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Not wanting to sound hyperbolic, but I am starting to conclude that the nuclear madmen running the US/NATO New Cold War they started decades ago are itching to start a nuclear war with Russia."It was an intuition based on my knowledge of US/Russia history, including the U.S engineered coup in Ukraine in 2014, and a reading of current events. I refer to it as intuition, yet it is based on a lifetime's study and teaching of political sociology and writing against war.
Let me [Putin] explain that US strategic planning documents contain the possibility of a so-called preemptive strike against enemy missile systems. And who is the main enemy for the US and NATO? We know that too. It's Russia. In NATO documents, our country is officially and directly declared the main threat to North Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a forward springboard for the strike."Putin is absolutely correct. It is why he put Russia's nuclear forces on full alert. Only those ignorant of history, which sadly includes most US Americans, don't know this.
(Putin Speech, February 21, 2022 emphasis added)
'In 2016, when Michael Gove made his famous statement that "people in this country have had enough of experts", it seemed experts and expert knowledge were on their way out. The opinion of populist politicians and online influencers were deemed much more relevant to decision making than the findings of scientists or the theories of economists. From the antivax movement to newly resurgent creationists, the spirit of the times was very much against the expert. Science and its evidence-based rationality were in retreat and the trend seemed unstoppable.Etc. etc, glory glory Imperial College 1.
Fast-forward four years and the world is suddenly a very different place. Experts like Imperial College London's Neil Ferguson, and Peter Piot from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine are now central advisors to government and the profiles of experts are the material of front-page stories. With the arrival of a global pandemic, experts are back - and with a vengeance!
So, what has changed? And what can we learn from the recent success of the experts who are shaping government policy on coronavirus? First, the experts who are currently leading the government's policy response to the pandemic are not just experts, they are leaders. They know that simply understanding a topic deeply and having something to say on an issue is not enough.'
WHO making moves on international vaccine 'passport'"The article quotes Brian Anderson, co-founder of the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), which describes itself as:
a voluntary coalition of public and private organizations committed to empowering individuals with access to verifiable clinical information including a trustworthy and verifiable copy of their vaccination records in digital or paper form using open, interoperable standards.They are, to take the PR agency sheen off this phrase, a corporate/government joint project researching and promoting digital medical identification papers.