Surprise? Merck’s Wuhan Flu Pill Fails To Stop COVID

By William Teach February 21, 2023 – 3:00 pm

I’m shocked. Who else is shocked?

Merck’s COVID pill fails to prevent infection in household members

Merck & Co Inc said on Tuesday its COVID-19 pill was not effective at cutting the risk of coronavirus infections in people living with someone infected with the virus.

The results were similar to data from rival Pfizer Inc, whose COVID pill Paxlovid also failed to prevent infections among household contacts.

The two antiviral drugs are approved as treatments for individuals at risk of severe disease, but enthusiasm for the Merck pill has waned since it was shown to be only 30% effective versus 90% for Pfizer’s Paxlovid.

Merck’s late-stage trial enrolled over 1,500 participants, who were household contacts exposed to an individual with at least one symptom and had recently tested positive for COVID-19. Its Lagevrio pill, also known as molnupiravir, was given every 12 hours for five days and was compared with a placebo group.

So, basically, it works about as good as the COVID jabs. Which, based on the, admittedly anecdotal information, since no real trials were held, but the graphs all seem to show that they barely stop people from getting COVID, and do not really stop people from dying from it. They’re not much better than placebos. There’s no clinical trials that support that any of the Wuhan Flu vaccines do what they say they do. Sadly.

Miss Scarlet was replying to another person who had 5 shots and still masked, yet, got COVID. And has now made their tweets private, probably because they were catching so much crap over it.

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 21, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible concrete pad, possibly for evil fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on privacy seeking Meagain and Harry possibly suing South Park.

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WWIII Watch: NY Times Says Biden’s Ukraine Trip An “Increasingly Direct Contest With Putin”

By William Teach February 21, 2023 – 10:30 am

Remember the salad days of there being no new wars, no serious conflicts? Other than some slaps at Iran (and taking out a general who kills US military members), Trump was trying to calm things down. His admin did great work in trying to end conflict between Israel and many Middle East nations. He had a plan to get out of Afghanistan, which Biden completely messed up. Now, Biden is trying to pull us into WWIII (non-paywalled version here)

In Biden’s Unannounced Visit to Kyiv, a Preview of an Increasingly Direct Contest With Putin

President Joe Biden’s sudden appearance in Kyiv’s presidential palace Monday morning was intended first as a morale booster for shellshocked Ukrainians in the midst of a bleak winter of power outages and a bitter war of attrition.

But it was also the first of several direct challenges on this trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who a year ago this week believed the Ukrainian capital would become Russian-controlled territory again in a matter of days, moving Putin closer to his ambition of restoring the empire of Peter the Great.

Yes, yes, let’s poke the Bear. How far does Biden intend to go?

“Putin’s war of conquest is failing,” Biden declared from the palace, his very presence there, alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meant to symbolize Russia’s failure to take a capital that today remains brimming with life, its restaurants overflowing even as warning sirens blare.

“One year later,” he said, “Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.”

The war in Ukraine is about power and the principle of territorial sovereignty, and whether the Western-designed global order that Americans thought would prevail for decades will, in fact, survive new challenges from Moscow and Beijing. But it is increasingly a contest between two aging Cold Warriors, one 70 years old and another who just turned 80, who have been circling each other for years and now are engaged in everything short of direct battle.

Putin took Crimea while Biden was Veep under Obama, and, it was easy, all they saw was some sanctions which did not last, and still have it. He figured Ukraine would be easy. It hasn’t been, but, Russia is still fighting, and Ukraine wouldn’t without money and weapons from the US and EU nations.

Biden was in Kyiv on Monday for less than six hours before the Secret Service whisked him out of the city. (Notably, the White House informed the Kremlin of Biden’s impending visit before the president arrived, not as a diplomatic courtesy but for what Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called “deconfliction purposes” — essentially, to avoid a Russian strike, accidental or otherwise. Sullivan added, “I won’t get into how they responded.”)

So, totally staged. An attempt to make Biden look tough, as he works slowly towards WWIII.

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‘Climate Change’ Makes Every Coastal Home Like A Stick Of Dynamite Or Something

By William Teach February 21, 2023 – 7:15 am

The scaremongering is ramping up, as is the invective. Why not? They’re science cannot stand on it’s own

Every Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of Dynamite

The Langfords got out of Houston just in time. Only two months after Sara and her husband, Phillip, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in June 2017, Hurricane Harvey struck, destroying their previous house and rendering Sara’s family homeless.

