Progressive critics of the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic like to point to Sweden and portray the Nordic country’s decision to forego lockdowns as a travesty motivated by greed. Such reductive, black-and-white interpretations are inevitably the result of a childlike analysis where every hero needs to have a hero and a villain. But although Sweden’s COVID-19 czar has admitted that he would have changed certain elements of the country’s response if he could go back in time, the country’s decision to skip lockdowns, and keep the country relatively open, has paid off – even if Sweden does have a significantly higher mortality rate than its neighbors (though still lower than all of the worst-hit western European countries).
Author: HP McLovincraft
Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.
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HL Mencken on fighting for freedom…
Norwegian flag removed from bed and breakfast after locals think it’s a Confederate flag
A Michigan bed and breakfast has removed their Norwegian flag after several complaints from guests and city residents revealed that they mistook it for the Confederate flag.
The Nordic Pineapple in St. Johns received “at least a dozen hateful emails,” said Greg and Kjersten Offenecker, who said they’ve removed both the Norwegian flag and the American flag outside their Civil War-era home.
The couple told the Lansing State Journal that they never saw the flag as anything more than the Norwegian flag.
The COVID-Hysteria Campaign – The Ultimate Divide And Conquer Strategy
“It has frequently been observed that terror can rule absolutely only over people who are isolated against each other and that therefore one of the primary concerns of tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from people acting together, acting in concert; isolated people are powerless by definition.”
– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Western civilization, led by the US government and media, has embarked upon a campaign of mass psychological terrorism designed to cover for the collapsing economy, set up a new pretext for Wall Street’s ongoing plunder expedition, radically escalate the police state, deeply traumatize people into submission to total social conformity, and radically aggravate the anti-social, anti-human atomization of the people.
The pretext for this abomination is an epidemic which objectively is comparable to the seasonal flu and is caused by the same kind of Coronavirus we’ve endured so long without totalitarian rampages and mass insanity.
The global evidence is converging on the facts: This flu is somewhat more contagious than the norm and is especially dangerous for those who are aged and already in poor health from pre-existing maladies. It is not especially dangerous for the rest of the population.
The whole concept of “lockdowns” is exactly upside down, exactly the wrong way any sane society would respond to this circumstance.
It’s the vulnerable who should be shielded while nature takes its course among the general population, who should go about life as usual. Dominionist-technocratic rigidity can’t prevent an epidemic from cycling through the population in spite of the delusions of that religion, especially since Western societies began their measures far too late anyway.
So it’s best to let herd immunity develop as fast as it naturally will, at which time the virus recedes from lack of hosts (and is likely to mutate in a milder direction along the way). This is the only way to bring a safer environment for all including the most vulnerable.
The fact that most societies have rejected the sane, scientific route in favor of doomed-to-fail attempts at a forcible violent segregation and sterilization is proof that governments aren’t concerned with the public health (as if we didn’t know that already from a thousand policies of poisoning the environment while gutting the health care system), but are very ardent to use this crisis they artificially generated in order radically to escalate their police state power toward totalitarian goals.
Will travel be safer by 2022?
It’s 2022 and you’ve just arrived at the travel destination of your dreams. As you get off the plane, a robot greets you with a red laser beam that remotely takes your temperature. You’re still half asleep after a long transoceanic flight, so your brain barely registers the robot’s complacent beep. You had just passed similar checks when boarding the plane hours ago so you have nothing to worry about and can just stroll to the next health checkpoint.
As you join the respiratory inspection queue, a worker hands you a small breathalyser capsule with a tiny chip inside. Conceptually, the test is similar to those measuring drivers’ alcohol levels, but this one detects the coronavirus particles in people’s breath, spotting the asymptomatic carriers who aren’t sick but can infect others. By now you know the drill, so you diligently cough into the capsule and drop it into the machine resembling a massive microwave. You wait for about 30 seconds and the machine lights up green, chiming softly. You may now proceed to immigration, so you fumble for your passport and walk on.
These technologies may sound like science fiction, yet they are anything but. If you had travelled earlier this year when countries began locking down, you may have already spotted the remote infrared thermometers used in airports. However, while thermometers are helpful, they aren’t ideal. People can have fevers for others reasons or may harbour coronavirus without symptoms. To spot early infections or asymptomatic carriers, one has to check for the coronavirus particles in their breath.
