Media Abuse

Long Post Reviewing COVID19 Myths

I’m often asked to comment on medical issues by friends. I’ve been having a Messaging conversation with a libertarian friend about what I consider myths. Here’s a loooong post, based on that conversation. I’m not linking to his reference videos, but you can search for them (or ask on my Facebook page) if you really want to give them the “clicks.” Comments should also be made on Facebook. (Keeping comments more public as well as trying to avoid “blog-pimping.”)

The problem I’ve seen is mixing criticism about policy (politics) errors from the actual science. It’s important to separate the science myths from the evidence for science facts. This “ZDoggMD” (Zubin Damania, MD) video is a good place to start for an overview. https://youtu.be/v8RpPeXCySw

As is this one, between Dr. Damania and Dr. Mike (Mikhail Varshavski, DO) who, in another useful (and easy to watch) conversation,
https://youtu.be/XVjLT3pinW0
point out that it’s not wrong to be skeptical and question data. While reviewing the science and the scientific method, they discuss the harm from tribalism and politicization. Also, at 59 minutes, there’s an explanation about how the variants arise.

However, the skeptics are wrong to dismiss all data from formal regulatory and research sources. The scientific literature is best evaluated over time and in proportion with the number of supporting reports. As in the case of the Wuhan doctors who stood against their government to call the world’s attention to the outbreak in the first place, minority reports should be considered. The valid reports will stand the test of time, public scrutiny, and real world observation. In contrast, as in the case of the (infamous) retracted papers in Lancet and JAMA, questionable data will be disproven.

If we can’t agree on the above paragraph, there’s no common ground for discussion.

As for the questions I often receive about my personal sources (in reality, my integrity): I use as many sites as possible. I certainly do not refer to only one silo of information. And, yes, I have watched all of the videos people share – at least until last night, when my friend linked to ten. I have worked through over half of them, and watched the first part of all of those.

I prefer to evaluate the myths themselves, rarely discussing the validity of the sources, except to point out those falsehoods or to point out obvious pre-existing biases based on the statements of the speakers themselves.

For instance, there are repeated referrals to Robert F Kennedy, Jr., who isn’t a good source. He has made inaccurate claims about vaccines for years, shifting from blaming measles vaccines to aluminum and mercury & he makes money from his anti-vaccine advocacy.

The doctor at the school board meeting loses validity right from the first by flatly stating that masks cannot protect from any virus. Surgical masks and N95s work. https://www.aerzteblatt.de/int/archive/article/217467

He repeatedly talks about “the vaccine,” when there are at least four, developed by different companies, tested in different sites. Are all the nurses and other personnel involved going along with some conspiracy(ies) promulgated by corrupt doctors and companies?

He is absolutely mistaken about enhancement by the vaccines – as Dr. Zubin Damania pointed out in the first video above, real world observation on the sheer numbers of vaccinated disprove this myth.

The event he referenced about in Barnstable, Massachusetts is an anomaly, due to large indoor gatherings.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7031e2.htm

The pdf of the actual report is here https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7031e2-H.pdf

In fact, Barnstable answers the doctor’s question about why we’re seeing a surge in summer: people who were previously “socially distanced” are now gathering with fewer precautions. (Add the fact that the biggest breakouts are occurring in areas where close spaces and air conditioning are predominant.)

In the rest of the world, the vaccinated are less likely to get infected at all. At least 1/3 less likely, perhaps closer to 90%.

(This is pre-peer-reviewed data.)
https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/90800
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259420v2?ijkey=43686632fd3918a950438cfefd8a2fc06e73b0ac&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

In one video recommended, Geert Vanden Bossche, DMV, PhD, who is a frequently referred to, emphatically states that there is a virus, that it is highly infectious and it is deadly and that the vaccines are “excellent” & prevent disease – meaning the severe effects of infection. However, since they do prevent infection, I believe he is wrong about using vaccines in the middle of the pandemic.

The largest number of people becoming infected, and by corollary, becoming infectious, symptomatic, requiring hospitalization and dying, are unvaccinated. What we are seeing is that the vaccinated who do get infected are less sick – even though they are older and have more comorbidities.

There may be a kernel of truth in what Bossche says (in spite of the decreased numbers infected), since the vaccines were authorized first for the elderly and sick, who were also most likely to have an incomplete immune response.

Vanden Bossche proposes that the variants come from patients with partial immunity in the same way that antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics in already infected patients. As pointed out in the Dr Z and Dr. Mike explanation about how viruses mutate, the variants occur after thousands or millions of replications in infected people. The viruses first have to infect, then they have to survive and be infectious.

The vaccinated are much less likely to get infected in the first place so the numbers of infections that are necessary to happen for the event of mutations and spread to others occur in the unvaccinated. So fewer infections mean less chances to mutate.

Vanden Bossche doesn’t answer the question: “What do we do?” The alternative was to let them get sick and risk death, a risk which is much greater in this population than in younger people who likely have a stronger immune response.

Mike Yeadon, Ph.D. is another “expert ” that is frequently referenced because he once was a head researcher and CEO at Pfizer. He was one members of the team that did early mRNA vaccine research. Even he notes that he repeats that government shouldn’t be trusted. Included in contradictory statements, he claims that there’s no virus, after saying older and sicker people should probably choose to be vaccinated. What infection is Bossche talking about if Yeadon is right?

