Thursday, August 18, 2022

Monkeypox



The Biden administration on Thursday announced an expansion of its available monkeypox vaccine and treatment supply as part of the White House's next steps in accelerating its response to the virus.


  • An additional 1.8 million doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine available for order on Monday



No, Cady Stanton, no.  There were 350,000 doses.  That's what she's lying about.

Based on a single study all the way back in 2015 whose results have never been verified in any other study and whose co-author says it's doubtful this will work, Biden is dividing the vaccine into fifths.  And they'll be injected differently.   And this will work!!!

It may not.  Again, only one study was able to pull this off and the co-author of the study is doubtful.

But there's Cady Stanton lying and leaving readers with the impression that Joe finally got off his lazy rear and did something and, as a result, we now have 1.8 million doses!

If it were true doses, 1.8 million wouldn't be enough.  


Over at Newsweek, Robyn White reports (reports! try it sometime Cady Stanton, "The United States now accounts for a third of the world's monkeypox cases and the number may only rise from here, according to an infectious disease expert."  And at NBC News, Dr. Jalal Baig observes:


America has failed its first post-Covid test — and Covid isn’t even over. The country remains fully mired in the pandemic, with this summer’s caseloads among the worst since the novel coronavirus first surfaced. At the same time, we have been unable to apply the lessons painfully gleaned over the past two years to the next virus to come along, monkeypox. Doubly alarming, monkeypox presented none of the staggering challenges that Covid did.


On Wednesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy conceded that her agency “did not reliably meet expectations” in its “big moment” when it came to confronting the challenge of the pandemic. In addition to this welcome admission, she also prioritized quicker data-sharing and stronger messaging that the public can readily relate to. 

But the bungled monkeypox response underscores just how vast the gap is between the CDC’s aspirations and its current reality. The United States has had to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency to emphasize the growing risk to Americans. At this point, the nation’s monkeypox cases, confirmed in 49 states, account for more than 30 percent of the world’s current disease burden. 

The public health challenge posed by monkeypox should have never been this formidable. Unlike Covid, the monkeypox virus was not an emergent threat for which a playbook and vaccine did not initially exist. In addition, many of the tools we needed to fight it were exactly what Covid should have prepared us for: beefing up our national stockpile of vaccines, rapidly administering tests, coordinating between federal and local authorities, and providing messaging that is unalarming and tailored to both general and at-risk populations. 

From its emergence, Covid was a true heavyweight foe. It was airborne and highly contagious, with an elevated incidence of morbidity and mortality. Little was known about its various modes of transmission, disease course and complications. Furthermore, there were no vaccines, proven treatments or experience with disease management. Even the existing science on similar coronaviruses was unhelpful because of critical differences in its genome and virulence. 

But the monkeypox narrative was nothing like this. The repetition of these public health failings in the case of monkeypox does not augur well for the future. Deadlier, more transmissible, pathogens may soon arise and sweep through the country unfettered if we don’t elevate our public health game.



This is Joe Biden's failure.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Thursday:


Thursday, August 18, 2022.  Joe Biden continues persecuting Julian Assange (someone tell Roger Waters), the political stalemate continues while Moqtada sits out a meet-up and much more.

US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange.  It's all about War Crimes -- as a US senator, Joe helped cover them up and, as a journalist, Julian Assange told the people about the War Crimes the US government carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The world watches and sees how hollow the US support of journalism and a free press actually is.  

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters spoke out yesterday.



Good for speaking out.  Bad for speaking out poorly.

See if you can spot the problem:

“I’m flabbergasted that this extraordinary travesty is taking place under our noses, but Julian is still in Belmarsh Prison and he’s still en route to being extradited to the United States so that the government of the United States can kill him in private,” the 78-year-old music icon said outside the Department of Justice.

He appealed to the US attorney general by name to drop the charges against the publisher.

“Merrick Garland, do the right thing. Free Julian Assange at lunchtime today, please,” Waters said, praising the people who turned out for the demonstration.

The musician raised concerns about the health of Assange, 51, who suffered a mini-stroke last October.

“All you can do is keep doing what you’re doing. Never ever shut up, never be quiet. Raise your voices, join the choir: Free Assange, Free Assange,” Waters said.


At a protest in front of the Justice Department in Washington, on Wednesday, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters urged the US government to free Julian Assange and warned that it could kill him.    

In June, the UK approved the extradition of Assange to the United States. The US claims it wants him to stand trial for breaching the US Espionage Act by disclosing military and diplomatic information in 2010. He may face up to 175 years in prison if proven guilty, though the exact term of the sentence is difficult to predict.

