than Hellenes, and Asiatics than Europeans, do not rebel against a despotic government. Such royalties have the nature of tyrannies because the people are by nature slaves; but there is no danger of their being overthrown, for they are hereditary and legal.”
So my question is this: To what extent — if any — have the authors and executors of our foreign policy in the State Department and CIA reconsidered their fundamental understanding of China since the time of Churchill and Mao? Furthermore, especially now that our elites are trying to justify themselves by pouring huge heaps of Wokeist “anti-racist” bullshit into all the gears of bureaucracy, is the underlying truth of the matter just as Aristotelian as it ever was?
“Barbarism” versus civilization was Churchill’s all purpose excuse or perhaps the British upper class all purpose excuse. National Gallery head Kenneth Clark once made a TV series about art and called it Civilisation.
Of course Civilisation was a great show even if Clark’s deep think about what it all means not so much. Churchill had his moments too.
This is a part of US history in China: on Yangpat(s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKgrb0oggfE
The Chinese remember those, just like Russians remember the Intervention war in 1918
Covid-free Auckland, New Zealand, crowned world’s most livable city WaPo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Auckland has a housing bubble that makes all others seem ho hum, and is more or less the NYC of NZ. (Kiwis that live elsewhere in Godzone describe the occupants as JAFA’s: just another effin’ Aucklander)
I much preferred Christchurch before the earthquake hit, what a perfect big city it was, not that anybody goes on holiday to NZ for its Big Smokes.
I visited Christchurch for two weeks back in January of 2002, it was an amazing city. Understated, but full of life on the south island.
post earthquake?
I was born and raised in Auckland’s suburbs. Cost me a whacking big penny to ride the bus back then. ‘Taint like it useta be these days, but I’d say it was the world’s most livable city for a kid back then. I’m so glad I had that experience.
“Noam Chomsky: The Elites Are Fighting a Vicious Class War All the Time”
Yeah, this is quite true and has been for a very long time. Even Warren Buffet came out several years ago and said the same thing when he said “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” But what solution did Chomsky have for America’s troubles? Vote for Joe Biden. Seriously, that’s it. He read Biden’s promise and actually believed that old Joe was going to do any of them. And now he believes that Jan 6th was an attempt at a coup. Sorry, but at age 92, Chomsky has passed his use-by date. He went from being a leading critic of the Vietnam War to saying only three years ago that the US had to stay and occupy parts of Syria because reasons. If you want to be brutal about it, look who the co-interviewer was for this article was. It’s Ana Kasparian. And the reason that she interviewed him is that she knows that he will not embarrass the Biden Presidency. Chomsky saying that Joe can be presses – aka pushed left – is just delusional and is only providing cover for Biden.
I’m basically OK with what you said but gotta as always point out
>hat old Joe was going to do any of them.
I don’t think he is going to do much either, but was? He just passed his 100days. He might be LBJ II, and note that LBJ had been VP since 1960, transitioned to President on Kennedy’s assignation in 1963 (and before all that was the most powerful man in Congress), and the Civil Rights Act didn’t get passed until the middle of 1964.
So maybe just watch for a bit before publishing “The History of the 2020s”, you know?
>And now he believes that Jan 6th was an attempt at a coup. Sorry
Sorry, I believe* that it was, too. You think it was just a frat party that got out of hand, OK. But I’ve seen a few college parties get out of hand, and…. no. Saying it wasn’t over and over again does not prove anything except what team you are on.
*note I said “I believe”, Chomsky “believes” — but you are coming across as asserting a fact that there is no way you can possibly know.
I may have to disagree with you about Jan 6th. If it was a coup, they would have been packing their AR-15s with a ton of ammo and perhaps explosives too. They would have had a plan of action and a manifest or statement of intent to read out live on the internet from the occupied podium. They would have actually taken hostages and started to fortify that building. That is what happens in a real coup.
This mob pushed their way in until the guards stood aside for them. They had no guns and took nothing but selfies and souveniers. Some went looking through papers to find incriminating evidence and about the only thing of consequence taken was Pelosi’s laptop. In the end they were pushed back out and in truth a lot of them wanted to go anyway to go to a bar and swapped ‘war’ stories. It was embarrassing.
And Chomsky in an interview said ‘Jan. 6th was very clearly an attempt to carry out a coup. It is about the 3-minute mark in this short video-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9_3ubQfngE
I respect Chomsky’s work, but I disagree. The protestors on Jan 6th livestreamed their actions. They wanted to be noticed and to peacock their actions to their clans. They were not a serious group, nor did they seek to overthrow the gov’t by physical force. Unruly, yes.
Plus, a real insurrection would have made some attempt to take over major broadcasters. At the very least they would have had armed teams ready to swarm CNN, MSNBC and Fox News and spokesmen well prepared to occupy the anchor desks.
Must disagree. Many coups are triggered by unplanned, unanticipated incidents that touch a nerve. The Storming of the Bastille was a demonstration that cascaded out of anyone’s control via a series of accidents and misunderstandings. The Russian 1917 Revolution was triggered by troops firing on demonstrators in Petrograd. Had they not done so perhaps history would have been different, or arrived at the same place by a different route.
The Storming of Congress could have triggered a coup had there been enough tinder of resentment and anger in the larger population, or perhaps had the authorities responded in a sufficiently heavy-handed manner to trigger others into further protests themselves triggering more heavy-handed responses into a cascade of ever more serious incidents, or had something completely unpredictable happened that changed the mood of the nation.
As it turned out the tinder was not there for the fire to start, but I suspect that in the minds of many on that day, believing Trump, they thought there was and that they were putting the match to the fire that would bring the support they imagined flocking to their banner to overturn the fraudulent election result. Hence to that extent I would argue it was a real coup attempt.
