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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’):
Mortality Over Time by JOEL SMALLEY
Nattokinase Vs Cardiovascular Disease by PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD
DEI & Air Travel Safety by AMUSE
6% Increased Odds Of Death by STEVE KIRSCH
Warming Of The Cities by IGOR CHUDOV
Parallels Between Covid & Climate Change by ALICE ASHWELL
Terrorists Militants by DAVID ZWEIG
The Final Frontier by LEO HOHMANN
Diminishing Positive Returns by VINAY PRASAD
HCQ Works by IGOR CHUDOV
Annual Flu Jab by JOEL SMALLEY
Recruitment Through Coercion by EL GATO MALO
Brunson Vs Adams by JENNIFER BROWN
Novavax Sucks The Least by PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD
Cough Syrup Contaminated With Anti-Freeze by CARL HENEGHAN & TOM JEFFERSON
Woke Rot On Campus by BARI WEISS
Neonatal Deaths For Vaxxed Mums by IGOR CHUDOV
In The Days Prior by NAKED EMPEROR
Where Is The Muslim Support? by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
Same Virus; Different “Spread” by JESSICA HOCKETT
Mortality Over Time by JOEL SMALLEY
Plotting the full mortality distributions…for each birth cohort between 1880 and 1960, every ten years, we can see steady progress in mortality expectations
As time passes by, the distributions become flatter and more left skewed (longer left tail). In other words, people are living longer and more people are dying later (that isn’t a tautology!
Of course, we should expect this. Generally, things like improved nutrition, sanitation, healthcare, etc. should result in exactly this.
However, since 1960, it looks like things are regressing
mortality outcomes for those born in 1970 are not much better than for those born in 1940 and for those born in 1980 are between 1910 and 1930.
the extra convexity in the younger ages that drives the shape of the distribution might be the result of immigration, which has increased substantially since 1960
Nattokinase Vs Cardiovascular Disease by PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD
Chen et al, performed a prospective cohort study of 1,062 patients with risk for or manifest carotid atherosclerosis treated with high-dose nattokinase 10,800 FU per day. For long-COVID the usual dose is only 4,000 FU per day. Chen reported Nattokinase resulted in an 18.1% reduction in LDL-C from 138.4 to 113.3 mg/dl. A total of 84.3% of subjects had a reduction in LDL-C. This was associated with a 21.7% reduction in carotid intima-medial thickness, a measure of atherosclerosis, which at baseline was elevated.
Future large prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are required to make therapeutic claims such as “reduction in atherosclerosis” or “reduction in the risks of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiovascular death.” In the meantime these data are strongly positive for Nattokinase conferring cardiovascular benefit
The main two caveats with Nattokinase are: 1) bleeding, and 2) soy allergy. Provided patients and doctors are aware of these manageable risks, I anticipate we will see a considerable surge in the use of Nattokinase over the next several years.
DEI & Air Travel Safety by AMUSE
America’s latest generation of civilian pilots is far more diverse in every sense of the word. They’ve grown up in a far more independent culture that has embraced critical race theory and radical gender ideology. They routinely challenge authority and question the status quo. This difference in culture (regardless of the race of the pilot) is leading to problems in the cockpit, especially since this new crop of pilots is not used to following orders. While they have the same training when it comes to safety and training as military pilots their worldview is very different.
studies have confirmed…that culture is the most significant indicator of risk in aviation…concluded that some cultures have far fewer accidents and incidents than other cultures…found a very strong relationship between culture and pilot behavior…found that pilots from certain cultures are more likely to report hazards, follow procedures, and speak up when they see something wrong.
a less-discussed but critical shift in American aviation has been the decline in the number of former military pilots entering commercial aviation. Prior to the pandemic, as many as two-thirds of commercial pilots were former military aviators, bringing with them a wealth of experience in high-pressure situations, advanced training, and a disciplined approach to safety protocols. Today, that number has dramatically decreased, with fewer than a third of pilots possessing any military experience at all.
6% Increased Odds Of Death by STEVE KIRSCH
In plain English, there was a 6% higher odds of death in the 12 week period post-vaccine vs. a 12 week period pre-vaccine in the nursing homes.
This is official US government data and the single most complete and trusted dataset for what happened at US nursing homes before and after the vaccine.
The IFR should have dropped like a rock after the vaccines rolled out. But instead the odds of death increased by 6%. Furthermore, the odds of death did drop like a rock later, right when Omicron rolled out; exactly as predicted.
