Fuel Up That Jet! Time For Another Trip!

Shiny Pony 15 Comments

After burning jet fuel to Alberta and back, Justin rested up today in preparation for his trip to Washington. Yes he will be flying with his staff, personal photographer, and video people to meet with Old Joe and others. I’m sure his loyal media will crown it a success, but I don’t think much if anything will be achieved. Biden and the Democrats are in a protectionist mood and have their own problems to worry about.

Blog Notes

Blogging 42 Comments

Some of the language being employed in the comments is getting out of line.

Be warned that I don’t give many warnings. Sometimes none.

For those who insist on continuing with pointless personal attacks and profanity, just know that I have the technology to click “all” on your entire history of comments here before reaching for the nuke button.

That is all.

Removing the Goalposts

Let Them Eat Taser Wuhan Flu 38 Comments

Los Angeles Times- CDC shifts pandemic goals away from reaching herd immunity

“Thinking that we’ll be able to achieve some kind of threshold where there’ll be no more transmission of infections may not be possible,” Jones acknowledged last week to members of a panel that advises the CDC on vaccines.

The result is that even if vaccination were universal, the coronavirus would probably continue to spread. “We would discourage” thinking in terms of “a strict goal,” he said.

“It has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and it’s repeatedly challenged us,” he said. “It’s impossible to predict what herd immunity will be in a new pathogen until you reach herd immunity.”

Then there’s the “boosters”

It may turn out that the term “booster” is a bit of a misnomer, and that the correct number of shots for maximum efficacy isn’t yet known.

How’s about the efficacy of one booster shot? Numbers out of Israel show…

The analysis suggests that the relative protection of the booster shot against infection is likely to be significantly smaller than the initial estimates of 10-11-fold (over 90%) reported by the MOH, probably around 60% at best.

Shell To Move Tax Base To UK, Drop “Royal Dutch” From Name

Drill, Baby, Drill 14 Comments

Zerohedge;

In a surprise corporate overhaul which the Dutch government branded an “unwelcome surprise”, Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it would scrap its dual share structure and move its head office to Britain from the Netherlands, pushed away by Dutch taxes and facing climate pressure in court as the energy giant shifts from oil and gas. The company, which long faced questions from investors about its dual structure and had recently been hit by a Dutch court order over its climate targets, will also drop “Royal Dutch” from its name – part of its identity since 1907 – to become Shell Plc.

The Anglo-Dutch firm has been in a long-running tussle with the Dutch authorities over the country’s 15% dividend withholding tax, which Shell sought to avoid paying with its two share classes. Its new single structure would resolve that issue and allow Shell to strike swifter sale or acquisition deals.

“The current complex share structure is subject to constraints and may not be sustainable in the long term,” Shell said, as it announced its plan to change the structure. The move requires at least 75% of votes by shareholders at a general meeting to be held on Dec. 10, the company said. […]

In response to the effective divorce, the Dutch government said on Monday it was “unpleasantly surprised” by Shell’s plans to move to London from The Hague. The decision will, meanwhile, be seen as a vote of confidence in London after Britain’s exit from the European Union triggered a shift in billions of euros in daily share trading from the UK capital to Amsterdam.

Via reader Adrian, who comments;

But … they are sucking up to the “activists” and so history will repeat itself and I would imagine there are two outcomes longer term. First. Shell remembers that they are fundamentally a provider of hydrocarbons and gets on with it OR they become relegated to a history book along with the likes of ICI.

Ironically if they had left companies alone like Enterprise, to name but one, the industry as a whole would have been much more resilient. The reason they had to keep buying upstarts like Enterprise is the same as Schlumberger (to name but one) keeps buying companies, because they run themselves as governments – they stifle the initiative and risk which others less choked with layers of management take.

There was a fact that back in the 80’s Shell re-discovered that they were an oil exploration business and during one brave move they got rid of either 5 or 8 layers of management (I can’t remember the exact details) … and no one noticed. I do remember the time as it was when they suddenly went from screwing drilling contractors on footage contracts and went to day rates.

Anyway, I am sure lots of people will interpret this in many ways.

Safe And Effective ®: Blurring The Lines

Featured Comment Safe and Effective Wuhan Flu 70 Comments

A featured comment posted here yesterday, from Natalie Gordon: Are we missing adverse vaccine reactions days 1-14 in Canada, (1-21 in Saskatchewan)?

