Mato's Blog: News, comments, opinions October 20, 2021

Epistemic wellbeing is the feeling that you are able to know what you want and what you need to know for your life to proceed well. You need to get access to trustworthy sources of information, you have to find out the essential questions, and learn to interpret and verify the answers (which may differ greatly if you ask different sources). This is not an easy task and most likely a lifelong struggle.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967, from The Lost Massey Lectures:

Nothing in our glittering technology can raise man to new heights, because material grown has been made an end in itself, and, in the absence of moral purpose, man himself becomes smaller as the works of man become bigger.

Another distortion of the technological revolution is that instead of strengthening democracy… it has helped to eviscerate it. Gargantuan industry and government, woven into an intricate computerized mechanism, leaves the person outside… When an individual is no longer a true participant, when he no longer feels a sense of responsibility to his society, the content of democracy is emptied. When culture is degraded and vulgarity enthroned, when the social system does not build security but induces peril, inexorably the individual is impelled to pull away from a soulless society. This process produces alienation — perhaps the most pervasive and insidious development in contemporary society… Alienation should be foreign to the young. Growth requires connection and trust. Alienation is a form of living death. It is the acid of despair that dissolves society.

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The first agrarian revolution ten thousand years ago spelled the end for hunter-gatherers, except for those who survived in isolated areas like the Amazon rainforest. On the plus side, humanity received the gift of civilization in the form of politics, trade, and literacy. On the negative side, as anthropologist Jared Diamond argued in a famous 1999 Discover article, the Neolithic transformation spawned disease, malnutrition, and gross economic inequality. It was, Diamond concluded, “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.”

Ten thousand years later, humanity might have committed the worst mistake in the history of the planet. Sure, the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century eventually led to extended lifespans, food enough to feed the world, Facebook and TikTok. But the application of modern science and engineering to economic affairs also set in motion a ruinous despoliation of the planet. More ominously, as everyone who has looked at the graph of carbon emissions knows, the industrial revolution marked the first time that humans began changing this planet’s climate by burning fossil fuels at an ever more staggering rate.

The new religion of economic growth at any cost which emerged in the 18th century also exacted a human toll. Children were put to work in the “dark satanic mills” of the early factories; a new proletariat was consigned to lives nasty, brutish, and short; and millions died as colonialism cut a huge swath of destruction through the global south. The oligarchs of the time, enriched by plunder and exploitation, created a Gilded Age of astounding economic inequality that, despite the efforts of trade unions and socialists, has made a striking reappearance in our own Age of Billionaires.

Feline news:

http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2021/10/05/patsey-state-street-fire-cat-ladder-company-10/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/snow-leopard-baya-dies-of-suspected-coronavirus-infection-at-great-plains-zoo
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/10/inside-jordans-first-hotel-cats

Against the odds:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/23/choice-point-humanity-women-demand-visionary-shift-un-climate-talks
https://www.leftvoice.org/zanon-factory-in-argentina-20-years-under-workers-control/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/27/momentous-win-years-local-opposition-defeats-penneast-pipeline
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/co-op-businesses-worker-power-pandemic/
https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.10/north-prairies-collecting-seeds-to-restore-prairie-grasslands/
https://www.localfutures.org/localization-and-carfree-cities/
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-58930317

Environmental news:

The upcoming IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2021 UN climate report will have to admit, that climate change is much worse than ever thought.

Russian methane emissions for instance are revealed by a new generation of satellites devoted to locating and measuring greenhouse gases. The measurements shed light on the gap between what scientists know is in the atmosphere and what is officially acknowledged by companies and countries.