This is a devastating result that shows that most of the doctors and health authorities ended up recommending a medical intervention that killed people.
Warming Of The Cities by IGOR CHUDOV
We are told that we live in an era of global boiling. Our planet is rapidly heating up, as calculated based on temperature readings from weather stations spread around the globe.
It turns out that we were measuring the wrong thing all along! Due to understandable reasons of convenience, scientists placed weather stations near where they live, in or near urban areas.
instead of measuring the warming of the planet, we measured the warming of the cities.
For rural-only stations, human activity explained only 38% of climate change, whereas for the urban-centered “all stations,” human activity explained 80% of climate change.
Parallels Between Covid & Climate Change by ALICE ASHWELL
The Covid lockdowns gave us a taste of how easily people can be terrified into relinquishing those things that are most precious to humanity – bodily autonomy, contact with family and friends, access to places we love, and the opportunity to share our gifts and serve our communities face-to-face.
These two crises are presented as threats to the survival of humanity and the planet. One rather sinister similarity is that both the Covid and climate change narratives target human exhalations, deeming them so dangerous that they may cause death. In one case, even in the absence of symptoms, our out-breaths harbour deadly viruses that can kill; in the other, our exhalations are suffused with a gas that is no longer recognised as food for plants, and thus the basic building block of living things, but is now rebranded a ‘pollutant’ that will overheat the planet and destroy life on earth.
Both the SARS-CoV-2 virus and carbon dioxide (CO2) are invisible agents, which are blamed for the 2020 global pandemic and climate change respectively.
Both pandemics and climate change are complex in nature, difficult to understand, and have impacts at a global scale. This makes these issues appear insoluble by ordinary human beings, leaving people feeling not only afraid, but also powerless.
Both in relation to Covid and climate change, the media has picked up on inflated predictions resulting from computer modelling, and fuelled widespread fear and even panic with unremitting doses of propaganda and sensationalism.
Terrorists Militants by DAVID ZWEIG
News organizations have style guides that dictate such things as, for example, the use of Black, with a capital B. The use of militant in the Times’s coverage of Hamas is no doubt the result of a formal editorial decision-making process. It is not arbitrary. The editors know that word choice will be important in how this news story is framed for readers.
By choosing “militants” instead of “terrorists” the Times is not alone. With the exception of FOX, nearly the entire establishment media in America—including the Associated Press, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, among other outlets—in covering the events of the last two days all used “militants,” and secondarily “fighters,” “gunmen,” or any term except “terrorists.”
every single element of what took place in Israel, according to the United States government, was the work of terrorists:
1) Hamas is a terrorist organization. 2) Its members or those associated with it committed violent acts. And 3) the acts—which included mass destruction, murder, and kidnapping—were aimed at a civilian population.
The Final Frontier by LEO HOHMANN
By now you’ve all seen the horrifying images from Israel over the weekend. People being murdered in their homes. Women being pulled out of vehicles by their hair and raped. Men being dragged behind vehicles to their deaths. Spat upon. Executed.
the Israeli government makes its citizens jump through so many hoops that only about 2.6 percent of Israeli citizens own a pistol. And it’s virtually impossible to own a rifle.
The same element that butchered those Jews in Israel is here in America and they will turn on us at some point. We’re already seeing evidence of it with the pro-Hamas rallies held in major cities across the U.S. the last couple of days.
The Second Amendment is the final frontier for American freedom lovers. The First Amendment has been under intense attack for years and has been extremely watered down over the last three or four years, to the point where it is hanging by a thread.
Diminishing Positive Returns by VINAY PRASAD
I do not understand why this reporter cannot consider the fact that a medical intervention can have diminishing positive returns over time with sustained harms. This is literally true for nearly all medications.
Take a aspirin after a heart attack. You prevent platelets from clumping and improve survival. Take 100000, and you die.
antibody titers are not the question. The question is whether there is a reduction in severe disease, hospitalization and death. This was shown to be the case in randomized trials for the first 2 doses in late 2020 and early 2021. No one has shown this to be the case for the 6th dose in late 2023.
Two things can be true. The side effects of dose 1 might have been worth it for many people who had not had COVID in Q1 2021, but as people have had and recovered from COVID, as the virus has evolved into less lethal variants, the side effects of the 6th dose may actually be net harmful to many groups
HCQ Works by IGOR CHUDOV
A brand-new scientific study compared hundreds of hospitalized recipients of hydroxychloroquine (and azithromycin) with thousands of controls who received standard hospital care.
