75. The Basket
7.31.2023 The best of what I've read recently...
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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’):
Creating A Dictatorship by JS LEAKE
FDA Justified Boosters Off Flawed Study by VINAY PRASAD
Early Spread Of Flu Covid by BILL RICE, JR.
Aldean Has Nothing On Rap
Putin’s Potemkin Village by LEV POLYAKOV
Consulting Firm Fascists by BEN RUBIN
Biden Creates Pandemic Office by LEO HOHMANN
Closing The Energy Loop by MARKAEL LUTERRA
Dystopia: Communism & Socialism by ZEPHARETH LEDBETTER
Reject The Lies by POLIMATH
Canadian Truckers Won by KULAK
Green Imperialism by ROBERT W MALONE MD, MS
Treatments Were Hushed Up by MERYL NASS
Vax-Induced Heart Damage by JUSTIN HART
Measles Eradication Nirvana Fallacy by JAMES LYONS-WEILER
Moderna Sued By Pharmacist by REBEKAH BARNETT
An Ounce Of Prevention by EL GATO MALO
Facebook Files Reveal Censorship by JUSTIN HART
Biased Preprint Servers by VINAY PRASAD
We The People? by Chris Waldburger
Creating A Dictatorship by JS LEAKE
a program of widespread censorship is the creation and work of a dictator. By way of censorship, the fledgling dictator not only silences his critics, but also prevents his dictatorial powers, privileges, and activities from being detected and reported. Thus, censorship is the means by which an aspiring dictator becomes a complete dictator.
Missouri v. Biden shows us that the Biden Administration, its lackeys in Congress, and its electoral organ, the DNC, have not yet erected a full dictatorship. Nevertheless, their conduct reveals that they aspire to do so and have already done much to achieve their ambition. They therefore treat with withering contempt anyone who threatens their ambition.
FDA Justified Boosters Off Flawed Study by VINAY PRASAD
it was completely flawed bc people who get boosters are different than those who don’t
the original Israeli authors claim that boosters lower the risk of COVID death (adjusted for confounders) by 90%, which is a huge number.
Later, and only in response to a Letter to the editor, the authors admit that they found a reduction in death from COVID AND deaths from reasons other than COVID.
Wait, how does a COVID shot lower the risk of death not due to COVID?
they write, “The policy in Israel prioritized the administration of boosters to persons in the community setting who were at the highest risk. However, boosters were generally not administered to hospitalized patients who were at high risk for death from any cause.”
In other words, they knew that they were not comparing groups that were similar for reasons besides the booster.
Now, in the NEJM, we show that people who got boosters in Israel have huge reductions in non-covid death, on par with reductions in COVID death. This ensures that unmeasured confounding exists.
Early Spread Of Flu Covid by BILL RICE, JR.
Most news reports refer to these closings as being because of the “flu” although I know from research that the vast majority of people who have ILI symptoms and get a flu test actually test “negative” for the flu.
Of the approximately 100 school systems or schools listed below, the vast majority are entire “school systems” that shut down. Most school systems closed (for one or more days) because at least 20 percent of the student body or staff was affected by illness. Some schools had absent rates above 40 percent.
Some school systems would have dozens or scores of schools. This means this list probably comprises many thousands of schools across 14 states … and hundreds of thousands of students and staff members
Aldean Has Nothing On Rap by COLEMAN HUGHES
Progressives have tolerated these kinds of lyrics in mainstream rap for decades. Indeed, it has been the left that has historically defended rap crews like N.W.A and 2 Live Crew when they came under accusations of promoting violence and obscenity. What disturbs progressives is not the fact that Aldean’s song contains macho, pro-gun lyrics—which are ubiquitous in rap. What disturbs them is the fact that Aldean is a straight, white, conservative male, and therefore must play by a different set of rules than black, left-leaning artists.
Media coverage of the music video has especially focused on its alleged connection to lynching. Tennessee state representative Justin Jones called it a “vile racist song” and a “lynching anthem.”
But the idea that Aldean’s song is “pro-lynching” is a baseless smear.
Putin’s Potemkin Village by LEV POLYAKOV
Dictatorships can only function if the elite believe in the dictator’s power, and the moment this belief fades, the house of cards comes tumbling down. Rightfully paranoid about being overthrown, the dictator surrounds himself with more loyalty instead of competence, as had exceedingly been the case with Putin throughout the years.