There’s an emotional video at the “A Warrior” vlog that has too many distractions to be useful in fighting for sane policy, with its emphasis on 9-11 and pedophile truthers. But I’ll cover some of the obvious errors:

Dr Sam Smith is wrong about the SARS-1 animal experiments. https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2A22UW

Il repeat: Do you believe that any group is powerful enough to suppress the observation of the effects of 500,000,000 doses of different vaccines all over the world – 350 million in the US, alone? – by the hundreds of thousands of doctors & even more nurses and other professionals who are involved and would need to be complicit?

Smith’s major objection is the regulation of treatments and what he believes is a politically motivated exaggerated risk of COVID. However, I know several people who have been hospitalized with the infection, and several friends have lost relatively young loved ones to it. I’m sure you have the same experience.

An August 26, 2021 “McCullough Report” podcast begins with a major myth: that there are 90% false positives in asymptomatic testing. That number might actually be 2-3% for saliva tests. But is closer to 1%. Confirmatory tests are recommended for any positive test.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34238663/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34223865/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34116245/

(McCullough does quote the correct percentage of hospitalized cases which are vaccinated in the UK and Israel: 40%. This number should be evaluated in relation to the percentageof vaccinatedin the community and who is getting sick. Both countries have a majority of elderly, who are likely to have less immunity efficacy, and were the first eligible for vaccination roll outs. These are also the people who are getting sick.)

BTW, going to integrity and trust, Zubin Damania has been active for years in fighting the politicization and socialization of medicine in the US, as have I. Google his conversations with Dr. Atlas, and two of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration (which I also signed), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Sunetra Gupta. We are all secure in supporting vaccination, opposed to blanket lockdowns, draconian enforcement, and politicization of treatments by physicians.

South Africa COVID Variant and the AstraZeneca Vaccine

CNN & NYT  coverage of events in South Africa concerning the AstraZeneca vaccine that’s being given in the British Virgin Islands are very poor.

The new study doesn’t come out until today, so the “news” reports are based only on press releases. 

ONE variant. ONE country.

And the actual data isn’t even available yet, even as preliminary information…

From what is available information in these reports about South Africa: About 1500 young people, average age 31,  were studied in South Africa, half received the vaccine, half a placebo. This study only evaluated one strain, and only mild to moderate infections, because this age group doesn’t tend to get sick.

All we really know is that in the South Africa study, similar numbers became infected with that particular strain and the serum from their blood didn’t do a good job of neutralizing that strain in the lab.

From the BBC news reports:
“Data from the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine team suggests their vaccine protects just as well against the new UK variant, but offers less protection against the South Africa variant – although it should still protect against severe Covid-19 illness.”

The vaccine *does* have high efficacy protection for the older strains & the UK variant. Not only that, but if vaccinated, the infectious period is shorter for these varieties.

There’s evidently no safety concern about the AstraZeneca vaccine from either study.

Beverly B Nuckols, MD

Time Magazine article about the election conspiracy

Time Magazine published their attempt at re-writing history,  pure one-sided propaganda, admitting to a conspiracy on the Left, beginning in 2019.

Not a word about the illegal changes in voting procedures by non-legislative, unconstitutional means, the doxxing of Michigan Republicans on Detroit’s certification boards.  I nstead there are unproven accusations that poll watchers who were placed behind barriers at the Detroit vote counting center were “crowding” poll workers.


The conspiracy held meetings about the possibility of Trump having illegal meetings.




The author is obviously a conspirator – and proud of it. He couldn’t resist noting that the “Architect” of the conspiracy texted him on the morning of 6 January.

Quotes from the opinion piece, focusing on the efforts of Trump, the “autocratically inclined President”

“…the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.””

“”…saw Trump as a dangerous dictator.. “_

“” “It took pushing, urging, conversations, brainstorming, all of that to get to a place where we ended up with more rigorous rules and enforcement,” says Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, who attended the dinner and also met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and others. (Gupta has been nominated for Associate Attorney General by President Biden.)”

“[ “Protect the Results” coalition ]The group’s now defunct website had a map listing 400 planned postelection demonstrations, to be activated via text message as soon as Nov. 4. To stop the coup they feared, the left was ready to flood the streets.”

Jordan B Peterson makes a mistake (Times article)

Dr. Jordan B Peterson has a new blog up in response to the publication of a hit piece disguised as an interview in the UK’s Sunday Times.

I’m a big fan of Peterson, as is my husband. I first noticed his online videos of his college lectures on philosophy & psychology, then became aware of his activism and, finally, his “Rules for Life” which became the base of his book of the same name. Larry and I were lucky enough to attend Dr. Peterson’s conversation with Sam Harris, moderated by Douglas Murray, in London a couple of years ago.

The Times‘ recent published interview is even worse than Peterson describes, with gratuitous remarks about toxic masculinity & unflattering, skewed and unexplicable comparisons to Donald Trump.

He’s posted the audio of the entire unedited interview on YouTube and has links in this blog post to the article published 31 January, 2021.
Here are a few of the hostile remarks by the author, Decca Aitkenson, from that article:

“I don’t know if this is a story about drug dependency, or doctors, or Peterson family dynamics — or a parable about toxic masculinity. Whatever else it is, it’s very strange.”

