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the watcher

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Posts posted by the watcher

  1. 28 minutes ago, Tracker said:

    Do not lump all followers of the Christ into one. Most of us are decent people who care about our friends and neighbours and use His teachings to guide our lives, our conduct with others and the world we all share. Again, there is a small but vocal and annoying minority who use their beliefs to justify no end of doing harm to others and aggrandizing themselves as somehow morally superior. There are similar people within Jewish communities (Lev Tahor), Mennonites (Old Order) as well as Muslim and even Buddhist.

    Every religion has its idiots and adherents who twist the meanings to support their own twisted ideas. Most religions also have adherents who use their religion to improve their life, community and world. 

  2. 17 minutes ago, JCon said:

    You don't even have to leave MBB to find someone who will tell you it was made in a Chinese lab with help from National Virology Lab. 

    Of course, they'll also say that Covid is fake. 

    And, it's not as deadly as they say. 

    And a whole bunch of obviously nutso inconsistent, incoherent ramblings. 

    All that damn background noise makes it really tough to sort out reality.  As near as I can tell from legit sources they are %90 that it cropped up by regular means. But there are lingering doubts and questions so the WHO wants to check it out. Which only makes sense. The trouble is it's fodder for the Covidiots and nutbars.  So basicly they are saying, " it doesn't exist , it's all a lie .........But  it came from a Chinese lab. "  If they are going to be nuts they should at least be consistent. 

  3. 11 minutes ago, Goalie said:

    I'm going to believe that there is a reason China won't cooperate.  They are guilty of something here... cover up is possible. Perhaps accidentally on purpose 

    The Chinese government will only cooperate with the rest of the world if it benefits Chinese government. So who knows .Or maybe I should say WHO doesn't know. 

     

  4. 20 hours ago, JCon said:

    This is the second murder of an MP in the UK in the past 5 years in their constituency. I'm not sure what the root cause of this attack was. Certainly some form of extremism, either on the right or the left. 

    We know that populism is a worldwide phenomenon. Brexit is/was populism. 

    Brexit was a really odd affair all around. Tony Blair initiated it believing it would fail but to get him elected. Then walked away when  it became serious. It seems like one of the least thought through major shifts in a country that I have ever seen. They jumped into a separation  referendum without any idea what to do if it succeeded. A classic example of   " careful what you ask for, you might get it "

    Now one of the lingering effects could be that they could lose Scotland .The place that has all the oil ( although that has a limited lifespan ) I was there right before the last independence vote. What I noticed is that most of the independence people were 50 +.  Most young people wanted to stay in the UK .Their reason was often because they liked being part of a larger country ( UK ) and a part of a larger organisation  ( the EU ) . Their independence party is now promising a return to the EU. There is also the start of a movement that wants to unite Scotland, Wales and Ireland into some kind of a loose federation. 

    It's quite a mess and all in the hands of a mini-Trump.

  5. 13 minutes ago, WildPath said:

    Don't forget to add religion in there. And a corrupt, populist world leader.

    Crazy isn't it. They all adhere to a religion that talks of healing lepers,  the sick, helping the poor and down trodden but that ends if they need to take a Covid test. 

  6. 2 hours ago, Brandon said:

    So you are familiar with what many people are like in Winkler then....

    So your point ? Not worth bring up  or what ? Familiar or not refusing to give aid to the sick and elderly goes beyond sanity. It goes beyond human decency.   It warrants a comment whether or not I know Winkler. Which I do.

  7. My wife is a retired Health care aid ( 20 years in hospitals and care homes , now does home care part time ) , and she is livid over this. When you enter health care it should be because you care for people. So these morons ( sorry there is no other word ) would rather risk the lives of the elderly, sick and infirmed than get vaccinated or tested. Heartless bastards. How dare they in the name of God kick helpless people to the side.

    She just said that when she started she had to sign a declaration that she wouldn't refuse care to people.

    9 minutes ago, Brandon said:

    Have you ever been to Winkler?

    Before the pandemic I was there at least once a week

  8. 18 hours ago, Tracker said:

    Republicans would "rather end democracy" than turn away from Trump, says Harvard professor


    Co-author of "How Democracies Die" says the GOP is ready to seize power. But they might not be able to keep it.  It can happen here. The "it" ought to be obvious by now: an authoritarian or even fascist regime in the United States. That was a big reason why Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, along with his colleague Daniel Ziblatt, published the 2018 book "How Democracies Die." They wanted to warn Americans of the dangerous signs they saw in Donald Trump's presidency that followed the authoritarian playbook.

    So where are we now in terms of our democracy? I spoke with Levitsky recently for Salon Talks, and here's one line that really stood out: Levitsky told me, "Five years ago I would have laughed you out of the room if you suggested our democracy could die." But today, he added, we see the Republican Party apparently focused on breaking our democracy. In a nutshell, Levitsky believes the threat to our democracy is more acute today than when Trump was in the White House, since the GOP is desperate to retain its fading power in the face of hostile demographic change.

    Levitsky describes today's GOP as "clearly an authoritarian party." Worse yet, it's no longer all about Trump. He sees the GOP continuing on its anti-democratic path for years to come, saying that even the contested term "fascist" is becoming more defensible given the GOP's defense or denial of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

    Republicans would "rather end democracy" than turn away from Trump, says Harvard professor | Salon.com

    The trouble in the States is they don't have a party that legitimately wants a real democracy that serves the people. It's obvious what the Republicans are and how far they are willing to go. But the Democrats are like a wolf in sheep's clothing. There really is no one to stop what's happening. Bernie took a run at change but when it looked like he might actually have a shot at it the powers behind the curtain squashed him. I've been wrong before but I really don't see a way out for the US.

  9. 15 hours ago, Tracker said:

    Merck's new COVID-19 drug could be a pandemic "game-changer"

    Imagine if an unvaccinated person with COVID-19 could go to the pharmacy and get a pill that could reduce their risk of dying from COVID-19 by 50 percent. This scenario could drastically reduce the number of needless COVID-19 mortalities, and it could become a reality as soon as 2022.

    On Monday, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. announced that it submitted its application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of the first antiviral pill targeted to treat COVID-19. If approved, the pill — called Molnupiravir — could be a major milestone in ending the pandemic as an effective at-home treatment option.

    The concept behind the drug is that those with high-risk conditions could take the pill to prevent their COVID-19 case from worsening and progressing to hospitalization or death. According to an announcement by the company earlier this month, the results in its clinical trials cut hospitalization and death by 50 percent in patients who had at least one high-risk factor for COVID-19.

    "More tools and treatments are urgently needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become a leading cause of death and continues to profoundly affect patients, families, and societies and strain health care systems all around the world," said Robert M. Davis, chief executive officer and president of Merck & Co. in a statement. "With these compelling results, we are optimistic that Molnupiravir can become an important medicine as part of the global effort to fight the pandemic."

    Indeed, the pill's clinical trial results are quite compelling, though they have yet to be peer-reviewed and published. According to the company's news release, its late-stage clinical trial was so successful that it stopped enrolling subjects after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Based on the participants with available viral sequencing data (approximately 40% of participants), Molnupiravir was consistently effective in treating the variants gamma, delta, and mu. Similarly, the side effects were comparable among patients who received the drug and those in a testing group who received a placebo pill. Merck has not publicly detailed the types of problems reported, but they will likely be an important part of the FDA's review.

    Merck's new COVID-19 drug could be a pandemic "game-changer" | Salon.com

     

    A side line story on that from The Guardian :

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/14/merck-drug-prices-us-healthcare-big-pharma

    $ 712 for a drug that costs $17.74 to produce and who's development was subsidised by American tax dollars  .

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