Vaccines

I've avoided talking about this for some time, because I'm not quite sure what to say about it. We all know, by now, that the First Presidency released a statement about Covid vaccines, masks and other Covid-related issues. The statement is pretty remarkable, in particular because almost everything it says is wrong, including the claim that we are actually fighting a war against a deadly pandemic (the number of deaths in the UK, for instance, fell 2.3% through 2020 relative to 2019. When there's a deadly pandemic killing people off in vast numbers, you don't actually have fewer deaths than you do in a year where there isn't a "deadly" "pandemic." That's just one data point among many which I've researched recently. Another interesting correllary is that the total deaths in the UK is up significantly since the "vaccines" have started being administered. 2021 is on track to be 12% higher number of deaths since 2020, thanks to this miraculous "vaccine." Although it might be higher, since the number is actually trending upwards.

Because of this bizarre and strange statement, which I honestly can't make heads or tails of, I've had to practice a good deal of what Elder Uchtdorf told us to do a few years ago: don't doubt what you know, doubt your doubts. What I know is that President Nelson is a prophet of God, and I sustain him and the rest of the Brethren as prophets, seers and revelators. I see a number of people talking openly about what is essentially apostasy. I am certainly not willing to do that. But I don't know how this can be an inspired statement either. In other words, I don't know what to think. Maybe that the Lord is trying to teach us all patience over here on the Right. Maybe that we need to separate the wheat from the tares among us on the Right. After all, wasn't Abraham commanded to sacrifice Isaac before he was commanded not to?

Doubt your doubts. Don't doubt what you know.

Anyway, this was published as long ago as 2020. Data from the UK, Australia, Israel and other highly "vaccinated" countries strongly suggests that the risk warned about here of ADE is actually very real and its effects are showing up very markedly in hospital admissions of "vaccinated" people with very serious cases of Delta variant relative to unvaccinated people. Anyway, read this for yourself. I wonder if President Nelson had read this if he would have been quite so eager to send out the statement that he did.

From the International Journal of Clinical Practice:

Patient comprehension is a critical part of meeting medical ethics standards of informed consent in study designs. The aim of the study was to determine if sufficient literature exists to require clinicians to disclose the specific risk that COVID-19 vaccines could worsen disease upon exposure to challenge or circulating virus.

Published literature was reviewed to identify preclinical and clinical evidence that COVID-19 vaccines could worsen disease upon exposure to challenge or circulating virus. Clinical trial protocols for COVID-19 vaccines were reviewed to determine if risks were properly disclosed.

COVID-19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated. Vaccines for SARS, MERS and RSV (i.e. other coronavirus variants) have never been approved, and the data generated in the development and testing of these vaccines suggest a serious mechanistic concern: that vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralising antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID-19 disease via antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). This risk is sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms for ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.

Conclusions drawn from the study and clinical implications: The specific and significant COVID-19 risk of ADE should have been and should be prominently and independently disclosed to research subjects currently in vaccine trials, as well as those being recruited for the trials and future patients after vaccine approval, in order to meet the medical ethics standard of patient comprehension for informed consent.

I may (or may not) have more to say about the Covid-19 hoax—i.e., the disease is, of course, real and potentially very serious for a subset of people who might contract it, but the idea that it's a serious "global pandemic" is clearly a hoax; it's nothing like the Spanish Flu of 1918, and rather bears a remarkable resemblance to the Hong Kong flu of 1968-9 in terms of its numbers and impact. For those old enough to remember the Hong Kong flu... almost certainly you actually don't remember it at all. But I probably won't. While I appreciate this venue as a way to discuss personal "journaling" type things, my struggle with a poorly thought out statement from the First Presidency and what to make of it is hardly likely to be a series of faith-promoting posts.

I'm also not entirely sure what this means, but I note that the uptick in percentage vaccinated in Utah is pretty flat on either end of that statement, and is pretty flat overall after its initial surge. Now, granted, not everyone in Utah is a member of the Church, but even so, it appears that the statement has had little if any impact on the undecided or unvaccinated, and obviously it has little impact on those who already chose to get the vaccine. And I don't mean to present that as if I think its a good or a bad thing either one, merely that it's "a thing."

And ironically, the Presidency's statement comes at a time when the vaccine effectiveness narrative is starting to crumble. Not because of the data, which was always available, but because some media sources—mainstream sources—are breaking ranks and starting to point out just the barest fringe of what the data says.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/even-mainstream-media-now-asking-big-questions-about-covid-vaccines

American dominoes

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/afghanistan-first-domino-fall

No, Afghanistan is not the first domino. Plenty of dominoes have already fallen. More recently, we had Hong Kong and Crimea and Syria failures in terms of foreign policy. In terms of domestic policy, we've had dominoes falling since the Civil War, but the mass invasion in the 90s in the wake of Reagan's amnesty, which was in turn a follow-up to the disastrous Hart-Cellar immigration act, which reversed two centuries of immigration policy to favor hordes of Third World invaders. We know why this happened; it was part of an effort to reduce the impact of the White Anglo-Saxon culture on American domestic policy by importing a voting block of socialists which would enable the Marxist takeover of America. 

It's ironic that while in theory, we "won" the Cold War, in reality, we didn't do so at all; America has become a country that's nearly as bad (worse in some dimensions) as the Soviet Union and the Marxist takeover that started way back in the Progressive Era is now pretty complete. 

UPDATE: Some commentary from the Z-man on this, and related issues.