"Julian is still in [London's] Belmarsh prison, he is still on the way to be extradited to the United States where the government of the United States can kill him in private," Waters said. "Merrick Garland, do the right thing. Free Julian Assange at lunchtime today, please."    


You had cameras, you had press attention and you wasted it.

Merrick Garland?  Who do you think is in charge?  That's like whining to the kid taking your Taco Bell order. 

A raid took place on Joe Biden's potential 2024 challenger and where's the sunlight on that?  Not only are we not getting honest answers, he's not appointing a special counsel.  Time again, he fails to be a proponent of open government.  He should have appointed a special counsel for Hunter Biden long ago.  He doesn't do anything he's supposed to.  And we don't have a sense that the Attorney General is defending the American people, just the Democratic Party.  

He's a coward or he's a hack.  

He also doesn't control the reigns.  Joe Biden is president.  Joe Biden is the one who can call off the persecution of Julian Assange.

If you're too cowardly to call out Joe Biden, Roger Waters, stop wasting everyone's time.  I was readly to applaud you until you I streamed the video and saw you were playing coward.

That's what it is -- that's what it always is -- when you can't call out the leader in the White House.  We have held Bully Boy Bush accountable, we held President Barack Obama accountable, we held President Donald Trump accountable and we are holding President Joe Biden accountable.  

The buck stops where?

With Roger Waters, sadly, it stops with a member of the Cabinet, not with the president.

Let's jump over to a report by Dave DeCamp at ANTIWAR.COM:

A group of family members of 9/11 victims has sent a letter to President Biden urging him to return the $7 billion in frozen Afghan reserves held by the US Federal Reserve to the Afghan people.

Earlier this year, President Biden signed an executive order that would make $3.5 billion of the Afghan funds available to 9/11 families. But in the letter that was sent Tuesday, 77 family members of 9/11 victims said receiving that money would be “morally wrong.”

The letter reads: “Any use of the $7 billion to pay off 9/11 family member judgments is legally suspect and morally wrong. We call on you to modify your Executive Order and affirm that the Afghanistan central bank funds belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone.”

US officials said this week that the Biden administration has decided not to return any of the $7 billion to Afghanistan and suspended talks with the Taliban on the issue. One year since the Taliban’s takeover of the country, Afghanistan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis, with millions of Afghans facing starvation.


Are the families asking a flunky to do something?  No.  No, they didn't go to the night manager at Kinko's with the request.  They're going to Joe.  And that's where the focus needs to be.  Not spread out and dispersed on flunkies.

Joe can stop the persecution at any time.  If he doesn't, he needs to understand that this is on him and will be tied to his name in the history books.  But when a Roger Waters gives him an out by defocusing, it doesn't bring pressure on Joe.

New topic, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish" went up last night.




Like her father, Liz Cheney is trash.  James Zogby is correct:

I might be a Dem outlier, but I can’t be rooting for #LizCheney. I dealt w/ her hard-boiled neocon nonsense during the post-9/11 & Iraq war period that brought disaster to many. & I debated her slanderous attacks after Obama’s Cairo speech. Her Trump vendetta doesn’t sway me
1:22 PM · Aug 16, 2022



Bring Our Troops Home posted the following video ahead of Tuesday's election.


At ANTIWAR.COM, Bring Our Troops Home updated their message to reflect that Liz did lose her effort to be re-elected:

Yesterday was a very important day.

It’s the day the America First movement exiled the most despicable, most debased Swamp Monster on Capitol Hill.

Yesterday Liz Cheney lost renomination for Congress after three terms of using and abusing the people of Wyoming.

The reason is simple: voters are tired of fighting endless wars.

They’re tired of spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East and Central Asia while they struggle to fill their own gas tank or complete a grocery shopping list.

They’re tired of seeing their sons and daughters in uniform come home physically, mentally, and spiritually broken by war.

Or often, not come home at all.

Liz Cheney has been a face of the War Party for years.

In 2003 the Bush-Cheney administration fabricated intelligence to lie our country into a disastrous war where over a million people were killed.

Liz Cheney says “Good.”

The Bush-Cheney administration set up an international collection of secret prison camps where thousands were tortured, some to death.

Liz Cheney says, “Good.”

Barack Obama gave billions of dollars in cash and weapons to Jihadists in Syria, the same terrorists who would later start ISIS.

Liz Cheney says, “Good.”

