[Babylon Bee] ALBANY, NY—New York atheists have come out in force against the COVID-19 vaccine after learning that their state’s Governor Kathy Hochul claimed that God made the scientists, doctors, and researchers invent the vaccine. The state’s atheists were further incensed when Hochul displayed a religious emblem hanging from her neck that symbolized her acceptance of the holy vaccine.
Crowds of atheists pressed into the State Health Department’s headquarters to submit forms seeking religious exemptions from the vaccine requirement.
"We're sick of these religious nutjobs in government forcing their religious convictions on the rest of us!" said Brett Winstone, president of the local Free Thinkers Society chapter. "This is not a theocracy! You will not force your god vaccine into our atheist veins!"
"A religious exemption for atheists like me makes perfect sense," said fervent atheist Craig Nostic. "I mean, we’re always thinking about religion and talking about religion. My Christian friends are actually kind of sick of how I won’t stop talking about religion."
When word spread that their religious exemptions would be accepted, the crowd of atheists fell to their knees in humility and offered praise and gratitude to the cold, unforgiving, empty, endless void.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/01/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
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#1
Until I saw the source of the article, I was ready to believe that it was real.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/01/2021 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
Scary when the BB articles seem like reality.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/01/2021 8:13 Comments ||
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#3
At this point Babylon Bee is only front running reality by 20 days or so. Give it time.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/01/2021 10:19 Comments ||
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#4
"COVID is God's gift to the Left."
Posted by: Hanoi Jane ||
10/01/2021 11:42 Comments ||
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#2
Verge of collapse!, it has already happened. Ships anchored for so long have or are having shortages of food and water. Truckers will not comply with apocalypse administrators. Protocols HA, dictates by college pukes they are called by workers.
#3
This is what happens when you 'eliminate redundancy'. You don't have redundancy anymore. As in, no backup system.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/01/2021 10:13 Comments ||
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#4
Why do San Diego and L.A. all of a sudden have port problems. I've seen blame put on anything from lack of truckers, to dock workers, shipping containers and port infra-structure problems.
#5
I'd guess this is the flip side of our just-in-time inventory management and outsourced (to China) supply chains. It works beautifully IF, and only if, all parts of the chain -- demand chain and supply chain both -- are stable and predictable.
But when even one element goes awry, the effect is the same as the effect on traffic when you have a big rig wreck blocking three lanes.
And right now we're seeing a huge disruption to the stability & predictability of the demand chain -- because consumers are alternately bingeing and then being thrown into lockdown -- as well as the supply chain due to western MNCs shifting their production base out of China.
So the exact same system that previously gave the global economy unheard-of efficiency and low prices is now causing massive inefficiency and spiraling inflation.
#6
Just received my Tactacam Cellular Trail Camera after waiting more than 12 months. Company flew shipment over after being unable to lease a cargo container.
#7
#5 above is spot on. Just in time logistics requires source to sale transportation rapidity and confidence. IN a vast commercial ecosystem like the US, massive decoupling of interlinked components, devastating declines in labor and buyer access, and overall loss of capital investment maintenance and improvements have left a battlefield-like landscape for business. And now, into this comes a collection of Command Economy geniuses who have no idea of how a demand economy actually works, and will react to massive inflationary spirals with price controls not interest rate braking. The entire federal budget would be required to be spent on debt service alone if actual interest rate hikes and liquidity curbs were enacted to stop the destructive levels of inflation. Remember WIN (Whip Inflation Now) under Ford with 18% interest rates? The Republic will not survive these craven morons.
#8
Read somewhere that Costco brought in their own containers or leased them and picked up their stuff.
I wondered if California spent previous infrastructure money or ignored infrastructure in their ports causing a lot of the existing trouble? I dunno. Reading the above, it reads like there a lot of dislocations in the demand/supply chains all along the chains.
#9
I read, about a month ago, that Home Depot had taken a two year lease on a small container ship, and enough empties to fill it.
