65. The Basket
6.27.2023 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’):
DNA Methylation, Spike & Rapid Aging by WALTER M CHESNUT
Texan Totalitarianism by SAGE HANA
Putin Talks WWIII by LEO HOHMANN
Replacing Real Social Situations by MATTIAS DESMET
Pfizer Document Shows AEs by AUSSIE17
Atheists For Religion by OPPOSING POINTS
Interventions Killed by JOEL SMALLEY
Germany Vs Japan by EUGYPPIUS
Just The Flu by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
SARS-CoV-2 Meet Curcumin & Bromelain by By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
There Was No Pandemic by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
Cleveland Clinic Study by IGOR CHUDOV
Dysphoria & Poor Peer Relations by PETER A. MCCULLOUGH, MD, MPH™
IRS Agents Put To Work by LEO HOHMANN
Western Decline In Prosperity by NAKED EMPEROR
Aussie Youth Cardiac Episodes Up by JOEL SMALLEY
Hotez’ Day Job by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
Basic Vax Math by Thomas Verduyn
Cancer Link To Covid? by JOHN DEE
The Left’s ‘Moral Supremacy’ by MATTHEW SALVINI
DNA Methylation, Spike & Rapid Aging by WALTER M CHESNUT
Readers may recall that I coauthored a paper with Luc Montagnier and other distinguished researchers in the summer of 2021 where we observed that SARS-CoV-2 was almost certainly accelerating biological age.
DNA Methylation is a record of lifetime environmental exposures to agents which increase the risk of age-related disease. Think of it as rings in the trunk of a tree. Each ring in this case represents an exposure, and the larger the “trunk” you have of these exposures, the larger your risk is of acquiring an age-related disease, such as cancer, neurodegeneration or metabolic syndrome.
SARS-COV-2 (and by integration, the Spike Protein) is a significant source of DNA Methylation – disturbingly even in an asymptomatic infection.
not only does the virus remain in the body, but that, as I have stated from the beginning, reinfections are frequent and can occur in rapid succession. This adds ring upon ring to our Methylation “Tree” rapidly accelerating our age, even in the case of asymptomatic infection.
Texan Totalitarianism by SAGE HANA
“Neighbors at a southeast Austin apartment complex are complaining after a mandatory curfew was put in place with very little explanation.”
Gosh, do you think much of this was normalized with lockdowns? You know, for the COVID EMERGENCY OF 2020-FOREVER.
The merger of corporatism and State is fascism.
"I would tell people to ignore it," Gammon said.
"That has to be done by the City, and the City has to have the authority to do this. The apartment complex can't do this. This is ludicrous," Gammon said.
Did you catch that?
The City of Austin can put you on house arrest. Forget “DISRUPT Management” and their overreach.
Leave it up to the City of Austin to employ the necessary steps to limit your freedoms.
Putin Talks WWIII by LEO HOHMANN
Vladimir Putin has warned yet again that if the U.S./NATO continue to escalate the war by sending ever-more controversial weapons to Ukraine, including yesterday’s announcement of tanks firing radioactive depleted-uranium munitions, this could quickly turn into World War III.
Putin said, “there will be no winners, including America” in a Third World War.
Putin, speaking at a June 13 meeting with Russian war correspondents in Moscow, said: “The United States pretends not to be afraid of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, but sane people there clearly do not want to take this to a Third World War. In the event of a Third World War, there will be no winners, including America.”
His comments come as Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko revealed that his country had started to receive tactical nuclear weapons from its ally Russia.
Replacing Real Social Situations by MATTIAS DESMET
The gradual replacement of real social situations by artificial ones in recent centuries and decades – through the industrialization and mechanization of labor, through the introduction of radio, television, telephone and internet – has taken an insidious toll. It is responsible for the most destructive psychosocial phenomenon of the Enlightenment: it "atomizes" the human being, disconnecting us from our social and natural environment and plunging us into solitude.
Loneliness and atomization is not just a problem, it is a problem with enormous social consequence. Isolated, atomized subjects tend, especially under the influence of media and social media narratives, to suddenly coalesce into a new kind of group: a mass. This kind of group formation makes people radically incapable of thinking critically about the stories presented to them, willing to radically sacrifice everything they hold dear, and deeply intolerant of any voice that deviates of what the masses believe in.
European Births Falling by CM27874
monthly births against the 2017-2020 median
2021 was not that bad. Around half of the countries saw more births than in the preceding years, and around half saw fewer births - a completely unremarkable year. This changed right in the beginning of 2022. The median dropped to around 93%, and it stayed there throughout the year. The first months of 2023 seem to be even worse, below 90% of the 2017-2020 median
Pfizer Document Shows AEs by AUSSIE17
Pfizer's Post Marketing Adverse Event Report
The numbers were staggering, with 1.6 million adverse events
covering the period between December 2021 and June 2022. However, when you dig into the cumulative data from December 2020 to June 2022, the adverse event count skyrockets to almost 5 million.
focus on is the "C" column, which represents the cumulative cases from December 2020 to June 2022. This column reveals the serious adverse events, including those categorized as Death, Life Threatening, or resulting in Disability/Permanent Damage.