…

“After 80 minutes on Zoom, the one thing of which I’m certain is that, were I as close to death as she assures me her father repeatedly was, this is not the person I would entrust with saving my life.”

…

“The more he talks, though, the more I wonder whether toxic masculinity might have been a culprit, too. His family history of depression might tell us something about the price to be paid for his bootstrap philosophy; that when life became excruciatingly stressful, Peterson’s stand up, man up, suck it up mentality didn’t work.”

And, finally,

“Parallels with Donald Trump come to mind; another unhappy man closed off from his emotions, projecting strong man mythology while hunkered down in a bunker with his family against the world.”

If there’s anything I’m certain about Dr. Peterson it’s that he isn’t “closed off from his emotions.” Aitkenson is delusional or a biased liar. She’s no “reporter.”

Inauguration

“Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”




President Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, said ” See you later,” rather than goodbye, but he (peacefully) left the White House and Washington, DC this morning – “for the last time”, according to headline after headline. Number 46 will be sworn in at noon.






While I’m certain that Donald Trump absolutely wanted to bring about changes in the Federal government, especially in regulations and the “unfair” deals with other nations, I think he might have been just as surprised as Hillary that he won. (My husband hates it when I compare the Trump victory to “The Mouse That Roared.”)

I was a “Never-Trumper’ through the 2016 Republican National Convention. After the Democrats chose Hillary Clinton, I knew there was no chance I wouldn’t vote against her.
While at first simply being ABC (Anybody But Clinton), the more I fact-checked and explained the misconceptions about Republicans and Trump, I first became anti-anti-Trump, then okay with him, to a supporter. I’m definitely in support of his policies, if not of his behavior.





Before noon four years ago today, the “Resistance” started breaking laws as well as windows. Every day, someone, somewhere in the US, burned a car or business or vandalized a building. A minority went beyond destroying property,  mobbing and harassing anyone associated with the Trump Administration. The media published leaked documents, transcripts and quotes from anonymous sources about the President and it was nearly impossible to find any positive coverage of anything Trump.

 Then, there was legal challenge after legal challenge. The heads of the Democratic Party, chairs of Congressional Committees, the FBI and CIA publicly distorted and – I believe – lied to the public and sometimes, to Congress.





Things are going to change under the new Administration. 

Our whistleblowers will be vilified, anyone who dares leak will be prosecuted as a spy, media will cooperate with the Powers That Be , as Social Media has in China. They’re already championing the turning in of family members & friends. 
But (using a few more metaphors and in spite of January 6) this time, the barbarians are within the gates. Outside, are those of us who believe in the rule of law, the Judeo-Greco-Christian legacy. Rather than topple statues and pain disfiguring and profane graffiti on monuments. We understand that we stand on the shoulders of giants, even as we recognize and acknowledge that virtually all of our predecessors were human, with human flaws. I hope we remember history, and try to learn from it, reform, rather than revolution. 
I believe that Conservatives will prevail.






As President Trump implied in his speech this morning, we’ll be back! 

“No fly list,” Social Media purge, and personal witnesses of 6 January.

Two of the YouTube video bloggers I follow have posted interviews and first-hand descriptions of events at the Washington, DC Capitol building on 6 January, noting the consequences. It’s almost as though they describe three totally separate events.

Kash Kelly describes his experience, beginning about 39 minutes in. He says that his group left the Trump speech early to walk to the Capitol lawn in order to avoid the rush when everyone walked. They were standing still on the lawn, chanting “USA”when men in SWAT gear began firing  paintballs and flashbangs.

One older man evidently had a heart attack because of the effects of the flashbangs.

Eventually, the police ceased firing when the crowd moved back. Some of the officers waved them onto the exterior balconies, some fired mace at them, others waved them into the building and even directed them to the offices and legislative chambers.

Kash says there were three different areas of entry, where police were alternately waving them in, spraying mace and beating them. Before entering the building, When he witnessed another group banging on a window. The patriots he was with demanded that the vandalism stop. The violent men seemed to know where thhey intended to go, went through a window and began handing out what appeared to be batons and other weapons to others waiting outside the window.

Once inside, his group of patriots saw police laughing what he believes were antifa and decided to leave but we’re trapped. The police guided them outside through a window.

(Note: Kash calls the bad guys “angwifwa,” because he’s lost his Instagram page and believes he will soon lose his FB page because of calling them out.)
https://youtu.be/FSdwxnNbEKA

Dave Rubin interviewed 3 people, two who were at the DC rally and have had their FB accounts arbitrarily removed from FB and have learned that they’re on a “no fly” list simply for being present. 

One, a journalist named Elijah Schaeffer, is certified to work in the Capitol and works with The Blaze.  The other is a woman, Dr. Karlyn Borysenko, an organizational psychologist who works with the organization, “#Walk Away.”

Neither took part in the riots or protest. Schaeffer was reporting & recording with the cooperation of the Capitol police, and Borysenko said she arrived late, never went into the Capitol and never saw any violence at all.

