Author: VD

At Least 16 Percent of Moderna Vaccines Contaminated

Japan has seized 1.6 million doses of contaminated Moderna vaccines:

Around 1.6 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine are being pulled from circulation in Japan as a precaution after foreign material was discovered in some vials. An investigation was launched into the incident. The Health Ministry said on Thursday that it has withdrawn doses manufactured at the same production line following consultations with drug maker Takeda, which is in charge of sales and distribution of the vaccine in the country.

Takeda asked Moderna to conduct an urgent investigation after foreign substances were found in 39 unused vials. The material in question is believed to be a few millimeters in size, though its elements are yet to be determined, Japanese media reported, citing Takeda and the ministry.

In a statement to the media, Moderna confirmed the findings and said it was investigating the case. “To date, no safety or efficacy issues have been identified,” the US-based company said, adding that so far it cannot comment on how exactly some of its vials were contaminated.

The Health Ministry said it believes the risk is not significant, but sees the suspension as a cautionary measure, according to Kyodo News.

The presence of foreign material was confirmed since August 16 at eight vaccination sites in the Tokyo, Ibaraki, Saitama, Gifu, and Aichi prefectures. Takeda notified the ministry of the issue on Wednesday.

The ministry reported that the doses came from a factory in Spain and have already been sent to 863 vaccination sites across Japan. Officials will alert each site, and also revealed three production lot numbers – 3004667, 3004734, and 3004956 – so people can check if they received a potentially contaminated dose.

On the plus side, for all we know, the contaminating substances could be safer than the stuff designed to burn modifications into your RNA.

DISCUSS ON SG

Vaccinated 5x More Likely to Die

Hard evidence is coming in from the United Kingdom, and it conclusively establishes that the vaccines are NOT reducing the likelihood of a Covid-infected person dying.

The UK government just reported the following data, tucked away in their report on variants of concern:

Less than a third of delta variant deaths are in the unvaccinated.

Let me say that another way – two-thirds of Delta deaths in the UK are in the jabbed.

To be specific: From the 1st of February to the 2nd of August, the UK recorded 742 Delta deaths. Out of the 742 deaths, 402 were fully vaccinated. 79 had received one shot. Only 253 were unvaccinated.

Look at the bottom line: 402 deaths out of 47,008 cases in vaccinated; 253 deaths out of 151,054 cases in unvaccinated. If you get covid having been vaccinated, according to this data, you are much more likely to die than if you were not vaccinated!

Do the math. An unvaccinated individual in the UK who contracts COVID has a 1 in 597 chance of dying. A fully-vaccinated individual has a 1 in 117 chance of dying, which is 5.1 times greater.

The vaccines are clearly not effective, as they actually increase one’s risk of dying of Covid. And that doesn’t even account for the mounting evidence of serious adverse effects.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Next Domino

The failure in The Graveyard of Empires doesn’t necessarily mean the Imperial USA is going to collapse. However, once it becomes clear that the failure is merely one in a series, the conclusion becomes a little more obvious:

No single event no matter how photogenic it is, is not going to be a sign of the grand demise of the “Sole Hyperpower”. It really took from the beginning of WWI till the end of WWII for the British to truly fall apart as a geopolitical force. The Soviet Union fell much quicker, but it is very widely believed that Perestroika (or the The Reykjavik Summit) was the real first white flag that devolved into the breakup of the union years later. The Roman Empire was a vastly slower burn than either of these two modern behemoths.

This means we should not be debating if Afghanistan is the first “domino” to fall, but instead we should really take a look at what the rest of the dominos falling would look like. At this point we can surely put together a rough picture of what the next tiles to fall would look like, i.e. what other major failures/events would really be signs of the Monopolar World meeting its demise? The following are a few humble offerings as to what these dominos could be…

Abandoning the Maidan Regime in the Ukraine

The unexpected surrender and soon to be total fall of Kabul has certainly resonated in another city that starts with the letter K. If Washington is finding it necessary to abandon a twenty-year Nation-Building project that they have invested vast sums of money and manpower into, that means that back-burner Kiev could be cut loose in the near future, putting the fate of the region in the hands of the Russians.

