Monday, April 11, 2022

Meningococcal Disease Outbreak

Loving Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Joe Biden's Mythical Mid-Term Voters" and I also really enjoyed Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dolly Parton still has the touch,"

We're doing a science post. In part, because it's been too long. But that reason had me wanting to do one last week and there wasn't time. If you've missed it, Florida is facing an outbreak. No, not CVOID. From the CDC:

Meningococcal Disease Outbreak, Florida, 2022

Get Vaccinated

In response to an ongoing outbreak of meningococcal disease in Florida, CDC is encouraging gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men to:

Get a MenACWY vaccine if they live in Florida¹
Talk with their healthcare provider about getting a MenACWY vaccine if they are traveling to Florida

In addition, CDC is highlighting the following existing meningococcal vaccine recommendations:

MenACWY vaccination is routinely recommended for all people with HIV in the United States²
Young adults in the United States, including college students, may choose to get a MenB vaccine

There is a large, ongoing outbreak of meningococcal disease in Floridaexternal icon, primarily among gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men, including those living with HIV. There have also been cases reported in the state over the last few months, including multiple cases in college studentsexternal icon. At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the cases among college students are related to the larger outbreak.

Florida’s increase in meningococcal disease cases is mostly affecting people who live in Florida but has also affected some people who have traveled to Florida.

Meningococcal disease: Very serious, often deadly

The two most common types of meningococcal infections are meningitis (an infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord) and bloodstream infection, both of which can quickly become deadly.

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If you have symptoms of meningococcal disease, seek medical care right away. Symptoms of meningococcal disease can first appear as a flu-like illness and rapidly worsen.

Vaccination offers the best protection against meningococcal disease

In response to this outbreak in Florida, CDC is encouraging gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (with or without HIV) to:

Get a MenACWY vaccine if they live in Florida
Talk with their healthcare provider about getting a MenACWY vaccine if they are traveling to Florida

Ideally, people would get vaccinated with one dose (or the 2-dose series for people with HIV) at least 2 weeks before traveling. Learn more about what gay and bisexual men need to know about meningococcal disease outbreakspdf icon.

CDC is also emphasizing the importance of routine MenACWY vaccination for people with HIV. For the best protection, people with HIV should make sure they have gotten their 2-dose primary series of a MenACWY vaccine and are up to date with booster doses. Learn more about what people living with HIV need to know about meningococcal diseasepdf icon.

Importantly, MenB vaccines are available to any teen or young adult 16 through 23 years old who is interested in getting vaccinated. College campuses have reported outbreaks of serogroup B meningococcal disease in recent years. Learn what people need to know about serogroup B meningococcal diseasepdf icon.

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Find a meningococcal vaccine by contacting your doctor’s office, pharmacy, community health center, or your local health department.

Footnote

CDC routinely recommends MenACWY vaccine for children and adults at increased risk for meningococcal disease during an outbreak involving serogroups A, C, W, or Y. CDC recommends a booster shot for those at increased risk due to an outbreak who received the vaccine more than 5 years prior.
CDC routinely recommends MenACWY vaccine for children and adults at increased risk for meningococcal disease, including those with HIV. People with HIV should get a 2-dose primary series of MenACWY vaccine, with the second dose given at least 8 weeks after the first, followed by a booster dose every 5 years. If someone completed their primary series before the age of 7 years, they should get their first booster dose 3 years later and then get a booster dose every 5 years.

Having a brother who is gay, I want to be sure to get the word out on that. When AIDS was first coming up, too many people ignored it. And, note, this is not just effecting gay men (neither did AIDS).

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, April 11, 2022. Joe Biden continues to perseucte Julian Assange while his own corruption gets futher attention and little media needs to be asked why they are glorifying a man arrested three times for seeking sex with underage girls, convicted for it in court, sent to prison for it.

Starting with the continued persecution of Julian Assange by US President Joe Biden. Joe wants the UK to deport Australian citizen Julian Asange for the 'crime' of journalism. Alan Jones (INDEPENDENT) reports:

The continued imprisonment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a “criminal act”, his wife has said.

Stella Assange was speaking on the third anniversary of her husband being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

He has since been held in Belmarsh prison in the capital while the US seeks his extradition on espionage charges, which he has always denied.

Protests took place yesterday. BBC NEWS reports:

Protests are being held to mark the third anniversary of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Supporters are escalating demands for his release from Belmarsh prison in London where he has been since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy.

The United States continues with legal moves to extradite him to face trial on espionage charges.

Vigils are being held outside the Ecuadorian embassy, Westminster magistrates' court and Belmarsh prison.

Also yesterday, Katie Halper used her online platform to steer attention to Julian Assange.