Scientists did their utmost to eliminate any possible confounding factors, such as the effect of age and so on.
those who did not receive HCQ had a 57% greater chance of dying, all other things being equal!
According to the official statistics, 1,178,411 people have died of Covid in the United States. If 37% of those lives could be saved by using HCQ, then about 436,000 people would not have to die needlessly.
Annual Flu Jab by JOEL SMALLEY
For all birth cohorts between 1930 and 1950, mortality outcomes become demonstrably worse after the year 2000.
The inflection points are at different ages, signifying that it was an exogenous event that was responsible for the regime change, rather than something that naturally occurs with age.
The impact is not observed under the age of 65 (coincidentally, the target age to maximise uptake).
Looking at the annual excess mortality since 2010, it seems apparent that whatever was responsible for the substantial excess mortality in 2020 (the year of “COVID”) and even more so in 2021 (the year of the “COVID” “vaccine”), it was the same thing that has been killing elderly women in the UK for over 20 years, and getting progressively worse each year until the pull-forward effect finally kicks in.
the evidence here strongly suggests that the annual flu jab may be the causal factor in worsened mortality expectations, not improved.
Recruitment Through Coercion by EL GATO MALO
if your nation cannot support a volunteer military willing to defend it, then what does that say about both your country and the fights it picks?
the demoralization of those who rushed to volunteer post 9/11 only to discover that many of the pretexts for war (like saddam’s WMD’s) were false and from having troops left stranded with no clear mission nor clear path to success for decades on end before finally just leaving en masse to hand over control and weapons to the taliban was bad enough. no one wants to fight for leaders who lead you to ruin and defeat.
but the move to woke is just a bridge too far.
and so recruiting plummets. and they know it. but rather than change course and pivot back to a system that could work, crombe and nagl speak of going with coercion instead.
when fights have no good guys, backing anyone makes you the bad guy.
these wars are not making the world better nor safer nor more stable: they are creating the very instability that inevitably induces the next conflagration.
and a draft does NOT fix this.
Brunson Vs Adams by JENNIFER BROWN
January 6th, 2021. Everyone knows “that day”. There were 100 members of congress set to request a 10 day investigation into possible election fraud. A few members spoke on the house floor, and then “January 6th” happened. When the congress reconvened late that night, they voted down the investigation into fraud that was introduced, they stated that no further election fraud concerns would be heard “in light of the days events”, they were pushing through to certify the election. And that is what they did.
What remedy are they seeking? They are asking that all 385 defendants be charged with Treason for failure to uphold the US Constitution, they be incarcerated for a period no less than 5 years, be fined no less than $10,000, they be removed from their government seat, and banned from ever holding a political position ever again.
Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the Solicitor General of United States, the official attorney on record for the defendants, and in behalf of the 388 defendants, waived their right to respond to this lawsuit, thus allowing the SCOTUS to move forward.
What does THAT decision mean? That means that the United States decided that SCOTUS justices can hear this case at any time, in conference, and if 4/9 or greater vote yes, it will be moved on to a hearing. Or, they can decide themselves to rule on the case if they choose. The waived right to respond essentially puts all control in the hands of the 9 Supreme Court Justices.
Again, we have never in history seen a case such as this.
Novavax Sucks The Least by PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD
Novavax is probably the safest of all the COVID-19 vaccines because it does not use genetic technology. Sadly, it is useless against Omicron and cannot be recommended for any health benefit.
If a vaccine cannot safely provide at least 50% protection for a year, it is not viable in my clinical practice. Sadly Novavax failed at both of these outcomes. With low-risk Omicron, and likely substantial natural immunity by Fall of 2022, only 26 infections led to hospitalization during the study period; 1 occurred during the reference period, 7 during partial vaccination, and 18 after full vaccination. No deaths were reported.
Cough Syrup Contaminated With Anti-Freeze by CARL HENEGHAN & TOM JEFFERSON
India is the world's largest provider of generic medicines, with a 20% share of global pharmaceutical exports.
Cough syrup produced by one manufacturer, Digital Vision Pharma, has killed dozens of children in India.
All of the deadly cough syrups contain the same poison - diethylene glycol (DEG) in a concentration far above safe levels. DEG is a sweet-tasting, colourless, odourless liquid commonly used in antifreeze, brake fluid, cigarettes, and some dyes.
