Animal Farm

The pandemic has caused havoc with existing social systems, making people question how our societies accomplish fundamental tasks like policing, energy policy, and food production.  The livestock industry finds itself in the center of this mounting debate.  Thousands of animals have been culled, often not humanely, as a result of the pandemic disrupting the for-profit market.  Mistreatment of farm animals influences the way meat packing workers are treated.  Workers are forced back to work despite plants becoming COVID-19 hotspots.  Ten of the fourteen rural counties with the highest infection rates contain meatpacking plant outbreaks.  These plants are owned by huge industrial farming operations like Tyson Foods, National Beef, Smithfield, Cargill and JBS.  More than twenty thousand workers have been infected.

dead pangolins at market, credit Getty Images

Factory farming is inherently cruel.  Domestic animals are treated as commodity units to be processed as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Pigs are intelligent animals who communicate, raise families, and have social structures.  Their health and well-being does not enter into a corporation's profit calculations.  It is clear, if one discounts the politically motivated hysteria caused by a dysfunctional national government, that factory food production in China is implicated in the genesis and spread of SARS CoV-2.  It could also happen here.  Workers and animals are crammed into confined spaces with lax safety standards, in humane killing methods, and overuse of antibiotics--ripe conditions for the creation of a zoonotic virus.  Factory farming should be abandoned in favor of decentralized, smaller, independent farming operations that existed before giant conglomerates captured the market through economies of scale that have become very vulnerable to market shocks.  Senator Booker (D-NJ) said the food system was "broken by large, multinational corporations because of their buying power and size, have undue influence over the marketplace and over public policy."  He introduced an agricultural reform bill that calls for a moratorium on factory farms.

Jane Goodall, prominent scientist and conservationist, warned of the dire

bush meat, Equatorial Guinea, credit Getty Images

consequences of continuing down the path of the abusive exploitation of the natural world and intensive animal farming.  She told a webinar audience, "If we do not do things differently, we are finished.  We can't go on very much longer like this."  It is now well known that virulent diseases are pouring out of tropical rainforests and into wild meatmarkets where man has disrupted natural systems by his rampant exploitation. Ebola, which kills 90% of the people it infects, jumped the inter-species gap from chimpanzees to humans.  Ebola unleashed an unprecedented pestilance in Africa the 1990s and has returned today.  Not only Ebola, but SARS, H1N1, MERS and now SARS CoV-2 originated in animals. Rabies and bubonic plague made this journey centuries ago. New pathogens (Lassa fever, Nipah, Zika and West Nile) are crossing over into humans because of increasingly close interaction with previously isolated wild landscapes that we are rapidly altering and destroying.  The CDC estimates that three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect us originate in animals.  Zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behavior; scientific research has established this fact.

The "wet market" in Wuhan, were SARS CoV-2 is thought to have originated, was notorious for selling numerous wild animals including wolf pups, salamanders, crocodiles , scorpions, rats, squirrels, foxes, civets and turtles.  In has been closed down by Chinese authorities but not before it generated a pandemic.  The sad fact is that the poor in under-developed nations do not have refrigerators, and depend on wild meat to supplement their meager diets. Connections in the modern world have brought wild diseases much closer to human civilization.   In the end we, as a species that respects no other, will be responsible for our own demise.

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same;
 as one dies, so dies the other. 
They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.  
Ecclesiastes 3:19

Snake Oil

Related:  In the absence of an effective vaccine*, social distancing is the most effective way to control disease spread.  Sweden learned this lesson the hard way.  Its government refused to impose quarantines and is now paying the price. A state often criticized by unreformed capitalists as a "nanny state", had the highest death toll per capital in the world for the week ending June 2nd.   Agnes Tegnell, the government's leading epidemiologist, admitted to Swedish radio that there was “quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done”.  The government has given in to mounting pressure to investigate its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  It will form a commission to review its public health strategy of relying on "heard immunity".

Sweden overlooked its elderly care homes where half of the country's deaths have occurred.  It did ask for voluntary cooperation with social distancing rules, but avoided coercive measures.  Swedes have generally complied with their government's requests to restrict movement.  Norway and Denmark, which have lower per capita rates than Sweden announced last week that they would not let Sweden into their "travel bubble" for now. Australia and New Zealand are expected to resume normal travel between them soon, since both countries have substantially controlled the contagion.

