Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,783 Comments »

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50 Comments / 7783 Comments

  1. @Edgar

    You wrote: (Which reminds me.. “Positively Mr.Gallagher .absolutely Mr. Sheen” (I have this on an old 1920a shellac 78, and although not positive, I think the music sounds like Paul Whiteman).

    Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean (Original Recording, 1922 — Sides A and B) w. bonus track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HH-BVputtM

    Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra – Mr. Gallagher And Mr. Sheen (1923)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2-EUYRNGk

    There are a a few famous versions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Gallagher_and_Mister_Shean

    KInd of early Henny Youngman. Fortunately, the lyrics are printed out. In both, the clarinetist plays Klezmer style Jazz solos, though it’s a longer solo in the Whiteman. I see what you mean. The instrumentals are similar, though the Whiteman has no vocals. .

  2. Enormous revelations from Durham investigation in Margot Cleveland’s latest piece, including reports of Sussman cooperating with Durham while describing an employee of the OIG connecting to a foreign VPN in 2017, reports of which were hidden by the OIG til very recently.

    Here is the tail end of the article, but it is all worth reading:

    Near the end of the special counsel’s 19-page discovery update and extension request came the fifth takeaway: something strange is going on in the Office of Inspector General.

    According to yesterday’s filing, on December 17, 2021, the OIG provided the special counsel’s office a written forensic report concerning a “cyber-related matter” that Sussmann had told an OIG special agent in charge about. Specifically, in early 2017, Sussmann told the OIG agent that one of his “clients had observed that a specific OIG employee’s computer was ‘seen publicly’ in ‘Internet traffic’ and was connecting to a Virtual Private Network in a foreign country.”

    When the OIG office provided Durham’s team the “forensic report,” it represented “that it had ‘no other file[] or other documentation’ relating to this cyber matter.”

    However, one week ago, Sussmann’s attorneys informed Durham’s team that Sussmann had, in fact, personally met with the DOJ’s inspector general in March 2017, when he passed on the tip about the OIG employee’s connection to a foreign VPN. While Sussmann had not told the OIG his client’s name at the time, last week his lawyers informed Durham’s team that it was Tech Executive-1, i.e., Joffe, who had discovered the OIG employee’s computer connecting to a VPN in a foreign country.

    Upon learning this news, Durham’s team promptly contacted the OIG again and learned, for the first time, that Sussmann had met with both the inspector general and his then-general counsel in March 2017 about the above-described cyber matter. Since then, including over this last weekend, the OIG has been providing further documentation related to that meeting to the special counsel’s office.

    So many questions! First, why did the OIG not inform the special counsel’s office that Sussmann had met with both the inspector general and his then-general counsel? And why did the OIG falsely represent that there was no “further documentation”? Sure, it could have been accidental, but given that Durham’s attorneys publicly exposed this “mistake,” it suggests something more is afoot.

    Then there is the question of the veracity of the claim and what happens to the investigation. Was there really an OIG employee connecting on a foreign VPN? Who was it? Why? Did the OIG ever find out?

    What about Joffe: How in the world did he discover the OIG employee’s computer connecting to a VPN in a foreign country? Was Joffe monitoring other government computers? How? Why? Was anyone else involved? Who knew?

    These questions seem significant given that Sussmann’s meeting with the OIG occurred in March 2017, putting the “discovery” during the Trump administration and ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation. With questions like these just arising now, no wonder Durham isn’t done yet with his investigation.

    https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/26/6-new-revelations-from-the-john-durham-spygate-probe/

  3. @ Bear-

    Considering Nephew’s qualifications and reputation, it could be that he was the chief negotiator, and the other two, likely his closest colleagues, ranking just below him. But I don’t know who those two are.

    Assuming that this is so, it makes their resignations far more important.

  4. @Edgar, what it shows that the Biden negotiating team is split in half and the negotiators who wanted tougher sanctions and actions quit in protest.

    1

  5. @ BEAR-

    That sounds interesting and promising. I just looked up Nephew and he’s a nuclear weapons and sanctions expert.

  6. Three members quit US team for nuclear talks with Iran – report
    Jan 25, 2022 @ 11:03

    The Wall Street Journal reports that at least three members of the US team attached to the ongoing Vienna talks with Iran on its nuclear program have quit, claiming Biden administration guidelines are not tough enough. Among them are the deputy team leader, Richard Nephew.

