45. The Basket
4.16.2023 The best of Rational Ground, Team Reality and many others...
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Note: I read a lot of Substacks each day. The Basket is intended to be a collection of the money quotes from the best of what I read. My goal is that you enjoy this service because it saves you time and quickly informs you. And my hope is that you find one or two articles that you click into because you want more.What you can find in this collection (these are my headlines, not the authors’):
Academia Spearheading Censorship byNORMAN FENTON
Parents Putting Up With School Masking by DAVID ZWEIG
Free Market Of Public Health by el gato malo
Large Language Models Are Not AI by Curtis Yarvin
Amazon, Unions & “Salts” By Mary Kay Linge
The Racism Of Race-Swapping by RUTH ANNE AMSDEN
Excess Births By Country by FABIAN SPIEKER
Twitter Files Limited Hangout by CJ HOPKINS
Hollowed Out Abstraction by JON
First 3 Vax Injury Compensations by WAYNE A ROHDE
US Running Point In Ukraine by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
Leaker Is RESTRICT ACT Wet Dream by MATT TAIBBI
Excess Mortality From Misinformation? by Igor Chudov
The 23 Observational Mask Studies by TOM JEFFERSON & CARL HENEGHAN
Questioning Vax Answers by MATHEW CRAWFORD
More Harm Than Good by Joel Smalley
Edible Vaccines by Dr. Peter McCullough
Surviving Free Speech by el gato malo
America Deserves Kennedy by Celia Farber
Large Molecule Drug Sales by AUSSIE17
Academia Spearheading Censorship byNORMAN FENTON
In the last few months, I have received multiple emails from journals where I had previously published non-covid papers asking me to respond to complaints that I failed to declare conflicts of interest. Invariably these complaints have said that I did not inform readers that I was a member of the HART group or PANDATA.
As in the case of our submission to The Lancet nobody ever challenges the accuracy of our work; it is sufficient for them to know ‘who’ is writing it in order to know it must be banned.
For many the covid era has destroyed the trust in many if not all institutions - the government, the pharma industry, the social media giants, and the mainstream media generally.
In saner times we would have at least expected academia to rise above the lies and corruption and, especially, the censorship. Yet, academia has spearheaded the censorship of dissenting voices and, by censoring research based on who wrote it or who they are associated with, rather than on its quality and accuracy, any respect for the notion of ‘peer review’ has been destroyed and may never recover.
Parents Putting Up With School Masking by DAVID ZWEIG
Many parents, frankly, are tuned out. And they simply don’t think this is a big deal. “There are so many other issues that are more pressing,” the parent told me, that objecting to the restrictions “didn’t seem worth it.”
As much as there are activist parents, there’s a converse group of parents who are weirdly passive when it comes to pushing back against schools and other institutions.
Several parents I interviewed of students at the school said that although they were unhappy with the rules they didn’t say anything because they didn’t want to rock the boat. They had a fear of standing out, of being seen as troublemakers. One of them also intimated that to complain about the rules could brand one as a Republican [see #1], i.e. one of the “bad” people.
Free Market Of Public Health by el gato malo
these agencies and the ecosystems of remora-like hangers on they have generated are simply too broken to be fixed. “public health” should serve the public and it’s clear that this cannot.
it’s time these groups were dismantled and replaced with open, public systems of data and of regulation. we need markets, not technocrats.
it’s time ideas like “board certification” were re-assessed and made into something voluntary (like ISO-9000) and not mandatory. trusting the state to manage this is going badly awry, and letting a market sort it out and people decide for themselves what works for them would not only work better, it would be more moral.
safety gets used as a pretext to take rights. it becomes so normal that people never stop to think:
“what fundamental right does the state have to tell me what pharma i can take?”
“what fundamental right does the state have to tell me who i can and cannot chose as a physician and about what we may speak?”
these are big questions that we would do well to remember.
Large Language Models Are Not AI by Curtis Yarvin
GPT-4 is not “AI” because AI means “AGI,” that is, artificial general intelligence. The large language models of 2023 are not AGI—they are ASI, artificial special intelligence.
An LLM as we know it is a tool for humans to use. That this tool can produce enormous productive leverage in extremely deep intellectual fields is obvious. But an LLM more than just a tool would be just a different thing.
LLMs are not AI. LLMs cannot be “aligned”—they can only be censored. Or, less pejoratively, filtered.
Tomorrow’s LLMs will experience diminishing returns from training-data exhaustion, and (unless they are totally different things than today’s) they will be unable to think.
Letting LLMs act on their own as “agents” is not even dangerous, except in the way letting a train run away is dangerous—it would be reckless, pointless and stupid. No one would do it; it would neither benefit the doer, nor even much harm his neighbors.
Amazon, Unions & “Salts” By Mary Kay Linge
One year ago this month, the American labor movement scored its greatest victory in a generation: Amazon employees in Staten Island voted to organize their warehouse under the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). It was the first—and remains the only—of Amazon’s 110 active U.S. fulfillment centers to unionize.