But just like with the Wagner Battalion pre-backstab, Putin has continued to siphon arms and technology from the rest of the Russian military to prop up this personal shield. He is certainly not wrong for being paranoid that those who backed Prigozhin want him gone, so the justification for such a shield exists. But securing your own defense through pissing off the military further means the chances of a future coup being successful exponentially increase as well.
For both the leftist tankies and right-wing ultra trads, Putin's Russia mirrored their desires of the ideal Potemkin Village while inflaming hatred for the full package of the West they grew up in and benefited from. Even if some US politicians are not too dissimilar from the toadies jumping around Putin, these unimpressive people still have to contend with checks and balances that are entirely absent from the Russian system.
Consulting Firm Fascists by BEN RUBIN
all play pivotal roles in how the global economic system operates: from defining corporate strategy to auditing financial statements, and everything in between.
All of these organisations are Strategic Partners of the World Economic Forum, allowing them privileged access to the most sensitive levels of policy development and decision-making.
Through their client relationships and alumni networks they have direct access to the boardrooms of every single major corporation, charity and government department on earth. Making them a hyper-efficient and effective way of disseminating WEF strategies into the system.
As well as helping define the strategic thinking behind The Great Reset, many of these firms have taken a leading role in executing the agenda.
This fusion of corporate and state power is the literal definition of fascism.
Biden Creates Pandemic Office by LEO HOHMANN
the Biden administration quietly announced the creation of a new permanent office within the White House called the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, or OPPR
By creating this new office and emphasizing that it will be “permanent,” and by placing it under military management, this is a red flag that points to the continuation of the medical martial law we saw take over the nation in 2020 and 2021, ending in the rollout of a new type of deadly toxic mRNA vaccines.
Joe Biden has named a military man, retired Air Force Maj. General Paul Friedrichs, to head up the new office.
Still drunk with new powers gained from the last pandemic, the federal government is signaling to we the people that another pandemic is right around the corner.
Closing The Energy Loop by MARKAEL LUTERRA
It is an important and deeply relevant question whether we could build an industrial green energy economy that closes its own loops: that builds and recycles solar panels using their own output power, that builds and maintains wind turbines using wind power, that converts renewable electricity to hydrogen and liquid fuels when needed. The energy world has its own version of the Progress mythology - an essentially religious belief that such a future is our destiny - that distorts nearly all attempts to ponder this question objectively.
Our “green energy” economy, as it currently exists, is not so different from our fossil-energy economy. Materials for panels and batteries and generators are mined in giant pits, at significant ecological cost and using a great deal of fossil fuels. These materials are shipped around the world to polluting factories, from which the finished components are again carried by bunker-oil-burning ocean freighters and diesel-downing eighteen-wheelers. Once installed, turbine blades gradually weaken and panel output declines, until they are decommissioned and landfilled, forcing the mines to keep digging deeper for the next generation.
Dystopia: Communism & Socialism by ZEPHARETH LEDBETTER
Contemporary socialists distance themselves from communism, since that word is so stigmatized, but there are many similarities.
The main difference is that under communism, most property and economic resources are owned and controlled by the state; under socialism, all citizens share equally in economic resources as allocated by the state. They fail to see the unavoidably easy path where one inevitably devolves into the other, because both have the state making decisions for the people instead of the reverse.
In socialist/communist systems, there can be no dissent - the system collapses without complete and absolute participation. Human beings are wired for accomplishment; we are the only animals genetically predisposed toward advancement, and which find fulfillment in growth. We seek to push boundaries and thrive on competition. We celebrate what’s special about each of us, and reward it to inspire its continuation.
These factors inevitably lead to progress, as each generation seeks to surpass the accomplishments of its predecessors. All of that is lost if we remove merit as a basis for success. People who feel this way would be forced into acceptance or would rebel and be removed from society (imprisoned), as has been the case in every such government throughout history - a Pravda mentality of ideological control.
Reject The Lies by POLIMATH
There is a purge happening in corporate, government, and academic spheres. They are putting those who will not live by lies on notice that they will not be tolerated.
