Coronavirus

[algernonsidney]

On 5/10/2020 at 5:54 PM, jts said:

Has the Objectivist movement deteriorated so much as to take conspiracy theories seriously?

 

Are you saying that conspiracies don't exist then? For example, do you think the four hijackers on 11 September 2001 were all acting independently? Was it just a coincidence that they all just hijacked planes on that same day?

[algernonsidney]

Yes, I do find it interesting that there are some Objectivists who just dismiss EVERYTHING as a "conspiracy theory." Well, conspiracies have always been a part of history. They always will be as well. Here is the definition of that word:

1. the act of conspiring.

2. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.

3. a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful, or evil purpose:He joined the conspiracy to overthrow the government.

4. an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act.

5. any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result.

 

Are Objectivists seriously trying to tell me that everything evil that happens in the world is because of a single actor? Are you going to tell me that Frank and Jesse James were both acting on their own and hasn't conspired to rob people? Rand herself called the Communist Party a "criminal conspiracy" to overthrow the government. Are you going to tell that gang rapes are just random acts?

 

 

 

 

 

[Jon Letendre]

10 hours ago, algernonsidney said:

Are you saying that conspiracies don't exist then? For example, do you think the four hijackers on 11 September 2001 were all acting independently? Was it just a coincidence that they all just hijacked planes on that same day?

If they answered honestly:

I don't understand most conspiracy theories, so I don't believe in them. I do trust the pretty faces on the magic screen on the wall, always have. When they tell me a conspiracy has happened, then I know to believe in it, because that's when I know everyone in my circle will believe in it and I wont be challenged in my beliefs.

[turkeyfoot]

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/07/06/us/06reuters-health-coronavirus-ppp-ayn-rand.html

board member Harry Binswanger and senior fellow Onkar Ghate wrote that the organization would take any relief money offered from the CARES Act. "We will take it unapologetically, because the principle here is: justice," they wrote, adding that "the government has no wealth of its own…. It can only redistribute the wealth of others."

Feeding at the public trough unbecoming.

I know a wealth manager in Kansas who made plans after considering worse case scenarios and put away enough money to pay 100 people for as long as it takes. No one will lose a job due to his vision. No feeding from the public trough.

https://www.riaintel.com/article/b1l6990yhw9y5m/creative-plannings-three-year-cash-reserve-pledge-and-why-other-rias-wont-promise-the-same

[Jon Letendre]

Ethics aside, when no one in private enterprise has given you a paycheck in decades, and no one wants to send you free money since figuring out what you and your major donors are all about, and you can't produce enough on your own steam -- you run to the government for paycheck protection at your tax-law-advantaged charity, your "non-profit org."

Atlases don't need paycheck protection.

But people with the track records and productive capacities of Binswanger and Ghate, every person at ARI, needs government-provided paycheck protection.

They need it.

So they accept it.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I watched the video of Dr. Todd Grande "debunking" the conspiracy theories about Bill Gates up to the point given in my quote below. I did not find his form or reasoning useful other than in a gossipy kind of way. The gist of his form of argument goes (to paraphrase): "Some people think XXXX. Well let's look at that. [Insert some random opinions that may or may not have bearing on the issue.]  See? Those people are stupid."

Here is what I am talking about:

Quote

I don't see, really, any characteristics of psychopathy when looking at Bill Gates' behavior.

How about this connection to Pirbright Institute? Now they do study coronaviruses, and they do have a patent on one, and they have received money from the Gates Foundation. However, this biological research organization holds a patent for a coronavirus that primarily affects... chickens. So, I guess, unless chickens are getting together and saying there's a big conspiracy, there's really not much to see here. This Institute does not hold a patent on any part of the novel coronavirus is causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

This makes me wonder, though, if chickens did have conspiracy theories, would they still have alien reptile people? Or would it be something that's more threatening to them specifically? Like would it be alien fox people? Because chickens have, I would think, of fear of foxes at some level. Foxes are known to kill chickens. So it's just a thought. I really haven't asked too many chickens about conspiracy theories.