    They maintain that the US should have imposed more sanctions on Iran and toughened existing ones. They also criticize the administration’s non-response to Iran’s defiant oil sales to China.

    https://www.debka.com/mivzak/three-members-quit-us-team-for-nuclear-talks-with-iran-report/

  11. Plea deal for Bibi definitely in the works. The former head of the Israeli Supreme Court Aharon Barak is going to be the mediator in the plea deal.

    Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak criticized retired judge Aharon Barak, who will mediate in the negotiations to reach a plea bargain between Netanyahu and the prosecution, saying that Judge Barak is ‘acting like a wheeler-dealer.”

  12. ‘If anyone tries to enter this building … everyone will die’: Officials negotiating with man who is holding hostages at a Texas synagogue and demanding his sister – terrorist known as ‘Lady Al Qaeda’ – be freed from prison

    A Texas man, who is believed to be Muhammad Siddiqui, is reportedly holding three hostages and the rabbi hostage in a synagogue
    A SWAT team has been deployed and the FBI are negotiating with him
    The suspect claims his sister is Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in New York for trying to kill US military personnel, according to an ABC News report
    Aafia is also known as ‘Lady Al Qaeda’ and is serving 86 years at FMC Carswell, which is 24 miles from the synagogue
    The assailant took the hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville during religious services around 11:30am CST
    Before the live-stream cut off, the assailant can be heard saying, ‘I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me’
    The White House is reportedly ‘closely monitoring’ the situation

    By Alyssa Guzman For Dailymail.Com

    Published: 15:00 EST, 15 January 2022 | Updated: 17:08 EST, 15 January 2022

    e-mail

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    A man claiming to be the brother of the convicted terrorist known as Lady Al Qaeda stormed a Texas synagogue on the Sabbath and is holding hostages, telling a SWAT team, ‘If anyone tries to enter this building, I’m telling you…everyone will die.’

    The assailant, who is believed to be Muhammad Siddiqui, took the hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville during religious services around 11.30am, which were being live-streamed.

    The live stream cut off shortly before 2pm local time.

    Before the live stream cut off, the unknown assailant can be heard saying, ‘I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me’

    ‘Are you listening? I am going to die,’ he repeated over and over.
    A SWAT team has been sent to Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where a man is reportedly holding hostages

    A SWAT team has been sent to Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where a man is reportedly holding hostages
    SWAT team and police vehicles have set up by a nearby middle school
    +8

    SWAT team and police vehicles have set up by a nearby middle school
    Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (pictured) and three others are being held hostage
    +8

    Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (pictured) and three others are being held hostage

    The suspect claims his sister is the infamous Lady Al Qaeda Aafia Siddiqui, according to Aaron Katersky of ABC News, and he is currently demanding to speak with her..

    Aafia Siddiqui, now 49, was jailed for 86 years after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 for the attempted murder of a US army captain.

    The Pakistani-born neuroscientist was found with two kilos of poison sodium cyanide and plans for chemical attacks on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.

    She was handed to the Americans and convicted of attempted murder two years later in a US court.

    But her hatred for the US was so strong that during her interrogation she grabbed a rifle from one of her guards and shot at them shouting: ‘Death to Americans.’

    She came to the US in 1991 and won a partial scholarship to MIT, where she was a biology major. In 1993, she wanted to do ‘something to help our Muslim brothers and sisters’ even if it meant breaking the law.

    She moved to Texas to be near her brother, the reported hostage taker, who is listed as an architect in Houston.

    The mother of three was radicalized after the 9/11 terror attacks, divorcing her husband and moving back to Pakistan, where she remarried Ammar Al-Baluchi, the nephew of 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

    She is serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, about 25 miles from the hostage site at the Texas temple.

    During her trial, Aafia demanded that every jury member get DNA tested to see if they were Jewish.

    ‘I have a feeling everyone here is them [Jews], subject [them] to genetic testing… They should be excluded if you want to be fair,’ she told a federal judge in 2010.

    Her supposed brother is holding Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three other people hostage, Katersky said.

    He is claiming to have bombs in unknown locations, but to what extent the assailant is armed, is unknown…

    Full article here:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10406409/Officials-negotiating-man-reportedly-holding-people-hostage-Texas-synagogue.html

  13. @SEBASTIEN

    Oh yes, well spotted, BUT not if tied up to a Jetty or an artificial dock.
    This last might squeeze in, although, in the true sense, not “free”. “Born Free” maybe but then held captive on The Love Boat.