They want their stuff for Xmas.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/01/2021 16:38 Comments ||
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#10
I was surprised last week when I visited a nearby grocery store. It is part of a local chain of about 20 stores. Their bakeries used to sell doughnuts made in the stores. The doughnut displays were empty. A sign posted on them said the local doughnut flour supplier had gone out of business & so they couldn't make doughnuts.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
10/01/2021 19:50 Comments ||
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#11
Costco may have its own shipping containers but it doesn't have its own port.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
10/01/2021 19:52 Comments ||
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#12
And now, into this comes a collection of Command Economy geniuses who have no idea of how a demand economy actually works, and will react to massive inflationary spirals with price controls not interest rate braking
Exactly. These jokers are making a minor disruption into a massive economic dislocation that could destroy economic growth for years.
The integrated demand/supply chain logistics system that has been carefully created, over decades, by expert management at hundreds of multinationals from Japan to Germany to the US and then spread across the world, is as finely calibrated as a Swiss watch.
Pres. Magoo's crew of lefty morons knows as much about the operations of such an intricate, complex system as Hunter Biden knows about chivalry.
They are destroying overtook what Deming and other brilliant supply chain experts designed and built over half a century. Savages.
[Al-Monitor, HT: Insty] Top generals in charge of Turkey’s military operations in Syria have sought retirement amid escalating tensions in Idlib, fueling questions over Ankara’s Syria policies.
Turkey was rattled last week by reports that five generals serving on Syria-related missions were seeking to resign, including the head of a command center in charge of all Turkish operations in Syria and two others at the helm of commando forces that are deployed in Syria on a rotational basis.
An unnamed Defense Ministry official told the state-run Anatolia news agency that only two generals had asked to retire "due to health and familial reasons" and their requests had been granted. "The presentation of the two generals’ retirement requests as something extraordinary [and a sign of] problems within the Turkish Armed Forces is seen as an effort to create perceptions aimed at discrediting the Turkish Armed Forces," the official was quoted as saying.
Still, abrupt retirement requests by meritorious generals with ample operational experience and bright careers ahead of them are highly unusual in the deep-rooted traditions of the Turkish military, especially in the middle of critical missions. Early retirement requests by such figures can be read as a gesture of disagreement with their superiors or disapproval of government policies.
In the context of Turkey’s military intervention in Syria, the following reasons seem likely:
The government’s Syria policy — or lack thereof — has become so irreconcilable with the operational reality in Syria that commanders are struggling to cover it up on the ground.
The government’s policy and political directives on Syria have come to significantly jeopardize the safety of Turkish soldiers.
Military commanders and their units are growing increasingly disturbed by the intensity of operations and frequency of rotations.
The overall risk is growing for Turkey in Syria, especially in Idlib, the last stronghold of radical Islamist rebels.
Indeed, the situation in Idlib has markedly escalated in recent weeks. Developments in the region suggest that it is becoming harder for thousands of Turkish troops deployed at more than 30 military outposts in Idlib to keep their positions. Intensified air raids by Russian and Syrian warplanes as well as ongoing Syrian military reinforcements around Saraqib have made it almost impossible for Turkish military outposts in the area to operate properly, secure logistical supplies, evacuate sick or wounded soldiers or patrol critical routes.
Most recently, three Turkish soldiers were killed Sept. 11 when an anti-tank guided missile hit their armored vehicle on a road between Idlib city and Binnish.
Turkish-Russian accords on Idlib have thus far allowed Turkey to maintain its military presence in the region. It has effectively served as a barrier to large-scale offensives by Syrian government forces to recapture the province. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi Sept. 29, a summit that might prove a turning point for Turkey in Syria with serious implications in domestic politics. This time, Russia appears keen on securing the evacuation of six Turkish military outposts in the area between Idlib and Saraqib to the east, clearing the way for Syrian government forces to march on Idlib from the east and the northeast and eventually recapture it. Such a move would mean that Moscow no longer sees a need to collaborate with Turkey in Idlib and limit the Turkish military presence to the north of Idlib. Such a development is likely to trigger a fresh refugee flow to and across the Turkish border and stoke anti-refugee sentiments in Turkey atop the recent public outcry over the influx of Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
Controversy over the Turkish military’s personnel management has been fanned further by reports about a record number of colonels being forced into early retirement — around 200 at the Supreme Military Council in August and about 600 at last year’s council.