Dunno. Coups are almost always conducted by the military. They need a lot of advance planning, because if you give the incumbents time to organize they will probably have enough loyal forces to stop you. I’m speaking based on how coups have worked here in Thailand since 1932. They used to be substitutes for elections, shooing the old crowd away from the trough so a different bunch could gorge from it. They all depended for success on seizing control of the radio/tv stations and the military headquarters. The last couple have been outliers, because there were real political differences involved between democrats, populists, ultra-nationalists, and monarchists. I haven’t studied them, but I think most South/Central American coups have been the same. I should look up how Chile overthrew Pinochet. We may not see the results of the 1/6 Riot for years to come. There were, by the way, a couple of organizations that brought arms, but left them outside the Capitol. Most of the people there were not members of those groups, were not organized, which was why agitators were able to take command of them.
I agree with you, Rev. January 6 was no more of a serious coup than was the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The US Congress today is no more the seat of the real government of the USA in 2021 than was the Feldherrnhalle in Munich nearly a century ago. This was more of a collective good ol’ boy “Hold my beer and watch this!” caper. A real coup attempt would have had a plan to disable the people in control of the levers of government and today neither we nor they don’t even know who or where they are.
Biden has a long record of fighting for corporations and doing as little as possible to help the little people, while maintaining a cute harmless persona the whole time. He is simply the hack chosen to carry the blue-corporate banner this term, and has no intention of doing anything FDR like. I’m sorry people are so desperate for hope that they buy this line of bull from the lapdog press. LBJ with all his flaws identified with poor people and did want to help them, and had the courage and skill to go for it. There is nothing in Biden’s record of achievements which suggests he would do anything similar.
LBJ also had the Great Society. Of course, he had to clean house on the domestic side of the White House. He didn’t have his own people. Its just a shame he left Kennedy’s best and brightest on the foreign policy side.
LBJ had the Civil Rights Act of 1956 and a number of other progressive accomplishments as a senator including protections as such as they are for migrant workers. The comparisons to Biden are simply absurd.
This is the Presidency of the United States. Have some respect for the country. Demand more.
If one looks through the manual: Edward Luttwak – “Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook”, the events and organization and the crowd involve does not amount with a coup.
“But what solution did Chomsky have for America’s troubles? Vote for Joe Biden. Seriously, that’s it.”
Seriously, that’s false. Chomsky never said that voting for Biden would be a “solution for America’s troubles.” He said the opposite. His claim, made clear in many interviews and debates with people like Briahna Joy Gray, was that defeating Trump was critical to avoid plunging immediately into a neofascist abyss, a tactical necessity, but Biden was a classic imperial elitist guaranteed not to deliver salvation. Vote to beat Trump, but don’t overestimate how much positive good that will accomplish, or how much any election is worth: that was Chomsky’s message, repeated many times, versions of which he’s made with reference to every national election for decades. Disagree if you will, but with the actual position, not a straw man.
And this quote from the interview:
Indeed, Chomsky has been an anarchist syndicalist since the late 60’s. And in every election when he says I will vote ‘democrat’ (or recently I wish Sanders would win) People ALWAYS leave out whatever else he says or has said for 50 years now. Capitalism has to be overthrow, by bottom up movements…voting only takes half an hour (heh depends on where you live, yes)….the rest of our time should be organizing against the entire political and economic system. He has said this over and over and over…….and indeed very tired that people leave out his basic political beliefs for so much time now. Do they even look up his books?
Completely agree with your analysis and saddened by how far Chomsky has fallen. On several Jimmy Dore shows JD has taken him to task while still showing deference and respect for his contribution.
If I make it to 92, I’ll be happy if I can string together a sentence and tie my own shoe laces.
Chomsky thinks global warming is the number one threat and that Biden had to replace Trump for this reason. Of course it is a threat but dubious that switching politicians is going to help.
Switching politicians from ” global warming is a liberal hoax” to ” global warming is a thing” may at least give reality-based climate-realists more room to move and act in.
I wish that old turd would just turn in already instead of endlessly simping for the democrats like the grey noodle he is.
I am pretty much with you. For anything useful Chomsky may have done at one time (and that is not to take away anything, good or bad, that he may have once done), he is now reduced to churning out ever more pathetic pleas for lesser evilism.
Vlad, Please don’t let our comments slip and slide into something one would read on Breitbart. “Old turd” and “grey noodle” add nothing to the debate but do subtract from it. We can see between the lines and get your point but do you have any facts or links to support your concept?
Mine would be that he asked people not to vote for Bernie. That’s when I lost confidence in him, though I still respect him for his past work – quite substantial. Bernie and Biden, night and day. Look at where his “infrastructure” plan is now. Paltry and doesn’t address global warming one bit. Shitty I say and maybe “turd” could slip into my comment. Wait, it just did. Cheers Vlad.
Wow, you must all be reading some strange truncated versions of Chomsky’s views. IN the real world, Chomsky has said since 2016, Sanders should win, when he didn’t, well vote against trump. And then over and over, voting is a temporary thing…the real work is overthrowing capitalism, and organizing bottom up. In 2019, said the same thing, wanted Corbyn and Sanders to win, then said he would vote Biden. And then also said over and over….that only real change comes from bottom up revolution…..jeez….I like Jimmy Dore, but he wouldn’t know Chomsky’s real politics if you hit him on the head with a Bakunin or Goldman or Rocker book….Jimmy is playing like a gate keeper when his best times are against doing that….Chomsky is still an anarchist syndicalist or libertarian socialist if your prefer. Do people even read what he has written/said in the past 20 years????
Buwahahaha! Right aligned group uses “Russian” tactics to astroturf Democrat voters.
You know, if the Democrats wouldn’t keep refusing to support pro-labor, left aligned policies, it wouldn’t be so easy for Republicans to do this. Also, if they’d just regulate things like Facebook instead of also trying to abuse it, this type of fraud wouldn’t be so easy to execute. And still with the references to Russia. Team Blue deserves everything they get in this case.