The British medical journal, The Lancet, has retracted a study of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine which it published after the medical community criticized the validity of data on which it was based.  The report was a case study, not based on a controlled experiment.  Since the publication of the paper on May 22nd, a randomized, placebo controlled experiment on the effectiveness of the antimalarial drug for treating COVID-19 has been completed and will be reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. A controlled UK study has produced a similar finding of no clinical benefit. The case study was based on hospital databases containing thousands of records.  The author's analyzed the data, wrote the their paper and submitted it to peer review in just over five weeks, much faster than usual.

{3/06/20} The old anti-malarial drug the Antichist in Office hawked as a miracle cure for COVID-19, and which he once claimed to be taking as a prophylactic, has proven to be useless in the first rigorously controlled study of the drug's effect on the disease.  A joint study between the USA and Canada of 821 patients showed the drug did not prevent the disease in randomly selected subjects who had were exposed. The study also employed a placebo control group, the most reliable way to determine a drug's effectiveness and safety. “The take-home message for the general public is that if you’re exposed to someone with Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine is not an effective post-exposure, preventive therapy,” the lead author of the study, Dr. David R. Boulware, from the University of Minnesota, said in an interview.  The results will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results confirm previous research on hydroxychloroquine.

Controversy has swirled around the off-label use of the anti-malarial compound since anecdotal reports of its effectiveness against COVID-19 reached the media.  Total Douche amplified the debate when he advocated using the drug by saying, "Take it, what do have to lose?"  What he failed to mention are the possible serious side-effects ranging from heart arrhythmia to hallucinations.  The medical facts have not stopped him from promoting hydroxychloroquine. On Sunday, his regime announced that it was sending 2 million doses of the drug to Brazil, to treat patients and help prevent infection in health care workers. Brazil is run by a simpatico nationalist president who is also burning down the Amazon rain forest.  There have been reports that members of the Trump family have financial interests in companies that manufacture the drug, and that Total Douche is a golf buddy of the drug distributor.

Another swing and a miss....

*Incredibly one in three 'Mericans turned to bleach to battle SARS CoV-2 according to the CDC.  In a survey, these misguided citizens used bleach and other household disinfectants in high-risk, not recommended practices including spraying these toxic substances on food, applying on skin, inhaling and ingesting. During a nationally-televised press briefing Total Douche suggested doctors and scientists should test the “injection” of disinfectants, like bleach or alcohol, into the human body as a way to cure coronavirus.  Makers of these cleaning agents immediately issued warnings against misuse of their products.

Police Beat: Floyd Killer Has Record of Excessive Force

More: After eight days of sometimes violent street protest against policy brutality across the nation, former police officer Derk Chauvin, who choked George Floyd to death during an arrest, has been recharged with second degree murder. Previously he was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. Three fellow arresting officer who assisted in restraining Floyd have now been charged with aiding and abetting Floyd's murder.

The Secretary of Defense told the press he does not want to use the US military to suppress demonstrations in support of George Floyd. Mr. Esper said ordering active-duty troops to police American cities should be a “last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He said that, for now, this was not warranted. Reportedly, Antichrist Trump wanted to involk the Insurrection Act, which permits the use of military personnel to police domestic riots but was dissuaded by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Attorney General.  Tear gas and force was used by federal authorities on Monday to clear Lafayette Park near the VWH, so the Antichrist in Office could pose for cameras in front of nearby St. John's Episcopal Church. His stroll drew at the expense of demonstrators drew widespread disparagement in the press.

What does this grifter know of Christianity?

 Update: {30.05.20}George Floyd's family released the results of an independent autopsy today.  The results show he died of asphyxiation, not surprising considering the videoed fact that he was held in an inherently dangerous choke hold for over eight minutes by Derek Chauvin.  The report states Floyd's death was “homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.” Meanwhile® the unhinged occupant of the VWH told governors on a phone call to "dominate" protesters by throwing them in "jail for ten years" otherwise, "you're going to look like a bunch of jerks."  He offered them the use of the US military to control protests against police brutality.
 