Overstaffing at the rank of colonel has long been an issue for the Defense Ministry, but the measures taken have resulted in highly unfair procedures. The service term of military officers was limited to 28 years in 2016 and a promotion to general now requires a decision by the Supreme Military Council, regardless of age and length of service. Those who are not promoted could be sent into retirement as early as their 40s and despite their involuntary retirements, would have to wait until the age of 50 to receive pensions. Hundreds of colonels have reportedly been affected by the policy, left without financial means and social security until the age of 50 after at least 20 years of military service. Their numbers will grow each year unless this unfair procedure is rectified.
By sending young colonels into retirement, the Turkish military is losing officers at their most productive age even as it seems to struggle to find senior-level officers for critical posts. Instead, perhaps the ministry should focus on legal amendments that keep officers longer in lower ranks and prevent them from climbing too quickly through automatic promotions.
Meanwhile, the changes in the military’s long-established assignment and promotion system have fueled questions of whether Erdogan’s government is conducting covert purges to create room for loyalists and the Turkish Armed Forces are on the way to becoming partisan.
The military had already seen massive purges and shakeups after the failed coup attempt in July 2016. Controversial legal amendments removed parliamentary oversight and other checks and balances in the military-government relationship, establishing absolute presidential control. And since Erdogan assumed sweeping executive powers in 2018, the military has become increasingly politicized and embroiled in daily political bickering.
Erdogan’s government has repeatedly shown that it seeks unquestioned control of any changes in the military rather than an inclusive process of reform that is based on compromise and open to public debate, including the views of the opposition. As a result, the military continues to be drawn into the clamor of daily politics. Ultimately, the controversies are not only harming morale and motivation in the military, but also eroding its operational effectiveness.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/01/2021 10:09 ||
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[11133 views]
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#1
Why don’t the bite-heads do that in the USA, step down that is.
Posted by: Boss Sailor ||
10/01/2021 14:02 Comments ||
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#2
Overstaffing at the rank of colonel has long been an issue for the Defense Ministry, but the measures taken have resulted in highly unfair procedures. The service term of military officers was limited to 28 years in 2016 and a promotion to general now requires a decision by the Supreme Military Council, regardless of age and length of service. Those who are not promoted could be sent into retirement as early as their 40s and despite their involuntary retirements, would have to wait until the age of 50 to receive pensions. Hundreds of colonels have reportedly been affected by the policy, left without financial means and social security until the age of 50 after at least 20 years of military service. Their numbers will grow each year unless this unfair procedure is rectified.
While they could drive cabs in the EU on the sly, this does create coup risk for Erdogan. The fact that he did not sentence the coup plotters to death Mina suggests he is cognizant of the fact that killing them would have meant an assassination to kick off the next coup.
[American Thinker] Reagan once said: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." He was right, the government’s not your friend and it most certainly isn’t here to help you.
The dirty little secret about government is that its purpose is not really to make the lives of citizens better but, rather, to accumulate power at the expense of citizens. Not sure about that? Ask yourself, how many government agencies have put themselves out of a job because they succeeded? There’re a few that technology left behind, like the Steamboat Inspection Service; others that served their purpose, like the Defense Homes Corporation; while others were merged into other agencies like the General Land Office, subsumed into the Department of Interior. In our history, there have been fewer than 100 federal agencies that have actually been shuttered, and most of those existed in the early 20th century to deal with the Depression or the two world wars.
According to the Federal Register, the federal government has 457 different agencies. That’s 457 agencies covering virtually every aspect of American’s lives, most of which are staffed by unelected bureaucrats, all of whom spend your money and many of whom write regulations that carry the force of law which the government’s police power enforces. This includes everything from the State Department to the Geographic Names Board to the International Broadcasting Board to the ATF.
And that 457 is misleading. While it includes a dozen organizations tied to Defense, there are dozens more agencies that come under it that are not listed in the Federal Register such as the DoD Education Activity or the Office of Naval Research. Wikipedia lists a more realistic, but still lacking, 1,500.
The American government has become a leviathan. It’s everywhere, involved in virtually every aspect of American’s lives, and it’s perpetual, regardless of its record of dismal failure. Two examples:
1) The War on Poverty, AKA the Great Society. The brainchild of LBJ, the Great Society programs were created to address poverty in America. They included things like food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Head Start, and others.