Re: Covid-19: Stronger warnings are needed to curb socialising after vaccination, say doctors and behavioural scientists [https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n783/rr]

Examining the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Authorization Review Memorandum, note on page 41 Pfizer reports “Two serious cases of suspected but unconfirmed COVID-19 were reported, both in the vaccine group.” Pfizer attributes this to one of three possibilities. “It is possible that this event represented reactogenicity following the second vaccination, a COVID-19 case with false negative test that occurred less than 7 days after completion of the vaccination series, or an unrelated infectious process.”

I am aware of a young woman age 35 who had a previous case of confirmed COVID illness two months before she received her vaccine. Eight hours after her first Pfizer dose she became severely ill with headache, cough, fever, facial swelling and red rash, vomiting, diarrhea, shaking, inability to ambulate without assistance, strange visual and auditory hallucinations, swollen tongue, and dyspnea, which she partially recovered from after another ten hours. She was left with extreme fatigue being unable to get out of bed without assistance and unable to function properly for three more days after she was able to get out of bed. In the midst of her worst illness, her frantic husband contacted the official Government of Manitoba Health Links number. He was informed that her reaction did not fit the description of known reactions to the vaccine and therefore she must have acquired the virus before the vaccine and became symptomatic with COVID after the vaccine. He was advised that they must both self isolate for fourteen days and get a PCR test at the earliest opportunity. He was also advised that he not take her hospital or call an ambulance since she was likely highly infective and would endanger medical personnel and other patients. When she recovered enough to walk, she visited her family doctor who refused to take a report of an adverse reaction because the doctor considered this reaction to be within the normal parameters of vaccine response. Also due to the fact that any illness that occurs between day 1-14 is by government policy classified as COVID, she was included in the provincial statistics are a suspected COVID case in an unvaccinated person.

As a retired Human Geneticist with extensive experience in the epidemiology of genetic variants, I was absolutely appalled by her situation. If the Government of Manitoba is routinely classifying any illness in days 1-14 post vaccination as COVID then many cases of potential adverse vaccine reaction are being missed. Further, many cases of COVID may be adverse vaccine reactions not COVID. The 1-14 day standard is used all over Canada. The next door province of Saskatchewan recently changed their standard from 1-14 days to 1-21 days!

We simply must begin seriously considering if the COVID illnesses we see in days 1-14 in any region with this standard (1-21 in Saskatchewan) is in fact an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Are these adverse reactions are being classified incorrectly as COVID? We also need to know if the PCR tests of those who are being diagnosed as COVID cases during this period are actually detecting spike protein being released into the bloodstream after administration of the vaccine. I worry that our intense fear of causing vaccine hesitancy during a pandemic is also causing us to overlook potential adverse reactions. The multiple anecdotal reports coming from antivaxxer social media where hospital personnel complain ERs full of COVID patients are actually vaccine reactions may have some basis in truth. If this puzzling issue of days 1-14 (1-21 in Saskatchewan) is not resolved we will only increase vaccine hesitancy among antivaxxers because it will appear we are deliberately trying to conceal something.

More: Did you think unvaccinated meant they hadn’t had a vaccine? Think again.

Natalie Gordon’s academic background: I have BSc in Biochemistry a PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Manitoba with my area of speciality being Epidemiology of Genetic Variants of Folate metabolism I did a postdoctoral fellowship in CancerCare Manitoba in innate immunity and infection related preterm delivery in pregnancy. I also did a postdoctoral fellowship in Plants Science in Biostatistics. I am now semi retired but I am still writing and published. You can do a quick search of my peer reviewed publications in Google Scholar.

“I Don’t Think About Monetary Policy”

It's Probably Nothing Shiny Pony 7 Comments

David Murrell, in the comments;

Yesterday Statistics Canada reported that total manufacturing shipments declined by 3.0% (month over month) in September, and the industrial price index rose by 1.0% (month over month). The latter statistic means that industrial prices rose by 12% yearly for September:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/211115/dq211115a-eng.htm

Naturally the corporate media ignored these numbers. “Be happy!” they say.

It All Started In 1306

Mischief Is Important What He Said 25 Comments

I’m not sure about my brothers, but I’ve been eager with anticipation for some public acknowledgment of our vast ancestral lands which are rightfully ours, but now lived on by others in Scotland.

Alas, so far there has been silence.

Even with world leaders and climate elites gathering in Glasgow for another climate summit. One would have at least expected Justin, whom has been making a speciality of land acknowledgments, to have given a grave voiced mere mention to the Cumming clan’s ancestral lands.