{30.05.20}Derek Chauvin, who killed unarmed George Floyd by suffocation during an arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill, has a pattern of abuse as a 19 year veteran of the Minneapolis police department.  Chavin collected 17 complaints that did not result in serious discipline.  Perhaps the worst incident occurred in May 2008. Ira Toles, a black man, told the Daily Beast that officers barged into his home unannounced after his girlfriend called them about domestic violence. Toles said Chauvin busted into his bathroom and beat him before shooting him in the groin at point blank range. He was left to bleed until paramedics came to his rescue. The bullet made a hole in his lower extremities that did not completely close. Toles was not armed during the violent incident.

Floyd's grieving family is requesting an independent autopsy, since an undoubted defense will be that he died of an underlying medical condition.  Preliminary results released by the Hennepin County medical examiner say Floyd's cause of death was the, "combined effects [italics added] of Mr. Floyd's being restrained by police, underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system." The report says, there is "no evidence of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation". Chauvin had his knee on his victim's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd became non-responsive. 

resisting arrest?

depraved mind

Chauvin's latest example of uncontrolled rage was videotaped for the world to see by a bystander.  Chauvin put his entire weight on Floyd's neck with his knee for more than eight minutes while Floyd lay helpless on his stomach in the street, hands handcuffed behind his back. The Minneapolis Police Department manual states that neck restraints are basically reserved for when an officer feels caught in a life or death situation, clearly not the case during Floyd's arrest [photo above]. In the video a bystander exclaims, “You don’t have to sit there with your knee on his neck. He is enjoying that. You are. You are enjoying that. You could have put him in the car by now.” Floyd repeatedly pleaded with Chauvin that he could not breath.

His pleas were ignored by his former co-worker at a nearby night club. The club owner recalls how aggressive Chauvin became in response to altercations involving black customers. He responding to fights by taking out his mace and spraying the crowd, a tactic she told him was unjustified. ” “I’ve seen him in action and I’ve seen him lose it and I’ve called him out on it before,” she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I’ve told him it’s unnecessary and unjustified some of the ways that he behaves. He just loses it.” Chauvin can be seen in the video with a pleased look on his face as he chokes Floyd with his knee, a strangulation hold  that would not necessarily leave visible marks [photo below].  George Floyd's last words may have been,  "‘Don’t kill me. I’m about to die.'”

US Person cannot think of a clearer example of reckless disregard for life causing a person's death; but for Chauvin's use of a dangerous and unapproved restraint George Floyd would be still alive. Under the law, a perpetrator takes a victim as they find them.  Chauvin's conduct constitutes third degree murder in Minnesota, defined as murder without intent to kill*.  The penalty for that crime is not more than 25 years in prison. There appears to be evidence that could justify a more serious charge, second degree murder, which requires showing an intent to kill.  These facts are that Floyd's pleas for his life were ignored by all the arresting officers and the continued exertion of extreme pressure on his neck in a stomach down position after he became motionless and exhibited no pulse.  The maximum penalty for second degree murder is forty years imprisonment in Minnesota.  But what about the other three, now former, cops who assisted Chauvin while Floyd was dying?  They have not been charged with any crime as of this post.  At the very least, they are accomplices to Floyd's murder.
 
Minnesota needs to do more to respond to the understandable outrage people of color have towards their urban police departments. It needs to outlaw the use of dangerous restraint methods like the one that killed Floyd. Police recruits should undergo substnatial psychological testing to determine if they have personality traits or prejudices that are unsuitable to the dangerous duty to protect the public. Chauvin should thank the uniform he once wore that he will not be subjected to "street justice" for his crime.

*609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.

Start shooting....

Money for Main Street?--Furgitaboudit!

