Biden administration weighs declaring monkeypox a health emergency + Break Out the Condoms to Fight Monkeypox

Biden administration weighs declaring monkeypox a health emergency

Related:

Doctors treating monkeypox complain of ‘daunting’ paperwork, obstacles

D.C. shifts monkeypox vaccine policy to focus on first dose

Break Out the Condoms to Fight Monkeypox (archived if you can read behind the advertisements)*

But we should also remember that we have never vaccinated our way out of any pandemic. In the West, measles, scarlet fever, and other childhood diseases stopped killing kids decades before vaccines—our preferred tool of mass salvation—arrived in the late 1950s. Smallpox was similarly largely controlled by the turn of the 20th century through public health measures.

We need to stop subordinating people to the virus. A single approach of surveillance, isolation, contact tracing, and vaccination worked very well for smallpox, which relied exclusively on a human host, could be diagnosed at 10 paces, and was prevented with a single vaccination. But even that approach relied not only on tests and vaccines but also, most of all, on trust—to be tested and vaccinated. Candor is a prerequisite for trust.

*Just a little deception behind the headline. Still touting vaccines (Jynneos), as a solution, though! Just use condoms, for prevention, and prescribe antivirals (TPOXX), for treatment, if needed!

Bannon Found Guilty of Obstructing Jan. 6 Probe

Bannon Found Guilty of Obstructing Jan. 6 Probe (archived)

Related:

D.C. Jury Swiftly Convicts Steve Bannon for His Defiance of Jan. 6 Committee Subpoena

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner, now a partner at Rottenberg Lipman Rich PC, predicted Bannon would have little room to mount an appeal before having to serve his sentence fully.

“Bannon never put up a legal defense, only an attack on the legitimacy of the process,” Epner noted. “He is now facing a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail. It will take 3 months to get to sentencing. The question is whether Judge Nichols will grant bail pending appeal. Absent bail, Bannon will have served his time long before an appeal could be briefed, let alone decided.”

Sentencing has been slated for Oct. 21, 2022.

‘I think the law is with us’: Bannon plans appeal of conviction

Questions remain unanswered after New York City nuclear war alert

Questions remain unanswered after New York City nuclear war alert

It should also be noted that the head of New York City’s Office of Emergency Management is Zach Iscol, who was appointed by Adams on February 22, just days before the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Iscol is a representative of what the WSWS has termed the “CIA Democrats”: former intelligence and military personnel who are deeply embedded in the US national security apparatus and have come to play a major role in Democratic Party politics.

Iscol is a former Marine who was involved in the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, the single biggest battle during the bloody, decades-long US occupation of Iraq. The city, one of the oldest urban settlements of human civilization, was turned into a sea of ruins and has become a sinister symbol of the war crimes of US imperialism against the people of Iraq. In 2020, Iscol unsuccessfully ran for the office of mayor, pledging to “translate” his experience during the battle of Fallujah to New York City — a threat that must no doubt be taken seriously.

Previously:

NYC Prepares for the ‘Big One’ With Nuclear Attack PSA Video

NYC Prepares for the ‘Big One’ With Nuclear Attack PSA Video

In the event of a nuclear disaster, would you know what to do? If you’re a New York City resident, there’s a YouTube video for that.

NYC Prepares for the ‘Big One’ With Nuclear Attack PSA Video

Who will pay for Biden’s new “forever war”?

This week, the United States and its NATO allies pledged to increase their troop presence in Europe seven-fold, in order to prepare for what they called “warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors”–that is, war against Russia and China.

Who will pay for Biden’s new “forever war”?

Related:

Glenn Hubbard’s WSJ Op-Ed: NATO Needs More Guns and Less Butter

Hubbard is a nonresident senior fellow at the right-wing think tank, American Enterprise Institute!

Democrats challenge nominating papers of Trump-backed Republican governor candidate Tim Michels

Democrats challenge nominating papers of Trump-backed Republican governor candidate Tim Michels

Related:

Donald Trump endorses Tim Michels for Wisconsin governor, inserting himself into competitive GOP primary:

The backing of Michels from Trump comes a week after Michels adopted a more aggressive stance toward the 2020 election, reversing himself and calling for the abolition of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Tim Michels Says He ‘Always Spent 183 Days’ a Year in Wisconsin

Tim Michels Home: $17 Million Connecticut Mansion, New York Penthouse Raise Residency Questions:

[Tim] Michels’ wealth was largely accumulated through public projects and taxpayer money, including more than $1 billion from the State of Wisconsin; his company builds roads and pipelines. Some contracts have been controversial, including alleged double bidding.

The couple purchased a New York penthouse while the subway project was happening. However, the subway project had ended before the LLC we’ve tied to them purchased two Connecticut homes worth millions. Their daughter and youngest son graduated from high schools out east after the subway project’s completion.

The campaign has painted Michels as a blue-collar figure rooted in Wisconsin who baled hay as a kid, graduated from small-town Lomira High School, joined the Army, and then worked for the family company headquartered in Brownsville, Wisconsin. In his announcement speech, Michels stood before red utility vehicles and posed with construction workers. An east coast lifestyle full of yachting and polo clubs is clearly not the image the campaign is after.

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence [Turki bin Faisal Al Saud] among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.

The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.

Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents: “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)

Related:

Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics

Location data broker SafeGraph stops selling information on visits to abortion providers

SafeGraph Provides CDC and 1000+ Organizations With Data to Fight the COVID-19 Crisis

Google Bans Location Data Firm Funded by Former Saudi Intelligence Head:

On its website SafeGraph says “We believe places data should be open for all.” In April 2017, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, invested in SafeGraph as part of a $16 million Series A funding round. SafeGraph said it had “assembled the deepest policy thinkers.” Beyond Faisal Al Saud, SafeGraph said it had enlisted the help of former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, author Sam Harris, Meghan O’Sullivan who ran Iraq and Afghanistan policy under President George Bush, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama Mona Sutphen, and former German Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, among others. Peter Thiel is also an investor in the company.

More investors: SafeGraph Raises $16 Million Series A