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Syringe

On child vaccines, the experts are suddenly reluctant to follow 'the science'

rats and vacs
© Unknown
"We" are "Them"
In some of these blogs I have been trying to gently highlight what should be a very obvious fact: that "the science" we are being constantly told to follow is not quite as scientific as is being claimed.

That is inevitable in the context of a new virus about which much is still not known. And it is all the more so given that our main response to the pandemic - vaccination - while being a relatively effective tool against the worst disease outcomes is nonetheless an exceedingly blunt one. Vaccines are the epitome of the one-size-fits-all approach of modern medicine.

Into the void between our scientific knowledge and our fear of mortality has rushed politics. It is a refusal to admit that "the science" is necessarily compromised by political and commercial considerations that has led to an increasingly polarised - and unreasonable - confrontation between what have become two sides of the Covid divide. Doubt and curiosity have been squeezed out by the bogus certainties of each faction.

No Entry

Why do journalists hate 9-11 truthers?

flag/911
© shutterstock
It seems that there are to be no dissenting voices on the twentieth anniversary of 9-11. Even film director Spike Lee was forced by media outcry to edit out of his documentary mini-series the half-hour dedicated to skeptics of the official version of the event. Thus the citizenry has been saved from "a bog of heinously dangerous ideas."

This phrase comes from Slate.com columnist Jeremy Stahl, for whom the alternative theories of 9-11 are "arguments that have been debunked a thousand times." This, of course, is nonsense. The debate rages to this day. But as with the issue of vaccination against coronavirus, the mainstream media will not brook the least opposition. Stahl puts great stock, for example, in the "three-year-long, $16 million investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center for the National Institute of Standards and Technology," as if these numbers and a solemn-sounding agency title could not possibly be challenged. It doesn't seem to occur to him that the U.S. Government is itself the accused party here, and in similar circumstances has been caught fudging facts. The NIST report has actually taken heavy criticism from Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth, the most important group pushing alternative theories of the attack.

Why do journalists favor the government version so fiercely? The sheer vitriol of their attacks on Truthers reflects deep personal anger; clearly no Deep State maven stands over them dictating their articles. In theory, the more onerous discoveries of 9-11 investigators — the presence of explosive material in the dust that spread through Manhattan, the dubious cell-phone calls made from the hijacked aircraft, the impossibly high speeds of low-altitude flight by three of the airplanes — should be red meat to reporters. But all of it is ignored, if not ridiculed. What has happened to this "fifth column" of democracy?

Comment: What is obvious cannot be said. No inconvenient truths allowed. Those who run these networks run the news. We know who they are and why they do it.


Headphones

'Inherently politicized case': Political scientist subjected to massive wiretapping by US denies acting as Iran's 'foreign agent'

Afrasiabi
© Fars News
Kaveh Afrasiabi
Political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi, accused by the US of acting as a "foreign agent" for Iran, believes the case against him is purely political, with charges brought against him in the final hours of the Trump administration.

Afrasiabi told RT that according to the US's own complaint, Washington was aware of his "completely legitimate" activity as a consultant to Iran's UN mission for over a decade.

The political scientist, who has penned multiple books and numerous articles for such leading media outlets like The New York Times and Huffington Post, was targeted by US federal prosecutors back in January.

Afrasiabi was briefly arrested in January and accused of violating the notorious Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Prosecutors alleged that Afrasiabi received some $260,000 from the Iranian government through its UN mission and purveyed "propaganda" on its behalf. The political scientist also turned out to be the subject of a massive wiretapping campaign, with a US attorney presenting the court with a haul of 33,000 recordings of Afrasiabi's private phone calls.


No Entry

US military knew dozens of Americans were at the gates of Kabul airport but refused entry during evacuation

US Marine and passengers
© Reuters/US Air Force
US Marine provides security during evacuation of Hamid Karzai Intl. Airport in Kabul.
The US commanders in charge of evacuation abandoned dozens of American citizens at the gates of Kabul airport amid a chaotic rush to leave Afghanistan, US war correspondent and former special forces soldier Michael Yon told RT.

On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was forced to acknowledge that around 100 Americans still remained in the turbulent country a week after the Biden administration's August 31 deadline to get everybody out expired.

Former special forces soldier-turned-journalist Michael Yon, who was among the volunteers helping to airlift Americans out of Afghanistan, has shared with RT some disturbing details of how holders of US passports were left behind by their own military.

On August 30, Taliban members delivered a mother with three children as well as 45 other American citizens to the gates of Kabul airport. Three civilian jets, which had been paid for by volunteers, were waiting for them at the airfield.

Comment: This incident was not the only frustrating complication due to half-baked US exit plans.