Atheists For Religion by OPPOSING POINTS
Atheists and agnostics like myself used to argue that the elimination of religion in the public sphere would lead to an enlightened life, but ask yourself, has it or has the god-shaped vacuum on a societal level been filled by something much more harmful?
People used to find their communities and fulfillment in their family and in their church or synagogue.
Now people find their fulfillment in their political causes, like arguing for child-friendly drag performances, or arguing that tearing a fetus apart limb by limb is healthcare. They find it in arguing that criminals should be allowed to loot stores with no consequences because they're oppressed. Or that insane individuals the state failed to help should be allowed to torment subway goers, no matter if they fear for their lives as threats are made.
Interventions Killed by JOEL SMALLEY
viruses (whether or not you believe they are transmissible, let alone exist) don’t care if you are a care home resident or not.
And yet, during “COVID”, the proportion of care home resident deaths shoots up to over 50% between 23-MAR-20 and 01-JUN-20
There was no unusually deadly virus.
There was substantial excess mortality.
Some other interventions were responsible for the excess mortality, other than a “novel, deadly virus”.
Germany Vs Japan by EUGYPPIUS
Whereas 2020 saw slightly above-trend mortality in Germany, it was a year of below-average deaths in Japan. 2021 was elevated but within-trend, while 2022 saw substantial excess mortality, well in excess of the deaths caused by the natural disasters of 2011. Nor can Covid explain these deaths; official Japanese virus mortality for 2022, which we know is substantially overstated in the Omicron era, amounts to only 38,870 deaths, a mere 32% of the excess.
What’s very interesting about the pandemic, is its highly variable influence on all-cause mortality across the globe, and how this contrasts with the vaccines, which seem to coincide with marked upward trends almost everywhere they were widely administered.
Just The Flu by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
There were no novel symptoms. There was no novel treatment. There was nothing significantly alarming or threatening about this “bioweapon” to 99+% of the population.
The covid era may go down in the history books as a pandemic of the century, but this is entirely based on the most widespread government-incentivized statistical fraud known to man.
We witnessed the fastest roll up of power in human history, all based on the premise that there was something novel
The best explanation for covid is that it was just the flu (not in virological terms but in how the annual respiratory season is understood), repackaged to appear much scarier.
SARS-CoV-2 Meet Curcumin & Bromelain by By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
the combination of curcumin and bromelain are well positioned as supplements in people who are getting repetitive COVID-19/Spike protein exposure
The antiviral actions of curcumin against multiple viruses (influenza and hepatitis viruses, herpes viruses, human papilloma virus, human immunodeficiency virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and other coronaviruses), bacteria and fungi have been established by experimental evidence [8]. Remarkably, recent evidence from in silico studies has demonstrated that curcumin prevents SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells
a recent experimental study demonstrated that bromelain inhibits infection of VeroE6 cells by SARS-CoV-2 through blocking the virus binding and entry into cells via downregulation of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 expression, and cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, presenting a novel promising therapeutic option that warrants further investigation.
There Was No Pandemic by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
there was no pandemic. Covid-19 simply doesn’t fit the bill, according to the widely understood interpretation of what a pandemic entails.
We must let go of the limitations of this false “pandemic” construct that is labeled covid-19. We need not take the bait that there was a pandemic that had to be dealt with.
There was certainly a global hysteria, but it was a psychological hysteria. There was no global viral emergency, because the vast majority of the global population was not significantly threatened by this supposedly devastating disease. Had the world been caught up with say, some other “emergency” on our minds, “the pandemic” would have just been written off as another human respiratory illness season.
Cleveland Clinic Study by IGOR CHUDOV
A brand-new study from the Cleveland Clinic is out. And it found something we already knew: Covid vaccines increase the chances of getting Covid instead of being protective.
The up-to-date people had approximately 25% MORE Covid infections.
adjusting for confounders, those “up-to-date” are 33% MORE likely to get COVID
a disturbing finding, the female sex is associated with a 24% higher chance of a COVID infection among the vaccinated people.
Dysphoria & Poor Peer Relations by PETER A. MCCULLOUGH, MD, MPH™
The authors found that peer relations and perceived victimization were highly associated with lower well being and gender dysphoria. This association could not be adjusted away in detailed modeling procedures.
This is an important study for families. It is worthwhile to check for cues of poor peer relations and signs of victimization. Parents and counselors can intercept children early and hopefully avoid matriculation at transgender clinics. The best treatment for gender dysphoria is normal puberty and avoidance of the ghoulish transexual journey that is a source of so much angst among our youth.
IRS Agents Put To Work by LEO HOHMANN
20 IRS agents armed with AR-15 rifles along with ATF agents carried out a raid on a gun store in Great Falls, Montana, seizing all of the store’s Form 4473s. These are the forms that everyone fills out when purchasing a firearm and they contain personal information about the buyers.
Make no mistake: This is the new American Gestapo, operating entirely outside the bounds of the U.S. Constitution.
