A bit of a slow days so far, but here are a few stories of interest.
Yesterday the AP said they would no longer be using Covid case counts because of their unreliability and the difficulty in connecting those counts to reality. Today:
In August, Germany's top newspaper, Bild, apologized for the outlet's fear-driven Covid coverage - with special message to children, who were told "that they were going to murder their grandma."
Now, a newspaper in Denmark has publicly apologized for reporting government narratives surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic without questioning them.
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Perhaps it’s a trend? Along with other indicators? I like the wording—an apology for reporting “government narratives.”
You may have seen this story at various sites. The Army wants you to think that this is about lockdowns, etc., but it’s hardly news that many service members are bailing from the woke military:
Desperate For More Recruits, Army Offers $50,000 Signing Bonus
Two years into the pandemic, and now with Department of Defense-wide vaccine mandates threatening early discharge for all troops not in compliance, the US Army is struggling to meet its enlistment quotas, especially for jobs deemed "critical" and highly skilled, for which the military typically spends a lot - sometimes millions - for training.
To lure new recruits, the Army is rolling out with its maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 - to be offered on a broader scale for all "highly skilled" recruits who agree to sign a six year contract, according to the Associated Press.
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Mathis says he didn’t “knowingly” drive on a revoked or suspended license. I’m not sure that’s a great explanation. This seems like one of those, you know, metaphors for this regime:
Joe Biden’s Sixth Circuit Nominee, Andre Mathis, Has Criminal Record
Andre Mathis, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, has had his driver’s license suspended on three separate occasions, an FBI background investigation revealed.
Biden nominated Tennessee litigator Andre B. Mathis to the Sixth Circuit last November. Mathis’s confirmation hearing will occur on Wednesday, January 12.
Mathis has a history of habitual speeding, and his driver’s license was suspended on three separate occasions, according to Tennessee state records. Mathis drove on a suspended license during all three periods his license was suspended. Driving on a suspended license is punishable by up to 6 months in jail and/or a $500 fine.
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I’m not a Pepe Escobar regular, but this lengthy article caught my eye:
Excerpt:
The breakdown of the messy Kazakh op necessarily starts with the usual suspects: the US Deep State, which all but “sang” its strategy in a 2019 RAND corporation report, Extending Russia. Chapter 4, on “geopolitical measures”, details everything from “providing lethal aid to Ukraine”, “promoting regime change in Belarus”, and “increasing support for Syrian rebels” – all major fails – to “reducing Russian influence in Central Asia.”
That was the master concept. Implementation fell to the MI6-Turk connection.
The CIA and MI6 had been investing in dodgy outfits in Central Asia since at least 2005, when they encouraged the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), then close to the Taliban, to wreak havoc in southern Kyrgyzstan. Nothing happened.
And this, of course:
Have you heard anyone talking/writing about this? Published last September:
A Possible Side Effect of Merck's Oral COVID-19 Drug should alarm the Public
A rush for molnupiravir's approval could lead to disaster.
https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/the-possible-side-effect-of-mercks
The Curious Emergence of Omicron
Part I: Introduction and Examining Phylogenetic Trees
"It’s been over two years since the first reports of a strange “pneumonia-like illness” began to sprout from Wuhan China. Eventually erupting into a global pandemic, many questions were raised about the origins of the virus. The first reports considered a wet market serial passage through animals such as pangolins. However, the presence of a level 4 biosafety lab nearby the wet market, with evidence of gain-of-function research being conducted, with evidence of experimentation on bat coronaviruses, and with the evidence of bat coronaviruses infecting coal miners several years back being collected and stored, all cast doubt on this “wet market” hypothesis.
Even still, we have no clear evidence of where exactly SARS-COV2 came from.
And then comes the sudden emergence of Omicron. Prior SARS-COV2 variants, although abundant in their mutations, at least exhibited predictable mutations. These variants also tended to follow a similar route of higher infectivity with somewhat reduced virulence (although Delta seems to be both more infectious and virulent).
But Omicron is different; preliminary evidence suggests it’s far more infectious than prior variants and is likely to have an R0 nearly double that of Delta. But it is, in nearly most circumstances, presenting as mild disease. In fact, it’s considered to be the on par with seasonal colds and flus in presentation (there are still those who will suffer severe disease, but it appears those numbers are reduced with Omicron).
Even more strangely, it appears to escape any prior immunity, whether it be from natural infection or prior vaccination regimens, attributed to the “unusually high” number of spike protein mutations. This effect is being seen directly with respect to monoclonal antibody therapy, with most monoclonals in use losing effectiveness aside from Sotrovimab.
Overall, Omicron has presented itself as its own unique beast unlike any of the prior variants we have experienced, which begs the questions as to why Omicron is so different than prior variants, leading to the main concern as to where Omicron may have come from.”
More here:
https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/the-curious-emergence-of-omicron?