I do not expect short-term success among those who refuse, but neither did Solzhenitsyn. His primary plea was that we reject the lies not because we will be vindicated but for the sanctity of our own souls. And as for those who play along with it:
“Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general. Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.”
Canadian Truckers Won by KULAK
What people don't remember is what happened in the immediate aftermath: The government caved on absolutely everything within a week for the most important things, and then a month or so for the rest.
in the week that followed lockdown measures were quickly and quietly pulled back. Alberta had already rescinded their measures, and other provinces were following suit. By June almost all domestic restrictions were gone the regime desperately afraid that if the Protesters were able to shut down the capital and cross-border trade in minus 20 to minus 40 degree weather...what might they do in the Summer? Canada Day (July 1) was approached with fear.
WITHIN 1 month the trucker convoy had effected a hostile overthrow of the Governments of Alberta and the official opposition, the Conservative Party of Canada, from pro to anti- lockdown, and crushed the moderate wing of the conservative movement.
At Multiple points Trudeau was nearly forced out by his own party and his government was humiliated with most of it's perceived power destroyed, it now exists as a rump failing to pass gun control bills (IN CANADA!) against moderate opposition.
Within 2-4 months all domestic restrictions were gone and within 8 months even the pantomime of international restrictions didn't exist, Canada had fewer covid restrictions than the US.
Green Imperialism by ROBERT W MALONE MD, MS
green colonialism (or a better term may be green imperialism) is one of the current strategies being used (unsuccessfully) to influence climate around the world. Green imperialism is when leaders from rich nations force less wealthy (and nonwhite) nations to use inferior methods to generate power, such as wind and solar and not allow those nations to develop their more efficient fuel (hydrocarbon and nuclear) by withholding funds, knowledge and resources.
This strategy has the added benefit of limiting population growth. With the strategy being that a less wealthy nation can not grow their population as fast. In fact, the 1975 Kissinger report specifically mentions withholding resources as a way to stop population growth in less developed nations.
Treatments Were Hushed Up by MERYL NASS
Five CDC (US government) scientists published a paper, along with three Canadian government scientists, showing that chloroquine was an effective drug against SARS coronaviruses, in 2005. European scientists had shown the same thing in 2004.
authorities knew all about chloroquine and other treatments for COVID before there was a COVID... because they had figured it out for the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2012 MERS epidemic, both caused by related coronaviruses. But they hushed it up.
In 2014, scientists in Tony Fauci's NIAID showed the same thing. Not only did chloroquine work in vitro against the MERS coronavirus, but dozens of existing drugs, which could have been tested in patients as soon as the pandemic started, were also effective against SARS and MERS coronaviruses.
Vax-Induced Heart Damage by JUSTIN HART
Now a new study is out based on 777 medical workers, mostly female. It found that…1 in 20 had elevated high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) levels…when there's damage to the heart, such as during a heart attack, hs-cTnT levels in your blood go up.
The study also notes that 1 in 36 experienced a vaccine-associated myocardial injury to mRNA-1273 (The modern vaccine)
Measles Eradication Nirvana Fallacy by JAMES LYONS-WEILER
The Nirvana Fallacy of a world without measles due to 100% vaccination coverage has been disproven over and over with real-world data on outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations - and breakthrough infections in the vaccinated.
The problem with blaming so-called “Anti-vaxxers” is that as far as assessing causality goes, Science says it’s not AVers who are responsible. They just help provide evidence that the vaccine efficacy is waning. More on that in a moment.
We’re going to see measles cases in increasing numbers as vaccine efficacy continues to wane. There’s nothing anyone can do about it. The community of individuals who bother to understand the dynamics involved will not tolerate the restriction of personal and civil liberties over the Nirvana Fallacy of measles eradication.
Moderna Sued By Pharmacist by REBEKAH BARNETT
A Victorian doctor and pharmacist is seeking an injunction from the Federal Court of Australia to stop Pfizer and Moderna from distributing their mRNA Covid vaccines.
Dr Julian Fidge alleges that both the monovalent and bivalent vaccines contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), for which Pfizer and Moderna did not obtain the appropriate license.
The case, which is the first of its kind in Australia, argues that there are not one, but two GMO components in the mRNA Covid vaccines.
