Analytics

Friday, May 16, 2025

Post #7207 M: Saudi Arabia Gives Trump the Royal Treatment With McDonald's & a Mid-Meeting Nap; Da Chicago Style Pope; McClanahan on Richard Weaver's South

 Quote of the Day

We come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. 
May we so live that we go out of this world smiling 
while everybody around us is weeping. 
Persian proverb 

Saudi Arabia Gives Trump the Royal Treatment With McDonald's & a Mid-Meeting Nap

Da Chicago Style Pope

McClanahan on Richard Weaver's South

Choose Life

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Bobby Rydell - Swinging School 

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Post #7206 M: Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe; The Hidden Ideology Behind Trump’s Big Pharma Policy; Stossel on Trump’s Tariffs will Cost Jobs and Raise Prices for Everyone

 Quote of the Day

When the Japanese mend broken objects, 
they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. 
They believe that when something's suffered damage 
and has a history it becomes more beautiful.
Barbara Bloom

Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe

The Hidden Ideology Behind Trump’s Big Pharma Policy

Stossel on Trump’s Tariffs will Cost Jobs and Raise Prices for Everyone

Choose Life

Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Jack Ohman via smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Among My Souvenirs-Connie Francis

Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Post #7205 J

 Pandemic Report

The most recent weekly CDC stats:



We continue to see key indicators level off nationally although people continue to be hospitalized and/or die. It's a different story in SE Asia where infections have been rising. In the US we continue to see a right-wing. anti COVID policy/populist backlash with high-profile skeptics being appointed in the Trump Administration, lawsuits, dubious quack drug legalizations. mandate repeals, etc.

News items of note include:
  • [Against the lab leak hypothesis] “At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,” Wertheim said. “This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.” The ancestor of the virus that causes COVID-19 left its point of origin in Western China or Northern Laos just several years before the disease first emerged in humans up to 2,700 kilometers away in Central China, according to a new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues. That’s not enough time for the evolving virus to have been carried there via the natural dispersal of its primary host, the horseshoe bat. This has led the researchers to conclude that it instead hitched a ride there with other animals via the wildlife trade, consistent with what happened during the SARS outbreak in 2002. The study was published in Cell on May 7, 2025. Horseshoe bats are the main hosts of sarbecoviruses. These viruses don’t harm the bats, but are thought to have made the leap to humans through “zoonotic spillover” events. Sarbecoviruses gave rise to severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1, the strain that caused the SARS pandemic of 2002-2004, and SARS-CoV-2, the strain that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic. How they got to the places where these events occurred and whether animals besides bats were involved has been a matter of ongoing debate, however. The researchers calculated that given the distances that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 would have had to cover so quickly, it is highly improbable that they could have been carried there via bat dispersal. Much more likely: they were transported there accidentally by wild animal traders via intermediate hosts. In fact, previous studies have suggested that SARS-CoV-1 was likely carried from Yunnan Province in Western China to Guangdong Province by infected palm civets or raccoon dogs — animals commonly traded for their fur and meat. However, the current study provides the strongest evidence to date that SARS-CoV-2 made it to humans in a similar manner.“The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,” said co-senior author Michael Worobey, Ph.D., professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona. For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We’re seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.”
  • "New research links long COVID to worse health-related quality of life"
  • "Discovery may explain why more men are affected by severe COVID-19"
  • "New AI tool predicts viral mutations to help future-proof COVID vaccines"
  • "Scientists link specific gene variants to post-vaccine myocarditis and pericarditis"
  • "COVID before or during pregnancy may confer 2 to 3 times the risk of miscarriage"
  • "Study shows COVID-19 vaccines are not linked to miscarriage"
  • "Clinical trial finds faster recovery from COVID-19 through targeted use of high-dose vitamin B3 in the gut"
  • "Study suggest  [Moderna] dual COVID-19/flu shot is more effective than individual vaccines"
  • Prosecution of COVID relief fraud or other crimes continues:
    • "KC woman pleads guilty to COVID-19 fraud, treasury check theft totaling millions"
    • "Raleigh County Man Admits to Stealing Over $2.1M in COVID-19 Relief Funds"
    • "Zebulon woman sentenced 8 eight years for multi-million COVID-19 fraud scheme"
    • "COVID-19 $1.5M fraud scheme leads to prison time for 2 North Carolina women: DOJ"
  • Legal or political developments relevant to COVID continue:
    • "University of Pittsburgh reaches multi-million-dollar settlement in Covid-era class action lawsuit"
    • "Why a major hydroxychloroquine study was retracted over statistical misuse"
    • "COVID-19 probe requested by Florida Gov. DeSantis finds no evidence of criminal activity"
    • "Vinay Prasad, a critic of drug industry and COVID-19 measures, to lead FDA vaccine program"
    • "Appeals court sides with Celebrity Cruises in COVID-19 ‘false imprisonment' case"
    • "Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit. Judges revive lawsuit against L.A. Unified"
    • "NC House votes to make it easier to get ivermectin, reigniting COVID controversy"

