China Joe Admin Looks To Waive Intellectual Property Protection For Vaccines

By William Teach May 6, 2021 – 7:41 am

What could possibly go wrong with this?

US backs waiving intellectual property rules on vaccines

The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government’s position, amid World Trade Organization talks about a possible temporary waiver of its protections that would allow more manufacturers to produce the life-saving vaccines.

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Tai said in a statement.

She cautioned that it would take time to reach the required global “consensus” to waive the protections under WTO rules, and U.S. officials said it would not have an immediate effect on the global supply of COVID-19 shots.

So, it essentially would do very little anytime soon, but, it would annihilate the intellectual property of the companies that developed the vaccines. Not too mention the profits. Supposedly, the companies have made billions. But, that’s their gross profit: what’s their net profit? How much did they spend to develop the vaccines? Even if it is billions, that’s fine, they stepped up and created vaccines in short order to deal with a global pandemic not of their making (a classified study says that COVID may well have escaped from the Wuhan labratory)

The WTO’s General Council took up the issue of a temporary waiver for intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and other tools, which South Africa and India first proposed in October. The idea has gained support among some progressive lawmakers in the West.

More than 100 countries have come out in support of the proposal, and a group of 110 members of Congress — all fellow Democrats of Biden — sent him a letter last month that called on him to support the waiver.

Do any of these people calling for the waiver have skin in the game? Let’s see about a waiver when it’s their IP on the block. Oh, and do any of these people have potential skin in the game, meaning they’ll make money off of the waiver?

Opponents — especially from industry — say a waiver would be no panacea. They insist that production of coronavirus vaccines is complex and can’t be ramped up by easing intellectual property. They also say lifting protections could hurt future innovation.

What if they arbitrarily decide to waive IP protections on other developments from pharmaceutical companies? Here’s CNN

In a decision on Covid-19 vaccine patents, Joe Biden chose humanity

President Joe Biden was between a shot and a hard place. In the end, he chose humanity.

The World Health Organization, countries like India and South Africa, and many within Biden’s own Democratic Party have long called for the temporarily loosening of pharmaceutical giants’ patents on Covid-19 vaccines. They argue that private profits should not take precedence over sharing critical knowledge that could save millions of lives. As America’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, put it in an interview with The Hill: “I believe we have a moral obligation … to make sure that the rest of the world does not suffer and die, as it were, from something we can help them with and help them prevent.”

What happens when it’s other drugs for the sake of humanity? What happens to development? Why not simply send the shots to India? Oh, wait, they’re doing that. After Joe restricted sending materials which could be used to make COVID vaccines to India.

And it’s very easy to talk about waiving Other People’s IP, right? Back to original article

The companies have made some efforts to provide vaccine doses to poor countries at prices well below what they’re charging wealthy nations.

For instance, Johnson & Johnson agreed last week to provide up to 220 million doses of its vaccine to the African Union’s 55 member states, starting in this year’s third quarter, and agreed in December to provide up to 500 million vaccines through 2022 for low-income countries via Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.

So, why waive it? What’s happening with the vaccines made in European countries? How about China, Russia, and Iran (even though theirs supposedly are garbage)? Are they getting waived?

Read: China Joe Admin Looks To Waive Intellectual Property Protection For Vaccines »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Canadian Cult Youths Not Giving Up On Their Lawsuit Attempts

By William Teach May 5, 2021 – 3:00 pm

What they aren’t willing to do is modify their own lives to accord with their Beliefs, so, they’ll continue attempting to force courts to force Other People, even though they already lost in court

15 youths not backing down in their fight to sue Ottawa over climate change inaction

Fifteen Canadian youths are asking Ottawa to hear their collective plea – greenhouse gas emissions have caused serious harm to children, they say, and it’s time the government is held accountable.

Ranging from 11 to 20 in age and representing seven provinces and one territory, the plaintiffs are appealing a Supreme Court decision that saw their lawsuit dismissed last fall.

The group alleged decades of climate inaction by the government have caused them “physical and psychological harm” due to unsafe levels of carbon emissions.

“If emissions are not reduced urgently, catastrophic impacts will be inevitable,” reads their May 3 filing in Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal.

One of the plaintiffs, Zoe from Vancouver, said she doesn’t want climate change “to take over (her) entire life or for future generations to suffer.”

Yes, it is a laughing matter, because these doomsday cultists are just loony tunes

The group is being supported by the David Suzuki Foundation, U.S. non-profit group Our Children’s Trust and Victoria’s Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation.