“Now we know what the 87,000 IRS agents were (hired) for,” a former law enforcement officer in New Mexico tweeted Friday.
Western Decline In Prosperity by NAKED EMPEROR
it doesn’t matter what the interest rate is, it matters how affordable the mortgage is.
In 2005, the average house price was roughly half what it is now. So with average wages the same as they were in 2005 but with mortgages on much more expensive properties, things are going to get very difficult for families. A much higher proportion of their salaries will have to be spent on mortgage payments, rather than as disposable income on discretionary items.
interest rates adjusted for affordability. So in the graph…an interest rate of 14.2% in 1980 is equivalent to interest rates of 3% today.
Aussie Youth Cardiac Episodes Up by JOEL SMALLEY
there has been an explosion of serious cardiac episodes in Australia since April 2021.
disproportionally affecting young people, with emergency department presentations for 10 to 29 year olds almost doubling over the period March 2021 to Feb 2022
We can safely eliminate COVID as the cause of this very concerning public health emergency since there was absolutely no impact whatsoever when it originally emerged in 2020
the timing and magnitude of the increased cardiac episodes is very closely correlated with the Victorian COVID mRNA “vaccination” program
Hotez’ Day Job by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
But what does he do when he’s not on television and peddling experimental injections to the masses?
Dr. Peter Hotez has dedicated his career to developing vaccines for parasites, specifically hookworms.
What began as a doctoral dissertation on hookworm vaccination in 1987 has transformed into a several decades quest to create vaccine-induced immunity against multicellular organisms.
Unfortunately for Hotez, 35 years later, he still has nothing to show for his prized parasite vaccine ambitions, besides ongoing trials.
More broadly, Hotez has never brought a vaccine to market other than his covid shot, which doesn’t work to stop covid disease. Similar to the Pfizer, Moderna, and discontinued J&J covid injections, it is pure junk.
If an effective vaccine against a parasite — a sophisticated multicellular organism — seems a bit far fetched, that’s because it is.
Basic Vax Math by Thomas Verduyn
researchers concluded that for 81% of the entries they examined, the Covid shot “may have been a factor.” If we accept this ratio, then VAERS is giving us a signal of 11,852 Covid vaccine-related deaths in the USA by the end of 2021. Since about 244 million Americans had received at least one dose by then, this works out to a fatality rate of 0.005% per person. Of course, many Americans received two or more doses, so the vaccine fatality rate per dose is probably about half of this (0.002% per dose).
because it is not mandatory that a report is filed for every ‘event’, and because filling out VAERS reports is a cumbersome and time consuming exercise, it is well known that many adverse events go unreported. For instance, one study estimated that somewhere between 13% and 76% of serious events make it into VAERS. Another study concluded that “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.” If we are overly conservative, and estimate that 25% of vaccine deaths were entered into the system, it is quite possible that after one year of injecting Americans, the Covid shots had killed 47,408 people. This gives a fatality rate of 0.02%
since there were six more deaths among those receiving the Pfizer product compared to those receiving the placebo in the Phase 3 trials, (n=22,082), Pfizer’s own data gives a vaccine fatality rate (VFR) of 0.027%. This is slightly higher than our estimate from the VAERS data, and it suggests that we were in the right ballpark.
Cancer Link To Covid? by JOHN DEE
the likelihood of a positive test result depends on the complexity of the cancer case. Simple cases are less likely to return a positive test result and complex cases are more likely to return a positive test result. What is baffling is why there should be this distinction: why should presence or absence of cancer be mixed up with presence or absence of a COVID diagnosis? I can understand a linkage through cancer cases tending to be immuncompromised and thus prone to infection but this would serve to increase the likelihood of positive test results not reduce it!
The Left’s ‘Moral Supremacy’ by MATTHEW SALVINI
Moral supremacy induces you into perceiving your opponents as mere bowling pins to knock down. You could justify anything, if a moral supremacist. You could even deny them their humanity, their civil rights to speech and assembly, all the while feeling justified and superior while doing it.
Consider the case of Herbert Marcuse, a neo-Marxist professor popular in the 1960s. In a 1969 essay he wrote: “Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left”. He endorses intolerance against political opponents.
Marcuse openly endorses and advocates for withdrawing freedom of speech and assembly and rights from anyone who opposes left-wing policies such as expanded government healthcare and social security.
In the socialist Soviet Union, the editor-in-chief of the state propaganda newspaper Pravda, wrote this: “We see now that infringement of freedom is necessary with regard to the opponents of the revolution. At a time of revolution we cannot allow freedom for the enemies of the people and of the revolution. That is a surely clear, irrefutable conclusion.”
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And, in case you missed it…
Covid-18, Omicron and Some Things That Need Explaining
People want to understand some of the hypotheses about the origins of SARS-CoV-2. However, any discussion about Covid ultimately involves genetics, virology and many other scientific fields. So it can get complicated quickly. My objective here is to provide a framework that allows for the average person to understand one of the key Covid hypotheses: that…
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