Insurgent Resurgence
August 9, 2021
We at the Daily Pnut hope you are all staying safe during this newest wave of Covid. We want to encourage all of you to get vaccinated if you are able to. They are safe, effective, and the best weapon we have against this virus. Visit the CDC’s website to find your closest pharmacy with available vaccines.
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” — Benjamin Franklin
Insurgent Resurgence
President Biden insists the pullout of American troops from Afghanistan will continue, but he’s facing a tougher challenge as the Taliban makes significant advances across the country. After first sweeping through rural areas, the insurgents’ military campaign shifted to brutal urban combat in recent weeks, bringing them to the edges of major cities like Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south and Herat in the west.
Provincial capitals have now begun to fall. On Friday, the militants captured Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz Province, bordering Iran in southwest Afghanistan. They also managed to assassinate the government’s top media officer in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and largest city. On Saturday, Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan Province on the border with Turkmenistan in the north, fell. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul urged all Americans to leave the country immediately on whatever commercial flight they could find.
Heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in Kunduz on Saturday killed and wounded scores of civilians. On Sunday, the Islamist nationalists captured the cities of Taloqan, capital of Takhar Province, and Kunduz, capital of Kunduz Province, both bordering Tajikistan in the north, as well as Sari Pul, capital of Sar-e Pol Province abutting Jowjan Province in the north. Kunduz is the first major city to come under the insurgents’ control. As a crucial commercial hub, with a Western-backed government and a population of 375,000, it’s a major strategic and propaganda prize.
Friday’s killing of Dawa Khan Menapal, head of the Government Media and Information Center, was the latest assassination aimed at weakening President Ashraf Ghani’s democratically-elected government. Three days before, Taliban fighters had killed the district governor of Sayed Abad, in the capital of Maidan Wardak Province, just 22 miles west of Kabul. The militants have also carried out a series of car bombings in Kabul, including one on Tuesday near the acting defense minister’s residence that killed eight civilians. The Taliban has also killed scores of social activists, journalists, bureaucrats, judges, and public figures fighting to sustain a liberal Islamic administration, in a bid to silence any voices of dissent in the war-torn country.
Biden insists he is not changing his troop withdrawal plan. But one of the conditions of the 2020 peace deal between the Taliban and the U.S. government that precipitated American withdrawal from the country was that the militants would not attack the provincial capitals. Yet with the Taliban now in control of several provincial capitals, and eyeing the overthrow of Kabul itself, defense officials say there are no plans to take action beyond a series of limited airstrikes similar to what the U.S. has done in response to Taliban advances over the last three weeks. And one official acknowledged that with only 650 troops remaining on the ground in Afghanistan, even a concerted air campaign is unlikely to change inroads the Taliban has made. (CBS News, Axios, Reuters, CNN, NYT)
French Vaccine Mandates Spark Protests
- Despite France’s highest court upholding most of a new law passed by the government, involving stricter rules for battling COVID-19, thousands took to the streets Saturday for the fourth consecutive weekend of protest rallies. Many carried signs reading: “Our freedoms are dying” and “Vaccine: Don’t touch our kids.”
- Regardless, beginning Monday, residents will be required to “present a health pass to access leisure and culture venues and events bringing together more than 50 people.” The pass requires proof of vaccination, a negative coronavirus test result in the past 48 hours, or showing that one has recovered from the virus for at least 15 days (but not more than six months). The health passes will be necessary to enter bars, restaurants, malls, and for access to long-distance travel by plane, train or bus.
- Additionally, all health care workers must be vaccinated against coronavirus by September 15, or be banned from work and not paid. France is entering a “fourth wave” of the pandemic. So far, over 112,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus, and only about 54% of the population has been fully vaccinated. President Macron hopes the new rules will encourage residents to get vaccinated and stave off the fast-spreading Delta variant. (NPR)
Murder Of Swiss Woman Solved
- Police in Thailand have arrested a 27-year-old Thai man and charged him with the robbery and murder of a Swiss woman tourist on the Thai island of Phuket. The body of the 57-year-old woman was discovered Thursday at a secluded spot on the island. Swiss media reported she was a member of the country’s diplomatic service.
- The suspect told police he had no money and no job due to the pandemic. He went into a forest on Tuesday to try finding rare plants to sell, but was unsuccessful. On his way out he passed a waterfall and saw the woman, whom he proceeded to strangle from behind. He covered her body with a black sheet that was found nearby, stole $9 from her backpack, and threw her sneakers away.
- Investigators were able to trace the suspect using security camera footage. The incident was a bleak setback to Thailand’s so-called Phuket Sandbox program that is trying to bring fully vaccinated foreign tourists to the popular destination, which has been struggling during the pandemic. (ABC News)
Additional World News
- Australia’s Victoria reports 11 COVID-19 cases (Reuters)
- Anti-military protests in Myanmar on anniversary of 1988 uprising (Reuters)
- North Korea: Kim Jong-un calls for relief in flood-hit areas (BBC)
- Thai anti-govt protesters clash with police in Bangkok (Reuters)
- Spanish village seeks Unesco world heritage status for outdoor chats (Guardian)
- Thousands storm Philippine vaccination sites after false reports (The Hill)
Misinformation Menace
- Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in a video posted last week from a July fundraiser hosted by the Alabama Federation of Republican Women. In the video, Greene mentioned that Alabama had the lowest vaccination rate in the nation, which elicited cheers from the audience. Greene suggested people take up arms against volunteers promoting coronavirus vaccines through door-to-door outreach, to which the crowd applauded and laughed.