Is there any intellectual reason to take any of this seriously under the rubric of rebuttal?

yawn...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

5 hours ago, Jon Letendre said:

The enemy that coordinated the mass casualty event is in control of most of the systems that generate data about the world that we mistakenly accept as base-level facts.

Jon, 

(btw - For the reader, the above quote comes from another thread where the main focus is whether President Trump is a poo-poo head or not. And whether I'm a poo-poo head for that matter.   So I thought it better to bring the topic of data legitimacy and manipulation to the main thread on COVID-19.)

Here is an excellent analysis of the data and the publicity of it by Rush Limbaugh--from his show today. 

COVID Deaths Plummet, But the So-Called News Remains Negative

Quote

Now, let’s get into some COVID-19 news and, folks, are you asking yourself what of any of this is true and what isn’t? It’s almost like the tale of two viruses. We have an entire group of stories that are about how much worse the virus is. “Oh, my God. It’s worse than we thought. We haven’t even gotten to the second wave. Dr. Fauci says, Dr. Fauci says, Dr. Fauci says.” Whatever Dr. Fauci says, it gets amplified. We are told how so many more people are getting it. The number of cases is skyrocketing, but then deaths are down. We demonstrated this yesterday.

The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 are way down. It’s why they’re not being reported. The game here is to scare you into siding up with a new lockdown.

. . .

... here’s an editorial from Issues and Insights. The headline: “Is The Pandemic Coming To An End At Last?” Wait a minute. What? You can’t miss it. You turn on television every day, massive numbers of new cases, in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona, new cases, record number of cases, cases skyrocketing, oh, my God. We’re all gonna die. It’s horrible. And now, “Is The Pandemic Coming To An End At Last?”

What are you supposed to do? How’s the average person supposed to absorb, consume all of this? “The media and many politicians inside the Democratic Party continue to shriek over the recent jump in the number of recorded coronavirus cases, seeking to keep the economy closed at all costs — and we mean that literally. Don’t fall for the argument. The data show that, in fact, our pandemic nightmare might well be coming to an end.”

Okay. So you say, “Issues and Insights, how the hell can you say such a thing? Pandemic coming to an end?”

“Well, firstly, it’s not actually us saying this. It’s the Centers for Disease Control, which reported that the death rate has fallen so far it’s now roughly equal to the threshold for even qualifying as an epidemic, which isn’t as severe as a pandemic.”

You hear that? The CDC says the death toll — this is the key number that nobody reports — we had the audacity of pointing it out yesterday. The Centers for Disease Control reported the death rate has fallen so far that we may not even have an epidemic now, much less a pandemic.

 

Doing it without Rush

Just in case people skip over quotes from Rush (because they think he's a poo-poo head  ), here is the article he referred to from Issues and Insights.

Is The Pandemic Coming To An End At Last?

And here is the chart from the European CDC presented in the chart. (Rush presented it on his site, too.)

Notice that a spike in cases started around the middle of March, right when the press went into high gear and everyone started going apeshit.

But the number of deaths stayed in the same range since January 1.

 

Back to Rush

Here is what the fake news media wants to happen. They prompt this feeling in average people on purpose.

Quote

... back to the theme, we don’t know what to believe. The news is conflicting with seemingly every report. We’re being inundated with news reports daily, hourly, on the record number of cases. We are, thus, to assume that those cases equal death, either now or eventually. And yet the actual percentage, number of deaths is declining, is declining so rapidly that the CDC says we may not even be near epidemic, much less pandemic, circumstances here.

Now, contrast that. Here’s some headlines from just the past couple days in the Drive-By Media. CNN: “As Trump gaslights America about coronavirus, Republicans face a critical choice.”

NPR: “Despite rising coronavirus cases, Trump’s focus appears to be elsewhere.”

Slate.com: “The economy is not going back to normal.”

From the BBC: “Coronavirus, FDA chief refuses to back Trump’s vaccine prediction.”

CNN: “U.S. is still knee-deep in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Fauci says.”

New York Times: “How America lost the war on COVID-19.”

Not a single hint of optimism. Just a never-ending, relentless pessimism about COVID-19 politicized to the max to make Trump look like a fool or a sociopath. That’s the express purpose.