Shaffer’s professional and private FB page and Instagram accounts have been removed. FB has “banned” Borysenko and the leaders of her entire organization have also been permanently removed, according to a Tweet by Brandon Straka.

Borysenko’s photos of the event were removed from Instagram:

“Instagram just deleted my pictures from the capital that show that people were peacefully there and threatened to delete my account.”

https://youtu.be/M2qmsW0haE8

Conservatives on Twitter are losing “Followers” by the thousands, making it obvious that the site is purging conservatives. Dave Rubin says that at least, we know who’s really in charge:

BTW, I’m @bnuckols on Parler as well as Twitter

Edited: to make the 1st paragraph clear & to fix the spelling of “angwifwa.” BBN

Update on “Armed men” & fake ballots

CNN has corrected its headline and printed a corrected story in typical fashion: down at the bottom of the page, they note that they might have made a mistake.

“According to our information at this very early stage of investigation, it appears these individuals were operating under the belief that ‘fake ballots’ are being counted at the Convention Center — a completely unsupported claim — and that belief may have been what drew their attention to Philadelphia.” Roh told CNN in an emailed statement.

But it wasn’t their fault.

CNN affiliate KYW had earlier reported that the men were “coming to deliver a truck full of fake ballots” to the city, citing prosecutors.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the presumed motive for why Antonio LaMotta and Joshua Macias had come to the Philadelphia Convention Center armed with guns. They may have believed fake ballots were being counted there, according to Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Jane Roh. The headline and story have been corrected.

CNN.

Dueling Statements by “Experts:” More COVID-19 politics

On Blame

Amid sanctimonious reassurance that they don’t wish bad things on the President – or his “cronies” – Facebook, Twitter, and, certainly, the media are claiming that the President is responsible for each and everyone of the US deaths due to COVID-19.

(I won’t link to the sites, giving them more traffic. It’s easy to find samples.)

What would you have done? Scare tactics? Usurp State & local government with Federal force?

How would you shut down the economy and our kids’ education even more severely without imposing martial law, forbidding even “mostly peaceful” protests, using military guns to enforce your edicts?

The people getting sick aren’t just “Trumpsters” running around in MAGA hats at the White House.

In fact, most cases are nursing home patients and household contacts, people who necessarily live together.

And just as many, if not more, have died of suicide, overdoses and homicide – in addition to the increase of deaths due to heart attacks, strokes, and Alzheimer’s because of the lockdowns and lost jobs and businesses.

From Milwaukee, “[D]eath tolls would amount to 514 overdoses, 455 COVID-19 deaths, 193 homicides, and 120 suicides.”

And, no, the President hasn’t “lied” about the serious nature of the virus. In my opinion, he has chosen to give the best case, rather than worst case scenario whenever possible.

A modest proposal for COVID-19 response (Or, I’m not King, but)

JAMA table 1, comparing efficacy of masks

REFERENCES

Treatment dosing (always allowing treating physicians who prescribe determine need & frequency of alternate doses & monitoring)

This isn’t a prescription!

Hydroxychloroquine: 400 mg. twice on day one then 200 mg. twice a day for either 5 or 10 days;

Azithromycin: 250 mg. tablet, 2 on day one, 1 on day 2 to 5;

Budesonide: unit dose via hand held inhaler or nebulizer twice a day. (I’m looking for references for this one. )

Zinc 150 mg. to 250 mg. a day indefinitely. (Best evidence for lozenges or syrup multiple times a day. See references.)

Vitamin D, 1000 IU a day, up to 4000 IU is safe

Vitamin C, No set dose, but extra will be excreted in the urine or feces, can cause diarrhea.

References

Journal of the American Medical Association review. Published August 11, 2020. (Free, with Tables)

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2769443?guestAccessKey=53b2b8ec-df1a-4ca4-88ce-abf6c4fa470c&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=081120

CDC recommendation on cloth masks:

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-0948_article

John’s Hopkins recommendation:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-face-masks-what-you-need-to-know

Zinc:

https://www.uchealth.org/today/zinc-could-help-diminish-extent-of-covid-19/

Journal article on treatment for the common cold: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-125-2-199607150-00001

Unpublished, non-peer reviewed: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47794995_Zn_Inhibits_Coronavirus_and_Arterivirus_RNA_Polymerase_Activity_In_Vitro_and_Zinc_Ionophores_Block_the_Replication_of_These_Viruses_in_Cell_Culture

Hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin protocols

International Journal of Infectious Diseases (Henry Ford or Ashad report):

https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext

https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30600-7/fulltext

On synergistic effect of hydroxychloroquine plus steroids:

https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30613-5/fulltext

Budesonide

Description of study in progress on treatment for loss of smell in patients without severe symptoms:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7370627/

Vitamin C safety:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-c/faq-20058030#:~:text=For%20adults%2C%20the%20recommended%20daily,Nausea

Note: comments are off. Please comment on my Facebook page, Beverly Nuckols.

Edited 31/08/20 12:30 for mis-spellchecked word. BBN

Petty lies

The Democrats and their allies in the media lie about the small things, it shouldn’t surprise us when they ruin lives by lying about the real issues.

From just one weekend, just three of the petty lies:

1. Hitler and a Bible: even Snopes agrees that it was photoshopped.
2. White House lights turned off because of riots: photoshopped photo from the Obama era.
3. Tear gas ordered to facilitate a photo shoot: the Park police deny that they used tear gas.