Here's the synopsis of the video:

A night of comedy and music in support of Julian Assange, featuring Lee Camp, Margaret Kunstler, Katie Halper, Marianne Williamson, Eleanor Goldfield, John Kiriakou, Jaffer Khan, Medea Benjamin, John F O'Donnell, Luci Murphy, Steve Jones hosted by Randy Credico. Presented by Assange Countdown & NYC Free Assange.

Julian's 'crimes' include informing the public of War Crimes in Iraq.

Joe Biden wants to persecute Julian. He wants to kidnap him and bring him to the United States. Knowing Joe, he probably wants to f**k Julian as well -- or at least sniff him.. Surely he wants to treat Julian as an enemy combatant.

Joe has a non-stop war on the First Amendment. When you have so much to hide, you're no fan of a free press.

Senator Chuck Grassley (Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Senator Ron Johnson speak in the above C-SPAN video about the questionable practices of the Biden family.

Senator Ron Johnson's office issued the following:

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the Senate floor for the third time to discuss their investigation into the vast web of financial entanglements of the Biden family. The senators found that the Bidens not only have ties with the Chinese regime, but Russian oligarchs as well. The senators will continue their investigation until the truth about these corrupt business dealings is uncovered and the American people have answers.

Click here for the video

Sen. Johnson’s remarks as prepared, below.

Thank you, Senator Grassley.

What Senator Grassley and I have shown over the course of six speeches are the actual bank records of financial transactions tying President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, James, to businesses that are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime. But the Biden business ventures include activities in many more countries than just China.

In our September and November 2020 reports we showed a vast web of the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements that were largely ignored by the media, and falsely labeled Russian disinformation by our Democrat colleagues. As outrageous as the suppression of our reports and the false attacks were, perhaps the most egregious behavior came from 51 former Intelligence Agency officials who lent their names and reputations to an effort designed to convince the American public that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Without any evidence backing their assertion, they engaged in their own “information operation” by signing a public letter right before the election. Their letter was actual disinformation, coming from what are supposed to be trusted former members of our U.S. intelligence agencies.

They should all be ashamed and held accountable for spreading this disinformation. By signing that disinformation letter, they reinforced false claims that the records on the laptop were not legitimate.

By casting doubt on evidence of the Bidens’ corrupt practices, these former intelligence officials interfered in the 2020 election to a far greater extent than Russia could have ever hoped to achieve. Their willing accomplices in the press amplified this disinformation letter and by doing so were equally guilty of egregious election interference.

In August 2020, I wrote a public letter detailing the history, purpose and goals of my oversight and investigations. In that letter, I laid out the timeline of Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Ukraine. The timeline is very revealing.

February 2014 – The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
April 16, 2014 – then-Vice President Joe Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House.
April 21 (Five days later) – Joe Biden visited Ukraine, and the media described him as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.”
April 22 (the very next day) – Archer joined the board of Burisma.
April 28 (Six days later) – British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky.
May 13, 2014 (three weeks later) – Hunter Biden joined the board of Bursima.

Because of the findings in our reports and the excellent investigative journalism on the part of John Solomon, we also now know that Hunter was involved with Elena Baturina, the corrupt and now-sanctioned wife of the former Mayor of Moscow during the very same time period.

On February 14, 2014 Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden.

Between April 4 and April 5, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer sent emails about meeting with Baturina potentially relating to a business deal in Chelsea, New York.

On April 13, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer discuss the potential business deal involving Baturina. Archer wrote that Baturina “confirmed green light to fund deposit.” Archer continued, “Just spent two hours on the phone with Kiev. I am confident at this point this is a good, if not life changing, deal if the Uk[raine] doesn’t collapse in the meantime.”

It is quite interesting to see how much significant activity involving the Bidens and corrupt actors in Russia and Ukraine occurred within a six-week period only two months after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. It sure looks like they intended to cash in on the turmoil in Ukraine.

In my August 2020 letter, I listed a number of questions about then-Vice President Biden’s interaction with Hunter Biden’s business partner and other family members’ foreign financial dealings. In making this letter public, my hope was that the press would begin to ask then-presidential candidate Joe Biden these important questions.

It should come to no surprise that the corporate media was completely uninterested and failed to conduct any investigative journalism.

Nearly two years after I wrote this public letter, the mainstream media has still not adequately pressed President Biden for answers to these very legitimate questions:

Why did Joe Biden meet with Devon Archer at the White House on April 16, 2014? What was discussed? Did they discuss anything related to Ukraine, Hunter Biden, or Burisma?
Was Joe Biden aware that Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma six days later?
Does Joe Biden believe Burisma and its owner are corrupt?
When did Joe Biden first become aware that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma?
When did Joe Biden first become aware of how much money Hunter Biden was being compensated by Burisma?
What does Joe Biden know about Hunter or James Biden’s business dealings in China?
What does Joe Biden know about financial benefits his brothers and sister-in-law have obtained because of their relationship to him?