As the David Suzuki Foundation states, “the federal government is violating their rights to life, liberty and security of the person under Section 7 of the Charter and failing to protect essential public trust resources.”

“The government’s conduct violates their right to equality under Section 15 of the Charter since youth are disproportionately affected by the effects of the climate emergency.”

So, pretty much astroturfed. By people who won’t give up their own big carbon footprint lives.

Read: Canadian Cult Youths Not Giving Up On Their Lawsuit Attempts »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 5, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a beach being inundated by massive rising seas, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The First Street Journal, with a post on how the media are limiting reporting to change people’s minds.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Newly Opened Raleigh Brewery Does Away With Tipping, Will Pay “Living Wage”

By William Teach May 5, 2021 – 10:30 am

As we all know, going Woke tends to not help a business thrive and survive. This one is giving it a shot

North Raleigh brewery ditching tip system for livable wage salaries

unintended consequencesRestaurants might be open and allowed to serve more customers, but it doesn’t mean they are back to normal.

Heyday Brewing in north Raleigh opened up about eight weeks ago. General Manager Harrison Lassiter says they are trying out a new method to pay staff.

Employees here don’t get tips, instead, they make more than double the state’s minimum wage.

“A lot of excitement over the place, the community that we have here has been really excited,” Lassiter said.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you walk in is a sign that reads, “a 15% living wage service fee will be included on every check.”

So, they’re paying workers $15 an hour, but, not giving them tips. But, oh, there is a required tip, which supposedly offsets the doubling of wages. So, guess what? There are still tips. But, will that 15% offset that massive rise in wages? Or, will we see the prices rise? Maybe the owners will take the hit. They say it is strictly going to pay for labor, but, something has to take the hit to a doubling of labor costs.

“We were upfront when they signed up with us,” he explained. “It’s a different model. A lot of restaurants in this industry, especially in Raleigh, are playing around with different models and I think everyone is trying to figure out what’s best for them right now. So far, I think our employees have been completely open to it and enjoying it.”

Will the patrons get the same service that a tipping system creates? Maybe I’ll see one day, since it is rather near work. I had no idea there were even businesses in that area, thought it was all development for homes. The menu is short, but, then, I suppose it’s mostly about the beer. They do want $7 for hushpuppies, $13 for a pork BBQ sandwich, so, that’s rather above normal prices. I wish them the best, but, it might not last long.

Read: Newly Opened Raleigh Brewery Does Away With Tipping, Will Pay “Living Wage” »

Posted in Economy, NC News | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: World Will See Disastrous ‘Climate Change’ Despite World Pledges

By William Teach May 5, 2021 – 8:03 am

Remember when we were told that the Paris Climate (scam) agreement was historic? That it would lead to big changes? That nations would go big with their pledges? And were mad when Trump finally pulled the U.S. out? And got a thrill up their leg when Biden rejoined? Yet, we keep getting articles like this (which includes a photo of the 2013 Morgan fire (Contra Costa County), which they think was caused by an individual)

Climate change will be disastrous even after latest world pledges, report finds

The recent pledges made by world governments to limit carbon emissions will not be sufficient to meet the goal of keeping global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, a new report concluded. Instead, those nonbinding commitments will result in a rise in the average global temperature to a potentially catastrophic 2.4 degrees Celsius.

The Climate Action Tracker, an independent network of scientists that tracks the commitments made on cutting emissions, released its findings Monday, just weeks after President Biden convened a climate summit with world leaders. The report notes that more robust targets made at the summit “have improved the Climate Action Tracker’s warming estimate by 0.2°C,” but that the net result would still mean the world is poised to blow past the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold set in 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“While all of these developments are welcome, warming based on the targets and pledges, even under the most optimistic assumptions, is still well above the Paris Agreement’s 1.5˚C temperature limit,” the report states.

Despite the initial commitments made by world leaders in the Paris climate accord, temperatures have already risen by more than 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a report released last month by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization, a finding that led U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to declare, “We are on the verge of the abyss.”

Hmm, why have all these Warmist nations failed in creating pledges that comply with the climate cult? Are they paying lip service? Sure, the 3rd world nations have their pledges, which are to receive lots and lots of free money and good, with absolutely no obligation to the 1st world nations, because, in their minds, the 1st world owes them.

While keeping the average rise of surface temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible, the Climate Action Tracker said doing so will require a massive, unified effort from world governments that would transform life as we know it.