That’s where the breathalyser comes in. You haven’t yet seen it at transit hubs, but it already exists at the photonics lab of Gabby Sarusi, professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. When Covid-19 struck and hospitals worldwide struggled to build fast and accurate biological diagnostic tests, Sarusi looked at the problem differently. As a physicist, he viewed the coronavirus’ spiky sphere not as a biological agent but as a nano-sized particle that can be sensed by specialised electrical equipment. When tossed into the midst of an electromagnetic field, the particles cause certain “interference” to the flow of electromagnetic waves, which can be detected. That’s what happens when the capsule is dropped into the microwave-resembling machine.
“We are taking the chip inside the capsule and we’re measuring it with a spectrometer that’s radiated with the magnetic waves,” Sarusi explained. If coronavirus particles are present, he said, “we can sense the shift.”
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House Speaker Admits Marijuana Could Save Texas Economy, But Won’t Pursue It
Recent polls show a plurality of Texans support fully legalizing the plant. But impassioned attempts to legalize medical marijuana fell short in the last legislative session. Bonnen added he wouldn’t pursue recreational cannabis as a post-pandemic economic solution and doesn’t believe it has the votes to pass.
“No, [I would not,]” he replied. “I think it creates other financial costs outside of the benefit of the tax income.”
Black Lives Matter protesters vandalize Oakland mayor’s home; she accuses them of terrorism
The Democratic mayor of Oakland, California, accused vandals who left Black Lives Matter messages spray painted at her home of trying to “terrorize” her and her family.POLL: Do you think the 2020 presidential debates are still going to happen?
The incident occurred early Tuesday morning outside Mayor Libby Schaaf’s house.
Witnesses say that 30 to 40 protesters dressed in black fired off projectiles and firecrackers during the vandalism. They spray-painted messages on the mayor’s stone wall, sidewalk and garage, including “Defund OPD,” “homes 4 all,” and “blood on your hands.”
A neighbor of the mayor told KGO-TV, “I know there’s a lot of unrest and frustration and I sympathize with that, but this was jarring and felt like to another level.”
A spokesperson for Schaaf released a statement condemning the vandalism.
“This attack designed to intimidate the Mayor and strike fear into her family, will not stop her from advocating for the policies she believes are in the best long-term interests of her beloved hometown,” said Justin Berton.
“Like all Oaklanders, she supports passionate protest but does not support tactics meant to harm and terrorize others,” the statement concluded.
‘A wake up call to Libby’
The Sacramento Bee reported that a post at the San Francisco Independent Media Center’s website contained a message from someone claiming responsibility for the vandalism.
“Last night we sent a wake up call to Libby and a call for action to the whole Bay Area. We left a note on her garage, and treated her to a nice fireworks display and the musical notes of pots and pans and assorted noisemakers,” read the message.
“Our message to Libby and other elected officials is simple: You have the power to take the boot off our necks — so we have the duty to struggle against you until that boot is lifted,” they added. “You can’t hide from your responsibility!”
The message included four demands from the group. They called for the defunding of the Oakland Police Department, cancellation of rent, “Homes for All,” and “Drop the Charges,” without elaborating.
Police are investigating the vandalism.
Scientists revive microbes from 100 million years ago
Scientists have successfully revived microbes that had lain dormant at the bottom of the sea since the age of the dinosaurs, allowing the organisms to eat and even multiply after eons in the deep.
Their research sheds light on the remarkable survival power of some of Earth’s most primitive species, which can exist for tens of millions of years with barely any oxygen or food before springing back to life in the lab.
A team led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology analysed ancient sediment samples deposited more than 100 million years ago on the seabed of the South Pacific.
The region is renowned for having far fewer nutrients in its sediment than normal, making it a far-from-ideal site to maintain life over millennia.
The team incubated the samples to help coax the microbes out of their epoch-spanning slumber.
Astonishingly, they were able to revive nearly all of the microorganisms.
“When I found them, I was first sceptical whether the findings are from some mistake or a failure in the experiment,” said lead author Yuki Morono.
“We now know that there is no age limit for (organisms in the) sub-seafloor biosphere,” he told AFP.
Hellbound and Down 
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