 

The scariest part

There is a whole lot more in this transcript (including a discussion on hydroxychloroquine), but here is the scariest part: persecution of experts by the authorities. Note that the scariest part has nothing to do with the virus per se.

Quote

I had a story about a Minnesota physician. He’s a lawmaker. He’s a doctor. He’s a Republican. He’s a state senator in Minnesota. His name is Scott Jensen, Doctor, Republican, state senator, Minnesota. He’s also now under investigation by the board of medical practices. You know why?

Because he once had the audacity to compare COVID-19 to the flu. And because he accused the state of Minnesota of inflating the number of deaths from COVID-19. I kid you not. He accused them of exaggerating the number of deaths. You see, my friends, you will not speak against the revolution. You will not speak against the revolution’s pet plagues. You will not question the Ministry of Health or we will refer you to the Ministry of Truth who can remand you to the Ministry of Correction where your mind will be made right.

And the Ministry of Correction is not staffed by a bunch of social workers. It’s staffed by a bunch of guys that used to be guards at Soviet gulags. So that’s what’s in store for you if you dare speak out against the revolution.

“A Minnesota physician and lawmaker is under investigation by the Board of Medical Practices for his comments regarding COVID-19. In a Facebook video Senator Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) said that he was notified by the state Board of Medical Practices that he is under investigation for allegedly spreading misinformation regarding death certificates in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

You know what he did? He properly identified that a bunch of people who did not die from COVID-19 were listed as having died because of it. They died with it, not of it. Something else killed them, but they also had the infection so they were written up as having died from COVID-19. He pointed out the difference. He is under investigation by the Ministry of Health.

“They also say that he provided reckless advice as a physician by comparing COVID-19 to the flu.” Well, you know, Dr. Fauci also compared COVID-19 to the flu way, way back in February. Dr. Birx said that the CDC should be causing death totals to be inflated by 25%. She’s acknowledged that they are inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths. This doctor did the same thing.

February 28, 2020, Dr. Fauci wrote an article in which he said the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal flu. Dr. Fauci is not having to go to the Ministry of Health. Dr. Fauci is not been referred to the Ministry of Truth. And he has then not been referred to the Ministry of Correction. Dr. Fauci is capable of saying whatever he wants to say about anything, with impunity.

This is how revolutions work, folks. You do not speak out against the regime. The regime will get you every time. The regime, in this case, the Democrat-controlled state of Minnesota.

There's more.

Read the whole thing if you have time. It's Rush on one of his better days.

Michael

[ThatGuy]

13 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

COVID Deaths Plummet, But the So-Called News Remains Negative

You're telling me...I was driving along and had the radio news on for traffic and weather, when "BREAKING NEWS" from KYW came on that "many states are reversing course on reopening because of the SECOND WAVE! Hospitals are being overrun! The TONE is DIRE!"

I don't know other how people don't just drive off a cliff when hearing that while driving...

[ThatGuy]

Ok...the news was that the U.S. was pulling out of the WHO. But now, word is that Trump is giving billions to Gates-founded Gavi? And people are getting p*ssed, saying it's basically going right back to the WHO...

 

[update 7/8: hearing now that the story was pulled; that it isn't new money, but money going there previously...]


https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/vaccine-bait-switch-millions-pulled-from-who-trump-gives-billions-gates-founded-gavi/
 

[anthony]

Here's what lock down's really about: 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

13 minutes ago, anthony said:

Here's what it's really about: 

Tony,

I fixed the embed in your post.

That was one hell of a nice rant. Hear! Hear!

I am sure I would like this guy if I ever met him (even with a name like Vusi Thembekwayo, which I need to practice to get right  ).

I hope he considers going into politics. I think people would vote for him. He knows things--reality things--politicians don't know.

Michael

[anthony]

47 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Tony,

I fixed the embed in your post.

That was one hell of a nice rant. Hear! Hear!

I am sure I would like this guy if I ever met him (even with a name like Vusi Thembekwayo, which I need to practice to get right  ).

I hope he considers going into politics. I think people would vote for him. He knows things--reality things--politicians don't know.