https://apnews.com/article/business-united-nations-floods-droughts-water-management-9fea3f6558b578a9acfa0835b577f959
What the experts promised since years. The coming water crisis is now officially recognized by UN. But don’t expect a systematic collective effort to mitigate this crisis. It will be as usual: Everyone is on his/her own.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/clean-environment-could-become-un-human-right-not-so-fast-say-us-britain-2021-10-05/
https://grist.org/wildfires/you-thought-the-u-s-fire-season-was-bad-russias-is-much-worse/
https://www.rt.com/uk/537069-carbon-neutral-biomass-emissions-drax/
From a Russian news channel, which sure has a reason to discredit biomass, but the emissions of wood burning undeniably contain lot of CO2 and even cancer causing substances.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58897805
Carbon emissions from rich countries rose rapidly in 2021. As the bible already said: “By their deeds (fruits) you will know them.”
Don’t believe their official data and don’t believe their vague promise of change sometimes in future (smoke and mirrors, as they say).
https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-business-john-kerry-united-states-european-union-2d7dd2aa3ffef336ff88fdde314c5549
https://www.ehn.org/oil-and-gas-industry-and-climate-change-2655272307.html
https://meta.eeb.org/2021/10/13/green-mining-a-myth-that-could-cost-us-the-earth/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/12/health/plastic-chemical-early-death-wellness/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/14/phthalates-deaths-older-americans-study-chemicals
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.1c04903
About the ever-increasing chemical pollution and some modest proposals to reduce it.
https://mronline.org/2021/10/15/how-capitalism-shackles-the-fight-against-climate-change
The article makes valid points but omits the fact that state owned companies in Russia or China act as irresponsible as big Western corporations. Why does Russia not “leave oil and gas in the ground”? Why does China not reduce coal consumptions? A change away from the profit driven economy is necessary but there must also be a change of behavior and a social paradigm shift which replaces competition with cooperation, consumerism with environmental conservation and communal duties, shallow mass entertainment with art.
https://www.juancole.com/2021/10/indigenous-botanical-knowledge.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-15/g-20-climate-talks-stall-ahead-of-rome-leaders-summit
China and India, two of the world’s biggest emitters and largest coal users, have failed to submit updated climate pledges to the United Nations, and China’s President Xi Jinping won’t be attending the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, pushing any deal further out of reach.

Economic news:

A global supply chain crisis is brewing, leading to a full-spectrum shortage of essential items. It is not clear at the moment, how much of this is stage-managed to raise prized ahead of holiday shopping.

If you are not happy with the current economy, why not try this?

Convert businesses into cooperatives, public owned entities, or non-profits; localize and shorten supply chains; increase durability, lifespan, and reparability of devices; reduce consumer demand (no advertising, no fashion, no luxury goods) and generally stop producing unnecessary stuff.

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President Emmanuel Macron of France said his country would spend 34.6 billion US$ on developing small nuclear reactors, green hydrogen power, and other strategic investments over the next five years to revitalize and decarbonize the French economy. All the possible wrong steps just to save a system which will fail anyway despite the most heroic efforts.

https://www.dw.com/en/pandorapapersworldleaderstonyblairkenyattashakirasachintendulkartaxhavensleaks/a-59376192
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/05/gtko-o05.html
https://www.rt.com/news/536490-pandora-papers-offshore-tax-leaders/
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-business-religion-media-jordan-67b2674fc44fa543df49dfc8f52e29cd
https://apnews.com/article/business-london-europe-media-f91432c785e4e06a8fb2c7370d4ca63d
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/536539-cia-leak-pandora-papers/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/04/us-denounced-biggest-peddler-financial-secrecy-after-pandora-papers-leak
https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/about-pandora-papers-leak-dataset/
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/10/big-companies-are-funding-campaign-kill-climate-bill/620278/
https://theconversation.com/a-publicly-owned-energy-industry-could-help-tackle-energy-poverty-and-increase-renewables-169186
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/the-energy-transition-will-take-decades-not-years.html
Disheartening.
https://www.rt.com/business/536842-global-food-prices-reach-record-high/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/15/pers-o15.html
High food prices drive hunger around the world.
https://www.dw.com/en/pandemic-climate-change-and-conflict-fuel-sharp-rise-in-global-hunger/a-59488549
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/08/the-rich-are-different-theyre-richer-than-us-and-far-greedier/
https://theconversation.com/overseas-trade-has-a-hidden-environmental-disaster-footprint-new-report-169750
https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2021/10/13/wall-streets-takeover-of-nature-advances-with-launch-of-new-asset-class/
The international finance system and its local enforcers have to be dismantled, otherwise we will have to pay even for the right to live. Water, food, health care, housing are basic necessities and should be basic human rights, yet they are already monetized and commoditized. Unpolluted air and a quiet sleep undisturbed by traffic and industrial noise have not a price tag yet but in fact are a privilege of the rich.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58971131
Contrary to climate change pledges, fossil fuel production is set to soar over next decade.