Investigative reporter John Solomon has added more questions to this list, including:

What, if anything, did Joe Biden know about his son's dealings with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina?
A 2017 series of memos referred to a Chinese business deal that involved Hunter Biden and included a 10% equity for the “big guy.” What did Joe Biden know about this specific deal and who was the “big guy”?
Emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop, now in the possession of the FBI, refer to shared accounts or bills between Joe Biden and Hunter. Did Hunter ever give Joe Biden any money, gift or financial benefit from Hunter’s business dealings?

After a long-overdue analysis, the New York Times and Washington Post have finally admitted that records from Hunter’s laptop are authentic, which means – although they will NEVER admit this – that Senator Grassley and I were right and they were wrong.

It is interesting to read how limited and muted their mea culpas are. My guess is that they learned a lot from their coverage of Nixon’s Watergate scandal cover-up. They learned that when you’ve been caught in a cover-up – and that is what has happened here – you try to limit the damage by telling a little bit of the truth. In the Intelligence world, this strategy is called a “limited hang out.” The Watergate conspirators called it a “modified limited hang out.”

Regardless of what it’s called, what the New York Times and Washington Post are doing is not telling the whole truth. I doubt they ever will. But just in case they decide to pursue the truth with a bit more rigor, they can use this list of relevant questions as a good starting point for what they should be asking President Biden.

For our part, Senator Grassley and I will continue to ask tough questions, review more information and records and transparently provide that information to the American public.

We intend to pursue and uncover the truth.

I will turn the floor over to Senator Grassley for his closing remarks.

CBS NEWS reports:

The issues were discussed on MSNBC's MORNING JOE and I was asked to note it. I know the guest on the segment (Dan Abrams) and I was told the segment included a report by Pete Williams. Fine. I was willing to note it. Then I streamed it. Mika is trash and I've never been able to stand her. Her father is responsible for the deaths of so many and that's before we even touch on don't have sex on the job. I find her depraved and disgusting. I don't need her to editorialize before a conversation can begin and I certainly don't need her insisting nothing to see here before the discussion begins. If there's nothing to see here then find another story to cover, dead. That shouldn't be hard, not even for an idiot like Mike. We're not noting it, sorry. I will note Dan Abrams discussing the various issues on NEWS NATION.

And, in the second segment of the REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT video below, Sabby Sabs addresses situational ethics and hypocrisy with regards to the Biden ethics scandal.

Miranda Devine (NY POST) offers:

It is not just the e-mails and other material on Hunter’s abandoned laptop which point to Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s multimillion-dollar global influence-peddling schemes when he was vice president.

There is also the six-hour interview Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski gave to the FBI last year, along with a trove of documents, e-mails and encrypted messages.

Bobulinski has publicly named Joe Biden as the “Big Guy,” referenced in e-mails, whose 10% equity in a joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC was held for him by Hunter.

Now the identity of the Big Guy has become a topic for the Delaware probe.

At least one of the witnesses before the grand jury has been asked: who is the Big Guy?

Sources familiar with the investigation say Bobulinski is yet to appear, but if he does not testify before the grand jury, something is very wrong.

Perhaps US attorney David Weiss is saving the best for last.

The pressure on Weiss is immense, as the four-year investigation into the president’s son and his business partners, including his uncle James Biden, Joe’s younger brother, threatens to become an election issue in November.

Alarm bells are starting to ring in Democratic circles as the White House stonewalls in the face of increasing media inquiries. In two absurd statements in recent days, White House spokespeople said the president stands by his pre-election statement that Hunter never received any money from China, and he continues to deny that he knew anything about his son’s overseas business dealings.

The White House position is unsustainable.

When not attempting to coveer for the corruption within his own family, Joe pushes for war with Russia. Already, in grocery stores across America, the supplies are limited. Go in, look around. Notice that, for example, there are huge empty spaces on the chips aisle. Notice how canned goods is missing major

Joe is a failure. And the media doesn't want to call him on it but the America people will in the mid-terms. Inflation, higher gas prices. We're not all Joe's sister. Everyon can get a bribe passed off as payment for work needed for dictating a bunch of lies that make Joe Biden look good. There's no audience for a book about Joe Biden. Michelle Obama -- who does have supporters -- did not sell well with her book. Joe has nothing to insprie. And his sister has enabled and covered for him for decades. No one expects truth or anything interesting in her 'book.' But, hey, she was overpaid and the conglomerate knows Joe recognizes payments (bribes) to his family.