Yeah but I’m not sure the long-term effects of running Michael White and Jo Crain quotes is gonna have the effect they want?
Of course you can argue that “democracy will be over in 2022” – a position I will not contest – so they just need to stick a few more pins in the Dems voting base to ensure it.
But
1) Broadcasting left-wing memes as a positive thing everywhere *and*
2) Using it to put into office people that will do just the opposite…
Is really really going to blow up in their faces down the line, democracy or no democracy. Ah well a lot of things have changed about the Republicans but they are still The Stupid Party for sure.
Wait I think I’ve finally pieced it together! So troll farms are a “Russian” tactic, David Brock’s troll farm was financed by the Clinton campaign, ergo Hillary Clinton must be a secret Russian agent. QED!
sure explains a lot
I’d say rather that Madame ‘C’ is an “Useful Idiot.”
Decent interview with Chomsky. Ana Kasparian should do more of this, and far less of her ridiculous petty infighting with other journalists.
Ana Kasparian and TYT in general have been completely discredited. Do you not recall her obsequious interview with Madame Albright? How about her recent foul-mouth tirade against Aaron Mate? She is vile.
Also, as the Rev correctly points out, Chomsky’s views have been veering off course as of late. Many consider him their intellectual hero, he was and somewhat continues to be for me as well. But I do now see some of the criticism of him that he functions as the “Gate keeper of the Left” is valid.
And with all due respect for Chomsky’s intellect and courage, what kind of Left has someone in their 90’s as a gatekeeper?
Perhaps the same kind of Left that in NYC, via the Morales mayoral campaign, fell for a landlord and charter school tout as the “Left” candidate.
“A COVID-19 outbreak closed a hotel where some members of the G7 delegation and media are staying in Cornwall”
That’s not the only problem that they have there. Fog has socked in this region so that a lot of the delegations cannot fly in direct but are having to land elsewhere and then drive the rest of the way – all four hours. Could have guessed something like this happening. Cornwall has some of the most beautiful places to visit in England. It also has some of the most ‘unpredictable’ weather in England as well. Check out this article from only two weeks ago-
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/devon-cornwall-weather-among-most-5457922
If Boris and Biden start getting about, I can guess at another problem. They travel in these convoys with cars built like tanks but I have heard that you can have some pretty narrow roads in Cornwall, particularly in the towns, and research that I have done about this area seems to indicate it being true. Pity the poor security detachments.
Speaking as a proud American of Cornish descent, I am glad to see Cornwall living up to its unpredictable reputation. And those roads? Good luck with getting ANYWHERE fast.
I’m feelin’ evil enough to make some popcorn. This Cornish show is going to be even funnier than “Doc Martin” or that classic movie, “Saving Grace.”
You are of Cornish descent too? Glad to hear that cousin. The Cornish in the 19th century went everywhere. They were an amazing people.
Yes, Reverend, it’s true. I’m a cousin.
If we ever met in person, I’d tell you my last name. You’d immediately recognize as Cornish.
I actually expect it to be more along the lines of “Poldark.”
I’m thinking more Straw Dogs.
Uh, Plutonium, I hate to break the news to you, but I think your link got lost in the Cornish fog.
The treatment of Craig Murray by the UK Authorities is a startlingly blunt example of a Kangaroo court and the cost of openly disagreeing with the official narrative.
Overt censorship is here to stay both in the US and the UK,
NC appears to add enough value and not pose enough of a threat that it hasn’t been shut down, yet.
I do expect that to happen within a year or two.
Assange, Manning, Murray, Kiriakou…it’s no wonder we have a craven media when you see how sweet the carrot and how big the stick has grown.
And it’s openly acknowledged that the USA is going to bring home the policies that have worked so well in Afghanistan and elsewhere to ensure that Freedom and Democracy prevail at home as it has abroad.
I’m not as pessimistic as you about the prospects for suppression of NC, but if that happened, I think it could carry on — it’s too useful to too many of us — though possibly it would have to mutate into an email blast, with maybe a searchable archive filed online. The comments function would get clobbered in such a scenario, of course.
“NC appears to add enough value and not pose enough of a threat that it hasn’t been shut down, yet.”
Let NC (or any source that doesn’t hew to the Team R Tweedledee/Team D Tweedledum orthodoxy) get popular enough and we will see calls for overt and de facto censorship. See Substack.
“we gotta protect the children!“
See late 2016’s Wapo’s post-election “anonymous” prop-or-not article. / heh
Just a little data point in our New Normal–
I was called in for jury duty yesterday. None of the process was conducted in the regular courthouse. Instead, it was across the street in a fairly new building constructed as a “medical mart,” a convention center for selling medical devices, drugs, etc. That effort had not been going too well before Covid, but since Covid, it’s been empty, so the county took it over to use as a temporary courthouse that allowed for social distancing for juries.
Masks were required and provided at the security entrance if you didn’t have one. There was a temperature check also. Once inside, social distancing was in effect. There were chairs with small tables around the snack bar, and each of these had a cardboard sign lying on the table with one side green and the other red noting that the chair/table combo needed disinfecting.
I was among the lucky twenty-five called for a specific jury pool out of the seventy-five who had been called in. The bailiff led us to a convention center ballroom outfitted as a Covid era courtroom. There was plexiglass everywhere: around the judge, the witness box, the counsel tables and between each of us in the jury box. Everyone kept their masks on except the attorneys, and they asked for permission from us before they removed theirs. The judge kept hers on which made it difficult to understand her at times. During voir dire, we all kept our masks on even when we were answering questions from the judge and counsel individually.