Pandemic news:

According to experts and politicians the pandemic is practically over. Travel restrictions are lifted, shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities open again. Clever people prepare for the “challenges of the post-Covid era,” in a race to reopen and reinstall the old customer base ahead of the competition.

If you wear a respirator (FFP2 or FFP3), people will look at you in disbelieve, shaking their heads and probably thinking: “poor guy (or gal), he/she didn’t get the memo yet, or forgot to take his/her medication.

Nobody at the WHO, the US CDC, and other national agencies understands anything but vax, vax, vax. A truly splendid example is the systematic neglect of aerosol transmission (and, at a higher level, layered strategies of prevention, including masking).

There are three basic strategies for approaching the virus:
a) “herd immunity,” that is, essentially encouraging the spread of the virus based on the claim that if enough people are infected it will ultimately lead to an end of the pandemic.
b) mitigation, which claims that a collection of half-measures combined with vaccination will bring the pandemic under control.
c) eradication, the universal deployment of every weapon in the arsenal of measures to combat COVID-19, coordinated on a global scale.

Relying on vaccines and not much else isn’t adequate to combat Covid. Case and casualty numbers from 68 countries show that rising numbers of COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination. Mongolia, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, UK are prime examples.

Herd immunity increases the danger of new mutations, the new Delta descendant (AY.4.2 subvariant) for instance may be more infectious than its ancestor and already accounts for 10 per cent of UK cases.

Unfortunately dealing with the pandemic requires setting extremely dangerous precedents threatening the foundations of the current order — like paying people not to work or canceling debts, none of which can be allowed to even be contemplated.

Most nations, with the exception of China, give up Zero-COVID and retreat to herd immunity, which means:

Cull (kill) the herd to save the world!

Saving nature can of course be done much easier with fewer people, we all know this. Therefore: Build back better with substantially reduced populations.

China, the world’s most populous country, has through aggressive public health measures limited the death toll to less than 5,000 in a population of 1.4 billion.

The government’s actions include large-scale testing of affected areas, intensive contact-tracing, timely lockdowns and continuous mobilizations for vaccination. Recently the health authorities have reported double vaccinating almost 75 percent of the population. China’s public health system has become increasingly proficient in applying these methods, enabling the effective control and calming down of dangerous infection events.

Various outbreaks, caused by international travelers, are worrying, but the government has not given up on strict prevention policies. It also ignores Western powers increasingly louder calls for a shift in course (as usual, China is a nuisance and a dangerous example for the free world).

Another in mainstream media suppressed aspect of herd immunity are the unknown consequences for an entire generation that faces the prospect of “Long Covid,” and the possibility of permanent severe organ damage (lung, heart, kidneys, brain).

Letting Sars-CoV-2 become endemic increases the chance of reinfection. Reinfected patients are more likely to be asymptomatic on reinfection, but symptomatic cases will be more severe. If the first infection leads to losing half of your lung capacity and to significant heart, kidney, endothelial, etc. damage, then you are just in no shape to survive the next one.

Politicians often cite the recurring flu epidemics, but the cost of epidemic COVID-19 can’t be compared to that of the flu, because in addition to the greater number of deaths, COVID-19 causes enormously more long-term illness than any current endemic disease.

People are not paying attention and don’t have the knowledge to look behind the curtain, as the scientific community, the medical establishment, and politicians are playing ball with the billionaire oligarchy, painting rosy pictures of mild endemicity.

Living with endemic COVID-19 means living in a nation where businesses and schools are subject to extended and erratic closings, where healthcare systems can be overrun at a moment’s notice, where thousands or even hundreds of thousands more die, and where millions are hit with long-term damage that can render them unable to work or be dependent on long-term care. That’s not a temporary situation, that’s what endemic COVID-19 would look like every year.