About that tear gas, there’s proof in the photos and videos they didn’t falsify (yet?): the police aren’t wearing gas masks.

Here

And, here, where neither the horses nor the police are affected the way they would have been by tear gas.

Please leave comments at my WingRight Facebook page.

There’s no change in citizenship! None!

Children born overseas (No change)

The “Highlights:”

Not the hype you’re reading about in the news.

Edit: Penultimate sentence: “18” instead of “28.” On September 3, 2019. BBN

Heterosexuality: oppression or happiness

Leftist liars gonna lie about abortion –

‘“It’s not the baby’s fault for the sin of the father, or of the mother,” King said.‘

Remember this statement when you read or hear that Congressman Stephen King “defended” rape and incest.

In reality, he “defended” every child at risk of being killed because they are the result of a pregnancy after rape or incest.

And all the descendents of past pregnancies due to rape or incest.

Politicians and laymen alike should beware when publicly supporting the ethical position that all humans are, indeed, human at all stages of life and that they shouldn’t be killed: The Leftist liars will attack. In force.

Representative King wasn’t just defending the children of tomorrow: he was defenfing all of their descendents.

“What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest?” King told a breakfast meeting in Urbandale, Iowa. “Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can’t say that I was not a part of a product of that.”

King was obviously referring to retroactive killing. After all, elective interventional abortion is the ending of a human’s life by intentional acts that are licensed and regulated under the medical codes of the various States.

Regardless of how they were conceived, every human is created equal and endowed with inalienable #HumanRights.

The faithful Left can’t tolerate equal rights endowed on all humans. They will invariably takeba any firm statement against their sacrament of abortion and their tools in the media will pull out sections, ignore the context, and turn it inside out, to spread the big lie.

So much the more if they can twist their lie into a defense of one of their own. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar cited the lying reports as proof of Republican “filth.”

(Nevermind that her own hometown paper, the Minnesota Star Tribune and her Somalian communityare the ones accusing her of biggamy as well as marrying her own brother to commit immigration fraud. Or that she’s been fined for filing false tax returnswith one of her husband’s. Y’all move along, there’s nothing to see, here.)

So tell me: how many people would be left alive if we killed every person who has an ancestors who was conceived in rape or incest?

I reconsider conspiracy theories

“.#NYTimeline: Pelosi declares a “cover up,” goes directly to meet @POTUS & it’s all “Trump Blows Up Meeting,” “tempestuous clash” & waging “war.” @NYT” (My tweet, this morning)

I’m not into conspiracy theories, because I’ve always doubted that 2 people can keep secrets. But evidently, a larger number can, if motivated like the WaPo, NYT, Brennan, Comey, State Dept., and the adulterous gang McCabe didn’t lead. For a while, at least…

The collusion, if you will, between the media and the Intelligence Community (IC) is pretty obvious and becoming more so by the day.

So, in contrast to my usual skepticism:

I’ll bet that the early 2017 media clique skipped over reports that the President was objecting to the counter investigation. They couldn’t know – or admit to knowing – about the information classified by the Obama administration before the inauguration. Those that might have heard – in all the leaks and reports that “came over the transom” – instead preferred to harp on the President’s denial about the Russian election interference.

It’s no surprise (now) that he was doubting the Intelligence Community from early on: he was hearing about “collusion” at the same briefings where he heard about the Russian election interference. If the IC was lying about one, why not the other?

Where are the BuzzFeed-like exposés about the investigations, the leaks?

There’s a good chance that, as happened here in Texas in the 2018 Senate race, media simply decided to withhold some of the”news that’s fit to print” and spread a little “darkness” (WaPo’s motto) of their own.

False story about Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA)

There’s also a quote from Mrs. Jones’ daughter, repeated from the earlier article: ““My mom is going to die on Monday because of a law that saves hospitals money.”

It turns out that money and Medicaid paperwork is actually what is keeping the family from allowing Mrs. Jones to be transferred to another doctor and facility. The family is concerned that they (rather than the hospital) will be responsible for the costs of Mrs. Jones’ care.

This is in spite of the fact that when a patient first goes on dialysis, she becomes immediately and automatically eligible to apply for Medicare and Social Security Disability.

Depending on assets and income, patients unable to work on dialysis also qualify for Medicaid and other State benefits in Texas. Medicaid will even pay bills retroactively for three months.

Immunologist denies Imunology (Vaccines)

Here’s a review and critique (with live links, by Skeptical Raptor) on one of the anti-vaxx advocates, an “immunologist” who exaggerated her credentials, makes her money through the big-money scam “Vaxxed,” and who wrote this ridiculous lie:

“”Immunology does not attempt to study and therefore cannot provide understanding of natural diseases and immunity that follows them.””

Educate and edify!

WingRight.org’s motto is the subject of today’s post. I hope to convince you of the necessity of speaking up in order to “educate” and “edify” (build up and strengthen) our neighbors and fellow citizens. ( We won’t get into the “elect” or pure politics.)

Bashing Trump: Victim shaming, victim denying

Toxic Fact checking!