Other Notes

The blog is still attracting a dubiously high number of pageviews, although it doesn't show up in the short run for daily posts, struggling to reach double digits. My typing is slower and I haven't published at my pre-interlude clip; I used to publish my media digest and journal posts every weekend. I may return to that pace soon. On X, no high-impression tweets lately but I did reach 100 followers for the the  first time. I promptly lost 4, only to regain replacements. I am annoyed at my feed being flooded with Trumpkin posts.

A personal pet peeve: the excommunication of sports heroes who have allegedly engaged in unconscionable behavior. Probably the most obvious example is late WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. who killed his family in a murder/suicide. WWE over the last 18 years has basically censored references to Benoit in programming. I'm not excusing Benoit's crimes, but those are separate from his work as an entertainer. I don't believe a definitive explanation has explained his crimes: steroids? Brain injuries? Some details lead me to suspect mental illness. It's not the only example. Icon Hulk Hogan is highly unpopular in the aftermath of alleged racist behavior.

What brings this to mind is the posthumous reinstatement of Shoeless Joe Jackson, implicated in the 1919 Black Sox betting scandal, and Pete Rose, suspended for betting on games as a manager. There is no evidence that the betting scandal ever affected the play on the diamond. Hopefully they'll finally be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Posted by at

Post #7204 M: Tom DiLorenzo: Public Enemies: Government Bureaucrats as Societal Parasites; Weekend Update; 10 Facts about TARIFFS

 Quote of the Day

Pay no attention to what the critics say... 
Remember, a statue has never been set 
up in honor of a critic! 
Jean Sibelius  

Tom DiLorenzo: Public Enemies: Government Bureaucrats as Societal Parasites

Weekend Update

10 Facts about TARIFFS

Choose Life

Political Cartoon




Courtesy of Steve Breen via Smerconish


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Fats Domino - Walking to New Orleans

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Post #7203 M: Political Humor; Cardinal in Conclave Says THIS Led to Pope Leo XIV’s Election; Stossel on Publicity Kills DEI

 Quote of the Day

Every truth has four corners: 
as a teacher I give you one corner, 
and it is for you to find the other three.
Confucius

Political Humor

Cardinal in Conclave Says THIS Led to Pope Leo XIV’s Election


Stossel on Publicity Kills DEI

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall

Musical Interlude:  1960 Top 100 Hits

Brenda Lee -- That's All You Gotta Do

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

Monday, May 12, 2025

Post #7202 Social Media Digest

 Twitter/X

No. Rand Paul has been for free trade from the get-go as a fellow libertarian. In fact. the GOP had been pro-free trade since WWII through George W. Bush. Protectionism is bad economics. https://t.co/lvEuMeQb4P

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 2, 2025
blockquote class="twitter-tweet">

Well, Trumpkins are lying; consumers pay tariffs, not foreign governments. What the trade warriors seem to suggest is that prices may not rise to the full amount of tariffs in a competitive marketplace; foreign producers may cut prices ("eat the tariffs") to protect market share https://t.co/TNZCjfVLJo

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 2, 2025 er-tweet">

Manipulated "fair" trade is toxic to consumers; it schemes to lower competition for goods and services. It doesn't help American producers to contain costs/hold down prices.

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) April 30, 2025 ">

The Chinese graduate a multiple of new American engineers.

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 1, 2025 ' .com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">






\ ">

Just wait until Trumpkins discover pro-life Pope Leo XIV is a registered Republican but a fellow Trump critic who has notably condemned Trump's illegal deportation of Garcia. I can already hear anti-Catholic Trumpkins adding "RINO" to the pope's titles.https://t.co/xZDXCQUjPj

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 9, 2025









Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)