The case was a criminal action brought against the defendant for sexual assault. I explained during voir dire that I had served as both a prosecutor and defense counsel during my life, and that I had never tried a sexual assault case, but I had participated in the investigation of such crimes as an assistant DA. Moreover, I had counseled sexual assault survivors as a pastor and college chaplain. This background, I explained to defense counsel during an extended dialogue, had made me much more sympathetic and less skeptical about victim testimony. During a lunch break, the judge and attorneys went through any disqualifications for cause and the peremptory challenges, and when we returned, I was informed that I had been struck, presumably by the defense.
I returned home on the bus for which I was provided a free pass by the county. Masks were still required on the bus and compliance was good. It was good to be back home after spending more time inside with strangers than I had experienced in a year and a half.
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/06/10/dashcam-video-state-trooper-flips-pregnant-womans-car-when-she-doesnt-pull-over-soon-enough-n395932
Apparently, this cop hasn’t been prosecuted, if not for attempted murder, than reckless endangerment.
That’s crazy stupid that. I saw concrete barriers on both sides of that highway so not an ideal place to pull over. He could have pulled along side her and told her to pull over immediately but did not bother. Luckily there was not a fire but that was unforgivable that.
I suppose we should applaud the cop’s restraint for not doing a mag dump into the driver’s window.
Keep in mind that by slowing down and turning her four-way flashers on and then proceeding on, looking for a safe place to pull over (and this is primarily for the cop’s safety as the cop’s the one that’s going to become a pedestrian on a freeway at night if she had pulled over immediately) she was doing exactly what state law and the state driver’s handbook says to do in this situation.
And the cop pulled a freaking PIT maneuver on her and flipped her car.
RMO
June 11, 2021 at 2:12 pm
The below is from the website that we never speak of, designated by a number that signifies nothing and a financial technique to protect against lossies, but I believe is accurate:
“In my head I was going to lose the baby,” Harper told Fox 16. The video shows the officer asking her: “Why didn’t you stop?”
She responded: “Because I didn’t feel it was safe.”
The officer then says, “well this is where you ended up.”
“I thought it would be safe to wait until the exit,” the driver pleads. The officer responds: “no ma’am, you pull over when law enforcement stops you.”
Jalopnik noted that “Dunn gave Harper all of two minutes before he nudged her car” and that the driver was “less than a mile from the nearest exit with a wide shoulder.”
In the interim, Harper did just what the Arkansas State Police’s Driver License Study Guide says you are supposed to do when being pulled over. “What to do When You Are Stopped,” number one says to use, “emergency flashers to indicate to the officer that you are seeking a safe place to stop,” Fox 16 reported.
“I did slow down, I turned on my hazards, I thought I was doing the right thing,” Harper said.
===========================================
doesn’t matter if you know the law. doesn’t matter if you follow the law. Because despite the yammering that equal justice under law, it doesn’t apply to cops and is just an advertising slogan…
The best part is the cop lecturing the woman as she crawls out of her flipped vehicle.
And no, nothing will happen to him – this sort of thing is SOP in Arkansas.
I wish I was surprised that Jerry Nadler was piling on Omar, but I am not. His one act of courage going against AIPAC was supporting the Iran treaty. He had his only serious primary battle in the time I have been a constituent. He learned his lesson. His district is changing but not that quickly.
A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” alledgedly Bill Clinton on Obama to Ted Kennedy during the primary. The Catholic Kennedy didn’t like a guy named Clinton pulling this routine. It was a bit on the nose.
I put my thoughts about local committee Democrats down yesterday, but there is an element of Team Blue that doesn’t necessarily care about Israel, AIPAC, Hamas, etc but doesn’t like Omar. They just can’t say it anymore. This is just what they think is safe to go after her on. Even if you disagree with her (not that I really do, but I disagree with everyone a little), her views are well thought out.
Our current Team Blue President hailed the former and then candidate Team Blue President as being “clean” among other missteps over the years.
A few thoughts on the links today –
First – on the very first one about Wodehouse and Jerome – there is this quote at the very end of the article:
I’ll end with some timely advice from Jerome K. Jerome: “Eat good dinners and drink good wine; read good novels if you have the leisure and see good plays; fall in love, if there is no reason why you should not fall in love; but do not pore over influenza statistics.”
That one made me do a lot of self reflection on this Friday AM.
On to the link about the 226 myocarditis patients so far in the USA.
With phrases like “fully recovered” in the CDC press statements – I can feel and sense the coverup from Big Pharma and their captivated agencies already happening.
I have been an internist for 3 decades – I would like to share with everyone my experience with myocarditis patients to make sure there is clarity – this is not going to be a one and done kind of thing – this will be with us for some time.
When I was young, the patients of the pre-antibiotic era were just becoming elderly. During their youth, there were bacterial infections that rather commonly affected the heart valves, the pericardium, or the heart muscle itself – either the bug itself or the inflammation. These issues are unheard of today with antibiotics but it was not unusual then. I got to be involved in the tail end of that lifelong process for several patients – these patients were not well – they suffered from heart failure symptoms, valve failure and pericardial issues for their whole life – not to mention the spectre of rhythm problems at any time.
The point being – once the heart is infected or inflamed like this, it is scarred – and that is for life. Almost all of them will eventually have heart failure, rhythm problems or both. And it may take decades to develop.
I am afraid this vaccine phenomenon will be no different. I have seen several patients in my life with post-partum myocarditis – thought to be an immune issue – and I have seen several with lupus and other inflammatory issues. Actual viral or vaccine related myocarditis is vanishingly rare – and I want to reiterate that to the heavens. This occurrence we are seeing now is absolutely related to something the vaccine is doing to our young men – we just do not know what it is happening yet.