More and more Big Government? Surprise! Strange how it always seems to come to big, controlling government. And if you refuse to agree, then the planet is doomed.

Read: Bummer: World Will See Disastrous ‘Climate Change’ Despite World Pledges »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 131 Comments | Trackback URL

China Joe Admin Attempts New Campaign To Get Biden Voters Vaccinated

By William Teach May 5, 2021 – 7:41 am

We keep being told that all the vaccine resistant people are Trump voters, yet, most campaigns are aimed at China Joe voters. Walgreens has one with John Legend, featuring over half the people in the commercial being black. That’s not aimed at Republicans. And here’s the latest from Joe, who can’t seem to agree on when and where to wear a mask. He often takes it off inside to talk, despite his own Executive Order, while wearing one or two outside while not in social distance of people. Doesn’t really say to people “get a shot”, eh?

Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Tries a New Strategy to Push Vaccinations

Public health experts are praising President Biden’s announcement that his administration would create a federal stockpile of coronavirus vaccine doses and invest millions in community outreach, saying the moves would help immunize underserved communities and ensure doses would go where they’re most needed as demand falls.

Until now, vaccines had been allotted to states strictly on the basis of population, despite reports of wasted doses and pleas for more of them where the virus was surging, as in Michigan just weeks ago. In a reversal, the Biden administration is now trying to match supply with demand. Federal officials informed states on Tuesday that if they did not order their full allocation of doses in a given week, that vaccine would be considered part of a federal pool, available to other states that wanted to order more.

The administration had been unwilling to shift doses to states that were faster to administer them out of a concern that low-income communities would lose out to richer areas where residents were more willing to get shots.

Those concerns, which experts say were overstated, could be behind another shift in policy, as the federal government plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on community outreach workers who will provide transport and help arrange child care for those in high-risk neighborhoods who want to be vaccinated.

In other words, these are “minority” neighborhoods who are refusing to get the vaccine, and you know they mostly/solely voted Dementia Joe last November. None of this is going to influence the Republicans who are refusing the vaccine.

Also part of the new coronavirus strategy that Mr. Biden announced on Tuesday at the White House: Pharmacies are to allow people to walk in for shots, and pop-up and mobile clinics will distribute vaccines, especially in rural areas. Federal officials also plan to enlist the help of family doctors and other emissaries who are trusted voices in their communities.

That could help, but, really, the rural areas are mostly Trump supporters, and if they wanted the vaccine they’d go get it.

“We’ve got the product and we’ve vaccinated the very high-risk people, elderly people in nursing homes, people with diseases,” said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Global Health. “Now we have to get the healthy ones and the younger ones and the ones that are being referred to as vaccine-hesitant.”

A goodly chunk of those younger tend to vote Democrat, right? As for the healthy, a lot are thinking “I never got COVID, why take a vaccine?”

Allowing walk-ins at pharmacies would cut down on waste, he said, and funding for community outreach through trusted institutions like churches and schools could help reach people who are reluctant. That could offset the misinformation that has complicated efforts to vaccinate Black and Hispanic residents, who also face obstacles like language and technology barriers and less access to medical facilities.

Is the NY Times saying that Black people have a hard time understanding language? That’s rather racists. As for Hispanics, perhaps we shouldn’t be allowing millions and millions of illegals who cannot communicate with the residents of America. And these are mostly not Trump voters.

Maybe the administration should stop telling, and showing, citizens that absolutely nothing will change once they get the vaccine.

Read: China Joe Admin Attempts New Campaign To Get Biden Voters Vaccinated »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Joe Biden | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

ClimaWord Salad: Socially Just Population Policies To Limit Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach May 4, 2021 – 3:00 pm

This is 100% about science and not Progressive (nice Fascism) politics, you know

Socially just population policies can mitigate climate change while advancing global equity

Socially just policies aimed at limiting the Earth’s human population hold tremendous potential for advancing equity while simultaneously helping to mitigate the effects of climate change, Oregon State University researchers say.

In a paper published this week in Sustainability Science, William Ripple and Christopher Wolf of the OSU College of Forestry also note that fertility rates are a dramatically understudied and overlooked aspect of the climate emergency. That’s especially true relative to the attention devoted to other climate-related topics including energy, short-lived pollutants and nature-based solutions, they say.