By comparison, Norfolk felt like paradise. In Larchmont, the neighborhood the Langfords fell in love with, young children scratched chalk doodles on the sidewalks, college students and senior citizens ran side by side on nature trails, and crepe myrtle trees popped pink along silent streets.

But as the couple toured the area, situated on the banks of a sluggish river that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, they noticed something alarming about the homes they were seeing. “We were looking at one house close to the water, and [our real-estate agent] started talking about flood insurance,” Sara recalled to me. “I said, ‘Really? In this area?’” The houses were about half a mile from the river, but monthly flood-insurance premiums on the homes were $800 to $1,000—almost as much as their mortgage payment.

The horror! Of course, both areas are low-lying, and the land barely rises way far away from the water. It’s called geography.

You can imagine each of the homes in Larchmont—and elsewhere along the coast—as a stick of dynamite with a very long fuse. When humans began to warm the Earth, we lit the fuse. Ever since then, a series of people have tossed the dynamite among them, each owner holding the stick for a while before passing the risk on to the next. Each of these owners knows that at some point, the dynamite is going to explode, but they can also see that there’s a lot of fuse left. As the fuse keeps burning, each new owner has a harder time finding someone to take the stick off their hands.

Norfolk and many coastal cities like it might be closer to exploding than many of their residents think. The payment term for a standard mortgage loan is 30 years, and the median length of homeownership is 13 years. Meanwhile, the lowest-lying parts of Norfolk are roughly five to 10 feet above sea level, and climate scientists believe that sea levels in the city could rise by as much as two feet before 2050. How many more times will the dynamite change hands before it blows up?

Sewells Point is the longest tide sea gauge in Virginia, and is slightly above what would be expected during a Holocene warm period, but, it is still showing 1.56 feet per 100 years. And some of that can be chalked up to land subsistence. So, not 2 feet by 2050.

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Democrats Seem Pretty Upset Over Kevin McCarthy Giving J6 Footage To Tucker Carlson

By William Teach February 21, 2023 – 7:00 am

The old saying “thou does protest too much”

Bennie Thompson rips McCarthy for giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6 footage

House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) on Monday blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“It’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly,” Thompson said in a statement.

By “used irresponsibly” he means “show the American people what happened. Give the American People exactly what the partisan witch hunt committee saw and tried to hide.”

  1. McCarthy’s office granted about 41,000 hours of footage of the Capitol riots to Carlson, Axios first reported. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the development to The Hill on Monday.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant against secretive government.

“If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,” Thompson said.

What’s so sensitive? It’s simply video of the riots, right? People wandering around the Capitol building, staying between the ropes? It’s not like it’s from inside the CIA building.

During a press conference last month, McCarthy said he supported the idea of more footage from Jan. 6 being made public.

“I think the public should see what has happened on that,” he said.

Yes, it should. Heck, give it to all the media outlets. Put it all on-line so We The People can see it.

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Good News: We Can Mitigate Climate Apocalypse With Rationing

By William Teach February 20, 2023 – 3:00 pm

The climate cult usually likes to say this quietly, not at a bigger website like phys.org

Rationing: A fairer way to fight climate change?

World War II-style rationing could be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

I’m wondering if all those involved with the research are practicing rationing?

In a paper published today in the journal Ethics, Policy and Environment, academics argue that rationing could help states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and fairly.

Policymakers have considered other schemes to reduce emissions, including carbon taxes and personal carbon trading schemes, but the researchers say these favor the wealthy, who could buy the right to pollute if trading were allowed.

The authors argue that carbon rationing would instead allow people to receive an equitable portion of resources based on their needs, therefore sharing out the effort to protect the planet.

Who decides those “needs”? The policymakers who are beholden to to the rich and powerful?

Joint lead author Dr. Nathan Wood, who is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Utrecht University’s?Fair Energy?Consortium, said, “The concept of rationing could help, not only in the mitigation of climate change, but also in reference to a variety of other social and political issues—such as the current energy crisis.”

Remember, this is all about science.

Historic rationing policies also introduced price controls on goods to keep key resources affordable for most people. As a result, rates of malnutrition went down during World War II, despite the shortages.