Mendoza is a “salt,” an activist who seeks work in a nonunion shop expressly to organize it—like Amazon’s warehouses, where workers complain of dehumanizing conditions that push annual turnover to 150 percent.
Officially, the salts don’t exist. “It’s not something the union is part of,” ALU spokesperson Evangeline Byars said.
Unofficially, it’s another story.
In a May 2022 interview with The Dig, a podcast put out by the socialist magazine Jacobin, the head of the ALU said: “We have some dedicated salts. We need them.
The Racism Of Race-Swapping by RUTH ANNE AMSDEN
race-swapping in television and movies is a manipulative and subtle form of racism. It is predicated upon the assumption that an original black character, who is a well-written, well-acted, deeply layered, and complex character, cannot succeed independently.
The black character is not allowed to stand or fall upon their own merit; they must be given an advantage of connection to an already established white character. This is a paternalistic “white savior” mentality at its finest.
the discourse around the controversy turns into a childish game of competitive piety, who can be the most anti-racist. If you so much as whisper that you disagree with the race-swap or even hint that the original character had committed the unpardonable sin of whiteness, you are howled down. And this is damaging because it shuts down discourse. The only way we are going to combat true racism, not imaginary, is by open discourse.
Excess Births By Country by FABIAN SPIEKER
Monthly excess live births in 22 countries between 2017 and 2022
This does not take into account demographic changes. Some countries - like Poland and England - show strong linear trends which I have not corrected for either.
Twitter Files Limited Hangout by CJ HOPKINS
I have to tip my hat to Elon Musk. It was quite an impressive limited hangout.
Elon’s meltdown…will effectively kill the future of the story, and consign what has been reported so far to the “lunatic fringes” of the Internet, where no one “normal” will ever be forced to pay it any serious attention again.
From now on, any further Twitter Files reporting -- any actual reporting on the Censorship Industrial Complex at all -- will be summarily dismissed as another episode of Elon's Flying Narcissistic Circus. There will be no more congressional hearings. Anyone who continues to cover the story (i.e., the actual story, not the Twitter Files) will be branded a minion of Elon Musk, "a right-wing extremist conspiracy theorist," no more serious than a "9/11 truther."
Hollowed Out Abstraction by JON
Did you ever wonder why we’re getting so much “woke” shoved down our throats nowadays, when almost all the leadership class of today came up in the very “unwoke” 80’s-90’s-early 00’s?
It’s because they don’t think in terms of substance and value. So the fact the substance and value of what they are promoting is utterly insane has no impact on their decisions.
They think in terms of the hollowed out abstraction of THE DATA
This kind of thinking, this outsourcing of all judgement to statistical aggregates and expert pronouncements on said aggregates is how you get where we are.
At some point data is supposed to translate back into anecdotes people actually have.
First 3 Vax Injury Compensations by WAYNE A ROHDE
Recently our government bailed out several banks at the cost of several billion dollars.
Now our government turns their backs on the C19 vaccine injured people, throws them under the bus. The best our government can do is provide them with a couple of crumbs??
The first case that was deemed compensable in Sept 2021 (18 months ago) finally passed thru the medical benefits review process.
The net amount paid to this petitioner was ………………. $2,019.55. That is it.
The second and third cases deemed compensable in Dec 2022 were awarded $1,582.65 and $1,032.69 for myocarditis, an injury to your heart. Very serious injury. Requires a lot of medical attention.
These petitioners got royally screwed by our government.
And we have over 11,000 other injury petitions still pending.
US Running Point In Ukraine by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
The dozens of leaked images and plans provided evidence that the Pentagon/NATO is much more intimately involved in its proxy war against Russia than previously understood.
Specifically, U.S. troops have “mission critical functions” in Ukraine, despite never having declared war against Russia.
And not only is the Biden Administration actively monitoring the Zelensky government’s every move, according to the docs, but they are also effectively running point on the war effort.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who understand the power dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine spat, but it certainly clears up any doubts about who is ultimately in charge in Kiev.
Leaker Is RESTRICT ACT Wet Dream by MATT TAIBBI
When civilians or whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange (in jail for an incredible four years now), Reality Winner and now the “Discord Leaker” bring leaked information to the public, the immediate threat is Espionage Act charges and decades of jail time. When a CIA head or a top FBI official does it, it’s just news.
You’ll read a lot in the coming days about the dangers of apps like Discord, or of online gaming groups, which counterintelligence officials told the Washington Post today are a “magnet for spies.”
The Leaker tale will also surely be framed as reason to pass the RESTRICT Act, the wet dream of creepazoid Virginia Senator Mark Warner, which would give government wide latitude to crack down on “communication technology” creating “undue or unacceptable risk” to national security.
Excess Mortality From Misinformation? by Igor Chudov
what could explain the mysterious “excess mortality” plaguing Covid-vaccinated countries.
