lundi 13 mars 2023

An Ivermectin Influencer Died. And how can people be so stupid?

An Ivermectin Influencer Died. Now His Followers Are Worried About Their Own ‘Severe’ Symptoms.

I'll provide excerpts, but please read the whole article.

Quote:

Danny Lemoi took a daily dose of veterinary-grade ivermectin and told his thousands of followers to give the drug to children. He died of a common side effect of the medication.

Just before 7 am on March 3, Danny Lemoi posted an update in his hugely popular pro-ivermectin Telegram group, Dirt Road Discussions: “HAPPY FRIDAY ALL YOU POISONOUS HORSE PASTE EATING SURVIVORS !!!”

Hours later, Lemoi was dead.

For the last decade, Lemoi had taken a daily dose of veterinary ivermectin, a dewormer designed to be used on large animals like horses and cows. In 2021, as ivermectin became a popular alternative COVID-19 treatment among anti-vaxxers, he launched what became one of the largest Telegram channels dedicated to promoting the use of it, including instructions on how to administer ivermectin to children.
He was taking it since 2012, originally for Lyme disease.

Quote:

Lemoi began taking the version of ivermectin designed for animals on a daily basis in 2012, after he was diagnosed with Lyme disease, according to a detailed account of his medical history he gave on a podcast last November. He said then that five months after first taking the drug, he quit all other treatments and believed ivermectin had “regenerated” his heart muscle.

During the pandemic, Ivermectin became hugely popular among anti-vaxxers, many of whom were taking and recommending the veterinary formulation of the drug, rather than the one designed for human use. While ivermectin for humans is used to treat serious illnesses like river blindness, it has repeatedly been shown to be an ineffective treatment for COVID-19.
Admittedly, it has not been made clear what the exact cause of his death was, but administrators of the telegram channel posted this:

Quote:

In the Telegram channel, administrators broke the news of his death to his followers. “Though it was obvious that Danny had the biggest heart, it was unbeknownst to him that his heart was quite literally overworking and overgrowing beyond its capacity, nearly doubled in size from what it should have been,” the admins wrote, adding: “We understand that this is going to raise questions for those who were following him.”
However, they then claimed that his death was from "natural causes."

Quote:

“Danny was fully convinced that his heart had regenerated after his incident with Lyme disease that almost ended in congestive heart failure,” the admins wrote, before claiming that “a family history of heart disease and chronic stress” were why his heart had ultimately become engorged. “All of his other organs were unremarkable,” the admins wrote. “And this was determined to be a death by unfortunate natural causes.”

The admins of Lemoi’s channel did not respond to VICE News’ questions about where they got their information about his death. Lemoi’s surviving family did not respond to VICE News' request for comment on the cause of his death.
However, some members of this group are having their own side effects.

Quote:

But a review of Lemoi’s Telegram channels shows that many of his followers who are taking his dosage recommendations, or “protocols,” for veterinary ivermectin are experiencing numerous known side effects of taking the drug.

“I’m 4 months now and all hell’s breaking loose, all pain has hit my waist down with sciatic, shin splints, restless leg syndrome, tight sore calves & it feels like some pain in the bones,” a member wrote on Friday.

Lemoi explained away the negative side effects of taking veterinary ivermectin by describing them as “herxing,” a real term to describe an adverse response that occurs in people who take antibiotics as a treatment for Lyme disease.

“My wife has been taking ivermectin for 3 months,” a member wrote Friday. “She is being treated for autoimmune hepatitis, thyroid, and vertebrae issues. She has had some serious HERXING. Today she has a migraine, vomiting and severe stomach pain. Does anyone have any ideas how to help, and are these HERXING symptoms?”
And this isn't the stupidest part at all! People are taking this **** as a cure-all for practically anything, and even giving it to children with Cerebral Palsy and Down's Syndrome!!!

Quote:

Some members of the group are taking ivermectin not only as a treatment against COVID, but as a cure-all for almost every disease—from cancer and depression, to autism and ovarian cysts—believing that every disease is caused by a parasite that is removed from the body by ivermectin, just as animals are given the drug to treat parasitic worms like tapeworm.

Lemoi also formulated an ivermectin regimen for children, and numerous members of the group reported that they were using it. This week alone one member wrote that she had established another group for “parents of children on the spectrum, cerebral palsy, pans/panda, downs etc.,” who are using the Lemoi’s recommended children’s dosage.
This ******* was pushing horse paste for children! As far as I'm concerned, if you want to be a stupid ******* idiot and kill yourself with horse paste, go right ahead! But anyone who pushes it for children or gives it to them should be jailed for the rest of their life! And anyone who thinks that this **** can cure cerebral palsy or Down's syndrome, well, it's hard to see how anyone that stupid can maintain the motor functions necessary to live!

This guy deserved to die. Actually, he deserved to die in a dumpster fire while choking on a huge bag of horse paste! Good riddance! Hopefully, many more of the idiots pushing this **** will soon follow him!


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samedi 11 mars 2023

Speculation on the worst possible outcomes of Jan. 6th...

*
With Tucker Carlson's alternate history version of January 6th now out there, I'm wondering what other possible variations or versions of that same days events could have happened if things went differently.
Just how bad could it have gone?
What if they'd got there hands on Pence, Pelocy, AOC, or any other member of the house or senate that had failed to meet their expectations?
Would it, as I expect, result in the collapse of the Constitution, the American dollar, and the Republic itself, and if so, what horror replaces it?
What do other countries do in response to any or all of the above or other possible outcomes?
What think you, ISF?




* Mods, if there's a more/better location for this, please feel free to relocate it, but I think USA Politics is the best place, myself.


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jeudi 9 mars 2023

Trump attorney admits misrepresenting evidence of election fraud

I don't understand this. Isn't it an infringement of her 1st Amendment rights if she is no longer allowed to lie on TV? Is there no freedom of speech anymore?

Quote:

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented former President Donald Trump, admitted in court that she made several misrepresentations on social media and major television appearances about the 2020 presidential election, leading a judge to issue a public censure on Wednesday.
Trump attorney admits misrepresenting evidence of election fraud (Prensa Latina, Mar 9, 2023)


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mercredi 8 mars 2023

Anybody using One Medical?

Amazon has recently bought One Medical, a national chain of membership medical practices that promises better and more personalized service than the usual, and is offering a sign-up discount. Anybody have any experiences, good or bad? There have been particular concerns about Amazon's potential access to patients' personal data.
https://www.onemedical.com/
https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...act-healthcare


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mardi 7 mars 2023

Alex Murdaugh convicted of killing his wife and son

I belatedly stumbled upon this interesting case, in which a notable and lauded (in South Carolina) lawyer, who was the scion of a lawyering dynasty that had dominated that part of the country for over a century, was convicted of shooting his wife (Maggie) and one of his sons (Paul). The case had little or no coverage here in the UK, which is why I only came upon it belatedly.

It appears that there were four particularly critical pieces of evidence that condemned Alex Murdaugh - and each of them involved involved elements of technology that Murdaugh clearly had not understood or considered:

1) He'd claimed in all his police interviews that he last saw Maggie and Paul at dinner (which finished around 8:30pm), and that after dinner he'd "taken a nap" for some 30 minutes while Maggie & Paul went down to the kennels on their sprawling estate (which were situated about 300 yards from the house). He claimed that he woke up from his nap at around 9:00pm and decided to drive over to see his sick mother at his parents' house, about 10 miles from his estate.

However.... Paul had - unbeknown to Alex - made a Snapchat video to send to his friend, because his friend's dog was in the Murtaugh kennels, and the dog had injured his tail in some way. Paul took a Snapchat video of the dog's tail to send to his friend. And in the background on the video - which was taken at around 8:45pm - you can hear Maggie talking...... and also his father Alex. Several people testified that they were 100% positive that the voice belonged to Alex (and it's completely obvious when you hear the relevant audio alongside hearing Alex speak).

So the Snapchat video proved that Alex had lied about taking a 30-minute nap after dinner: the video proved that he'd been down at the kennels with Maggie and Paul just minutes before they were murdered (the police could nail down the time of death with high accuracy by analysing the victims' iPhones).


2) Maggie's iPhone was thrown into scrub land just off a road outside the Murdaugh estate. Alex was unaware that his car recorded all sorts of telemetry data, including the car's location/speed/configuration. And he was obviously also unaware of how much data (precise times, waking from sleep, movement, position, orientation) iPhones record.

Because, as it turned out, Maggie's iPhone was thrown from the road at precisely the same time as Alex's car passed that precise spot on the road, on his way to his parents' house. Ooops.


3) Alex told police that he returned from his parents' house to his estate at just after 10;00pm, and that - upon realising that Maggie and Paul were not in the house and that they were not answering their phones - he drove down to the kennels, where he "discovered" their bodies. He said that he'd gone to both bodies (which were about 25 feet apart), checked both pulses, and turned Paul's body over. He then called 911.

But..... Alex's car recorded the precise moment when his car was put into "Park" once he reached the kennels. And there was a similarly precise timing on when he made the 911 call. And there were only 19 seconds between those two events. Clearly this didn't afford Alex enough time to get out of his car, walk to the bodies, check each body in turn (including walking between the two bodies) and then call 911.


4) Alex claimed to police that Paul's iPhone had "slipped" out of Paul's rear jeans pocket when Alex turned his body over. But Paul's iPhone showed that the phone had clearly been manipulated: the orientation changed twice between landscape and portrait, in a manner inconsistent with it simply falling out of Paul's pocket. Furthermore, the phone had been woken from sleep - again in a manner inconsistent with it falling out of the pocket.