Toronto Star Washington, DC reporter Daniel Dale (@ddale8) joins in the media’s Trump bashing, with some old fashioned victim shaming: foolish women are deceived into prostitution by “promises of a hopeful future,” not violently kidnapped, gagged and bound.

Well, not often enough for Mr. Dale.

Focusing on the type of tape that President Trump says was used to gag the women, Dale claims that he sought out “experts” who told him that physical, violent kidnapping of women in Mexico in order to traffic them – force them into prostitution – in the US “rarely if ever happens.”

Dale quotes a San Antonio “anti-trafficking activist” who woman who has helped 12 such women whose mouths were covered when they were kidnapped. Unfortunately, she didn’t record what was used to cover their mouths.

Oh, and the wall won’t change anything except that it “would merely cause certain traffickers to take more risks and impose higher debts.”

After all, less than 2% of women who are trafficked press kidnapping charges.

Dale might put too much weight in the fact that “less than 2%” of women who are trafficked press kidnapping charges. He should listen to the women of Jalisco who tell a story similar to the one the President relates. They then face the resistance of police and authorities with attitudes like Dale’s.

Just how many violent kidnappings across the border would be enough for Mr. Dale and his experts to report the stories of trafficked women instead of a story to prove President Trump wrong?

“Reliable Allies Refuse to Defend a President Content With Chaos.” (NYT)

“Mr. Trump grew angry over his news coverage.“

Well, who wouldn’t when confronted with this New York Times headline: “Reliable Allies Refuse to Defend a President Content With Chaos.”

The opening paragraph might add to that anger:

“President Trump, who has long believed that he is his own best adviser and spokesman, was forced to test that idea on Friday when few of his allies seemed willing to publicly share in his evident satisfaction with the tumultuous events that have buffeted the White House in the past few days.“

This is the online version,of the which has a footnote that explains that the print version carried a more neutral title:

A version of this article appears in print on Page A18 with the headline: Confusion and Controversy Swirl, But the President Remains Positive.

The internet address for the article hints at the original purpose behind the column in the US Politics section of what was once the “newspaper of record:” “donald-trump-syria-government-shutdown.”

Other than a few comments that this is the 3rd shutdown in recent years, news coverage ignores the fact that Schumer and the Senate Democrats “shutdown” the government in January, 2018 when they staged a filibuster over another funding Bill because it didn’t protect DACA.

The President is said to have an “aggressively partisan stance,” but New York’s Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer is the one who ranted on the Senate floor:

““You’re not getting the wall today, next week or on Jan. 3 when Democrats take control of the House.”

You don’t have to wonder how Not-the-Majority-Leader Chuck really feels. And it’s clear that he has “reliable allies” at the NYT.

“Illegal alien” ban?

I keep seeing reports that Twitter is blocking posts that contain the phrase, “illegal alien.” Obviously, not true.

How do memes like this get a hold? (Please comment on Facebook, not here or Twitter. I’m not omni-social-media.)

NYT “Had to try.”

As the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today” suggests, “Use the Reader Comments to Learn More About the Times” and how the public views the journalistic abuse.

It seems that the NYT (and other media) decided to investigate the wife of SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavenaugh, Ashley. The NYT readers point out the lack of similar”vetting” of Obama’s judicial nominees.

Fake news, indeed. 85 emails from Mrs. Kavenaugh’s position as town manager of Chevy Chase, Maryland revealed nothing of interest – except exposure of the NYT bias, perhaps.

But the Op Ed says, ” We had to try.” Just what were they trying?

How the magic happens (Bret Weinstein)

Are there university meetings where white people are refused access to the provided food, drinks, and chairs? Do some professors refuse to teach “privileged” students?

Watch this evolutionary biologist  talk about the tactics and consequences of the “social justice” movement, especially as it’s playing out in universities. (Former) Professor Bret Weinstein, Ph.D., was forced out of a tenured position at Evergreen State University in Washington State because he ran afoul of the activists behind the College’s “equity” policies.

The idea that minority students are considered a traitor to their cause (equity for people of color,etc.) for studying science is alarming.

Here’s a link to Weinstein’s recommended political survey, “Political Compass.” Some other forms I’ve seen in the past (especially those published by Ron Paul libertarians) are more biased, in my opinion. On those, I’ve scored slightly authoritarian because I believe in National borders, the science about human embryonic development and prefer not to redefine marriage (at the level of social experiment on future generations of children who can’t consent).

Edit: Here is another discussion about the events leading up to Weinstein’s talk. BBN

Response to criticism about Texas Advance Directive Act

I’ve been having a long Facebook discussion with representatives of organizations, people who claim that I support coercion and killing patients because I defend the Texas Advance Directives Act, 166.0046. (TADA).

I want to respond as fully as I can. ( I’m bandwidth deprived today and will gradually add more links when I reach better signals. See here, here, and here for more explanations from earlier WingRight posts. Links to the law, the press, and previous blog posts by others can be found in those articles.)

It

(Edited 03/11/18 for typos, to add a link, and to clarify points originally made on Facebook in a long debate. BBN)

Some words @ #MeToo

I know, there’s been lots of words already. However, a recent comment about the #MeToo crowd trading “sex for profit” points out a basic misunderstanding about sexual exploitation and abuse: the victims are victims.