It might even prompt the Scots to get with the new morality of our time. It’s certainly long overdue.

Back here in enlightened Canada, institutions are following Justin’s examples these days of land acknowledgements. Every Canadian primary and high school, college and university and anyone else being important and polite on Canadian soil, whenever two or more are gathered in the government’s name.

It has replaced, “let’s bow our heads in prayer.”

Things started to fall apart for the Cumming’s – spelled Comyn in those days – on February 10, 1306. Sir John Comyn, at 32 years of age, was stabbed to death by Robert the Bruce at the altar in Greyfriars Chapel in Dumfries.

That’s a fact. My grandparents had mentioned it. Dad, in his callous disregard for the painful past when farming in the present could have cared less, but today it’s all there on the internet, complete with a portrait of Sir John.

At that point in the early 1300s the Comyn’s were the largest landowners in Scotland, having vast holdings throughout the country. Sir John had royalty on both sides of his pedigree.

Now the reason for the stabbing isn’t definitive. Batches of people do seem to get upset at the Cumming’s through the years. According to the internet, when Robert the Bruce ran from the church, Sir Robert Fleming went back in “to finish the job.”

Both Sir John and Robert the Bruce were ‘Joint Guardians’ of Scotland, after the recent demise of Sir William Wallace, of recent movie fame, who held that post for a wee while.

Wallace was a landless soul, but had an ability to motivate folks. He probably would be paid to give Ted Talks, or be an evangelist on TV, or another Randy Hillier, if he was circulating today.

But being Wallace had no land, he deserves no mention whatsoever at world events of importance, like this climate conference.

Several years before being stabbed to death in church Sir John had fought in the first war for Scottish Independence. Today they have referendums on the topic. He was sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London, but was released on the condition that he fight the French in Flanders on behalf of the English. Which was where he was when Wallace gathered an army and fought his Scotland battles, before being publicly executed in a horrible way.

At the time of the stabbing, Sir John’s son of the same name fled down to England. He returned as a young soldier in 1314 to fight for Scotland and was killed in the Battle of Bannockburn.

If you want to know how a clan can go from royalty, living on estates that would put Downton Abbey to shame, to living down a long lane in a farmhouse on the eighth concession in a cold land, with not a servant or footman in sight, there you have it.

It’s been a damn hard thing to live with, that shame and rage at the cruelty, over the past 800 years. People say you should get over it, but having property taken after your clan chief was murdered in cold blood, for no apparent reason other than being a Cumming, leaves permanent scars.

One is at a loss on how to get Justin to notice.

Perhaps my brothers and I could set up a sod hut on Parliament Hill, with a grazing Ayrshire cow tethered to a stake, a sucking calf at her side. At least I have a kilt, complete with that wee dagger that fits into the sock.

A piper could be summoned, to play every evening and morn.

The Buchans’ are part of our clan, but it’s best if they stayed away. They tend to be hot-tempered towards Justin, when we’re vying for his sympathy.

Ian Cumming, Reprinted with permission, originally published Nov 2 in Ontario Farmer.

The Island Of Greater Hongcouver

Roadkill 102 Comments

Vancouver is now completely cut off from the rest of Canada by road.

Via FB:

Here’s a full list of mainland BC highways currently closed:
Hwy 1 between Hope and Lytton
Hwy 1 between Lytton and Spences Bridge
Hwy 3 between Hope and Manning Park
Hwy 3 between Princeton and Keremeos
Hwy 3 near Fernie
Hwy 5 between Hope and Merritt
Hwy 7 on both sides of Agassiz
Hwy 7 between Maple Ridge and Mission
Hwy 11 between Mission and Abbotsford
Hwy 93 between Radium Hot Springs and the BC-Alberta border
Hwy 99 between Pemberton and Lillooet

From the BC Transportation twitter feed.

Update: And now they may just get what they’ve been voting for, good and hard.

Think of the children!

Children R Our Future entitlement generation 22 Comments

If it takes a village to raise a child, it’s doubtful that the quality of childcare will be enhanced if the village is drowning in exponentially rising debt. The fact that two levels of government have reached an agreement on this multi-generational millstone is nothing to be celebrated.

The agreement follows the outline of agreements reached with several other provinces that call for daycare fees to be cut in half next year, and reduced to an average of $10 per day in five years. It includes the creation of more than 40,000 new spaces and commits the federal government to spending $3.8 billion over the next five years.

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