In 1964, when the Great Society programs were passed, the poverty rate was 15%, dropping to 13.9% the next year. By 1969 the rate was 9.7%. Exactly 50 years later, in 2019, the rate was 8.7%. That means that as a result of fighting the War on Poverty for half a century, after spending over $30 trillion, the poverty rate dropped by a rounding error—by literally 1%!
Yet somehow the War on Poverty goes on, with more programs, more money, more regulations and, of course, more employees. Indeed, DHHS, which manages many of the programs, has a staff of 80,000 and an annual budget of over $1 trillion.
#2
At one point, the promise was "a chicken in every pot".
Now it's "We're going to put all of you in the same pot."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/01/2021 10:08 Comments ||
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#3
I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." He was right, the government’s not your friend and it most certainly isn’t here to help you.
Reagan was hated by the left. Many in his own party didn't like or support him. The bureaucracy didn't like him. The people seemed to love him. History does seem to repeat itself.
[PJ] Preside Joe Biden wants to put an actual Communist — self-proclaimed "radical" Cornell University law school professor Saule Omarova — in charge of the nation’s banking system.
Omarova graduated from the Soviet Union’s Moscow State University in 1989 on the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship, according to the Wall Street Journal. As recently as 2019, she was still praising the USSR’s economic system as in some ways superior to our own. "Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn’t always ’know best.'"
As a matter of fact, I will say what I will about the old USSR.
Teachers there were paid the same as doctors — because medicine was considered "women’s work" and both were paid crap numbers of worthless rubles. Sexism and central mismanagement, all in one murderously totalitarian package.
There’s a reason the USSR is defunct and the U.S. isn’t — at least until Omarova gets her way.
Omarova’s goal is the eventual elimination of private banking and the establishment of the Federal Reserve as the nation’s only bank.
#4
So, the economy will be controlled by government experts who have no skin in the game. Let's at least make it interesting: if the GDP doesn't rise by 5% the experts get hanged in Lafayette Square. It'd be great for DC tourism. Very Stalinist, too.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/01/2021 15:24 Comments ||
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#5
Why nominate someone so obviously unhinged to such an important position? Just why?????
Posted by: Tom ||
10/01/2021 16:41 Comments ||
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#6
because they don't give a shit
Posted by: Chris ||
10/01/2021 18:46 Comments ||
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#7
I am watching the avengers. “-Winter Soldier” explains the deep states.
[SultanKnish] 50 years after Ms. Magazine was founded by Gloria Steinem, the prototypical feminist magazine decided to erase women by referring to them as “birthing people” and “people with vaginas”.
Once the champions of newspeak jargon like “herstory” that was supposed to emphasize the role of women, Ms. Magazine and the Feminist Majority Foundation are now erasing women. After generations of accusing men of objectifying women by reducing them to body parts, the professional feminists are eliminating women entirely by reducing them to body parts.
Continued on Page 49
No one cares about your problems
Nor your politics,
You're so 20th Century
It hurts to talk about your politics
Can you say, (or understand) C'est du passé
[NOQreport] With all the hype and noise surrounding the politics and medicine of the Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J jabs, it's time to put together a concise discussion of how vaccines work, focusing on the Fauci Ouchy. I will try to stick purely to the science, leaving out issues of masking, social distancing, lockdowns, and so on. Those are related epidemiology, but don't explain vaccine function and design. So, without further ado...
The concept of a vaccine had been folk wisdom for centuries, but no scientific basis was understood. In the eighteenth century, smallpox killed up to twenty percent of the population. Several investigators began a practice called variolation.
Physicians made small cuts in healthy people, and then put material from smallpox blisters in the cuts. This killed two or three percent of patients, but on balance, that was still a reduction in the death toll. George Washington used it to protect the bulk of his army, even though he lost some soldiers with the practice.
Continued on Page 49
#1
With COVID-19, if the other three antigens were included in the vaccine, we'd have robust immunity, and no boosters would be required, since the shot would produce roughly the same response as an illness would.