    But…consider, It is restricted in it’s movements, can only touch down on tables, or solid articles, like all living things, becomes tired and needs “sleep”.

  14. If the following is true, it could be good for Bibi not to go to jail and for the country and Likud to put this bad chapter of Israeli history in the past. Also it would make for easier to have a right-wing government without the need for RAAM or Meretz in the coalition.

    Report: Prosecutors believe Netanyahu will sign plea deal, perhaps even next week
    Channel 12 says ex-PM’s family does not oppose move; former Supreme Court chief Aharon Barak said to urge Attorney General Mandelblit to go for a deal

    Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem on June 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

    Talks between Benjamin Netanyahu and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on a potential plea deal in the former prime minister’s criminal trial have made significant progress, and the state prosecution believes the ex-Israeli leader will sign such a deal within days, Channel 12 news reported Friday evening, citing unnamed officials.

    The report said top officials assess Netanyahu has decided to go for a deal, and that an agreement could be finalized as early as next week.

    Channel 13, also reporting on the latest developments, was less bullish on the prospects of a deal. It cited unnamed people with knowledge of the matter as saying it seemed like “a 50/50” matter.

    Full article: https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-prosecutors-believe-netanyahu-will-sign-plea-deal-perhaps-even-next-week/

  15. @Edgar G.

    Omicron is already passing and heralds the end of the pandemic??

    This is my cynical unwanted opinion:

    I think the PTB invented this “COVID light” in an effort to let themselves climb down the “pandemic” tree for the time being.

    This doesn’t guarantee the end of “horrible pandemics” but maybe they decided to quit tightening the screws for now to avoid a riot while keeping the “new normal” intact until the time comes for the even newer “normal”.

  16. @EDGAR
    @EVERYONE
    McCullough’s survival kit of Over-The-Counter drugs to use to prevent Covid and treat acute Covid disease:

    Our approach has become much more sophisticated. And fortunately for Canadians, Canadians can have a shoe box of 6 things they can buy over the counter.

    No doctor needed as a home survival kit
    The first and most important is providone iodine…it’s about $5 on Amazon…You take about half a teaspoon of providone iodine in a shot glass of water or 1.5oz of water, then take a bulb syringe or spray bottle and spray it up the nose over a sink… sniff it up in the back of the nose and spit it out, and do it twice in each nostril. The rest just gargle with it and spit it out… you can do it as often as every 4hrs and that’s amazingly effective in reducing the intensity and duration of symptoms of Covid19, rapidly reducing the PCR and markedly dropping the risk of hospitalization and death, proven in randomized control trials…If one can not tolerate iodine, due to iodine allergies, use dilute hydrogen peroxide, any form of hydrogen peroxide in a 1:3 dilution can also be used the same way.

    …Zinc, 50mg of elemental zinc a day, more data showing it’s preventive.

    Vitamin D3, 5000 IU per day for prevention, in acute treatment we use 20,000 IU per day for five days.

    Vitamin C 3,000 mg per day for acute treatment.

    Quercetin, 500 mg per day once a day for prevention; 500 mg per day twice a day for acute treatment.

    …Famotadine or pepsid which is an over the counter antacid and antihistamine, but instead of 20mg which is the package label, take 80mg a day for acute treatment.

    So those 6 things should be in the Candadian Survival Kit so all Canadians can be prepared.

    We are still getting panic calls from patients saying “Doctor, surprise, I have Covid” and it’s like we’re two years into this. There should be no more surprise calls. After I finish here, I am going to spend another 3hrs handling surprise calls – no one should be surprised anymore. I am shocked how people are not prepared for Covid19. Everybody needs to get in gear hear because early treatment takes the edge off symptoms, reduces the intensity and duration of symptoms, and by that mechanism leads to the reduction in hospitalization and death.

    I took the liberty of bolding the items he lists for prevention.
    His comment was directed at Canadians, but this recipe should be available to anyone around the world.

    Here is the link for his full statement:
    https://player.captivate.fm/episode/113b0868-42ec-416a-9dab-134b77edff02/website/
    Please share this link with family and friends.