“More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have come together to warn that if we continue with business as usual, the result will be untold human suffering from climate change,” Ripple said. “We have listed six areas, including curbing population growth in the context of social justice, as a framework for action.

Wait, College of Forestry? Why are they coming up with policies about limiting population?

“Since 1997, there have been more than 200 articles published in Nature and Science on climate mitigation, but just four of those discussed social justice, and only two considered population,” he added. “Clearly social justice and population policy are not getting the attention they deserve in the struggle against the climate emergency.”

The Earth’s 7.7 billion people contribute to climate change in a variety of ways, primarily through the consumption of natural resources, including non-renewable energy sources, and the greenhouse gas emissions that result from industrial processes and transportation. The more people there are on the planet, the more potential they have for affecting climate.

Partly due to forced sterilization campaigns and China’s one-child policy, population policies have long been viewed as a taboo topic and detrimental to social justice, Wolf says, but they can be just the opposite when developed and implemented appropriately with the goal of promoting human rights, equity and social justice.

It used to be that this type of stuff was on the Warmist fringe. Now it is being pushed by mainstream colleges. Of course, it usually ends up with them wanting to limit populations in areas like Africa, Latin America, Sout America, and SE Asia. You know, where all those icky minorities live. White Warmists aren’t racist at all.

Examples of badly needed population policy measures include improving education for girls and young women, ending child marriage and increasing the availability of voluntary, rights-based family planning services that empower all people and particularly poor women, the researchers say.

So, they’ve again hijacked real issues that have nothing to do with ‘climate change’, and are also happy to push abortion, calling it “rights-based family planning.” Which they also want to force on those “minorities.”

This is not a science, it is a cult. Period.

“Social justice and the climate emergency demand that equitable population policies be prioritized in parallel with strategies involving energy, food, nature, short-lived pollutants and the economy,” Ripple said. “With feedback loops, tipping points and potential climate catastrophe looming, we have to be taking steps in all of those areas and not ignoring any of them.”

Guess who gets to control all that?

Read: ClimaWord Salad: Socially Just Population Policies To Limit Hotcoldwetdry »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 4, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible pool using lots of water and horrible concrete, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Daley Gator, with a post on the Woke going after (checks notes) Snow White at Disneyland.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Politicized DOJ Seeks Law To Go After “Domestic Terrorists”

By William Teach May 4, 2021 – 10:30 am

But, certainly not Antifa and other Democratic Party voting groups

Domestic Terrorism Law Being Weighed by Justice Department

The Justice Department is “actively considering” whether to seek a new law that would let prosecutors bring specific charges for plotting and carrying out acts of domestic terrorism, a senior department official said.

“One of the things we’re looking at is would we need new authorities,” Brad Wiegmann, deputy assistant attorney general for the department’s national security division, said during a House hearing Thursday.

Wiegmann said the department has been successful using existing laws to fight domestic terrorism, such as bringing charges for offenses involving violations of weapons or explosives laws, hate crimes and arson. He said more than 430 arrests have been made in connection with the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The attack was carried out by extremist supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

The FBI has warned that domestic violent extremists pose a heightened threat for carrying out attacks in the U.S. in the near future, with white supremacists being the most lethal threat. (snip)

Currently, no U.S. law lets the government designate domestic extremists as terrorists or bring specific charges for domestic terrorism. That contrasts with laws to combat international terrorism, which allow the government to designate groups and bring charges for providing those groups with material support.

It seems oh-so-reasonable, doesn’t it? But, it’s how it’s applied, and how they can go after people who aren’t actually engaged in actions, but, merely for holding the Wrong Views. There are plenty of laws that can be applied, such as RICO. This allows prosecution for Wrongthink. ‘Domestic terrorism’ laws will soon become so broadly defined that merely voicing public opposition to liberal social policies will be seen as a form of ‘domestic terrorism.’ After all, ‘hateful’ words inevitably lead to ‘violence’ and ‘racism,’ according to the ‘woke’ crowd. This is what happens as a result of each new generation of Americans being dumbed-down by public school curriculums.

At least half of the charges against the BLM/Antifa rioters, who engaged in assault, property destruction, looting, attacking police officers, prior restraint against people and drivers, attacks on federal property, and, oh, yeah, attempting to burn down a federal building with people in it, have been dismissed by federal prosecutors. Yet, most of the so-called Jan 6th assault folks simply walked through the halls of Congress, the building that The People own. They weren’t burning it down. They weren’t looting and pillaging. They just scared lawmakers, who should be scared of We The People. The ones who did should be prosecuted.