Joe Biden is inching us dangerously close to World War III with Russia to protect his family corruption in Ukraine.

Liz Cheney says, “Good.”

And yesterday the conservative voters of Wyoming kicked Liz Cheney out of office right back to her military-industrial complex mansion in Northern Virginia.

And I say, “Good.”

Smedley Butler said “War is a racket.” And I say that Liz Cheney is a war profiteer. And someday we may rid our nation and ourselves of the former, but yesterday we rid ourselves of the latter.

Good riddance to the Beltway Butcher.


In Iraq, US troops remain.  In Iraq, the political stalemate continues.  MEMO notes:

After meeting with political leaders, the leaders of three political institutions in Iraq yesterday called on followers of Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr to engage in national dialogue to resolve the political deadlock, news agencies reported.

Iraqi President Barham Salih, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi, caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and leaders of Iraqi factions met and discussed political deadlock in the country.

Al-Sadr and his followers, who have been involved in protests calling for the dissolution of the newly-elected parliament, did not attend the meeting.

TRACK also notes the meeting:

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and leaders of national political forces met in a meeting where Iraqi President Barham Salih, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Barham Salih, and the participants "expressed their commitment to finding a solution to all crises through dialogue to preserve the unity of Iraq, the security, and stability of its people," the report reads.


Ten months ago, on October 10th, Iraq held elections.  The president and prime minister?  Those are from before the elections.  Mustafa is at least called a ''caretaker prime minister" but it's the same with Barham Salih.  There has been a ten month and still going political stalemate.  Only the Speaker of Parliament has been voted on since the October 10th elections (and he was Speaker before the elections took place).  



Sadr's Minster rejects yesterday's dialogue outcomes and adds: if you want a representative of Sadr to attend we ask for a live meeting so the Iraqi people can see the back sense of conspiracies. #Iraq
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4:01 AM · Aug 18, 2022

The current conflict in Iraq isn't driven by the lack of a 'national or intern-communal' dialogue, but by a rivalry within the Shia over power and dominance. What is practical and needed isn't a meeting for all parties, but a Sadr-Framework dialogue.
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Farhad Alaaldin
@farhad965
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اهم نتائج اجتماع الرئاسات والقوى السياسية: -الانتخابات المبكرة مشروطة بالسياقات الدستورية -الدعوة الى استمرار الحوار -دعوة الى ايقاف التصعيد المشاركة الفعالة لحلفاء الصدر في الاجتماع وموافقتهم على النقاط اعلاه يغير المشهد السياسي ويعزل التيار الصدري ويضعهم في موقف حرج #العراق
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3:10 PM · Aug 17, 2022





Iraq's former finance minister, who resigned during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, outlined the reasons behind his decision in a resignation letter made public by Iraqi social media users and outlets. 

In a 10-page-long resignation letter, Allawi blames the current political stalemate, rampant corruption by the political parties and ruling elites, and the interferences by foreign countries into Iraq's internal affairs as the main reasons behind his resignation. 

Allawi, who was also the deputy prime minister in Mustafa al-Kadhimi's cabinet, took office in May 2020. His resignation was instantly accepted and Iraqi oil m0inister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar has been appointed as acting finance minister.

"In the few weeks after I took office in the ministry for the second time, I knew the terrifying fact on what extent the government functionality has deteriorated in the past 15 years, in a way that the political parties, as well as the self-interest groups, have practically confiscated broad joints of the state," reads part of Allawi's letter published by Al-Sumaria News Iraqi outlet. 


On the stalemate, THE WASHINGTON POST's Louisa Loveluck notes an analysis from The Crisis Group:

"The demonstrations are thus less a people’s revolution than an intra-elite fight, mainly pitting Sadr and his political backers against Maliki & his." crisisgroup.org/middle-east-no

MIDDLE EAST EYE also offers an analysis of the stalemate:

 

Iraq has hosted just two senior US government visits in the months since the country's October election. Meanwhile, the sprawling US embassy has been operating with a skeleton crew since 2019, when the US ordered all "non-emergency" staff to leave Iraq amid security threats.

"US engagement in Iraq's political process has been almost completely absent," Jonathan Lord, a former Iraq country director at the Department of Defense, now head of the Middle East security programme at CNAS, a Washington think tank, told MEE.

Some consider the past ten months a missed opportunity for the US. Washington apprehensively welcomed what was generally seen as a peaceful election, albeit one plagued by record low turnout, where big political parties backed by armed militias demonstrated their staying power. 


The following sites updated:








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