  17. Do you suppose it’s coincidental that the Fox show, “The Five” has the same title as Jabotinsky’s novel taking place at the turn of the last century?

  18. You can’t suck and blow at the same time. – Ted Belman

    Except for saxophone players.

    …In essence, circular breathing turns your body into a set of bagpipes. “What you’re doing is inhaling through your nose, and at the exact moment you’re inhaling through your nose you’re pushing a small quantity of air using the muscles of your throat and the muscles of your face,” says Josh Sinton, a professional saxophonist and clarinetist who’s been using circular breathing for decades.

    You use your cheeks as a sort of bladder for air, so when you need to inhale, you can use your muscles to push the reserves of air in your cheeks out through your mouth, keeping breath moving into your instrument. It’s not really “circular,” as you’re not recycling air, but it is a way to make sure that there’s never a time when you need to break….

    ‘…In other parts of the world, though, breath-powered instruments don’t allow this limitation to stop them. The didgeridoo of Australia, the zurna of the Balkans, and the suona of northern China are all breath instruments that are typically played without breaks, sustaining notes for minutes, sometimes hours, certainly much longer than any human can actually expel breath. ..

    https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/breathing-while-saxophone-playing-should-be-an-olympic-sport

    Kind of what Israel is doing now, if you think about it. A nation of exotic wind players.

  20. @ READER-

    I get your point, and you are correct. Yet it’s hard to just sit and allow myself to become infected without trying to fight against it.

    I am at an age where it would be more menacing than it is for younger people. So it’s my attempt at self preservation-although likely futile..

  21. @PELONI-

    I wasn’t clear enough.. I really meant that I had read that an Omicron virus- perhaps in a sterile environment- lived for about 3 days. The “free floating” was misleading.

    I recall reading that from that cruise ship which docked in Japan, they found active viruses for up to 17 -maybe 37 days.

    I will keep a sharp look0out for your post later, please adress it to me.

  22. @ SEBASTIEN-

    Sure and ye’ve hit on it me bohyo. The O’Microns are a very old Gaelic Family bedad. whose name before that was Micah.. And MacFauci, that black hearted Scotsman, could claim anything, none of it true. And don’t they all say that the oirish is one of the Lost Tribes that became un-lost as soon as it hit these bonnie green lands.

    And “leprechauns” is only a corruption of ther name of the first born of Micah, his name was that good old Yiddishe “Leipke”. yes we spoke yiddih in those day taugh it to the Germans who as usual corrupted into therrn own language.i.

    The Chinese make the same claim, Since the are well mixed with the Mongols, led by that family of Khans whose real name was Kohen. One of the first assimilationist Jews who tried to hide their name. The Khazars are only in the ha’penny places beside them…..

    The Jews would now be ruling the whole world if it were not for those traitors.

  24. @Edgar G.

    Edgar, can you prevent a speck of dust from settling on you?

    Well, a virus compared to a speck of dust is like a flea before a mountain range.

    We might as well give up and start taking it easy.

  25. @Edgar Is it possible that Fauci will claim that O’Micron actually comes from Irish leprachauns as he denies under oath directing US funding to the Chinese lab research to create Covid?

  26. @EDGAR

    I found it difficult to ascertain how long a free floating Omicron lived in the air, the best estimate seemed to be 3 days.

    The reality is that the time the virus stays in the air is largely dependent upon the stillness of the air, or lack of air flow. Any breeze, fan or AC will markedly increase the time it take the virus to settle to the ground and the rate is completely variable based on the dynamics of that air flow. In a room with no air flow the rate of descent is entirely based on the particle size and the specific gravity of the particle. The range for settling in a still room for SARS-Cov2 is between 17 and 59 days, yes really. In a room where people move about and fans/AC are cycling the air, doors are opening…the time of the virus’ descent to the ground would be much greater. So, the virus is really all around us, while it is around us. If a person is sick, they will increase the concentration in a house or building with every breath, and open windows and doors will decrease this concentration based on the door/ window opening and how long they are left open. When an ill person comes into a room, they breath out some virus and these will remain in the air after that person leaves, but will be diluted out with the opening of windows and doors over time. The level of concentration of the virus in the air is what causes illness and this is why being outside has been shown to prevent spread.