Child actor Todd Bridges gives the most common reason for keeping quiet: “[T]hey say you’re lying.”

Oh, I do want to know where the “Women’s March” was before January 20, 2017! And I’d like to ask Ashley Judd and Madonna, two of the “nasty women” who claim victimhood while wearing pink “pussy hats,” reciting obscene poetry, and cussing from the podium on the National Mall why they blame Conservatives and the current US Administration – for the culture that exploits girls and women (and boys) sexually. In response, it’s easy to point to the fact that Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are anything but “Conservative.” Even if we skip right over the abusive history of Democrats Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner, you would think that the Grammy Awards would have included some condemnation against politicians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for accepting financial support from Weinstein, rather than show casing Hillary to take a shot at President Trump. (Or concern that Obama allowed one of his daughters to work for Weinstein’s company as an intern)

Yes, there’s a long list of women who are now making claims about past sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood. It’s easy to simply say that they remained silent to protect their careers or in exchange for money after lawsuits. However, read a few histories and you’ll see that some of the victims were children, others reported crimes but prosecutors failed to press charges, and for many young men and women that it’s much more complicated than that.

First, sexual abuse is furtive and involves manipulation, lies and even force. Child victims are innocent and don’t understand the grooming and abuse until older unless they are hurt. More mature victims are trapped, tricked or physically forced into vulnerable situations. Loved ones may be threatened.

Second, there’s guilt. By the time the children realize that the abuse is wrong, they feel guilty and blame themselves. I’m sure that even more mature victims feel some guilt for their vulnerability.

Then, as Mr. Bridges said, “When you realise it’s wrong, they say you’re lying.” Ashley Judd also reports that no one believed her outcry when she was a child. And the comment that spurred me to write this essay is very common: the victim profited somehow, but now claims to be a victim.

Finally, there’s lots of reasons to cover up, drop charges or settle legal procedings and lots of people have something to lose if the perpetrator is prosecuted or even reported. Perhaps the environment is one of “everybody knew” what was going on, so everybody who knew was complicit. Family members and victims may not want to risk the humiliation and victim-blaming/shaming that always seems to accompany sexual abuse and the resultant accusations of “it’s just about sex,” and “he/she was complicit.” All of the above, as well as the police and prosecutors, might not want to risk counter suits.

Often, the victims are ignored and the abuser(s) suffer little or no consequences and successfully block the victim’s story from being told. See the story of Corey Feldman or the documentary, “An Open Secret.” Then, there are the threats,as Harvey Weinstein has shown.

I hope that we’re seeing a change in our response to sexual assault and harassment. I hope that the demand for transparency like “street artist,” Sabo’s billboards will be heeded.I hope I don’t blame the victim myself and never hear unsubstantiated claims that sexual assault are simply prostitutes, in the past and present.

Divide and Conquer: Dems vs. Republicans

January, 1973 marked the big divide, with Roe v. Wade forever separating those of us who believe in the inalienable human right not to be killed from those who separate our species into two big classes: the ones who are human-enough and the ones that aren’t.

That was the ugly beginning of even further class divisions, with some groups of people given power to claim more “rights” than other groups. The concept of individual inalienable rights endowed by Nature of being human dissolved in the class warfare that resulted.

Don’t forget the 60’s, when the Dems opposed Civil Rights legislation while spending – redistributing- every penny of Social Security and Medicare taxes to engineer a society based on the power of the greatest number.

For me, though, the Dems proved themselves liars and undependable in 1968, when I was 12. Watching the national political Parties and the Presidential Primaries, I saw not only the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. My natural inclination would have been sympathy toward the Party that claimed them.

However, I also became aware that it was the Dems who were rioting, calling policemen “pigs,” and soldiers “baby killers,” supporting the Black Panther and Weathermen, and telling us to “never trust anyone over 30,” to justify their violence.

I knew policemen and soldiers – and lots if people who were over 30 and deserving of my trust – so I knew these were false accusations. Even then, I could tell that they were dehumanizing entire groups, refining the old myth that some humans aren’t human-enough to possess inalienable rights in order to gain power.

Modern opposition to germ theory???

Why is it that a CPA is trusted to tell the “truth” about vaccines, but doctors aren’t? Perhaps, because doctors understand the science behind the germ theory, learn to read and evaluate the medical literature, and aren’t willing to give credence to doctors who have their licenses restricted or stripped for fraud, much less herbalists who teach that the earth is flat.

In discussions about vaccines with people who oppose them, I’ve been told that vaccines haven’t been subjected to large, “properly,” controlled tests. Even when I pointed to large, controlled, blinded, and randomized studies the answer was that these weren’t the “properly” controlled tests.

This is what they’ve been taught by people like Ty Bollinger, a CPA who has made his living blaming sinister global government chemtrails and, of course, doctors and vaccines for cancer, autism, allergies, and all sorts of other health problems.

The latest Bollinger video series, “The Truth About Vaccines” was evidently promoted on Facebook in April, but I missed it.  I won’t link to the video, but if you want, you can Google it and find episode 1 for free on YouTube. Don’t pay for it!  I’ve watched all 1 hour, 57 minutes, and have been doing research on the “experts.”