Image: We all know who secures Ukrainian “independence”.

The Maidan has been a major roadblock for Russia. As Brzeziński wrote, “It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire” and Washington has done an absolutely fantastic job of turning the region into an “anti-Russia” as Putin recently called it.

If the Maidan project were to be abandoned, it would become another quite massive domino. Washington giving up on Kiev, resulting in that current political entity probably being divided up, mostly going to Moscow, would symbolize either the USA’s inability to stop the rise of the Russians or their begrudging acceptance of it.

I observe that the failures in Syria and Crimea already preceded the retreat from Afghanistan. That being said, I’m still of the opinion that the collapse will take place in the 2030s rather than the 2020s, even though it only took two years for the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan to turn into the fall of the Soviet empire.

DISCUSS ON SG

Confucius Condemns Neoliberalism

A philosophical experts on Aquinas considers the applicability of The Analects to today’s catastrophically atomized society.

What is essential to a well-functioning society? In a famous passage from The Great Learning traditionally attributed to Confucius (551-479 B.C.), the philosopher says:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.

From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered.

These words from the great man of the East would be warmly endorsed in the West by ancient thinkers like Plato and Aristotle and medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas. But they run counter to the modern West’s liberalism, including the libertarian brand of liberalism that too often passes for “conservatism.” The liberal attitude is that the moral character of individuals does not matter for social order so long as the right rules and institutions are in place. Part of Confucius’s point, and that of any conservatism worthy of the name, is that rules and institutions are ineffectual without individuals willing to subordinate their desires to them. And individuals who do not seek the good (so as to “rectify their hearts”) and the true (thus pursuing the “investigation of things”) can neither curb bad desires nor cultivate good ones. The brute force of legal coercion cannot substitute for this missing moral fiber. As we read in chapter 2 of The Analects:

The Master said: “Lead them by political maneuvers, restrain them with punishments: the people will become cunning and shameless. Lead them by virtue, restrain them with ritual: they will develop a sense of shame and a sense of participation.”

And again:

Someone said to Confucius: “Master, why don’t you join the government?” The Master said: “In the Documents it is said: ‘Only cultivate filial piety and be kind to your brothers, and you will be contributing to the body politic.’ This is also a form of political action; one need not necessarily join the government.”

And in chapter 12:

The Master said: “I could adjudicate lawsuits as well as anyone. But I would prefer to make lawsuits unnecessary.”

In such passages, Confucius reminds us that the personal is the political, not in the totalitarian sense that absorbs the personal up into the political and tries to mold attitudes and actions via state coercion, but on the contrary in the humane sense that devolves the political down to the personal level, in the recognition that social order depends more fundamentally on prevailing morals and mores than on legislation.

Wisdom comes in many forms. And it is remarkable how often wisdom from wildly disparate sources ultimately direct us toward the same conclusion.

Tuesday PM Arktoons

STONETOSS Episode 11: Cannibalism

THE AWAKENER Episode 15: The Final Journey

Bounding Into Comics breaks the news with details on some of the new series that will debut on Arktoons in the near future:

Chuck Dixon and Arkhaven Comics publisher Vox Day continue their partnership as Dixon will be bringing a brand new western to Arktoons, Arkhaven’s webcomic platform.

Dixon’s partnership with Day and Arkhaven runs deep as he’s currently penning new Midnight’s War stories. He also has Chuck Dixon’s Avalon, Alt-Hero Q, Something Big, Go Monster Go!, and more on the webcomic platform.

Not to mention, Dixon has also been curating a number of classic comics to incorporate on the platform that include a number of different genres such as mystery and war.

The new western is titled Snakehand and sees Dixon team with artist John Neal to tell the story of Texas lawman Joe Wiley as he attempts to bring law and order to the hive of scum and villainy known as Mercury Wells….

Arktoons will also be launching a new science fiction series called Faraway Wars. No details on the creative team or what the story is about were revealed, but Vox Day did share a sample page revealing what looks to be three heroes being celebrated in a futuristic world that includes flying cruise ships.