    Regarding Omicron, it will depend on how the vaccines are employed. If they keep doing these useless boosters, as in the US, Israel and elsewhere, they could create a worse case scenario – something that kills like Alpha, or makes people sick like Delta, with the rate of spread of Omicron. They are making new “vaccines” to be deployed in two months, no doubt with the same walk after lunch testing of the current vaccine, and this will be a very dangerous move which will affect us all, one way or the other. Left alone, it appears that Omicron will dominate and end the pandemic. You are correct about the souvineer, as it will be another element of the endemic viruses that we all suffer with each year as Vit D levels drop in the winter.

    Who would swallow mouthwash…except possibly street drunks.????

    The CDC has been postulating that people who are advocating the use of mouth wash are educing people to swallow the muck in their most recent attempts to prevent any treatment from damping their managed state of crisis. So, my comment was in response to their most recent act of duplicitous attacks on early treatments.

    Last night McCullough offered a list of useful treatments available in Canada to help prevent Covid. I will write it up in a post later today with the details of dosages as he suggests later tonight, so watch for it.

  27. @ TED-

    Just now I posted a response to PELONI- which briefly showed in the headings at top of page, and immediately vanished. Please go “junking”. Thank you.

    This is the 3rd, or 4th post which has vanished in the past few days, in fact most of my postings. In one, In even asked if I was being censored.

  28. @PELONI_

    Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I know of the speedy evaporation of alcohol, and that the added water retards it for 5 mins. Long enough to be useful. I’ve read that a 30 sec contact with 70% alcohol seems to work.

    After I rub an item, I leave it alone. So the rub should kill before evaporating.

    In my wicked youth, our driver, who came from a farm outside Limerick, brought me an occasional (they had a still up in the hills-highly illegal, police and dogs hunted for stills) gift of a bottle of “Poteen”, double distilled, and told me to keep it tightly corked, as it “melts” away in the air. He had all kinds of quaint “sayings”. But “firewater” it certainly was. My tongue used to feel as if it had dropped off. A teaspoon-full at a time…!!

    I found it difficult to ascertain how long a free floating Omicron lived in the air, the best estimate seemed to be 3 days.

    Thank you for the Patterson contact which I will pass on. As for the authorities her allowing an IVM treatment, you don’t know their capacity for blundering and -nearly always wrong.

    What is your op0inion of the several reports that Omicron is already passing and heralds the end of the pandemic??
    It’s bound to leave us a permanent “souvenir” in it’s place.

    Question.. Who would swallow mouthwash…except possibly street drunks.???? (I think I mentioned Listerine has %27 alcohol)

  29. @Edgar

    The use of alcohol is good enough but it does require enough contact-time with the virus to destroy it and alcohol by itself evaporates pretty quickly. Alternatively, there have been some unlabeled toxic compounds and carcinogens found in many commercial hand sanitizers with some regularity months after people had been using them.

    A different approach and one which has cured an entire nation of Covid, is the use of nasal and oral washes with an antimicrobial wash, dilute providone iodine or hydrogen peroxide or some commercially available mixture. Don’t swallow the wash just rinse and spit it out. The nation of Bangladesh has used this and now has very little covid as a result. There have been very strong studies showing remarkable rates of reduced disease for those using these washes.

    The virus is not really spread by droplets that fall on things you pick up, so washing them and your hands only reduces a small part of the exposure problem, and masks don’t stop the virus at all. So this leaves most of the viral exposure unprevented while people trust to the use of hand sanitizers and clean hands as a point of protection. Most of the exposure to the virus is actually due to the virus being in the air where it will remain for weeks, even if there is no ventilation or AC going. From there it will be freely breathed into the nose and mouth. It takes time for the virus to get thru the bodies’ defenses in the nose and mouth, so breathing it in does not mean you will become ill. They have found if you do the washes 4Xs a day it will remarkably reduce the chance of developing disease, by 70% as I recall. So, if you do not do this already, it might be something to consider.

    Regarding your family, I am very pleased to hear your grandchildren’s immunity held against the virus – the others were probably all vaccinated. You might suggest to Rachel that she consider contacting Dr. Bruce Patterson’s clinic. He has developed an expertise in treating this long fatigue and has written nearly 100 papers in the past year describing advances in treating Long Covid with ~80% success. He does work with international cases, and the IVM police will likely not prevent her from receiving his treatments, not all of them in any case. Here is his site for contact:
    https://covidlonghaulers.com/

  30. @ PELONI-

    A few months ago both my daughters and their families, living in one house, caught COVID. They all “recovered”, but my daughter Rachel is having such a long fatiguing recovery that she has had to work only part- time. And that from home. Her employers are bringing in a Vaccine Mandate. I would think that this is not legal. (Being at home I doubt that she needs a “mandate’ anyway).