The first is the LNP-mRNA complexes
The second GMO component named in the case is synthetic DNA contamination
Says instructing solicitor, Katie Ashby-Koppens of PJ O’Brien & Associates, “The case is super simple. These products are GMOs by mechanism, and by contamination.”
An Ounce Of Prevention by EL GATO MALO
you can solve a lot of problems with the same simple solutions.
this same mediterranean diet has long been associated with better heart health as well.
so has exercise.
and yet doctors push pills and not push ups and faucis instead of burpees.
they prescribe drugs and not food. very few doctors have better than even rudimentary knowledge of nutrition. and this is becoming a serious problem.
the western medical focus on “fixing that which has gone wrong” and “treating disease” instead of “prevention” and “building healthy people who don’t get sick” is a disaster of bad outcomes and run-away costs.
the 80’s diet debacle and the truly horrendous food pyramid marketing schemes may well be the source of most of our current travails from obesity to cognitive decline to depression to heart disease, diabetes, and who knows how many other maladies.
it’s an epidemic of lack of self care.
Facebook Files Reveal Censorship by JUSTIN HART
What did the Biden White House want removed? A meme. That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts.
Representative Jim Jordan came out with a series of released and unredacted emails provided to a congressional committee from Facebook, showing the massive pressure the White House and other entities put on the social media giant during the pandemic. The purpose was to quash narratives and even memes that the White House took umbrage with.
Only after the Committee announced its intention to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt did Facebook produce ANY internal documents to the Committee, including these documents, which PROVE that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook.
Biased Preprint Servers by VINAY PRASAD
Just out on the preprint server Zenodo, comes an analysis of every preprint that has come out of my laboratory at UC San Francisco. In it, we reveal a startling pattern of censorship and inconsistent standards from pre-print servers. Preprint servers appear to be playing politics.
MedRxiv and SSRN have been reluctant to post articles critical of the CDC, mask and vaccine mandates, and the Biden administration’s health care policies. Preprint server are not supposed to be journals— they are not supposed to reject articles merely because the people running them disagree with the arguments within— and yet, the pattern below suggests they are inserting their biases into their practices.
the stated reasons for removal, are, pardon my french, bullshit. Not one of these articles has received any substantive rebuttal. All are consistent with scientific practices and norms, and similar papers not critical of the CDC or Biden administration have been accepted.
If only papers that praise the CDC are acceptable by preprint servers, than the role of science as a check and balance on incorrect policy is subverted
We The People? by Chris Waldburger
The Covid event affirmed in our own time quite conclusively that the power of interpretation goes beyond the constitution itself. Constitutional rights were suspended around the western world in the face of a public emergency. True power lay with those who decided this exception. ‘Separation of powers’ meant nothing during the exception: judges refused to hear challenges, and legislatures around the world barely lifted a finger against executives who locked up their own people.
If constitutional law did nothing to affirm the doctrine of popular sovereignty during the crisis, what of the people’s voice in the franchise?
The 39 signatures upon the final US Constitution, drafted in a four-month-long convention to be sovereign law for millions in perpetuity, represent the inevitability of elitism even in republicanism and democracy. Thus I do not use the term ‘elite’ here in a pejorative sense, but rather in a sociological sense, to denote the smaller, select class of people who inevitably wield outsized influence in any society.
Once such a constitution, framed by specific people, is established as supreme law, sovereignty of the people is then deliberately restricted. The constitution is barely amenable to any change or amendment, precisely to protect it from the ‘whims’ of the electorate. The ‘power’ of the constitution is passed on from its framers, to another select group of people, the jurists and politicians who interpret and execute its dictates. Such people are prone to the self-interest of the elite class from which they hail, even as they assume power as guardians of ‘living constitutions’.
If you like this, and have a tinfoil hat, you might like The Conspiracy Basket. Check it out!
And, in case you missed it…
The Tent Is Too Big
Max Kanin had a nice piece in Wrong Speak Publishing regarding the insincerity around athletes being compelled (forced) to wear pro-LGBTQIA+ jerseys. Have some of my favorite professional athletes worn pride jerseys, not because they genuinely believed in advancing LGBTQIA civil rights, but because they were compelled?
I look forward to my ClownBasket on Friday. Good stuff to chew on. Thanks brother!
thanks for the share :)