In the latest studies over 50 percent of survivors reported sequelae (long-term effects of the infection) 6 month after recovery. The most common symptoms were mobility impairments, pulmonary abnormalities, and mental health disorders. In endemic COVID-19 these ailments would occur on a scale that could overwhelm existing health care capacity. There is already a massive backlog of medical procedures, and adding possibly complex, new chronic health issues that need diagnosing and treatment could push the health care system over the brink.

https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/jnephrol/early/2021/08/25/ASN.2021060734.full.pdf

The findings, reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, highlight yet another pernicious burden of the pandemic. Kidney damage is painless and silent, and it’s the latest ailment afflicting a large swath of Covid survivors.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-people-covid.html
More than half COVID-19 survivors experience post-COVID symptoms.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/officials-double-down-on-let-er-rip-strategy-placing-undue-faith-in-vaccines-as-regions-with-high-vaccinations-suffer-infection-spikes.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-covid-19-office-disability-1237587/
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003773
This study shows over a third of those who tested positive for COVID-19 have symptoms months later. Some of these patients were asymptomatic at the time they tested positive for COVID-19, and still developed serious, long-lasting issues weeks later.
https://www.authorea.com/users/417872/articles/525046-the-year-public-health-lost-its-soul
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-new-zealand-auckland-829fc4cd04e68e9e3b264ac03418aeaf
https://www.rt.com/usa/536666-project-veritas-pfizer-covid19-vaccine/
https://microbe.net/2021/10/04/biobe-preprint-controlled-chamber-covid-study/
Ventilation, filtration (with HEPA filters), and humidification substantially reduce the aerosol viral load.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/06/pers-o06.html
The case for eradication.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/05/cuba-accelerates-vaccine-drive/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/01/rich-nations-waste-doses-most-african-countries-miss-10-vaccination-goal
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pfizer-Vaccine-Efficacy-Declines-to-47-6-Months-After-2nd-Dose-20211006-0019.html
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/10/vasko-kohlmayer/peak-gaslighting-impenitent-profiteer-albert-bourla-of-pfizer-makes-the-most-ludicrous-claim-yet/
Statistics are not as definite as the author claims, but he has a point. Asymptomatic cases were not counted in trials and there is lot of evidence that asymptomatic and apparently healthy people transmit the virus. Governments jumped on the vaccination bandwagon because that enables them to claim that they did everything possible and the “anti-vaxxers” provide an ideal scapegoat.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02669-2
Real-world data shows that HEPA filters clean COVID-causing virus from air. I got my two air purifiers with HEPA filters in March 2020 and at this time they were frequently sold out, so it was not only me who rushed to get them. Now, in October 2021, they are still only rarely used in GP waiting rooms, shops, and other public places where people gather. So stupid!
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/10/commentary-what-can-masks-do-part-1-science-behind-covid-19-protection
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/10/commentary-what-can-masks-do-part-2-what-makes-good-mask-study-and-why-most
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/mzukisi-qobo-the-old-mantra-about-growth-has-reached-exhaustion
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02143-7/fulltext
“We estimated an additional 53·2 million cases of major depressive disorder globally (an increase of 27·6 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-said-to-spark-rise-in-global-depression-anxiety/6263967.html
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/18/psychosis-cases-soar-in-england-as-pandemic-hits-mental-health
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/sleep-and-the-covid-19-pandemic.html
https://theconversation.com/covid-19-could-nudge-minds-and-societies-towards-authoritarianism-168540
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/pers-o11.html
A coronavirus pandemic reality check.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/20/mala-o20.html
Malaysia, Singapore adopt “living with COVID” strategy.
https://www.rt.com/news/537116-merck-expensive-covid-pill-generic-drugs/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/11/reckless-doctors-without-borders-slams-us-hoarding-500-million-vaccine-doses
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/10/11/for-the-sake-of-global-health-usa-stop-lying-about-cuba/
https://theconversation.com/zero-covid-worked-for-some-countries-but-high-vaccine-coverage-is-now-key-169327
There is a deluge of articles which tell us, that for people living in democracies with a high degree of personal freedom, the cost of a COVID-free society is too high. This assertion targets China, and it tells Western audiences that it’s not careful planning, discipline, social responsibility, and a determination to save lives which make China’s zero COVID possible, but the lack of freedom. In the “free world” we have the freedom of risky behavior, the freedom to get infected and infect others with COVID, and we should be glad about that!
https://news.yahoo.com/astrazeneca-drug-prevents-treats-covid-161437617.html

Media, propaganda, and technology news:

People are starving to death in Yemen, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, DRC, Ethiopia, Haiti, and other places, while the pundits and analysts of mainstream media fantasize about the “metaverse.” Wealthy investors and big tech corporations are jumping in, as no-one wants to be left behind if it turns out to be the future of the internet.