    An oddity in these woeful times.. In the past few days, her 2 young children and her sister’s child were at Chabad day camp. The Counsellor was feeling ill and Lo..!!…the whole camp caught COVID, so that both shool and Hebrew school were cancelled. Whole families caught it…..all except my daughters’ 3 children, whose natural immunity seems to have worked in their favour……so far

    I find that liquid alcohol is far easier to use than spray. I can put a small amount on my glove and “wash my hands” around every item, especially fruit and plastic packages.

  32. I think the current system works very well as long as people add @name and quote or paraprase the gist or part of the comment they are replying to. Replies are in the same comment and indented. I just have to remember to start at the bottom and read backwards as before. Fortunately, the date and time are listed.

  33. I agree. I liked the clarity of the replies being associated with the specific comments, but it can be very easy to miss replies, especially in very active threads.

  34. @Ted Belman

    I kind of prefer it the old way, too, because then the most recent comment was always on top and I didn’t have to go searching for who said what to whom.

    I keep using @name so the comments are easier to find.

  35. A few weeks ago I introduced the Reply software. I am not enamoured of it as comments are no longer chronological..Replys are not seen by many.
    I preferred when we replied by starting with @name
    What say you?

  37. Ted, I have a comment under moderation could you please check it thanks. It might because it has two links in it?

  41. Trump on the vaccines:

    After inheriting the vaccines, Biden had a solemn obligation to monitor the data, keep the American people fully informed, and promote trust through transparency and communication. Instead, he has lied repeatedly and pursued nonsensical policies like denying natural immunity among those who have recovered from the virus – losing the trust of the American People.

    No one should be able to argue with this. Transparency and accountability expressed in regular updates with full disclosure of comparative benefits and problems with the differing vaccines has always been the Elephant missing from vaccine policy, in the US, the UK, Israel, Germany, France, everywhere. No Independent Safety Monitor Boards, No Human Ethics Committees, No Endpoint Adjudication Committee, and no communication of any explanations… just silence and study after study issued with the mantra of “Safe and Effective folks”, as the only reverberating echo to penetrate the void of quiet in the public square, as an answer to why what we were told to expect keeps failing to remotely relate to the deep disaster that is observed.

  43. Ardently pro-Trump radio host Wayne Allyn Root wants to stage an “intervention” with Donald Trump over the ex-president’s support for the COVID-19 vaccine. “He needs an intervention from a friend,” Root explained this week on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars program, adding that Trump is “in total delusion.

    The drama hit close to home late last week, as anti-vax protesters showed up at Trump’s New York hotel and called him a “fraud.”

  44. Groups Claim State Department Hampering Afghanistan Rescue Efforts

    “Efforts by dozens of private rescue groups who have focused their energy on saving other American allies in the 20-year war — people who typically don’t have the paperwork for a direct path into the U.S. — have slowed to a crawl,” a crucial portion reads. “Leaders of some of those groups who spoke to National Review are pointing fingers at the U.S. Department of State. They say the State Department is doing little to help them rescue American allies, and in some cases it is actively blocking their efforts. They’re calling on President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to help them save the people they once served with.”


    “I don’t think the current administration has any intentions of ever evacuating the men that fought and bled next to us, and their families,” Ben Owen, chief executive of the veterans’ group Flanders Fields, who’s joined the Afghanistan relief efforts, told National Review.

  45. @Ted
    Not sure if you know, but the posted link you had up on Byrne’s news relating Tore’s lawsuit is gone. I tried to post a bit of background on Tore and her case and it went to “Page not found (404)”

  46. Ted, which cites the success of vaccinations in Vermont is in moderation why?

    Is this technical (very short comment)?

    Or are comments which might not agree with the prevailing opinion of commentators on Israpundit no longer welcome?

    The other day two comments were removed after posting. Technical or Censorship?