Big Pharma will tell us they have “fully recovered”. THIS IS A LIE. These patients never fully recover. Their athletic abilities will be diminished. Many will face a middle age filled with heart failure and rhythm problems. I am going to predict right now that we as a country are going to see an uptick in “athletes dropping dead on the football field” issues over the next 10 years. The Big Pharma marketers are in overdrive right now trying to minimize this. I feel it is my obligation to inform people the best way I know.
The CDC is reporting only 226 cases – please note – that this is just in the 18 and ups that have already been vaccinated. These do not represent the cases in teenagers which we just started vaccinating in the past month. These are only the 20 and 30 something young men over the past 2 months. My old academic center in a major metro area – has had dozens of cases already. I bring that up because if you multiply that out for the whole USA – there are assuredly way more than 226. This is a reflection of our broken reporting system.
More troubling to me – I READ ABOUT THIS PROBLEM FROM ISRAEL 2 months ago. IF I READ ABOUT, YOU CAN BE ASSURED THE CDC and FDA KNEW ALL ABOUT IT. AND YET NOT A THING WAS DONE – NOT A WORD SAID. The corruption, dissembling and lies are just simply breathtaking.
The CDC has described this as an “emergency” meeting. Indeed – if it is truly being dealt with as an “emergency” – their asses should be in session today – but yet – we are waiting for an entire week.
There is every indication that the younger we go – the more likely this will happen. It occurs after the 2nd dose. And we are just now 5 days into the 2nd dose for the 12-15 years age cohort. I just checked – there are already SEVEN cases of heart issues in the VAERS for this age group.
Folks, this is as concerning as it gets. From my very first guest post in December – I discussed unforeseen problems and how the vaccines had not been tested. More concerning, I discussed the complete corruption of the members of the FDA advisory committee. They truly are in the pockets of Big Pharma.
The numbers simply do not make sense for anyone under 20 to be vaccinated until we have much better information. This is ESPECIALLY TRUE of those who already have had COVID or positive antibodies. Increasingly, research is showing they are just as protected in that status as with the vaccines.
These universities that are forcing this on these kids are literally playing with fire. As of this week, I have been warning anybody in that age group as patients and any parents NOT to take the vaccine at this time. My profession must begin behaving in the interest of the patients and not Big Pharma or all will be lost.
Thank you for this overview. I’m sorry to say this type of establishment man the barricades cover-up if there was any problem with the vaccines was inevitable once the medical establishment went all in on vaccines as the ‘solution’ to the epidemic. The notion of careful communication with the public about the need to balance known and unknown risks went out the door when someone, somewhere, decided the message was ‘vaccines are safe, anyone who says otherwise is an anti-vaxxer!’
We are now in a real bind, where the new delta varient appears to hit younger people particularly hard, but if it does turn out there is a real heart risk and we’ve no idea how to quantify the risks…well, the result will not be pretty.
I’ve no medical experience, but your accounts of your early days reminds me of when I was a teenager in the 1970’s here and I was dragged rather unwillingly by my older siblings into a buddy program for kids from the most deprived communities, including the travelling (gypsy) community here. For all sorts of reasons diseases which had been pretty much wiped out in the settled community, such as polio, mumps and scarlet fever, were still rampant among travellers who strongly distrusted vaccines. I remember hanging out with one quiet, very gentle boy of about 11 who had suffered badly from mumps and scarlet fever. I accidentally overheard a conversation where his social worker said he wouldn’t make 20 because of myocarditis. It was the first time I’d heard that childhood diseases could kill in later years. Sadly, she was right, I think he died at around 19.
1. What weight can you put on “unknown risks” in any decision-making?
2. “careful communication with the public about the need to balance known and unknown risks” suggests a belief that the public will, in response, give careful consideration in arriving at its response. How likely is that?
3. What about the public good here? Should I put my health at risk to avoid the risk of becoming a ‘super-spreader’ and infecting others? Or do I decide not to take the risk and rely on sufficient numbers of others deciding to take the risk and achieve herd immunity to make me safe.
I believe that during WW2 the authorities learned of a planning bombing attack on the City of Coventry, which had previously not been considered a likely target, through their intelligence of Nazi plans obtained by the Ultra code-breaking. They had the choice of alerting the people of Coventry to the attack to take precautions at the risk of alerting the Germans to the fact that their codes had been broken, or do nothing to preserve the secret that the codes had been broken for all its ongoing value for the war effort.
They chose the latter, more than 500 civilians died and 800+ were severely injured. The war was certainly shortened and possibly only won in part because of the code-breaking secret.
Was it the right decision?
Do the authorities now choose between letting the vaccination effort perhaps peter out because people decide not to take the risk of having it, potentially allowing wave after wave of virus of ever increasing lethality sweep through the population, or decide that the greater good requires the lesser evil of encouraging vaccination by minimising the risks even knowing some will suffer as a result?
In a perfect world we’d know all the risks, feed the numbers into an algorithm and it would tell us what needed doing. Then we could all sit down and carefully decide what to do. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Decisions have to be taken that have real – perhaps life-or-death – consequences that can affect others, on the basis of imperfect knowledge and speculation.
Are the decisions being taken the right ones? I don’t know.
Will I have the vaccination when it becomes available to me? I don’t know.
One of your key premises is incorrect. There are known unknowns v. unknown unknowns. A known unknown is where you don’t have enough information to judge a risk. For instance, the CDC has chosen to treat asymptomatic cases among the vaccinated as not contagious. They don’t have a solid basis for that assumption. In the UK, children (who have asymptomatic cases) bring Covid into households at 2x the rate of adults (for elementary school kids) and 7x (for older kids). Now the CDC’s assumption may be correct, but as the two biggest nurses unions pointed out, the evidence is incomplete.
An unknown unknown is a Black Swan.
That is a terrifying development.
And yet, the CDC is waiting another full week until June 18th to convene their “emergency meeting” on the problem. Who knows how long it will take after the meeting to come up with any sort of response. How many more young men and women will receive their shot during this time?