It’s the realization of a bold vision, it’s a dream come true. Finally the unwelcome distractions of real life, which are still hampering virtual reality, could be filtered out or at least reduced to a negligible amount.

Caitlin Johnstone:

It doesn't matter what you're allowed to say if it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter if you're allowed to call the oligarchic puppet put in office by the last fake election a dickhead. It doesn't matter if you're allowed to Google any information you want only to find whatever information Google wants you to find.

The empire's greatest weapon is not its military but its propaganda machine. There's simply never been anything like the global narrative control provided by the western news media, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood. The military fights wars, the propaganda machine wins them long before they start.

A lucid and well-informed examination of the world's problems will keep bringing you back to this one fundamental issue: that Earth's inhabitants are being psychologically manipulated at mass scale into organizing themselves in ways that serve the powerful instead of the people.

Conduct critical journalism on the empire: get a CIA plot to assassinate you.
Conduct critical journalism on an empire-targeted government: get a Nobel Peace Prize.
Congratulations to those who were awarded the same highly esteemed Peace Prize as Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-ive-dumped-my-smartphone-11633393259
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/democrats-and-media-do-not-want-to
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/05/patrick-lawrence-instead-of-a-free-press/
https://www.treehugger.com/computing-emissions-worse-than-thought-study-5204571
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/536863-us-government-keyword-google
https://fair.org/home/deathly-silence-journalists-who-mocked-assange-have-nothing-to-say-about-cia-plans-to-kill-him/
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/08/nato-cognitive-warfare-brain/
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/537265-nato-cognitive-warfare-public-mind/
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/09/bellingcat-intelligence-contractors-extremists-syria/
https://news.yahoo.com/us-overtakes-china-world-largest-173900029.html
US overtakes China to become world’s largest bitcoin mining hub.
https://mronline.org/2021/10/14/cryptocurrency-a-new-and-dangerous-climate-disruptor/
https://theconversation.com/we-are-ignoring-the-true-cost-of-water-guzzling-data-centres-167750
https://theconversation.com/how-netflix-affects-what-we-watch-and-who-we-are-and-its-not-just-the-algorithm-169897

Imperial news:

Sister Megan Rice, fierce critic of the USA nuclear arsenal, died at 91. Arrested more than 40 times, she was best known for her role in the 2012 break-in at the Oak Ridge nuclear complex in Tennessee.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/01/reflections-on-political-violence-and-terror/
A short history of US state violence and an epic rant.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/01/six-month-sentence-lawyer-who-took-chevron-denounced-international-outrage
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/04/donz-o04.html
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/536527-us-federal-judges-broke-law/
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/10/05/services-trade-surplus-the-american-dream-not-come-true-worst-in-10-years-imports-of-goods-worst-ever-total-trade-deficit-worst-ever/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/6/us-doctors-alaska-difficult-choices-amid-covid-surge
https://www.blackagendareport.com/thousands-police-killings-are-unreported

Imperial conquest news:

Countries facing economic sanctions include:
1. Afghanistan,
2. Belarus,
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina,
4. Burundi,
5. Central African Republic,
6. China (PR),
7. Comoros,
8. Crimea Region of Ukraine,
9. Cuba,
10. Cyprus,
11. Democratic Republic of the Congo,
12. Guinea,
13. Guinea Bissau,
14. Haiti,
15. Iran,
16. Iraq,
17. Kyrgyzstan,
18. Laos,
19. Lebanon,
20. Libya,
21. Mali
22. Mauritania
23. Moldova
24. Montenegro
25. Myanmar,
26. Nicaragua,
27. North Korea – DPRK,
28. Palestinian Territories,
29. Russia,
30. Rwanda,
31. Serbia
32. Somalia,
33. South Sudan,
34. Sudan,
35. Syria,
36. Tunisia
37. Venezuela,
38. Yemen,
39. Zimbabwe.