In this episode, Bollinger interviews parents, doctors, lawyers, lawmakers, activists and some of the most notorious contemporary doctors: Andrew Wakefield, who had his license revoked for real, intentional fraud in the United Kingdom, and Rashid Buttar, DO, from North Carolina, who is no longer allowed to treat children or cancer patients. And then, there’s the blurb from David “Avocado” Wolfe, an herbalist who denies that the Earth is round or revolves on its axis around the sun!

Pediatrician Laurence Pavlesky, MD,who is prominently featured in the video, doesn’t define the characteristics of a “proper” study in the video, he does in another interview,

“What’s missing in these data is a population of healthy people who have not had any flu symptoms – to actually see if their noses contained H1N1 – because if someone is sick and has the presence of an H1N1 virus in the nose, it doesn’t mean that the H1N1 is causing the illness.

“You really have to take an appropriate control group to see if people are colonized with that virus even when they’re not sick. “

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/14/Expert-Pediatrician-Exposes-Vaccine-Myths.aspx

So do docs have to match stroke or heart attack victims with healthy controls, to prove that the controls have no lesions in order to prove that occluded vessels caused the lack of brain function or heart function? 

It’s well-documented that some people are chronic carriers of strep, but not sick. Typhoid Mary was colonized, able to expose others who got sick, but not sick, herself. We also know that the incubation period varies.

Okay, maybe we could get over the difference of opinion about “proper” controls. Or whether the earth is flat. Or even why a CPA and lay people are capable of learning the truth about scientific knowledge, but doctors aren’t. However, another theme often repeated by Pavlesky and other “experts” prominent in Bollinger’s video is the denial of the germ theory.

Fom Pavlesky’s “General Guidance”:

“The expression of these symptoms may not always be caused by infections from bacteria and viruses. Instead, these symptoms and illnesses may develop as a sign that our children are healthy; that their bodies are strong, and working to bring to the surface, and cleanse, any accumulation of wastes that are deep inside them, having accumulated due to their exposure to varying stressors in their lives. In many instances, the process of bringing these wastes to the surface of the body is aided by the bacteria and viruses already living inside of them, and is a necessary step for them to become well.”

Sheri Tenpenny, DO  is another doctor in the video. On her blog, she also promotes infections as a good way to get rid of  “toxins,” adding,

“As contrary as it seems, germs are attracted to the diseased tissues; they are not the primary cause of it.”

Here’s a little statement from me:

*The diseases we call infections are caused by infectious agents: bacteria, viruses or parasites​.* 

If we can’t agree on this (and that the earth is not flat), we have no common ground for a logical discussion about Western medicine.

More to come in later posts about the “experts” in the video.

More Fake News (5 year old handcuffed – NOT)

The Baltimore Sun is one of the online news sites I read because it’s more reliable than others. Usually.
Now, they’ve published an opinion piece with a falsehood about “inhumane acts” that were supposedly the result of President Trump’s Executive Order on travel to the United States from certai countries. At less one of those stories was easily debunked with a quick news search.

The story that a 5 year old boy was handcuffed is at false, according to a news report by WUSA9, from Washington, DC:

We tracked down the actual photo to a controversy in Kentucky involving sheriff’s deputies handcuffing young students with learning disabilities, back in 2015.

Another story going around is that a 5 year old Syrian girl was hand-cuffed by Immigration, also at Dulles. 

The anything-but-right-wing Snopes has already published a denial about the little girl. (Of course, the verdict is, “Mixture,” rather than,”False.” Can’t go risk validating anything that might have resulted from the Trump EO, I guess.)

In this case, the father even said the airport officials were kind to the family.

All of which confirms that we need to do our own research and seek out”alternative” sources to confirm or deny “facts” reported in the news.

It’s a “March for Life”

2017 Theme March for Life

But if you want information about the (correction,  it’s Friday,  not Thursday,  repeat as necessary  ) Friday , January 27, 2017 March, you probably should search for “Anti-abortion March.”

The New York Times managed to “report” that Kellyanne Conway will speak at the 2017 National March for Life in Washington, DC on Friday , without once calling the March by its proper name. The only time the organization responsible for 44 years of the “Anti-abortion March” is named, is when giving the job title of the president of March for Life, Jeanne Mancini.

2009 National Rally for Life

This year’s March wasn’t held on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, as it has been in the past, due to the inauguration events on Friday and, I suspect, the Women’s March on Saturday. The inauguration events didn’t prevent us from attending the 2009 March the day after Barack Obama was sworn in, but I imagine the concern about the two opposing groups clashing in front of the Supreme Court was just too much this year.

Friday  is probably not the best day for families, school groups and people who have regular jobs, but I expect it will be well attended, since we’ve been promised a “heavy administration presence.” There have been related Marches for Life all over the country all week (Idaho, San Francisco, Tulsa and Raleigh, where it was noted that both the Women’s March and the March for Life were held at the same time – but across town from one another.)

You might also search for “Rally for Life,” as the Texas Rally for Life will be held in Austin on Saturday, January 29.  Beginning at 12:00 – 1:00 PM, marchers will gather at 18th & N. Congress Ave. and then begin the short march to the South Steps of the Texas State Capitol.

(Edited to correct the day of the week of the March for Life in Washington,  DC.  BBN)