The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday – 7th May 2020

1. Venezuela no Cigar

   Judith Collins and the Nats showed support for Elliott Abrams in his latest incarnation as the man to bring usa style democracy to Venezuela ,,, Elliots a bit of a MAGA blast from the past ,,,,,,,,,, “the Trump administration’s point person on Venezuela, a notorious war criminal, was part of covering up the Iran-Contra scandal, was also one of the major figures involved with covering up numerous massacres throughout Central America in the 1980s, “ https://anoncandanga.com/alfred-de-zayas-us-sanctions-against-venezuela-have-cost-100000-venezuelans-lives/

   “Trump’s Venezuela Envoy Elliott Abrams Is a War Criminal Who Has Abetted Genocide”
   https://youtu.be/IrcT3GJuh0A

   Britain has joined in the gangster behavior against Venezuela ,,, stealing Billions of Venezuelan gold ,,, low life thieves helping out with the theft , extortion and plunder side of the racket,,, while the mob boss,,,,the usa,, sends explicit death threats, as foreign policy negotiations
   https://themindunleashed.com/2019/02/marco-rubio-maduro-gaddafi.html

   Such is the ‘Exceptionalism of the white house mobsters,,,that they tweet their ‘do as we say or we will kill you ‘ death threat extortions,… and publicly celebrate their murders.

   Usa Murder Inc granted itself immunity ,,, obtained with the threat of lethal force against overseas judges or law enforcement staff,,,and vowing an attack on any country or court in the world that dared to apply justice or international law against any usa hit-men, soldiers and murderers ,,… carrying out their criminal foreign policy……

   Might makes Right….. The Italian mafia once had a campaign of assassination involving huge bombs and other forms of violent death against Judges, or others trying to apply justice to them, but they were unsuccessful at trying to murder the application of criminal law against them away ,, . Looking at the Italian mafias failure, but using the same gangster code and honor ,,, The logic of unmatched violence works for the white-house mob ,,, Morally the means will always justify the ends ,,,, Might means Right

   Act 5798 ,,, In the Latin America theatre of horror,,,,bad actors from the usa “ Greatest Purveyor of Violence “production company ,,, mix the old with the new and perform “ Bay of Pigs Arse”

   “Jordan Goudreau, an ex-Green Beret and the owner of a large private mercenary organization in Florida came forward to reveal that he organized the coup attempt – and he had the receipts to prove it. Goudreau produced a signed $212 million contract drawn up between him and Guaidó….” …. “ ……His social media accounts show him to be a strong supporter of President Trump and the “Make America Great Again” Movement. The only reason he produced the documents, he revealed, is that Guaidó stiffed him for the money, refusing to pay even a $1.5 million retainer fee.”

   https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-details-latest-us-hatched-coup-attempt-venezuela/267224/

2. This in NZ against the authority and responsibilities of the government:
   https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018745408/was-covid-19-lockdown-legal-professor-claudia-geiringer-explains
   Reminds me of the snippy, flat-earthers’ children in the USA arguing with their teachers about the wisdom and truth of their curriculum.

   I have decided on an epithet for NZs – self righteous – that’s one of the reasons we find it hard to unite as a country. We get too much pleasure in being obstructive and critical.

3. What’s this about? Australia talking out both sides of its mouth or what’s up their sleeve? Playing to the Oz domestic punters. They seem very keen as they have approached us. They want us firmly under their foot again, it looked as if we might be having upstart ideas. and will follow through in their sleazy way? We have a woman PM and they handled their own woman PM with despatch.

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018745421/australia-govt-not-urgent-on-trans-tasman-bubble
   An Australian journalist says the federal government is treating the travel bubble with less urgency than New Zealand.
   The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, yesterday said that trans-Tasman travel could coincide with domestic flights getting back underway.
   But the ABC’s Foreign Affairs reporter, Stephen Dziedzic told RNZ Worldwatch reporter Max Towle, that a bubble’s not the priority.

4. Taihoa there say some Very Experienced Virologists etc about new strains of coronavirus. We have to remember that anxiety sells newspapers and draws eyes and minds to the hot topic.
   https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/coronavirus-strains-transmissible/611239/

   • GreyW
     If you really want to read the original paper, here it is:

     https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.069054v1.full

     Biorxiv is a preprint distribution site, and specifically notes that it should not presented as established fact by newspapers (the big yellow box at the top of the page). I did say that I don’t think much of the LAT – who are fairly notorious for their slipshod approach to facts (and persecution of the punk cartoonist Rall).

     But with a novel viral Pandemic everyone is cutting a whole lot of corners. That paper is a bit of a slog, even for someone with a background in biological research like myself. But I do think that they do establish a probable link between; tempero-spatial infection distribution and the (indicated); D614 & G614 strains of SARS-COV-2. Though my background is more neuroscientific than molecular biological, so I lack the context to properly assess the hypothesis.

   • Very interesting article Graywarbler ,,, I’ve long wondered how much quicker medical treatments and knowledge would advance if all medical research was open source and collaborative ,,, with drug companies manufacturing the new drugs at a profitable but fair price.