This new law would give the federal government vast new policing powers, as well as to survey citizens engaged in First Amendment rights. And surely violate the 4th Amendment. Acts of actual, physical, terror are already illegal in every state of the union. An acquaintance of mine went to jail some years ago for “making terroristic threats”. The DOJ is not interested in actual terrorism; what they want is a law with sufficiently nebulous language that anyone who has a dissenting viewpoint from the system’s orthodoxy can be labeled as a “terrorist” and imprisoned. Laws such as this are a hallmark of Authoritarian regimes. They want to eliminate all who oppose Modern Socialism, and is just one more nail leading to, at best, a split of the country, at worse, a new civil war.

Read: Politicized DOJ Seeks Law To Go After “Domestic Terrorists” »

Posted in Progressive Goals | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

Axios: Electric Cars Are Rather Expensive And Playthings For The Rich, You Know

By William Teach May 4, 2021 – 7:08 am

For all the commercials you see touting this electric car and that electric car that is out or coming out, all of them are expensive and not meant for your average citizen, but for someone who has $40k, $50k, $60K, and up to piss away on an EV as their fun car. Because most of them will have a fossil fueled vehicle for actually going somewhere. If you’re taking a long drive, how many Teslas do you see on the highway?

To combat climate change, electric cars have to be cheaper

Most drivers of electric cars are wealthy, and most electric cars are luxury.

Why it matters: To effectively combat climate change, the opposite needs to happen: electric cars need to become affordable and broadly appealing so the masses can and want to buy them. Only with mass adoption will heat-trapping emissions steeply decline in America’s most polluting sector.

The big picture: The stereotype of rich Californians driving their Teslas isn’t a bad thing—at least not yet. It’s part of the cycle of new technology costs. Wealthy drivers are helping drive down the cost of new electric-car technologies by being able and willing (and subsidized by governments) to be early adopters of these vehicles.

They are? Driving to what? From $50k to $49k?

By the numbers: Of the 11 newest battery electric vehicles introduced in the U.S. between 2018 and 2020, eight are luxury vehicles.

  • The average starting price of an electric car has increased over the past eight years, despite battery costs plummeting. The average price in 2012 was about $39,000. Last year, it was $52,000. (The cost of gas-powered cars is generally trending up too.)
  • The average salary of an electric-car owner in California is $174,000, more than double the national average.
  • Teslas, which make up more than 70% of the electric-car market, have even wealthier drivers, with average incomes of more than $300,000, Hardman’s research has found. (Multiple requests for comment to Tesla were not returned.)

There were few options in 2012, mostly the Nissan Leaf. That hasn’t changed all that much, and most are from what we call “high-line” manufacturers. BMW, Lexus, etc. Average folks aren’t going to go for a loan that would be $981 a month for 5 years (based on that $52K number above), and banks aren’t going to extend credit on one to quite a few people. They will say “this is beyond your budget. No.” People aren’t even going for plugin hybrids, why would they go for pure hybrids?

Driving the news: The Biden administration is proposing to invest $174 billion into electric vehicles and related charging equipment, including giving consumers point-of-sale rebates to buy American-made electric vehicles.

  • This is key to attract lower-income buyers. Although the lifetime cost of owning an electric car can be lower than its gasoline counterpart, the sticker price remains higher, dissuading lower-income drivers, Hardman says.

The tax credits, which are mentioned, mean little, as they just reduce a taxpayers liability, not give them actual cash equal to $7,500. Even if they said “we’ll pay the bank $7,500 directly”, you’re still talking over $800 a month, with the banks still denying.

“When you take away the incentives, I just think you could really harm those that are on the fence,” said Eileen Tutt, executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition, a group of companies supporting electric cars. “If we eliminate this program now, that could ripple across the U.S. and really harm the market.”

The bottom line: “Let’s be real. We’re not even close to meeting our goals,” Tutt said of California’s aspirations. “We’ve got to get to a new set of consumers.”

Incentives do not matter to those who would still not be able to afford them, and find them to be rather inconvenient for actual life. Some people can afford an Accord or Camry as their first vehicle, maybe an Odyssey or Sienna, and have a motorcycle for fun. An EV is that motorcycle, but, their first car is also really expensive.

Read: Axios: Electric Cars Are Rather Expensive And Playthings For The Rich, You Know »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, Joe Biden | 14 Comments | Trackback URL
Pirate's Cove