Fortunately for us, the FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has the answer: excess mortality, also known as reduced life expectancy, is caused by “misinformation”!
I am unsure why Dr. Califf singles out rural residents for being “exposed to different information sources.” Are those “different sources” only available outside of the big cities?
The 23 Observational Mask Studies by TOM JEFFERSON & CARL HENEGHAN
Commentators have extolled the “limitations in the primary evidence” of the Cochrane review and instead drawn on non-randomized studies (as the UKHSA did) to support their use.
So, here we focus on the other 23 non-randomised studies in the UKHSA review.
All 23 studies make no mention of the existence of a protocol, a detail which has escaped the UKHSA reviewers.
All studies mention testing in an unclear way, and they do not relate the test with the onset of symptoms that go unreported in detail.
All studies lack blinding of researcher/analyst to exposure or outcome status of data, introducing a high risk of bias.
Twelve papers have a design which cannot answer the study question
in several, the population is not representative
The UKHSA review apparently informed UK policy on masks. However, no one looked under the bonnet of these studies to see if they were fit for making effective policy. In the face of such poor-quality evidence, opinions over what to do next - as opposed to the evidence - will continue to dominate the debate.
Questioning Vax Answers by MATHEW CRAWFORD
Once you understand the data, and it settles in your mind that intramuscular vaccination makes little sense against respiratory viruses, coming to grips with the horrors of the scams can be an exercise in fighting the friction of cognitive dissonance.
This is an industry known for engineering trial fraud.
The 95% number was based on testing for mild symptoms in conjunction with a PCR positive test (without checking for vaccine confounding of the PCR protocol) in largely low risk populations. But the trials did not result in lowering mortality (Benn et al, 2022). They weren't even powered to do so, statistically speaking, and the control arms were quickly vaccinated to cut off observations of accumulating HUB effects. We really should ask whether that was intentional.
More Harm Than Good by Joel Smalley
A new preprint from a few days ago by more independent analysts draws the same conclusions as every other honest data analyst - the COVID mRNA injections are net detrimental in terms of all-cause mortality. In other words, they kill people.
“[For flu vaccines] using a data set of nearly 100 countries over a 4-decade period no long-term net effect against all-cause winter mortality could be demonstrated.”
“Our overall conclusion is that the COVID-19 vaccines employed in England during 2021 and 2022 led to unintended selective all-cause mortality harm under specific combinations of age, sex, vaccine history, COVID-19 variant, and time (season, outbreak or non-outbreak months).”
“the young suffer increasing nonspecific disbenefits which worsen as the COVID-19 variants progressively mutate.”
Edible Vaccines by Dr. Peter McCullough
it appears the biopharmaceutical complex is well into the development of genetic vaccines to be delivered in foods. Missouri HB 1169 has enormous importance for transparency. Americans need to know if any genetic product that could change their bodies is consumable in purchased and prepared foods.
Whether it has been used to protect animals or intentionally designed to be ingested by humans to induce immunity or some other physiological change—now is the time for transparency and scrutiny over the regulatory process.
The antigens introduced can be proteins as well as mRNA or DNA forms of genetic code that would be absorbed in the GI tract and then induce production of the foreign antigens by somatic cells. This would raise the problem of autoimmunity now seen with the genetic SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Surviving Free Speech by el gato malo
those who cannot compete in a marketplace of ideas will always seek to shut the marketplace down.
but the side of censorship is never the side of civilization.
popular speech does not need protection. free speech is to protect that which is not popular because popularity and truth are not the same thing at all and the cure for bad speech is not censorship, it’s more speech.
that which you block and deny just grows in stature. silencing those who disagree with you does not represent strength, it demonstrates weakness.
if you will not allow the speech of others to be heard by those who would choose to listen, why should we not presume it’s because you fear that they will say something true that refutes your preferred narrative?
this is what we’re up against amigos. it’s neither smart nor informed, it’s just convinced.
the reason they fear free speech so much is that they know they cannot survive it.
America Deserves Kennedy by Celia Farber
America, after all we have endured…deserves a President like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We deserve closure to a wound blown open in 1963. In some way, this seems to be an approaching lilac vine. But leave it, for now—
We deserve a great leader, who knows history, opposes evil, is extremely well educated, and can make us proud around the world again. One who has a very sound relationship to what we used to call facts. As well as contradictions.
Large Molecule Drug Sales by AUSSIE17
Phase 3 happens when the drug's patent expires. Generics start flooding the market, and the sales will collapse. Small molecule drug sales drop 50-80% overnight when the patent expires. In layman's terms, "small molecule drugs" are pills; they are straightforward to copy and manufacture.
Large molecule drugs (like the mRNA) don't drop that much because they are harder to replicate. So one of the reasons why Big Pharma is moving to mRNA and "large molecules" (we call large molecules "biologics". Thats when the word "Pharma" becomes "Biopharma") is because they cannot be replicated easily when the patent expires; hence the sales don't drop as much as small molecules.
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