Michael

Another businessman-politician? Well why not, but I'm afraid he will be lost to this place and gone soon. He's too good, too aware. Betcha he is pro-Trump, and anyhow the president would applaud the likes of him. Thanks.

[Jon Letendre]

11 hours ago, ThatGuy said:

Ok...the news was that the U.S. was pulling out of the WHO. But now, word is that Trump is giving billions to Gates-founded Gavi? And people are getting p*ssed, saying it's basically going right back to the WHO...


https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/vaccine-bait-switch-millions-pulled-from-who-trump-gives-billions-gates-founded-gavi/
 

I don't know what's happening there.

I always thought it strange that Trump talks about a vaccine for a particular cold, as though one could really be on the way as the globalmurderists suggest.

No such vaccine has ever been possible and no such vaccine in on its way. So what would be in it when they introduced it? What would its actual effect be on the billions who injected it? Likely very few people would believe the answer. Will they have to be shown what they were going to inject into all of us? Most people have to be shown. Does Gates need more funding to finish what he was making for us? For attempted mass XX to succeed at tribunal, it must be shown that the perpetrator went all the way to certified delivery of syringes filled with the compounds, chalkboards don't count.

[ThatGuy]

51 minutes ago, Jon Letendre said:

I don't know what's happening there.

I always thought it strange that Trump talks about a vaccine for a particular cold, as though one could really be on the way as the globalmurderists suggest.

No such vaccine has ever been possible and no such vaccine in on its way. So what would be in it when they introduced it? What would its actual effect be on the billions who injected it? Likely very few people would believe the answer. Will they have to be shown what they were going to inject into all of us? Most people have to be shown. Does Gates need more funding to finish what he was making for us? For attempted mass XX to succeed at tribunal, it must be shown that the perpetrator went all the way to certified delivery of syringes filled with the compounds, chalkboards don't count.

Don't know if you noticed my update edit to that:

[update 7/8: hearing now that the story was pulled; that it isn't new money, but money going there previously...]

[Jon Letendre]

Beginning to test the people's responses to tyranny. Do those in the buildings resist? Do citizens not subject to this lockdown intervene? Learning and practicing for when they release the next bug as pretext for total police state?

Food rationing. Necessary? Or normalization of it for near future, much more intense, false flag mass imprisonments?

 

 

 

[Jon Letendre]

1 minute ago, ThatGuy said:

Don't know if you noticed my update edit to that:

[update 7/8: hearing now that the story was pulled; that it isn't new money, but money going there previously...]

Interesting. Then everyone who pushed it is suspect, starting with RFK, Jr., I believe, who would know the updated info all along.

[Peter]

After all this time with no one we know getting Covid it has arrived. A janitor at my daughter's school contracted it  from his wife and he is now in the hospital on a ventilator., while the wife just had mild symptoms. 12 teachers who were in the school when he was there are being tested, but my daughter was not one of them.

My sister in The Bay Area of California says it is rampant there.  She is a nurse and her daughter is an employee of the local VA but in spite of being exposed DAILY to the virus neither has gotten sick or tested positive.   

[Jon Letendre]

Dr. Death out there slaying the false narrative that fewer corpses is somehow good.

 

 

[Jon Letendre]

Bolsonaro showing the world

 

 

[william.scherk]

In other 'bad cold' news ...

Quote

Special Coverage: Coronavirus

Inside the Coronavirus

What scientists know about the inner workings of the pathogen that has infected the world

By Mark Fischetti | Graphics by Veronica Falconieri Hays | Consultant: Britt Glaunsinger

 

[Jon Letendre]

And when this Scamdemic becomes too obvious for even you to keep posting bullshit about it, you will never say another word about it, just like every other issue you have ever argued here. Because you have no interest in genuine intellectuality or debate aimed at truth, you are just an unusually stupid propagandist.

[Jon Letendre]

Like no virus before, the damned thing PROOFREADS!!! Panic NOW!!! It is SMARTER than we are!!!

You are so dumb it's cute.

[tmj]

Got anything on how a bill becomes a law?

[tmj]

The article /slideshow kept crashing toward the end. Did they discuss furin? It’s speculated that this particular virus has seemingly “corrected” encoding that enables cleaving with human furin , which is weird because bat proteins are different.