Jim Lobe (RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT) notes:

The evening news programs of the three dominant U.S. television networks devoted more coverage to the war in Ukraine last month than in any other month during all wars, including those in which the U.S. military was directly engaged, since the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, according to the authoritative Tyndall Report. The only exception was the last war in which U.S. forces participated in Europe, the 1999 Kosovo campaign.

Combined, the three networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — devoted 562 minutes to the first full month of the war in Ukraine. That was more time than in the first month of the U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989 (240 mins), its intervention in Somalia in 1992 (423 mins), and even the first month of its invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001 (306 minutes), according to a commentary published Thursday by Andrew Tyndall, who has monitored and coded the three networks’ nightly news each weekday since 1988.

“Astonishingly, the two peak months of coverage of the [2003] Iraq war each saw less saturated coverage than last month in Ukraine (414 minutes in March of 2003 and 455 minutes in April),” he wrote. “…The only three months of war coverage in the last 35 years that have been more intensive than last month were Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 (1,208 minutes) and his subsequent removal in January and February 1991 (1,177 and 1,033 minutes respectively).”

That was at a time, however, when the network evening news devoted about a third more time to foreign news than it has in recent years when international news coverage has fallen to all-time lows.

Last month’s coverage of Ukraine even eclipsed by a wide margin the three networks’ coverage of the chaotic end of Washington’s 20-year war in Afghanistan last summer. Last August, the month with the most intense coverage, the three networks devoted a total of 345 minutes (or only about 60 percent of last month’s total Ukraine coverage) to the war’s abrupt denouement. Once U.S. forces had fully withdrawn by August 31, network coverage of Afghanistan fell precipitously to a total of just 103 minutes between September 1 and the end of year, despite the desperation of the country’s humanitarian situation that followed (and persists).

While the major cable news networks often receive more public attention, the evening news shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC collectively remain the single most important source of international news in the United States.

The push for war certainly received more attention that Iraq did last month. Last month was the 19th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War -- an ongoing war NEHR NEWs AGENCY reports:

According to Iraqi sources, two US military logistics convoys have been targeted in southern and northern Iraq.

A security source said that a logistics convoy belonging to US troops was hit by an explosion in Salah ad-Din, north of Baghdad.

Also, a roadside bomb exploded in the path of US military logistics crossing the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar.

Remember, in 2009, Barack Obama's grandstanding on Iraq, how he knew the US had done everything it could and how it was time to leave and how . . .

13 years later and US troops remain on the ground in Iraq.

Joe Biden care to explain that?

I don't like lairs. I have been kind and I'm tired of it. There's a Twitter wave now in support of Scott Ritter. Poor Scotty. He was banned. In 2002!!!! Well, he was still on cable then. That's your first lie, idiots. Richard Medhurst and others have been making it very clear that they don't care for women or girls.

Scott Ritter lost TV access when his second arrest for attempting to engage in sex with an underage girl became known. Most likely, his political enemies -- Democrats and Republicans -- leaked it to the media. But let's stop the nonsense of his being removed from corporate media because he was telling the truth.

And let's start asking various outlets -- CONVO COUCH, Richard Medhurst, Jackson Hinkle and others -- exactly what are you trying to do?

You're bringing on a man convicted of attempting to engage in sex with an underage girl. A man who sought girls out on the internet for sexual purposes.

His lawyer got him off on the first arrest. The second came with a slap on the wrist. The third happened after Barack was president and it went to trial. Scott cried to the court, real tears, about how he couldn't control it and he was so embarrassed and . . .

Off he went to prison.

And now Richard and others bring him on their shows without any sort of warning?

his conviction. F

He's a sex criminal. Convicted. A convicted felon. He admitted it in court. I know he's walked it back since he got out. I don't care.

And if that's the best you have to foffer, you need to learn how to make an argument. A convicted felon who preys on young girls is not someone you should be promoting.

If you're going to bring him on your show, you need to at least note his conviction.

In 2004 and 2004, we had to make this case. People finally got the point allowing them to avoid being embarrassed by his third arrest.

I can't elieve that I'm again having to take time on this.

Don't pretend you're about equality if you're promoting a man who wants to harm underage girls. Don't pretend that you're about truth when you lie that he was expunged from the airwaves because he was arguing about the Iraq War when he was tossed from corporate airwaves when they learned of his arrest and that it was his second arrest.

I don't know why you insist upon bringing on a predator to begin with. Mayb eyou just don't give a s**t what happens to women and girls? Maybe you should answer that question.

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Joe Biden's Mythical Mid-Term Voters" went up earlier this morning and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dolly Parton still has the touch." The following sites updated: