Loud-Mouths & Tight Spaces: CDC Revises Its Covid-19 Contagion Guidelines

The CDC retracts its guidance that stipulated the airborne danger of the coronavirus

by Benjamin Mateus  - WSWS

 23 September 2020

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new guidelines acknowledging that the virus causing COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through small airborne particles. This admission implies that people occupying poorly ventilated areas such as classrooms, meat packing factories, production lines, churches, grocery stores, etc., are at risk of acquiring COVID-19 if someone else in the room with COVID-19 is contagious. Airborne particles, unlike respiratory droplets, can linger in the air and concentrate throughout an enclosed room.

David J. Sencer CDC Museum in Atlanta, GA (Wikimedia Commons) 

The CDC wrote in no uncertain terms that the most common modes of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 were through “respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes. 

 

The Western Fire Refugees

Diary of a Smoke Refugee 

by David Rovics - CounterPunch

September 21, 2020

It’s been quite a week here in Oregon. I know there are plenty of other horrors happening in the world. The invisible ones are the worst. Like tens of millions of children in the US going to bed hungry every night in recent weeks, or the tap water in Flint and Gaza continuing to be undrinkable, or the many people every night in Yemen and India dying alone at home of disease, knowing it’s pointless to go to a hospital that has no medicine and no equipment. 

 Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

The visible horrors are more dramatic, more newsworthy, and also deadly for some, devastating for many – Sudan and Alabama underwater. Siberia, California, and Oregon on fire.

Standing Down: Guardian Stays Mum on Assange Charges

The US is using the Guardian to justify jailing Assange for life. Why is the paper so silent? 22 September 2020 

by Jonathan Cook

September 22, 2020

Julian Assange is not on trial simply for his liberty and his life. He is fighting for the right of every journalist to do hard-hitting investigative journalism without fear of arrest and extradition to the United States. Assange faces 175 years in a US super-max prison on the basis of claims by Donald Trump’s administration that his exposure of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan amounts to “espionage”.

The charges against Assange rewrite the meaning of “espionage” in unmistakably dangerous ways. Publishing evidence of state crimes, as Assange’s Wikileaks organisation has done, is covered by both free speech and public interest defences. 

 

The Bats Bot of Britain: BBC Blitzes Population with War Porn

The ‘War Against Us’ – The Battle of Britain And Steve Richards On ‘The Prime Ministers’

by Media Lens

 

23rd September 2020

We can report that the skies over South East England have been swarming with Spitfires and Hurricanes this month. Is there a war on? Well, yes. 

In 1991, the historian Howard Zinn described the two targets of Operation Desert Storm:

 

‘The American population was bombarded the way the Iraqi population was bombarded. It was a war against us, a war of lies and disinformation and omission of history. That kind of war, overwhelming and devastating, waged here in the US while the Gulf War was waged over there.’ (Zinn, ‘Power, History and Warfare,’ Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, No. 8, 1991, p.12)

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dahr Jamail, Jennifer Abbott, Janine Bandcroft September 24, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

September 24, 2020

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, September 18th, 2020.

 

It’s clear, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we all live. While questions about how long-lasting a change that will be are moot, what we should be asking is: 

“How do we make the most of these forced changes, and now choose better ways of living?”

Dahr Jamail is a recovering journalist and author whose latest book, ‘The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption’ is a vital guide to both understanding these turbulent times, and the possibilities they present.

Listen. Hear.

Dahr’s latest project is ‘The Changing Earth: Indigenous Voices From Turtle Island’ a collaboration with indigenous scholar, Stan Rushworth that promises to, “present, via powerful and intimate encounters, the perspective of Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada on the Earth’s climate and interrelated Covid-19 emergencies.”

Dahr Jamail in the first half.

And; are there any among you listening not worried about the state of the natural World; any unaware of the collapsing populations of insects, birds, and fish both great and small? And, are there any left who believe it’s not too late to avert climate disaster? Well, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you: “Yes, it IS too late, baby”. But, just because we’ve passed the point of being able to preserve “our way of life” doesn’t mean we can’t still live full and meaningful lives.

Jennifer Abbott is an internationally renowned, award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her latest film, premiering at the imminently opening Vancouver International Film Festival, ‘The Magnitude of All Things’ is a deeply personal and poignant film that, “explores the emotional and psychological dimensions of the climate crisis and the relationship between grief and hope in times of personal and planetary change.”

Jennifer Abbott in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Dahr Jamail and Covid, climate and other interrelated emergencies.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Andre Vltchek, PRESENTE!

 In Memoriam – Andre Vltchek

by OffGuardian

September 23, 2020

OffG is shocked to hear that Andre Vltchek, a long-time contributing author and friend of the site, died yesterday in Istanbul.

He died suddenly whilst travelling in Turkey with his wife. Turkish officials are treating the death as “suspicious”, but as yet no details have been released. He was 57 years old. 

 

Mass Migratory Bird Die-Off a "National Tragedy"

Hundreds of Thousands of Migratory Birds 'Falling Out of the Sky' in the Southwest

by Jordan Davidson - EcoWatch

September 22, 2020

The American Southwest is witnessing a horrific and inexplicable phenomenon, likely due to the climate crisis: hundreds of thousands of migratory birds are dying off. The birds seem to be just "falling out of the sky," as The Guardian reported.

A MacGillivray's Warbler found dead in Fairplay, Colorado 

on Sept. 1, 2020. Southwest Avian Mortality Project

 

An eerie scene was captured on video and posted to the Las Cruces-Sun News in New Mexico. Journalist Austin Fisher was out on a hike on Sunday when he encountered a trail of dead birds. The New Mexico Game & Fish department has been inundated with calls from residents concerned about all the dead birds they are seeing.

 

Mike Pompeo's Socialist Reforms (for Venezuela)

Pompeo Announces Funding for Welfare, Healthcare and Indigenous Support. In Venezuela 

by Alan Macleod - MintPress News

September 21, 2020

The sweeping $348 million aid package, which includes funding for healthcare, direct cash assistance, and even psychosocial support, runs in stark contradiction to a long-held US policy of sanctions on Venezuela.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has returned from his official visits to Suriname, Guyana, Colombia and Brazil, where he discussed the possibilities of regime change in Venezuela, a nation which has drawn Washington’s ire for over 20 years. 

 

Bill Gates' War: Resisting the Billionaires' Global Agenda

Bill Gates’ Global Agenda and How We Can Resist His War on Life

by Vandana Shiva - Independent Science News

September 21, 2020

In March 2015, Bill Gates showed an image of the coronavirus during a TED Talk and told the audience that it was what the greatest catastrophe of our time would look like. The real threat to life, he said, is ‘not missiles, but microbes.’ When the coronavirus pandemic swept over the earth like a tsunami five years later, he revived the war language, describing the pandemic as ‘a world war’.

‘The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus,’ he said. 

 

Good Money After Bad Wars: Myth and Military Spending

What Does WWII Have To Do With Military Spending

by David Swanson - Let's Try Democracy

September 18, 2020
 

“I’m going to perform a magic trick by reading your mind,” I tell a class of students or an auditorium or video call full of people. I write something down. “Name a war that was justified,” I say. Someone says “World War Two.” I show them what I wrote: “WWII.” Magic![i]

If I insist on additional answers, they’re almost always wars even further in the past than WWII.[ii] If I ask why WWII is the answer, the response is virtually always “Hitler” or “Holocaust” or words to that effect.

TikTok a Stalking Horse for Internet Censorship

White House bans TikTok and WeChat: A major intensification of internet censorship 

by Kevin Reed - WSWS

19 September 2020

In a major escalation of the anti-China campaign ahead of the election, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it was following through on its executive orders of August 6 and banning the social media apps TikTok and WeChat from being downloaded from US app stores on Sunday.

The move is a frontal assault on the freedom of expression and an effort to consolidate control of the internet by a handful of massive corporations working in partnership with the American government. TikTok is used by millions of people every day to connect with friends and family, share ideas and communicate, and has been used to organize social protests. WeChat is a major link of communication between the United States and China.

Passing: Stephen Cohen, America's Voice of Sanity on Russia

Stephen Cohen Has Died. Remember His Urgent Warnings Against The New Cold War

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

September 19, 2020

Stephen F Cohen, the renowned American scholar on Russia and leading authority on US-Russian relations, has died of lung cancer at the age of 81.

As one of the precious few western voices of sanity on the subject of Russia while everyone else has been frantically flushing their brains down the toilet, this is a real loss. I myself have cited Cohen’s expert analysis many times in my own work, and his perspective has played a formative role in my understanding of what’s really going on with the monolithic cross-partisan manufacturing of consent for increased western aggressions against Moscow.

The Little Poison That Couldn't: Is It Time to Retire Novichok?

A TALE OF TWO BOTTLES – NAVALNY POISON SLOWEST ACTING WEAPON IN ASSASSINATION HISTORY

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – this is how Charles Dickens opened his story of regime change in Paris during the French revolution. Also for Alexei Navalny (lead image) and his roommate in Tomsk on the evening of August 19, Maria Pevchikh of London.

They haven’t read the rest of Dickens’ opening. “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.”

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer, Joe Emersberger, Janine Bandcroft September 18, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

September 18, 2020

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, September 14th, 2020.

 

The Navalny Affair currently roiling relations between Russia and Germany would have all the elements of a cracking spy picture, if only the writers could get the story bugs out. 

As it stands, we the audience are asked to accept with credulity a plot that makes little sense, and whose third act reveal is yet to be revealed. Whether that’s just part of the mystery or because “there is no there there” remains to be seen.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to government, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Among Helmer’s many books is the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, the two-plus year chronicle of the Skripal case, ‘Skripal in Prison’. 

Listen. Hear.

His recent article, ‘GERMANS NOW CLAIM GOD POISONED NAVALNY – THAT’S THE GOD OUT OF THE MACHINE’ presents the disquieting “facts” behind the “official” Navalny narrative.

John Helmer in the first half.

And it goes without saying, Canada supports democracy in principle and in fact wherever it takes root. After all it is a democratic nation, one of the World’s oldest, and a famous champion of human rights and the “rule of law”. So, it’s difficult to reconcile Canada supporting countries whose leaders, (and would-be leaders) were not elected but seized power through violence, (or failed to do so, but not for the lack of trying).

Joe Emersberger is a Canada-based writer whose work focuses on media lies, distortion, and confabulation. His articles appear at VenezuelAnalysis, CounterPunch, and The Canary, among other places, and his recent piece, ‘Reuters (Unsurprisingly) Looks Away as Ecuador Tries to Outlaw Opposition Parties’ appears at Fair.org.

Joe Emersberger and disappearing democracy in Latin America in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week.

But first, John Helmer and finding a final act for “The Navalny Ultimatum”.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Day 10: Assange Kangaroo Hearing Continues

Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 10

by Craig Murray

September 16, 2020

The gloves were off on Tuesday as the US Government explicitly argued that all journalists are liable to prosecution under the Espionage Act (1917) for publishing classified information, citing the Rosen case. 

Counsel for the US government also argued that the famous Pentagon Papers supreme court judgement on the New York Times only referred to pre-publication injunction and specifically did not preclude prosecution under the Espionage Act. The US Government even surmised in court that such an Espionage Act prosecution of the New York Times may have been successful.

Carrying On: Lasting Words from a Departing Justice Warrior

Kevin Zeese: His Last Words for the Movement and Carrying On

by Margaret Flowers - Dissident Voice

September 15th, 2020

As I wrote last week, Kevin Zeese died unexpectedly in his sleep, likely from a heart attack, early in the morning on September 6. He had not shown signs of illness and was working until the end.

Many of you know Kevin from Popular Resistance, from his writing and podcast Clearing the FOG. He had a deep knowledge of history and the issues. He often spoke of his time working for Ralph Nader in 2004 when he wrote policy briefs as a “PhD in public policy.” Kevin understood how political power works.

Western Firefighting is a Climate Change Battle

The California wildfires, climate change and capitalism 

by Bryan Dyne - WSWS

14 September 2020

The wildfires burning through the US West Coast, the largest on record in California and poised to become the largest in the history of the United States, have already killed 33 people and threaten to displace hundreds of thousands.

Just one of these fires, the August Complex in California, has consumed more than 875,000 acres. Until yesterday afternoon, the entire city of Portland was on alert for a mass evacuation as local and state officials warned of a “mass fatality event” if the fires reached Oregon’s largest city.

Fool Me Twice: Novichok Back with a Vengeance

The Great Novichok Poisoning Hoax 2.0

by Stephen Lendman  - ICH

September 13, 2020 

What’s going on regarding Alexey Navalny repeats the great 2018 poisoning by novichok of the Skripals in Britain hoax.

Whatever caused their illness, from which they recovered, had nothing to do with exposure to a deadly nerve agent, Russia falsely blamed for what it had nothing to do with.

Navalny Drama Resolution Revealed: "From a Trap Door: Enter Deus ex Machina"

GERMANS NOW CLAIM GOD POISONED NAVALNY – THAT’S THE GOD OUT OF THE MACHINE

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

September 13, 2020

When it comes to fabrications in warfare, it was the ancient Greeks who invented the Trojan Horse. They also invented ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός – he has come down to us from the Latin, deus ex machina, meaning the god out of the machine. He’s the culprit or the cause which resolves the inexplicable ending of a story by a device which drops out of the heavens, or rises through a trapdoor on stage.

Aristotle didn’t think much of it because it’s too plainly unbelievable. The deus ex machina, he thought, was the invention of the incompetent for an audience of simpletons.

Immovable Bourgeois Democracy Meets Irresistible Global Power Elite

ELECTION 2020: Bourgeois Democracy Meets Global Governance

by Diana Johnstone - Special to Consortium News

August 28, 2020

A small number of very rich men are quite sure they know what is best for the future of the world and have enough wealth and influence to believe they can make it happen. They can be called oligarchs, but the term is inadequate. They are a special category, the shapers of the Global Governance destined to replace bourgeois democracy. 

 President Donald Trump arriving in Ashville, N.C., Aug. 24, 2020. 

(White House, Shealah Craighead) 

I can name two: one who is famous, notorious even, but very old, and another who is a generation younger, not yet so well known or so rich but probably even more influential.