The WHO is urging action to protect children from contaminated medicine. Especially important in this call for action is the need to check for signs of falsification and the physical condition of drugs by those who sell them, which is increasingly overlooked in the online world of pharmaceuticals.
Woke Rot On Campus by BARI WEISS
according to the prevailing ideology that rules American college campuses, violent acts include “misgendering” and “harmful language,” and so these acts must be condemned publicly in the strongest possible terms, the perpetrators punished.
When it comes to the mass slaughter of Jews in Israel by a genocidal terrorist organization, however, such condemnations and consequences are curiously absent.
Contrast what colleges will tolerate with what they won’t. Microaggressions are met with moral condemnation. Meanwhile, campuses will tolerate—even glorify—the wanton murder of Jews—actual violence.
campus administrators—so quick to offer statements on climate change and the war in Ukraine and Roe v. Wade—offered silence or equivocation this week in the face of mass murder. Meanwhile, student groups at some of the most elite college campuses in the country were positively gleeful.
Neonatal Deaths For Vaxxed Mums by IGOR CHUDOV
You can see that the data suggests that neonatal deaths for vaccinated mothers are 27-32% higher than those for unvaccinated mothers.
I want to underscore that the data, while alarming, does not reach the level of statistical significance. Interestingly, as was found in the US CDC report, the higher-dose Moderna vaccine causes MORE neonatal deaths than the lower-dose Pfizer. In the above report, Pfizer is associated with a 32% increase in neonatal deaths, and Moderna with a 37% increase (underlined in blue).
In The Days Prior by NAKED EMPEROR
Ten days before the killing of innocent civilians, Egypt warned Israel.
Four days before the attack, western allies said they are running out of ammunition for Ukraine.
Four days before the attack, a number of European countries appeared to have a change of heart over supporting Ukraine.
Three days before the attack, western politicians began distancing themselves from Ukraine. The removal of US House Speaker Kevin McCarty meant funds were drying up.
Three days before Hamas’ deadly cross-border raid, Egypt once again warned Israel about the potential violence.
Two days before the terrorist attack, over 100 people were killed in an attack on a military academy in Syria.
Two days before the Israeli Rave Massacre, where at least 260 people were killed, the organisers moved the location of the festival to within earshot of the Gaza Strip.
Two days before the attack, Hamas were “rocked by Israeli spy penetrating its highest ranks”.
One day before the attack, the US approved the release of $75 million of aid to Palestine.
Hours before the onslaught, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and a series of IDF generals held a phone consultation on the situation in Gaza.
Where Is The Muslim Support? by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
Not a single one of these countries are offering to provide support or safe passage for Gaza residents who wish to evacuate the battleground of the Israel-Hamas war.
let’s entertain the suspect notion that opening up an exit corridor would allow Israel to ethnically cleanse Palestinians (Gaza’s population has almost doubled over the past 10 years). This still doesn’t mean that the Arab neighbors of the Middle East have a built in excuse to do absolutely nothing and ignore the pleas of individuals and families attempting to flee a war zone. Are all Palestinians a monolith?
The tensions make more sense when you understand that Palestinianism is not so much a national identity as it is a violent revolutionary movement specifically purposed with seeking the destruction of Israel. When neighboring states imported Palestinian refugees in the past, they found the violent revolutionary movements targeting their governments instead. See: Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, among others.
Same Virus; Different “Spread” by JESSICA HOCKETT
a comparison of three places that experienced considerable excess death in the “first wave”
how these events could involve the same “spreading” virus? What is the explanation for the differential "impact" of the purported novel deadly pathogen on daily deaths in Bergamo province, New York, and Chicago?
Doesn’t an explanation for Bergamo and New York, at least, require ascribing characteristics to a pathogen that
a) weren't observed elsewhere or ever again, and
b) haven't been observed with any pathogen, insofar as the ability to create mass casualty events?
When should we assume “spread” in each of the three cities began, exactly? If this novel deadly coronavirus spreads so fast, then why did it take so long to impact daily deaths in Chicago? Why was the pathogen nowhere, until it was everywhere, as Todd Kenyon puts it — and deadlier in New York than on a cruise ship filled with elderly passengers?
If you like this, and have a tinfoil hat, you might like The Conspiracy Basket. Check it out!
And, in case you missed it…
Thanks for the mention. For the record, I reject sudden "spread" of a novel deadly coronavirus in any city. :)