There is an old expression about the Bolshevik revolution that says it was made by Jewish brains, Latvian bayonets, and Russian stupidity. There is a lot of truth to it, as the ethnic makeup of the revolution was not very Russian. One way to look at the revolution is as a revolt of subject people against their old masters. This was made possible by the cupidity and stupidity of the Russian elites. A very similar thing is happening in the American empire, just at a slower pace.

This formulation can also apply to the Middle East. For a long time now, the history of the region has been shaped by a combination of Israeli strategy, Saudi Arabian oil, and American force. It is reasonable to say that America would have no presence in the region if not for Israel. The creation of the Jewish state in 1948 set the region on fire, drawing in the Americans and Russian. Oil and gas, of course, is what made the region vital in the long battle between the two empires.

Since the Cold War ended, the primary reason for US involvement has been Israeli intrigue and Saudi oil production. The first crusade in Iraq was about protecting the oil and gas interests. The second crusade was about changing the balance of power in the region to meet Israel security needs. The crusade in Afghanistan was mostly about containing Iran, despite the rhetoric. Look at a map and it is easy to see that it would be a useful launching pad for air strikes against the Iranians.

The collapse of Afghanistan is getting a lot attention, but it is part of a larger collapse of the regional order. Israel, for example, has undergone a political revolution of sorts with the end of the Netanyahu regime. The new prime minister is the product of the neo-liberal order, rather than the fight for independence. He got rich selling software in America and his parents were left-wing fanatics from San Francisco. He is a man of the global managerial class rather than the local elite.

On the Saudi side of things, the walls continue to close in as their stranglehold on the oil and gas market collapses. New technology has opened up vast reserves in North America, so the need for Saudi oil has declined. Iran’s Caspian Sea natural gas deposit will put her on even footing with the Saudis. That leg of the triumvirate driving regional politics is no longer the gatekeeper of the world’s energy supply. Soon, they will be just another gas station selling a commodity on the world market.

Taken together, the old combination of Israeli strategy, Saudi Arabian oil and American force is about to unravel. America still has troops staged in Syria and Iraq, but the writing is on the wall there too. It also means Israel as the primary mover and shaker in the region is coming to an end. Without American firepower and the Saudi control of energy politics, Israeli is just another country in the region. Throw in the Russian-Iranian partnership and the Middle East is going to look very different.

This is one reason the neoconservatives have been trying to restart the Cold War with the Russians. Given the their involvement in the Middle East, a new contest with them would draw America back into the region. It was also why Israel talked Trump into dumping the Iran deal. Normalization of relations between Europe and Iran makes war with Iran impossible. If that is not an option, then there is little point in America maintaining a military presence in the region.

What we may be seeing is peak Israel. For generations, Israel has occupied the center of American politics. During the Cold War, the three “I’s” of politics were Israel, Indiana, and Ireland. After the Cold War it was Israel, India, and Investment Banking. It is fair to say that what passes for conservatism in America is just low-tax Zionism. The collapse of American involvement in the region means there is little reason to make Israel the focal point of American politics.

This is no small thing. The Republicans are celebrating the bad fortune of Biden and the Democrats over Afghanistan, but this is very bad for them. During the Cold War, the left-side of the American ruling elite was allowed a free hand in domestic affairs and the right-side ran foreign affairs. The end of the Soviet empire left the right-side without a reason to exist, so we got the crusades against Islam for the last 30 years. Suddenly, the only reason to vote Republican has gone away.

It is not all roses for the left-side either. Without the distraction of endless war, the focus will be on domestic issues. All of those people who were titillated by the prospect of “glassing” various countries can now focus their energy on the people trying to turn their sons into girls. America has been at war with someone for close to a century now and this has allowed the Left to remake the country. It also allowed them to underwrite their schemes with the proceeds of empire.

For seventy years, Israel has played an enormous role in the politics of the American empire, but that seems to be coming to an end. It may be that Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem was the top of Israeli influence. The fading of the American empire, particularly in the Middle East, means the influence of Israel on the world must fade with it. It also means the Israelis will have to seek new partners in their endless game of neighborhood politics. America is no longer useful.

One can only hope. Our "alliance" with Israel (both the state, and prior to that, the nation that the state was created to support) has been nothing but a century of disaster for Americans. With friends like the Jews, who needs enemies? Let Americans go back to worrying about America, and maybe there's some small chance that we can mitigate the disaster caused by a century involved in foreign affairs, largely at the behest of the Jews, and a century of disastrous social and domestic policy largely—again—at the behest of cultural Marxist Jews who reflexively saw Christendom as the enemy and one that needed to be hobbled through cultural and economic destruction.

Based on prophecies of the last days, I have little hope for America, but do hope that like a phoenix rising from its ashes, the members of the Church in America can yet retain Zion and make it a place of peace and freedom once again.

Or at least, the small subset of members of the Church who actually value peace and freedom still.

Black Girl Tragic

I'm not one of those kinds of guys who gets all excited to find a black guy I agree with so I can virtue-signal how I don't pay attention to the race or other inherent characteristic of people who have good ideas. In fact, I struggle sometimes with contempt for people who do that. The inherent characteristics of a person saying something add context that you're a fool to ignore, because it means that you're hearing what you want to hear, not what's actually being said.

In any case, in spite of that—and saying what's really going on with the Woke Olympics and the tragedy of what's been done to the African nation embedded within the American nation. And regardless of any inherent characteristics of the person saying it, he's 100% correct. He's not making excuses for his people, he's not looking for an angle... He's just right.