A quick check of the CDC’s article Myocarditis and Pericarditis Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination reveals that:
I wish I could say something more artful than “Holy Crap!” to these very important paragraphs.
I wish we had a free press which could run with your information and shut down the rush to vaccinate all.
I wish my aged friends and relatives could grasp that I fear more from the vaccines than the bug.
IM Doc, here’s Slim, sending you a virtual round of applause from Tucson. You are a doctor in the finest sense of the word.
I second that applause here in Northern Ireland & as they say around these parts, here’s some JKJ back at yer.
“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. ”
And…No spare time of late, but very good to know that Yves is doing as well, if not better than can be expected.
The “narrative” trumps all–even the safety of our children. Now there’s talk that all that plexiglass in the schools may do more harm than good. It’s all “precautionary” except when it’s not.
I profoundly appreciate the courage it takes to actually say these things out loud. Thank you.
From the Daily Mail:
It is impossible to believe that, under other circumstances, cardiac inflammation pursuant to “medical treatment” in young boys and young men requiring HOSPITALIZATION at all, let alone between 2 and 6 days, would be dismissed so casually.
That the american medical establishment is not screaming at the top of its lungs that this should be stopped immediately is surely a shame that it will never live down. I can think of no excuse for the parents of these boys. As for the universities, particularly the public ones, where is the recognition that no one can be forced to take any experimental drug being administered under an EUA?
COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge [White House]
Colleges are supposed to in loco parentis, not in loco medicus, so caveat emptor.
Isn’t heart disease usually underdiagnosed in women? Thinking effects on women would be harder to find.
I’m still in the camp that vaccination risk is less worse than COVID risk, is my thinking/opinion outdated now? Are there ethnic/specific risk groups where under 20 vaccination risk is substantially less than COVID risk?
IM, I’m quite concerned as I deal with hundreds of teenagers in middle school. SO sad to see them “excited” that they got or are getting their shots. I wonder if there are any studies regarding Ivermectin and heart problems? Let me see. I’ll skim through the over 4,000,000,000 doses given and see if I find any references to myocarditis.
It’s beyond science and now we’re into the numbers/maths. MSM and big pharma have clouded the science and are now messing with the maths. CDC is not counting various cases now. Stop counting and “cases” go down. Funny that. Sad state of affairs. Thank you so much, IM Doc.
Thank you. Thank you.
an aside: The tv channels I watch always have lots of pharma ads aimed at the older viewer, ads aimed at the older set’s common maladies. Lately, within the last 2 months, I’ve started seeing ads for stroke and heart problem medicines featuring young actors (!), people in their 20s and 30s, with the tag “yes, even if you’re young malady X can happen, it’s not uncommon.” Wha…?! Is pharma trying to normalize a very uncommon situation in young people ? I was shocked the first time I saw one of these ads featuring young people.
Thank you for commenting on this issue so forthrightly. When I saw the number 226 I thought it was way too high for a vaccine. Children were never part of the early testing, and it seems that none of the vaccine manufacturers even considered providing a lower dose for younger bodies. Now in my seventies, I can say that up until my doctor recommended the pneumonia booster about 6 years ago, I had never in my life had a vaccine that consisted of two shots (and the pneumonia booster was given to me about 3 years after the original shot). Of course, there are vaccines, like tetanus, that wear off over the years, but that’s a different issue. There is a reason we have pediatricians and we have doctors who treat adults. A growing body is just different and should not be receiving adult dosing without cautious and specific supervision.
The mumps titer also has a tendency of dropping over time. From MMR 2, which apparently has some crossover protection to covid according to the American Society of Microbiology.
Thanks also IM Doc, for your long post on this. I copied it to an email and sent it direct to her. You were credited.
Thank you IM Doc. Do we know whether or not infection with the disease would produce the same or worse conditions among young people, that might go hidden for a while if they were asymptomatic?
Actually, according to this CDC presentation, the number of vaccine recipients with preliminary myocarditis/pericarditis reports is 573 after the second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Scroll down to slides 13 and 14 for the breakdown by age group and vaccine type.
Whoa!!! Did you see page 12 of the report? 21.4% of 12-15 year olds suffered syncope, defined as loss of consciousness due to a drop in blood pressure, and another 9.5% lost consciousness not related to anything specific. In the 16-25 year old category, 9.7% experienced syncope. Since when do teenagers pass out from a vaccine? Medical articles on teenage syncope suggest it usually happens only due to over-exertion, anxiety, dehydration, or insufficient food. Nowhere is there an indication of teenagers experiencing a drop in blood pressure due to vaccination. Interestingly, in adults, syncope is said to be a possible sign of heart problems.
Final note from the report: no adverse effects from the J & J vaccine among young people.
I was focusing on the myocarditis/pericarditis numbers so no, I did not see that. A total of 30% of vaccinated 12-15 years olds lost consciousness? Can that be right?
20 years ago, this level of serious adverse events would have pulled said “vaccine” from use. Full stop. That was before pharma gain near full control of the FDA’s committee recommendations, imo.
Nothing to see. Move along. …
Dr. Bhakdi. “Never animal models that were tested.”
https://twitter.com/heidegger79/status/1403034661505413126
Thanks fo the update as it confirms by thoughts after listening to the Dark Horse Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NNTVJzqtY&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEug8_VK8ve0oDSJLoIU4b93
that doctors are going to have to take back their profession. I remember my father many years ago saying he wasn’t going to let managers decide what was best for his patients thus refusing to join an HMO. They eventually forced him to retire. It seems the trend has only gotten worse.
Henry, I began to watch your suggested video. Hundreds (literally) people were commenting/complaining of rudeness by one of the guests. So I looked under “show more” in the introductory Utube field. Minute by minute timeline was there. I found that real helpful in getting to the salient points in the 3.25 hour long video. Thanks for the tip.