Regardless the origins of this virus , it seems the biological threat is nothing compared to political/governmental threat to life.(not to mention liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the stuff of life ). Weird , right?

 

[Ellen Stuttle]

2 hours ago, Jon Letendre said:

Like no virus before, the damned thing PROOFREADS!!! Panic NOW!!! It is SMARTER than we are!!!

You are so dumb it's cute.

Quote

Proofreading (biology)

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofreading_(biology)

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

Jump to navigationJump to search

The term proofreading is used in genetics to refer to the error-correcting processes, first proposed by John Hopfield and Jacques Ninio [fr], involved in DNA replication, immune system specificity, enzyme-substrate recognition among many other processes that require enhanced specificity. The proofreading mechanisms of Hopfield and Ninio are non-equilibrium active processes that consume ATP to enhance specificity of various biochemical reactions.

In bacteria, all three DNA polymerases (I, II and III) have the ability to proofread, using 3’ → 5’ exonuclease activity. When an incorrect base pair is recognized, DNA polymerase reverses its direction by one base pair of DNA and excises the mismatched base. Following base excision, the polymerase can re-insert the correct base and replication can continue.

In eukaryotes only the polymerases that deal with the elongation (delta and epsilon) have proofreading ability (3’ → 5’ exonuclease activity).^[1]

Proofreading also occurs in mRNA translation for protein synthesis.^[2] In this case, one mechanism is the release of any incorrect aminoacyl-tRNA before peptide bond formation.^[3]

The extent of proofreading in DNA replication determines the mutation rate, and is different in different species.^[4] For example, loss of proofreading due to mutations in the DNA polymerase epsilon gene results in a hyper-mutated genotype with >100 mutations per Mbase of DNA in human colorectal cancers.^[5]

The extent of proofreading in other molecular processes can depend on the effective population size of the species and the number of genes affected by the same proofreading mechanism.^[6]

Quote

Review

 

RNA Biol

 

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21593585/

Mar-Apr 2011;8(2):270-9.

 doi: 10.4161/rna.8.2.15013. Epub 2011 Mar 1.

Coronaviruses: An RNA Proofreading Machine Regulates Replication Fidelity and Diversity

Mark R Denison ¹, Rachel L Graham, Eric F Donaldson, Lance D Eckerle, Ralph S Baric

Affiliations expand

• PMID: 21593585
•  
• PMCID: PMC3127101
•  
• DOI: 10.4161/rna.8.2.15013

Free PMC article

Abstract

In order to survive and propagate, RNA viruses must achieve a balance between the capacity for adaptation to new environmental conditions or host cells with the need to maintain an intact and replication competent genome. Several virus families in the order Nidovirales, such as the coronaviruses (CoVs) must achieve these objectives with the largest and most complex replicating RNA genomes known, up to 32 kb of positive-sense RNA. The CoVs encode sixteen nonstructural proteins (nsp 1-16) with known or predicted RNA synthesis and modification activities, and it has been proposed that they are also responsible for the evolution of large genomes. The CoVs, including murine hepatitis virus (MHV) and SARS-CoV, encode a 3'-to-5' exoribonuclease activity (ExoN) in nsp14. Genetic inactivation of ExoN activity in engineered SARS-CoV and MHV genomes by alanine substitution at conserved DE-D-D active site residues results in viable mutants that demonstrate 15- to 20-fold increases in mutation rates, up to 18 times greater than those tolerated for fidelity mutants of other RNA viruses. Thus nsp14-ExoN is essential for replication fidelity, and likely serves either as a direct mediator or regulator of a more complex RNA proofreading machine, a process previously unprecedented in RNA virus biology. Elucidation of the mechanisms of nsp14-mediated proofreading will have major implications for our understanding of the evolution of RNA viruses, and also will provide a robust model to investigate the balance between fidelity, diversity and pathogenesis. The discovery of a protein distinct from a viral RdRp that regulates replication fidelity also raises the possibility that RNA genome replication fidelity may be adaptable to differing replication environments and selective pressures, rather than being a fixed determinant.

Ellen