- “Well, what they don’t know is that in the South we all love our Second Amendment rights,” Greene said, “And we’re not real big on strangers showing up at our front door, are we? They might not like the welcome they get.” Days after the video surfaced, a state health department spokesperson said officials had to throw out over 65,500 coronavirus vaccines that had expired due to low demand, attributed in part to the politicization of the issue.
- Alabama is followed closely by Mississippi for the lowest vaccination rates in the country, and coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging in both states. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last month, nearly 60% of Republicans say they are unwilling to get vaccinated. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) has targeted the unvaccinated, saying she’s run out of ideas for how to persuade them to get the shots. “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks,” she said. “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.” (WaPo)
Judge Sparks Deadline
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup gave Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest power company, one week to explain its role in potentially starting two fires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres and destroyed the historic town of Greenville in Northern California. Last month, PG&E told the state that malfunctions with one of its utility poles may have caused the Dixie Fire, now the second-largest blaze in state history and currently the largest fire in the U.S.
- PG&E’s equipment was found responsible for the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. In February, a trust representing over 80,000 victims of deadly Northern California wildfires ignited by PG&E’s electrical grid filed a lawsuit against almost two dozen of its former executives for alleged neglect. The utility company remains under criminal probation from 2010, when its natural gas lines destroyed a suburban neighborhood south of San Francisco. Alsup oversees PG&E’s safety precautions. (Axios, CNN)
Additional USA News
- Ex-Newsmax Host Who Attacked ‘Lying Freak’ Dr. Fauci Over ‘Scamdemic’ Has Died Of COVID (HuffPost)
- Senate to resume infrastructure debate as Trump threatens Republicans who back bill (Guardian)
- Denver experienced the worst air quality of any major city in the world due to smoke from western wildfires (CNN)
- The Albany County Sheriff Is Investigating A Criminal Complaint Against Gov. Cuomo (NPR)
- ‘I don’t see how it can be safe’: Florida schools on frontlines of state’s mask war (Guardian)
- California fire rages, but some defend property at gunpoint (LAT, $)
- Student loans: Biden to continue payment freeze, forgiveness stalled (USA Today)
A Germ Believer
In April 2020, the germ theory denialist Facebook group Terrain Model had 147 members. Today, the number has grown to 18,400 loyal believers who trust in an abiding principle: viruses don’t cause disease and aren’t contagious; hence, the coronavirus pandemic isn’t real.
Germ theory denialists reject basic scientific and clinical data collected over centuries proving that pathogenic viruses and bacteria cause disease. The group’s FB commentary shows a collective mindset that the pandemic is really caused by individual lifestyle choices, including eating things bad for your body like pasta and meat. So any “COVID” systems you might experience are actually the result of toxic lifestyle exposures.
Germ theory denial isn’t new. It can be traced to two contemporaries of Louis Pasteur: Claude Bernard and Antoine Bechamp, who expounded opposing hypotheses to Pasteur’s durable germ theory. Bernard proposed the concept of milieu interieur, which suggests the body’s internal environment, or terrain, maintains its equilibrium. Bernard said it’s the state of the terrain, not the presence of pathogens, that ultimately dictates whether disease will develop. It’s not an entirely crazy idea, given what we now know about the microbiome and the immunocompromised.
Bechamp, meanwhile, suggested pathogenic bacteria are produced by human tissue as a response to a harmful change in the terrain. In other words, bacteria don’t cause disease, they are merely a self-created system of disease — which is clearly incorrect. The scientific and medical communities left behind Bernard and Bechamp’s views in light of Pasteur’s findings, and later Robert Koch’s foundational concepts for microbial pathogenesis known as Koch’s postulates.
Bernard and Bechamp’s ideas survived in a fringe community, and today they’re alive and well and living on FB. Terrain Model group members claim there is only one disease in existence: toxemia. It’s caused by toxic exposures that occur from leading a dirty, unnatural lifestyle, causing damage to your terrain. All disease systems are signs your body needs to “detox.” If your body can’t detox, the disease progresses through seven levels, the last one being cancer. If you remove the toxic component from your diet or environment you’ll recover — but if you reach the seventh level, you probably won’t. It’s just that simple. (Ars Technica)
Additional Reads
- A crucial ocean circulation is showing signs of instability. Its shutdown would have serious impacts on our weather (CNN)
- Scientists find chunk of blown-apart star hurtling through Milky Way at breakneck speed (Space.com)
- The Delta Variant Has Warped Our Risk Perception (Wired)
- Outrage after Zimbabwean girl, 14, dies giving birth at church shrine (BBC)
- Why OSHA won’t protect workers from climate change (Politico)
- New Orleans Jazz Fest canceled for 2021 (CNN)