What had almost certainly happened is that, upon returning to the kennels shortly after 10:00pm, Alex had not done what he claimed to police: rather, he had gone straight to Paul's body because he realised he needed to check Paul's phone. He took the phone out of Paul's back pocket and woke it from sleep, and saw several messages from the friend whose dog was in the Murdaugh kennels with an injured tail.

This theory is bolstered by the fact that Alex repeatedly tried to call this friend of Paul's (who was also a close friend of the whole Murdaugh family), even as the first police responders arrived, and even before calling family members or friends/partners. And the clear inference is that he was desperate to find out what the friend did or did not know about what had taken place that evening.


There were many other damning polnts, including the fact that Alex had changed his clothing between around 7:45pm (when he was captured on another Snapchat video of Paul's) and the arrival of the first police at around 10:15pm; the fact that police could convincingly demonstrate that the two guns used in the murders (the shotgun which killed Paul, and the assault rifle which killed Maggie) a) were guns which belonged to the Murtaugh family, and b) were now missing; the fact that his car and phone data showed that he'd walked around outside his parents' house, having parked round the back of the house, where there were adjoining woods (he almost certainly dumped the clothes he war during the murders, plus the two guns he used, somewhere in those woods, then returned a day or two later to dispose of them properly); the fact that he'd just been exposed as having stolen millions and millions of dollars from his law firm and from clients; and plenty more besides.....

Anyhow, he was ultimately (justly) convicted, and sentenced to two consecutive whole-of-life sentences. His downfall was as stunning as it was deserved.

I recommend watching the lead prosecutor's closing argument, which sets out the case clearly and passionately. The lead prosecutor was an extremely impressive courtroom performer, and frankly there was no chance of the jury acquitting (some of the jurors have made the point that they found the prosecutor as compelling as the case itself). And there is plenty more video available - from Alex's very first police interview (which took place in a police car on the Murtaugh estate only a couple of hours after the murders, and which was recorded on dashcam) through to the whole of the trial and the sentencing.

It's a long video (three hours long....) but I was so drawn in by it that I watched it in installments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWIHjaXl4io


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Tucker Carlson's Revisionist History on Jan.6

Kevin McCarthy gave TC the entire 41,000 hours of the Jan. 6 riot videos. The question was 'why'? Now we know why:

Quote:

Carlson acquired the tapes as part of a push by McCarthy, R-Calif., to win the speaker’s gavel. When McCarthy was struggling to gather the votes to lead the House, Carlson used his program to list two “concessions” he could make to win over far-right Republicans.

“First, release the January 6 files. Not some of the January 6 files and video — all of it,” Carlson, the most-watched host on cable news, said after McCarthy faced three failed votes. “So that the rest of us can finally know what actually happened on January 6, 2021.”

In the two months since McCarthy won the gavel, he has granted both. Carlson announced in late February that McCarthy had given him exclusive access to 44,000 hours of security video from the deadly riot before he unveiled some clips of the video on his show Monday night.
TC used the tapes to re-write history. He has cherry picked parts of the videos to present the rioters as "mostly peaceful sightseers":

Quote:

“The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson told his audience Monday. “Instead it shows police escorting people through the building, including the now-infamous ‘QAnon Shaman.’

He continued: "More than 44,000 hours of surveillance footage from in and around the Capitol have been withheld from the public, and once you see the video, you’ll understand why. Taken as a whole, the video does not support the claim that Jan. 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim."
Here is TC's lie riddled show from last night. If there was ever any doubt that TC is a lying POS, this should remove it. Sadly, from the comments below the video, his followers are, and remain, idiots.

[yt]Opy7MLGAPBk[/yt]


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dimanche 5 mars 2023

Age Discrimination

Age discrimination, though technically illegal in the USA, is apparently alive and well. For instance, a survey taken in the state of New York found that 1 in 10 workers had lost a job due to age discrimination.
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtoo...-at-work-.aspx

Why is this a problem, beyond for the people who are affected? Because
1) the eligibility age for full Social Security benefits cannot be raised without throwing a significant number of the elderly into poverty because too many people cannot maintain employment through their 60's.
https://www.nber.org/reporter/2022nu...erican-economy
2) the loss to the USA economy is estimated at $850 billion/year, which is around 4 percent of the GDP.
https://press.aarp.org/2020-1-30-Age...ts-800-Billion

I've had my own issues with age discrimination, being "quiet fired" from a contractor position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Environmental Modeling Center. They chose to send a younger person with no background in meteorology to a training program that they wouldn't send me (or the other 60+) to and then allowed the project to meander for 2 YEARS while that person came up to speed in the subject matter. In the mean time, I, with an M.S. in atmospheric science and an almost completed M.S. in computer science, 20+ years of working with satellite data, and experience in developing a real-time weather radar ingest and display system, was given nothing substantial to work on, nor was I invited to meetings in which the technical details of the project were worked out.


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