A key difference between World War II rationing and the climate crisis is public perception, the researchers say. The availability of thousands of garments, gadgets and goods at the click of a button can give the illusion that resources are available in abundance, but the reality is starkly different.

How dare you peasants want clothes and gadgets and goods!

The researchers suggest that rationing probably wouldn’t be the first step. Instead, policy changes could start with stricter regulations and an accompanying information campaign to communicate the benefits of rationing.

Initially, governments could regulate the biggest polluters, such as oil, gas and petrol, long-haul flights and intensive farming, creating scarcity in products that harm the planet. Rationing could then be introduced gradually, to manage the resulting scarcity with the aim of meeting everyone’s basic needs.

In other words, the government controlling your life. Surprise! Seriously, how brainwashed do you have to be to advocate for the government to control your life? Or do this climate wankers not think the authoritarianism will apply in their own lives?

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Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 20, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are boats needed for when the seas rise hundreds of feet, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Watts Up With That?, with a post on Germany being wary of getting rid of fossil fueled vehicles by 2035.

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Biden Makes Secret Visit To Ukraine, Gives Them More Money And Aid

By William Teach February 20, 2023 – 10:30 am

He’s apparently visited Ukraine more than he’s visited the Southern border. And the East Palestine, Ohio area

Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine for first time since full-scale war began

President Joe Biden slipped into Kyiv on Monday for the first time since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago, demonstrating in dramatic personal fashion his commitment to the country and its struggle as the war enters an uncertain new phase.

The highly secretive visit – which took place as air raid sirens could be heard ringing out around Kyiv while Biden walked alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky around the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral – comes at a critical moment in the 12-month conflict, with Russia preparing for an expected spring offensive and Ukraine hoping to soon retake territory.

Biden announced a half-billion dollars in new assistance, saying the package would include more military equipment, such as artillery ammunition, more javelins and Howitzers. And he said new sanctions would be imposed on Moscow later this week.

“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said.

Another half-billion, which could have gone to dealing with the fallout of the train crash. And retrofitting trains with new brakes. Sheltering the homeless here in the U.S. Stopping people at the border. Stopping the flow of fentanyl at the border.

Biden’s visit made for a highly symbolic moment, coming a day ahead of a planned speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin marking the anniversary of the war. Speaking from Kyiv, Biden declared Putin’s “war of conquest is failing.”

“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Biden said, standing alongside Zelensky. “He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now.”

“He’s just been plain wrong,” Biden said of Putin. “One year later, the evidence is right here in this room. We stand here together.”

And how much aid and money are we giving Ukraine? What are they spending it on? And

(American Conservative) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the situation on the front lines as “tough,” noting that the Russians are attacking on multiple axes in the east and south. Oleksiy Arestovych, who until recently served as one of Zelensky’s top advisors, was more blunt: “I’m an unofficial person already, I can say what I want. If everyone thinks we’re guaranteed to win the war, it’s very unlikely,” he said in an interview.

These grim tidings may come as a surprise to most Western publics, which were told in no uncertain terms for the last eleven months that Ukraine is winning. One could hardly browse the news without coming across yet another article, often reposted from Ukrainian media or sourced from claims made by Ukrainian officials, positing that Russian forces are falling apart at the seams and collapsing on every front, mobilized soldiers are surrendering in droves and being given guns that can’t even shoot, Moscow has been or is on the verge of being crushed by sanctions, and, more recently, that time is on Ukraine’s side.

Yet those who have studied this conflict since its inception can clearly see that something has changed. The cavalier proclamations of 2022 have suddenly started to give way to more anxious, even pessimistic rhetoric.

It’s a never ending money pit. If only Biden cared as much about protecting Americans.

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New Jersey Joins The Banning Sale Of Fossil Fueled Vehicles Racket

By William Teach February 20, 2023 – 7:15 am

Considering the huge amount of commuting in NJ, not sure how well this will work

New Jersey to Ban New Gas Car Sales by 2035

The Garden State got a little bit greener Wednesday when New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced plans to shift to 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The state that still won’t let you pump your own gas will at least make sure you can charge your car from home using clean energy by 2035.