I actually watched the whole video (over 3 hours).
Yes, Steve Kirsch lacked self-awareness in this discussion. His passion got the better of him and he was rude. Bret Weinstein had to “yellow card” him on occasion and he even then failed to grasp that he was being gently admonished.
Dr. Robert Malone (inventor of mrna vaccines and extremely informed of institutional regulation/machinations) was VERY measured in his language.
It is worth watching for his contribution alone. If you parse what he said, there are evidently and undeniably a series of concerning anomalies in the trialling, authorising, reporting, etc of the new vaccines and repurposed drugs.
I fear Covid could irreperably ‘break’ science or at least the public’s perception and trust of it. Shame..
If you watch the entire video you will understand why Steve Kirsch loses it at times. The other participants understood his distress. He genuinely feels he has put his children at risk, an awful thing to recognize. He is trying his best to ‘make things right.’ You will see the other participants realize this and are gentle with him. He suffers.
On his behalf, I will say there are many parents in this awful predicament, because truths are being suppressed. If those who have urged these vaccines on their children realize the dangers after the fact, how will they handle such knowledge? It is unbearable. He is handling it by trying to help other parents not make the mistake he made.
I, too, respond positively to IM Docs perspective on the CDC pandemic response. He applies the “first, do no harm” directive judiciously and asks penetrating questions. Important in modern medicine.
There is a difference in me making a decision (accept the risk) to take the vaccine and someone under 18. There seems to be so much grey area, with definitive data still emerging, that pushing the envelope with children should be a last resort. Is it possible that Covid can be contained with a vaccine in older folks and other prophylactic interventions for youths? Will the youthful (college students?) accept masking as an alternative to being vaccinated?
Re: “Let the Apes Have Wall Street”TK News.
I see scapegoats are still being lined up for the next market fall.
Can’t believe Taibbi is falling for this or into this.
A bit of hyperbole here, but the stock prices are practically rising faster than anyone could purchase them.
Nobody is making more than the marketmakers (the middlemen of the bid).
“Escaping Into British Humor Is the Perfect Balm”
I cannot agree more than recommending Jerome K. Jerome. His humour is laid back and mocks the occurrences and absurdities of everyday life while slipping in some pretty profound observations. You either like it or you don’t. If you want to check out his work, his most famous one – “Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” – is available below in several formats. I really should get yet more of his books-
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/308
Covid Watch: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said that employers can mandate that employees must be vaccinated before returning to work.
See: https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-can-require-covid-19-vaccine-under-federal-law-new-guidancestates-11622230319
The pro Big Pharma rip off has just become “official.” No EUA has done this before, (that I know of.)
Couple this with IMDoc’s comment above and we see a generation of “trouble” looming on the horizon.
The Jackpot has begun.
Four Moptop Yobbos London Review of Books
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My coming out party pretty much corresponds to when Ringo came along to complete the Fab Four, and i’ve been in love with the Beatles ever since.
They tried hard to never repeat anything they had done before, true troubadours trying out every way to create new music, with astounding results.
I’d be bummed out if they had turned into the Rolling Stones of recent vintage, playing half century old songs to stadium crowds, but they had the decency to quit on top, and everything they did as a foursome is locked down in time, half a hundred years ago.
Because, acapella version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZw8BuqU10
Thanks for that wonderful Orwell essay. Here’s a paragraph which today’s Left would do well to consider:
Compare:
Tao te Ching #46 (UK Le Guin, trans.)
It’s past time for anyone on the Left to be mourning the “middle class lifestyle” conception, for it is based on greed, convenience and conformism and leads to consumption that is as conspicuous as possible and far in excess of what is necessary for humans or good for the Earth.
Our most critical problem now is not that we aren’t producing enough or even that we don’t fairly distribute what we do produce. It’s that through the efforts of the Madmen and Hollywood we’ve managed to convince most of the world that life isn’t worth living without air-conditioned comfort, SUVs (with heated seats!!!) that park themselves and microwaved baby back ribs. When it comes to food, the situation in this country has gotten to the point that you’re much more likely to die from overconsumption than starvation.
Orwell and Law-Tzu are reminding us to:
TtC #19.
Thanks for the Orwell piece on the toads – a much needed balm.
I have a toad show up on my desiccated pseudo-lawn from time to time – I think they hide under the holly bush in the shade. I haven’t seen any yet this year which is too bad – they might have enjoyed munching down the four large green worms that ate half my broccoli plant before I noticed they were there.
I think this is important to remember –
It reminds me of the insight I read recently about Marx – he may have wanted the workers to control the means of production, but he didn’t question that people would be toiling in those factories going forward. You own it now, so get to work because those widgets aren’t going to make themselves.
Off to sniff the last of the lilacs before they’re gone until next year.
re: The Beatles book reviews. It really is incredible the continued presence they still have. Everybody knows about the Beatles. My 7 year old daughter knows about the Beatles.
So much has been written about their music, their influence. And their music is incredible, but why are they so magnetic? Why still to this day? It’s very bizarre. I think of that Timothy Leary quote in 1967 about the Beatles. Tongue in cheek maybe, but who knows:
“I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.”
Quick. One of my favorite quotes of all time: When asked if the Beatles were the best rock band ever, Paul McCartney responded “Name one better.” “Nuf Said”.
If there’s one thing I’m 100% categorically sure about it’s that The Beatles are NOT a rock band. I’m not sure what exact category they would fall under. Possibly pop but not rock. Deep Purple is a rock band. Led Zeppelin is a rock band. AC/DC, Cream, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, U2, Metallica, Guns & Roses, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine etc. etc. etc.
The Beatles may have recorded several tunes with a “rock” vibe but to call them a rock band would be a real stretch.