     I’m convinced we would have eliminated just about all forms of cancer by now if medical development and research had used a world wide collaborative approach ,,,,

     Capitalism with its secretive research in the race for exclusive patents ,,,and the $super profit$ from the monopoly that patents grant ,,,,, Is a bad model for medicine , and handicap for human advancement. Good for Billionaires and corporation profits though ,,,

     Anyway lets hope unprecedented advancements are made in record short time against Covid-19 ,, and that collaboration itself is continued as a ” best practice ” treatment,,,, for the sick parts of our health systems and medical science development.

     Totally off topic ,,,but I’ve been looking at this natural treatment in development ,,,, to help Bees fight some of the virus they have to battle.

     https://fungi.com/pages/bees

     https://youtu.be/H-P-v1WEHBo

5. So will this be called; COVID19b, or; COVID20?

   https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/mutant-coronavirus-has-emerged-more-contagious-than-original%3f_amp=true

   I don’t much like the LAT, but you can dodge the paywall for COVID articles. It’s more accessible than the source material anyway, and does include the quote gem; “wily virus”.

   At least this (if not exactly good news), does suggest a possible route for reinfection that does not mean that either the; testing protocols, or; human immune system, are completely useless against SARS-COV-2. Importantly, as I have been saying for some time; the more time a virus replicates, the greater chance that a low probability viable mutation will occur. Which to me, seems to be a primary advantage of going with an; elimination, over; herd-immunity, response to this Pandemic.

6. And as Rache once said: “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”

   https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/121442668/employment-court-rules-contract-courier-driver-was-an-employee

   It’s an example of how the language gets manipulated: INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR (my arse!) THe business operates by passing its costs onto the employee – all the costs of branding, of vehicle specifications and paint jobs and uniforms. and pretty much everything else
   DEPENDENT contractors – also known as employees.
   Good to see California is having a go at UBER in a similar way.

   If you can’t pay someone a liveable wage ( fees for their time and labour), then your business is not viable – do something else.

7. CEAC wants Ministry of Health adopt 99.8% accurate antibody virus test.
   Press release 7/5/20 Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre.

   As the FDA OKs Roche’s coronavirus antibody test – CEAC wants Ministry of Health adopt 99.8% this accurate antibody virus test.
   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fda-approves-roche-for-covid-19-antibody-test/ar-BB13AQ5G
   QUOTE; Swiss biotech company Roche Holdings said it has devised a test that is 100% accurate at detecting coronavirus antibodies and 99.8% accurate at ruling them out.

   Roche expects to be producing millions of the tests this month and 100 million a month later this year, the company said Sunday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the diagnostic tool for use. The antibody test, Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2, produces a false positive in only one in 500 tests, according to Roche. The test runs on an instrument that can create a single result in 18 minutes and up to 300 in an hour.

   FDA approves emergency use of new coronavirus antibody test
   The FDA on Monday said companies making COVID-19 antibody tests must apply for authorization by the agency within 10 days of releasing their products. It also specified what’s needed for tests to receive regulatory clearance.
   Roche said serology tests can determine whether a person has gained immunity against a pathogen such as the coronavirus. Of the more than 200 antibody tests that have flooded the market, the FDA has granted emergency use authorization to only 12 tests. Most tests now in use were not reviewed by the agency.

   “We unfortunately see unscrupulous actors marketing fraudulent test kits and using the pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of Americans’ anxiety,” the FDA said in a statement.
   The tests are viewed as a crucial part of reopening the economy, but some have been troubled by accuracy concerns in the rush to get to market. The White House last week acknowledged the issue, advising that multiple antibody tests should be used to access the spread of the virus, which has infected more than a million Americans and killed nearly 69,000. UN-QUOTE.

   Making our ‘fight against COVID 19’ a gold world standard as the Ministry of Health has assured us are doing, we must use the most accurate test now available around the world to assure us to make us secure and safe for our future.

   End.

8. Another entitled huckster tests positive for hypocrisy

   Neil Ferguson, the science adviser who persuaded the UK government to lockdown the country with his fantasies of mass death, is a gold standard hypocrit. As an esteemed epidemiologist on the government emergency team he praised the population for their committment to social distancing and isolation, while secretly he met with his mistress on two occasions. He went hard but we don’t know if he went early. What a piece of shit. It was this twats breathless ramblings that gave rise to a pommie police state that Orwell would be horrified of. Constabulary using drones to monitor citizens taking exercise. Coppers pouring dye into a lake on the bizarre assumption that it would make it unappealing to visit. Nurses forced to perform emergency hakas. England’s Covid deaths skyrocketing to (literally) unbelievable levels. Society is being played by fear mongers like Ferguson, with his prominence and his little fibs, his weasle face and his stray cock disdain.

9. Some bands claim to be influential artists and disruptive of the status quo. These guys really were – simply by being themselves in a totally uncompromising way. RIP Schneider.

   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DZmgArjqU

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