Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Category: government
A Fantastic Political Ad
Republican politicians in the States have found that making extreme statements somehow motivates deplorable voters to show up on Election Day.
Democrats are typically more restrained in their ads. Those are often boring.
Here’s Charles Graham who’s running for Congress. I feel like moving to North Carolina so I could vote for him. #inspiring
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Who invented the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine?
Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, a married couple, are both now billionaires.
Financial Times People of the Year for 2020.
In 2008 Özlem co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19.
How many lives have been saved by their vaccine?
How much illness reduced?
They first heard of Covid on January 8th, 2020. And instantly switched from the Cancer therapy they had been researching for two decades — to Covid.
By March 2020, they had five vaccine candidates ready to test in humans, and by November 2020, results indicated that the vaccine was more than 90% effective.
mRNA could be used for future vaccines even more quickly next time. BUT we should build manufacturing capacity NOW to be ready for the next one.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack?
Until about age-30, I assumed I’d die from nuclear radiation.
Now age-63, I’m still surprised each morning to be enjoying life.
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) weapon is designed to be detonated far above the Earth’s surface.
The explosion releases a blast of gamma rays into the mid-stratosphere, which ionizes as a secondary effect and the resultant energetic free electrons interact with the Earth’s magnetic field to produce a much stronger EMP than is normally produced in the denser air at lower altitudes.
Just one such weapon could kill everything electronic for months or years.
COULD YOU SURVIVE IN A TENT WITHOUT POWER? FEED YOURSELF FROM THE LAND?
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Should BILLIONAIRE$ pay less tax than YOU?
Someone in the American IRS leaked to Propublica:
- Warren Buffett ~ 0.10% true tax rate
- Jeff Bezos ~ 0.98% true tax rate
- Michael Bloomberg ~ 01.30% true tax rate
- Elon Musk ~ 3.27% true tax rate
What’s your true tax rate?
American politicians write complicated tax laws which result in loopholes used by the richest donors.
BUT — can it be fixed?
The best summary of the issue I’ve seen is the second podcast in this list.
The Bond Market Is Flipping Out. Here’s Why You Should Care. – The Daily
For the past few months, you’ve probably been hearing about the turbulence in the bond market.Today, Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, explains what has been happening, and why it matters.Guest: Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: How to make sense of mayhem in the bond market.The bond market issued a swift rebuke last week to the Trump administration’s latest attempt to lower borrowing costs.Photo: Rod Lamkey Jr. for The New York Times
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Tiananmen Square, June 4th, 1989
No one understands better the importance of symbolic imagery than totalitarian governments. One day this photo will be revered in China.
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia
The Unknown Rebel – AP photographer Jeff Widener. A lone protester delayed the tanks for over half an hour.
“All Lives Matter” is denial of systematic racism
When your All-Lives-Matter friend has a birthday, be sure to message:
“All Birthdays Matter”. 😀
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a white cop.
I’m hopeful things have change for the better.
BLM haters have been more muted since their racist President departed for the golf courses full-time.
According to professor of critical race theory, David Theo Goldberg, “All Lives Matter” reflects a view of “racial dismissal, ignoring, and denial”.
Philosopher Chris Lebron describes “All Lives Matter” as a “disingenuous retort” that misunderstands the problem raised by Black Lives Matter proponents.
On Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher expressed support for use of the “Black Lives Matter” phrase, stating that “‘All Lives Matter’ implies that all lives are equally at risk, and they’re not”. …
Can Biden reduce the US wealth gap?
Biden’s been great his first 100 days.
But the real test — as far as I’m concerned — is whether his administration can begin to reduce this gap.
Borgen – Season 1 (2010)
Lists of BEST NATIONS typically include Denmark close to the top.
But their government seems as chaotic as any.
Borgen is a Danish political drama television series.
In Danish: Borgen, lit. ’The Castle’, is the informal name of Christiansborg Palace where all three branches of Danish government reside: the Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court, and is often used as a figure of speech for the Danish government. …
… against all the odds, Birgitte Nyborg Christensen (Sidse Babett Knudsen)—a minor centrist politician—becomes the first female prime minister of Denmark. …
On Netflix the English voice over and captions are hilariously bad. BUT I did enjoy the characters and story lines. It gets great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Newsweek called Borgen “the best TV show you have never seen”.
NY Times: “bleaker, Nordic version of The West Wing“
A U.S. remake of the series is planned.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’m fully vaccinated
😀 Send me ALL the vaccine passports.
I got dose #1 of “Covishield”, the Indian version of Oxford–AstraZeneca, March 18th. NO — I’m not worried about blood clots.
I was in the first 7.76% of Canadians to get jabbed.
When Alberta started allowing the second dose of AstraZeneca after only 4 weeks, I signed up. Got jab #2 on April 16th.
Sounds like Vaccine Passports are a terrible idea.
But it’s inevitable that something like this will become required for international travel for many months. Or years.
Rick McCharles 