  47. @Edgar

    Yes, I had a professor of immunology, he was 86yrs old and he was the most brilliant person I have ever known, a wretched teacher, rude, abusive and confrontational, but absolutely brilliant. I had a talk with him on many occasions, and I was never more intimidated by anyone due to his grasp of knowledge on so many topics and his ability to connect unrelated matters so acutely, but quite brutal should anyone ask something he already answered(only made that mistake once, LOL).

    I have known many seniors who were every bit seniors in many ways to most around them. As I was once told by my aunt, of Blessed Memory, “age is not a disease, but, rather, it can come with some very valuable gifts if you mind the wrapping”. She died at 90, and held one of the sharpest wits of anyone til the day she died.

    Your comment on people over 90 driving recalls me of my grandmother of Blessed Memory. She had a license that didn’t expire(unfortunately) and she would routinely take out mailboxes and sideswipe cars parked on the street. She wasn’t mentally deficient, but she wore contacts that didn’t work well with her dry eye problem and was incapable of adding drops while she drove. She famously noted she could see fine, mostly…LOL..She was a very lovely person, but very vain.

    People are just individuals. They each have unique qualities and unique failings, they should be valued as such and judged as such. Otherwise we walk a quik trip towards a very dark future. IMHO

    I do agree about Reader having some very astute observations, some of which I do not agree with, but am still quite struck with their content and foundation. But certainly not this one.

  48. A point I neglected to make… Boxers, (that most arduous and demanding sport), used to reach their peaks at about age 22-25 or so, especially in the lighter weights. Now they are only doing so at around 30 or over.

    Heavier weights today are only entering their Prime at about age 35, when years ago that was considered well “over the hill”. Some of the “Top Ten” are, or were until a few months ago, 40 or over. Both Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones ,both long term champs (especially the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon Jones) recently retired aged about 50. as did another former top champ Bernard Hopkins. Alexander Usyk who won his titles from Anthony Joshua (32) a month or so ago, is now just 35. Deontay Wilder (ranked 4) a recent Champ is about 38. Luis Ortiz ranked #8 is about 45. I know; because I’ve followed the sport for many years..

    There are so many examples..

  49. PELONI-

    Triple BINGO…… So beautifully outlined and delineated.

    READER makes good points…but not on this subject…my opinion only.
    (being in a pacifist mode -at present,- I add this last to (try) defuse argument)

    P.S. There are people in Victoria where I live who at age mid 90s still drive without accidents and can pass their severe driving tests competently.

  50. READER-

    JPost articles and their comments are certainly NOT proof of ANYTHING. You are using “broken reed” supports…… Your “highlights” are just barely decorative, nothing more.

    I never said a thing about “competition for competition’s sake”. Far from it indeed. I’ve already pointed out that Golda was an ACCIDENTAL PM. Surely you understand what this means. AND …I also said that she much preferred other less responsible positions, like Labour Ministry and Histadrut chief. She was a Labour activist her whole life. It even ruined her marriage. According to her bio-that is. I believe her, and also recall from years ago.

    AND..Political parties are VERY much like competing businesses. I’m puzzled as to why you don’t see that, and even that you bring it up. I agree that certain abilities decline with age, even in politics, -but not “always”, and certainly not with Netanyahu. His “decline” was due to conspiracy and plotting against him which you WELL KNOW. We’ve worn it to tatters since, and some are inclined to forget it..NOT ME…!!.

    And he certainly has NOT compromised his country’s security as you “hint”. Without him at the helm Israel might have been doomed years ago, and pushed back into being a fringe 1st world instead of being a Huge regional Power, like today.

    Conrad Black, one of the best article writers in JP op-eds must be nearly 80. Dov Fischer, the same. Martin Sherman has been in Israel for over 50 years and was a young adult activist when he made aliyah.

    The “powers that be” have been trying to get rid of him for the past 20 or more years. Have you forgotten “bottle-gate”…”garden furniture-gate”…”ice cream-gate”, …”catering-gate”… Attacking his wife and children as well as himself. And much MUCH more, all of which you KNOW. So what are you going on about??? Don’t tell me. Please.

    In this era 70 is just the end of middle age and timid beginning of old age. . . . AND….”age” is very RELATIVE.

    People no matter whom, are not omnipotent, and can often make errors , some of which can be crucial. We ALL do it……except maybe…..you???

    I think (it’s MY thought only) that you just like to argue.

    So what do you want. Your whole post is superfluous…. My opinion only-of course.