Gov. Murphy announce broad multiple accelerated energy initiatives during a speech at Rutgers University Wednesday afternoon. Through three executive orders, New Jersey will follow California’s lead and ban sales of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035. Not only will the cars be electric, but the power charging all those EVs will be from 100 percent renewable resources as well. From the Murphy Administration’s press release:

“These bold targets and carefully crafted initiatives signal our unequivocal commitment to swift and concrete climate action today,” said Governor Murphy. “We’ve turned our vision for a greener tomorrow into a responsible and actionable roadmap to guide us, and it’s through that pragmatic, evidence-based approach that we will ultimately arrive at our destination. Combined with our federal partnerships reinforced through the Inflation Reduction Act, these comprehensive initiatives will better protect and prepare every New Jersey community, including those on the front lines of climate change who have previously been left out and left behind.”

Interestingly, no reporter has asked, in any of the multiple articles I’ve read, when Murphy is going to stop traveling in fossil fueled vehicles and switch to an EV. No one is asking what happens with all the gas stations which provide fuels for all those who bought a fossil fueled vehicle prior to 2035 because they couldn’t afford an expensive EV. Again, I’m not against EVs, and by 2035 they will probably be ready for primetime, but, it’s not the government’s job to force this change.

Don’t forget, though, that the climate cult elites are already pushing to ban private ownership of all cars, including EVs.

It’s not just cars targeted for cleaning up in the next few years. Other initiatives announced include installing “…zero-carbon-emission heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030,” as well as flood protection for folks living in coastal and riverine areas. New Jersey, as a coastal state, has experienced increasingly strong storms fueled by climate change. In September 2021, New Jersey was hit with its deadliest storm yet, Hurricane Ida, which killed 91 people over nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

And those will skyrocket the cost of appliances, homes, and energy. In a state that’s already expensive.

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Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

But Of Course They’re Blaming Trump For Ohio Train Derailment

By William Teach February 20, 2023 – 7:00 am

As the saying went during the Bush years “who’s president NOW?” When a Democrat is president, it’s always the Other Guy’s fault, never their own. And, despite the Daily Beast headline, you have to go more than halfway into the article before they gently chide the Biden admin

Trump Admin Is to Blame in Ohio Disaster—but So Is Biden

The Trumpoids are blaming President Joe Biden for the train derailment in Ohio even though former President Trump scuttled a safety measure that would have minimized, even prevented the disaster.

And Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is blaming Trump even though he has had two years to do something about it.

No, not really. Only beyond partisan loons are blaming Biden or Mayor Pete. They are being blamed for their lackluster response, and the Credentialed Media should be blamed for not caring all that much.

Meanwhile, the people of East Palestine were left with the result, their all-American town turned to nightmare. Are they already poisoned with something that may take years to kill them? Can they breathe the air? Can they drink the water? Will they ever be able to? Are their homes contaminated?

They were not likely comforted by what Buttigieg tweeted. “We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” he tweeted, as if the Biden administration had no ability to rectify what Trump has undone.

Did they even know about the rule? Was it on the radar? Did the bureaucrats charged with this stuff know and where they saying that something should be done? If they did, well, Pete has mostly been either MIA or uninterested in doing the job. Just failing upwards. Anyhow, if they want to sort of blame someone, they can blame the GOP congress which passed the law which forced the Trump admin to kill off the rule, but, really, trains still derail well over 1,000 times a year. We’re actually lucky that so few dangerous ones derail.

Here’s where it gets stupid

On June 3, 2016, a train with 96 cars carrying 3 million gallons of oil derailed in Mosier, Oregon, narrowly missing a school and bursting into flames that raged for 14 hours. Computer modeling by the FRA determined that ECP brakes could have prevented the disaster, along with numerous other derailments since 2014. Mosier Mayor Arlene Burns was joined by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Tacoma Mayor Ryan Mello, and other elected leaders in signing a declaration that rescinding the ECP brakes rule was “a clear case of the powerful railroad lobby and the Trump administration sacrificing the safety of local communities in favor of corporate profit.”

“The railroad industry and the Trump administration should stop placing profits ahead of safety,” it said.

Can anyone let the Daily Beast know who was president on that date? This is peak Trump Derangement Syndrome

In the aftermath, Buttigieg spoke of the measures the current administration has taken to improve passenger train lines such as Biden used to commute during his time in the Senate. The Biden people did not even try to explain why they have done nothing to revive the ECP brakes program after two years in office.

If this was so important, perhaps Joe could have take fewer weekends off. And Pete can get to work.

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