See also: Americans in 'hostage situation' with Taliban, stuck on planes for days


Arrow Up

Taliban say UN promises aid after meeting with officials in Kabul

Shaheen
© Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva
Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen • Moscow, Russia, July 9, 2021
Senior Taliban officials met in Kabul on Sunday (Sep 5) with the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, who promised to maintain assistance for the Afghan people, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban's political office and other officials met Martin Griffiths as Afghanistan faces a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by severe drought and a collapsing economy. Shaheen said on Twitter:
"The UN delegation promised continuation of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, saying he would call for further assistance to Afghanistan during the coming meeting of donor countries."
Shaheen said the Taliban assured the UN delegation of "cooperation and provision of needed facilities".

The United Nations is expected to convene an international aid conference in Geneva on Sep 13 to help avert what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a "looming humanitarian catastrophe".

Bad Guys

Iran strongly condemns Taliban assault on Panjshir Valley rebels

Afghanistan bike
© STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Iran on Monday "strongly" condemned the Taliban's military offensive against holdout fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, as the extremist group claimed it had taken control of the area.

"The news coming from Panjshir is truly worrying," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.

"The assault is strongly condemned."

Iran, the region's dominant Muslim Shia power, had until now refrained from criticizing the Taliban since the Sunni group seized Kabul on August 15.

The Taliban on Monday claimed victory in the mountainous Panjshir area, with a spokesman declaring "our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war," three weeks after the extremist group captured the capital.

But the National Resistance Front (NRF) - made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces - said its fighters were still present in "strategic positions" across the valley, and that they were continuing the struggle.

Comment: Meanwhile in Kabul, there are signs of infighting. Taliban co-founder Baradar was reportedly injured in a gunfight with Haqqani Network fighters.




Heart - Black

British vaccines minister slammed for lying after announcing jab passports WILL be introduced for certain venues

covid app nhs
© AFP / JUSTIN TALLIS
Some Britons have gone online to campaign for the sacking of the UK's vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, accusing him of lying about vaccine passports after he promised in January that there were no plans to introduce them.

On Monday, angry Brits demanded Zahwai, the British minister responsible for the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, be sacked over the about-face on vaccine passports. "No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport," he tweeted in January.

Despite previously ruling the passports out, however, on Sunday, Zahawi announced that they will be used in England, in certain circumstances, from the end of the month.

The vaccines minister said the end of September would be the right time to start using the passports as everyone over the age of 18 will have been offered two shots by then. The document will purportedly only be needed at large gatherings, like nightclubs and other large indoor venues.

Arrow Up

Philippines to implement relaxed Covid lockdown strategy to boost economy

philippines covid vaccination station
© Agence France-Presse
Relatives of suspected Covid-19 patients sit by their bedside while waiting in a car park turned into a Covid ward outside a hospital in Binan town, Laguna province south of Manila on Monday, with record infections fuelled by the hyper-contagious Delta variant.
The Philippines will relax some Covid-19 restrictions in the Manila region from Wednesday and also intends to outline plans to shift to smaller, localised lockdowns to support the economy, the presidential spokesperson said.

The moves come despite the Southeast Asian country reporting record infection numbers as it battles the Delta variant.

The government believed localised Covid-19 restrictions would be more effective in controlling outbreaks without constraining mobility and business activity too much, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told a briefing.

Comment: World-wide, common sense is beginning to re-assert itself. It can't come soon enough.


Black Cat

Never-Trumper Kinzinger: GOP 'should not have the majority' until they stop 'pushing conspiracies'

adam kizinger dana bash cnn
© CNN
Dana Bash and Rep. Adam Kizinger
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R- IL) said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union that if Republicans continue to push lies and conspiracies, his party should "not have the majority" in Congress.

Kinzinger said, "The question is, what is our party going to be? Are we going to be the party of opportunity and hope, or the party of anger, division, and truth has no place in it?"

Comment: With friends like this, who needs enemies? More on those "conspiracy theories":


Biohazard

UK Defense ministry document reveals Skripals' blood samples could have been manipulated

yulia sergei skripal novichok

Incredible transformation: Yulia Skripal (left) following the alleged poisoning with the deadliest known nerve agent Novichok. Yulia and her father Sergei Skripal (right) before the alleged nerve agent poisoning.
New evidence has emerged of gross violations during the UK investigation into the alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4th March 2018. The new revelations put into question the main evidence that the Skripals were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.

The blood samples taken from the Skripals could have been tampered with so that they test positive for Novichok, newly disclosed information obtained from the UK Ministry of Defense reveals. Furthermore, documents show that Russia was not the only country in the world that could be linked to the nerve agent Novichok.

The US had covered up its own Novichok program masked as research on fourth generation nerve agents (FGAs) and muzzled the Organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) a decade before the Skripals attack.