In my dad’s opinion and he has few music opinions, it was a group of 4 individuals with near the talent of Brian Wilson who had a band with his friends. Even Ringo. When you consider how hard it is to break into that kind of industry, the Beatles were four guys who could have made it on their own.
On a more distant level, I think its quality, quantity, and diversity. In the decade plus, they were active they didn’t put out duds, disappear, or just re-release the same song while producing hits. Even the covers are good. Except for Prince and the Beatles (I’m excluding voices too. That is a different category), everyone else really misses quantity or diversity or puts out stretches of music that is kind of there being reliant on a persona. The 27 year olds we lost along the way might have joined them, but again, we don’t have to sit through Tupac hawking the General Auto Insurance or something. The Rolling Stones may have wound up producing as many hits through sheer time, but it was done over decades. Most of their stuff is forgettable.
Except for Prince and the Beatles (I’m excluding voices too. That is a different category), everyone else really misses quantity or diversity or puts out stretches of music that is kind of there being reliant on a persona.
Everyone else? Please. Check out Bruce Hornsby’s career, for starters.
And so what if some – or most – people enjoy the same things year in, year out? Plants and animals have no mind to be constantly changing or getting better. Plants and animals accept themselves as they are. Most modern humans seem incapable of this. Prince exemplified this inability.
This could be a really fun topic to dive into. One v my favorite eras for music was the period 1991 to 1994. And listing in no certain order are the compelling bands I’ve grown to enjoy hearing as much as I’m able.
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains
Stone Temple pilots
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Tell me how some 30 years on at least one of those listed caused a huge shift in the music industry. Chris Cornell, Layne Stayley were remarkable front men / lead vocals. Just for starters!
Quibble with the above as you might. Add or detract but these bands are in a conversation for what happened in music over the past 35 years.
With a lot of the older superstars or their estates now selling their publishing/and or other rights to investors, expect the hype around catalogs to continue.
They will have to keep up the perceived value of their investments.
Great songs having a life of their own is not enough for them
For anyone around at the time, the world of music (and other things) was divided into before and after the Beatles. They exploded a bomb under popular music, and the bits are still coming down. Virtually every musical innovation you can think of, including many which seem to have been around forever, was actually invented by the Beatles, in a few short years in the 1960s. Theirs was not just an absolutely unique musical combination (from blues and rock and roll to traditional music to modal melodies to electronic experiments to studio wizardry, to art-rock to music hall to to everything you can think of) but an eclectic mixture of modern influences from photography, art, fashion, religion and European aesthetics and philosophy. Not bad for four lower-middle-class kids from Liverpool.
But that’s the point as well: in England, anyway, the Beatles were an index of what was possible in the post-war era of full employment, free education and breaking down of class differences. They couldn’t exist today, because, even if the talent was there, the permissive economic and social environment wouldn’t be.
They didn’t plop down onto earth out of a vacuum. Many earlier artists informed and inspired many of their songs. Not saying they didn’t have an amazing run of era-defining songs, but they weren’t above plucking a nice riff or baseline out from another composition, especially in the early days.
10 Beatles Hits that “Rip Off’ Other Songs.
Yes I’ve seen that kids YouTube channel and I don’t buy it. It’s called homage. How many Dylan songs used Woody lyrics? And how did Woody use older stuff? Or Kurt Cobain ‘Something in the Way’? The list is endless. This is the way artists often work. Pay homage to your heroes. This is what that guy doesn’t get.
My sweet lord, say it ain’t so! /j
The biggest part of my earliest musical memories were the Beatles, played on British Forces Radio in Kenya when I was 4 years old in 1963. Apparently previous to that it would have been Elvis & Rock ‘n’ roll played constantly by my Dad when he was home on leave – maybe the Fab 4 clicked an awareness button, although I guess it was just a happy coincidence.
As I grow older the realisation that I was born at a very good time in comparison to that experienced by countless earlier & likely later others, grows ever stronger & as far as the present day music industry is concerned it appears to have gone the way of just about everything else – thank goodness for all of that earlier treasure.
Amazingly it was in the mid 70’s for a few days this week, which allowed me to finish up weed whacking before Hades shows up and its 110 in the shade a week from now.
High temps like that tend to create thunderstorms in the Sierra Nevada, its way too early for lightning strike wildfires, but you go with the planet you have-not the one you want.
Wukchumni, Instead of “America, love it or leave it” we’ll soon hear “Earth, love it or leave it”.
People don’t get it. Now it’s to be 110 in the shade. Imagine 2030 when it’s 120 in the shade. 2050? Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
You might want to check out joining the ‘Moderne Cult Phenomenon’; “The Mysteries of Elon.” I understand that they have a “Ticket To Ride.”
Ye Beatles, live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70-WSgZn1MQ
We’re now going into the traditional Summer weather pattern here in the North American Deep South. Highs around the low ninety degrees Fahrenheit range, with humidity in the 80 percent range. With those humidity levels, the “felt temperatures” (heat index) will be in the low 100’s every day.
We’re looking at putting an attic exhaust fan in the south side attic vent louver.
Several of the neighbours are already running their full house air conditioning systems.
Its gonna be epic when the southwest empties out on account of lack of water and we all head back east into the very heart of humidity.
When you see a pile of clothes on the sidewalk, nope they weren’t raptured, it was somebody from Cali not used to wet heat…
Hmmm… I see a Pulitzer Prize winning plot here. It’s the epic of an Eiko family’s trek ‘Back East’ from the Left Coast. A gritty tale of the Daoj family and their quest for the “Promised Land.” Let’s call it “The Wights of Graft.”
RE: Antidote
A colorful Red-Fan Parrot in the excited/agitated state (extended head and neck feathers. This is a particularly colorful bird; the color pattern reminds me of the colorful, weaved blankets of Guatemala.( Maybe this feather pattern is the source of their inspiration?)