#3
There is, though, a more charitable explanation for all these "gifted amateur" anti-vax articles - a hypothesis suggested by the quality of their articles. COVID May Cause Restless Anal Syndrome
#4
1) None of the approved vaccines contains the live virus. This means they cannot give you COVID-19.
2) Data from the United Kingdom and Finland show that the AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do reduce onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to a degree.
One UK study found that the AstraZeneca vaccine was 47% effective and the Pfizer vaccine was 49% effective at preventing onward transmission to household contacts of vaccinated people who had breakthrough infections.
3) Currently approved vaccines have been shown to be effective to provide at least some protection against new variants as these vaccines work to create a broad immune response. The mutations causing these variants should not make the vaccines ineffective.
4) Boosters are currently under investigation
#6
I haven't seen too many, if any, recent success stories form Israel regarding the vax. too bad, I was hoping it would be effective.
What is it now, two additional boosters required for the Green Pass?
#12
Merck is about to seek an Emergency Use Approval, EUA, for molnupiravir. Company has been working on this for a year or so and the data has been good.
The USA Dept of HHS has committed to buying about 1 to 2 million treatment units if the drug does get EUA.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/01/2021 14:40 Comments ||
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#13
VAERS data released today by the CDC showed a total of 438,441 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 9,048 deaths and 41,015 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and July 2, 2021.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/01/2021 16:10 Comments ||
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#14
Mother Superior Branch Covidian jumped the gu-u-un
Branch Covidian jumped the gun...
Posted by: Lenin McCartney ||
10/01/2021 16:15 Comments ||
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#15
VAERS data released today by the CDC
How do these numbers compare to other vaccines like the annual flu shot currently in use? Because Deacon Blues’ numbers don’t look large for 300+ million doses given. I realize that a lot of adverse events have not been reported, and that many of those that were are actually minor, but surely someone is looking at a side-by-side comparison.
#16
Those numbeers were from the JUne 2 release. They are the lateset ones available.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/01/2021 16:44 Comments ||
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#17
No exact numbers seem to be available for deaths related to flu vaccine. However, the two most common causes of death due to a flu shot are anaphylaxis and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and from the information given by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) it is possible to work out an approximate number.
The CDC reports 1.31 cases of anaphylaxis per million flu shots given, so that would be about 183 cases per year in the US (on average, around 140 million Americans a year receive a flu shot). Anaphylaxis has a fatality rate of between 0.25% and 0.33%, so on average that would be one death every two or three years.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome is a reaction of the central nervous system to bacterial or viral infection, most commonly food poisoning. It causes paralysis, usually temporary, and may result in a hospital stay of up to six weeks. A small number of people are permanently impaired, and approximately 3% -5% die. According to the CDC, only one or two people in a million will develop GBS as a result of the flu shot. That gives a range of between 4 (140 x 3%) and 14 (280 x 5%) deaths a year from flu-shot related GBS.
Based on these calculations, the number of people dying from the flu shot in the US each year would be between 4 and 15, so probably an average of about 9, out of 140 million vaccines given, while anywhere from 12,000 to 56,000 die as a result of catching the flu, and the vast majority of flu-related deaths occur in people who are not vaccinated (CDC figures from 2010–11 through 2013–14).
Here’s where I got the basic figures, if you want to run the math for yourself: Estimating Seasonal Influenza-Associated Deaths in the United States Click through the menu on the left to get to the information about anaphylaxis and GBS - it’s all on the same site, just different pages.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/01/2021 16:53 Comments ||
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#18
Important to note that VAERS reporting is optional. So those numbers are a fraction of events, by no means all of them.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Babylon Bee] ALBANY, NY—New York atheists have come out in force against the COVID-19 vaccine after learning that their state’s Governor Kathy Hochul claimed that God made the scientists, doctors, and researchers invent the vaccine. The state’s atheists were further incensed when Hochul displayed a religious emblem hanging from her neck that symbolized her acceptance of the holy vaccine.
[Al-Monitor, HT: Insty] Top generals in charge of Turkey’s military operations in Syria have sought retirement amid escalating tensions in Idlib, fueling questions over Ankara’s Syria policies. 
[PJ] Preside Joe Biden wants to put an actual Communist — self-proclaimed "radical" Cornell University law school professor Saule Omarova — in charge of the nation’s banking system.