The regime bailed out Wall Street again under cover of the "Chinese flu".  Look at this chart:

The Fed has been shoveling money into Wall Street faster than a blackgang on a China clipper. All the excess liquidity practically given to banks at super-low interests rates is going into the stock market since banks are not lending to consumers or businesses. What the wise guys forget is that 70% of GDP is attributable to consumption, and with Depression level unemployment, consumption is collapsing. 49% of working age 'Mericans are not working, a tragic fact the number crunchers at the Labor Department hide with bullshit statistics.  Since March 11th the Fed has printed 2.78 trillion to inflate asset prices and benefit their owners. As Wolf Richter explains, If the Fed had spread that $2.78 trillion equally over the 130 million households in the US, each household would have received $21,426 – welcome help in this crisis for less-well-off households. But this was not for them. It was helicopter money for Wall Street and asset holders.

Total domination!

Last Stand of the Sumatran Rhino

The pandemic has not only affected economies, but also the global conservation movement.  Indonesian has been working toward a new rhino sanctuary in the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh province.  Sumatran rhino's (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) are one of the world's most endangered species.  The Indonesian government is trying to save this species from extinction in the wild through a captive breeding program that has met with mixed success.  The country already has one such facility inside Way Kambas National Park.  The second facility in Leuser was due to be completed in 2021, but due to the global pandemic slowdowns the project has been placed on hold.

Only twelve Sumatran rhinoceros are believed to inhabit Leuser's rainforest, one of the last suitable habitat remaining on the island.  About 30-80 are estimated to be still living free.  Since March Indonesia has recorded the second highest number of human deaths from the novel corona virus disease in East Asia, despite measures to curb the spread of SARS CoV-2.

Harapan, a captive male at Way Kambas NP, credit: J. Hanafi

The planned sanctuary will cover 100 hectares in an intact ecosystem that is the only place on Earth that is home to rhinos, tigers orangutans and elephants.  Consequently, it is biologically unique. Conservationist still have limited knowledge of the mountainous rain forest, and it is believed that poaching occurs at a high level. The environmental ministry plans to capture five wild rhinos and move them into the sanctuary to begin captive breeding.  Biologists did not determine until 2017 that captive breeding is the only way to save the species from disappearing.  Indonesia is now the final refuge of the species.  Malaysia lost its last captive rhino, Iman, who died last November of uterine tumors at age 25.  Indonesia has eight captive rhinos in two sanctuaries, Way Kambas NP and the Ketian forest on Borneo.

Hopefully this renewed effort to save the rhinos of Sumatra will meet with more success than the previous program in the 1980s, which collapsed after a decade when more than half the captives died without breeding.  A series of successful breeding efforts in the US and Indonesia since then have motivated officials to try again to save the species from certain extinction. 

SARS CoV-2 Infects Blood Vessels

Researchers reporting in The Lancet have determined that the novel corona virus is not just a respiratory disease, but also attacks blood vessels.  This new research explains why the virus causes seemingly disparate symptoms such as the pediatric multisystem inflamation syndrome, and the toe rash syndrome known as "covid toe".

The study states that the virus infects endothelial cells in blood vessels which control the flow of fluids between vessel and organ.  It uses the ACE2 protein receptor to invade healthy cells, which occurs in blood vessels, lung, heart, kidney, and intestines among other organs.  Researchers studied cases of patients who died of severe cases of COVID-19.  One was a 71 year old man who died of multiple organ failure and had a transplanted kidney.  Upon disection the kidney showed microscopic signs of viral infection as well as the infection of the heart, lung and small bowel.

These research findings are consistent with a growing number of clinical cases in which patients have died of multiple organ failure, strokes, and/or acute inflammation response leading to sepsis. As of last month, one report found that up to 30 percent of patients who are seriously ill with the novel corona virus develop blood clots that become dangerous. This new data makes SARS CoV-2 more dangerous that previously thought, especially for the elderly and those  with other morbidity.

US COVID-19 Deaths (est.): 147,132.

World-class jerk: "It's like the flu"...

Keystone XL Suffers Another Legal Blow

Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline won another court battle in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The federal court upheld a lower court ruling that suspended a fast-track permit for the project to bring tar sands down from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. A Montana federal district court ruled last month that the nationwide permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Endangered Species Act.  The latest ruling prohibits construction of the pipeline while litigation is pending on the merits.  Environmental groups fighting the construction project consider it to be a major threat to communities, wildlife and clean water along the pipeline's route as well as a major potential contributor to global climate change.

credit AP; It is all the same fight to make a better world....