“Geopolitically, what matters now is how the Taliban have written a whole new script, showing the lands of Islam, as well as the Global South, how to defeat the self-referential, seemingly invincible US/NATO empire.”

Not so fast: https://thediplomat.com/2021/08/is-the-panjshir-valley-the-talibans-achilles-heel/

In the short term, China and/or Pakistan better get some anti-aircraft defenses/fighter jet patrols into and over Afghanistan PDQ.
The sadistic Luciferian psychopaths who run Amerikastan and NATO, have MOABS (non-nuclear super bombs.) Unlike with a nuclear bombing, the mass majority of the US public will hear about it, in a country they can’t find on a map, and forget about it in five minutes, with no damage to Uncle Joe’s approval rating.

“Those are enormous numbers, much larger than the combined death toll of all our foreign wars…”

To Mr. Unz: It is just so insulting to compare the so-called COVID “pandemic” to wars. How many 80 to 90 year olds were sent to fight Washington’s wars. How many 20 year olds lost limbs or eye sight in the scamdemic. Compare the number of years of life lost in the wars to the number lost in the scamdemic.

“Our government and media have been lying about so many important things for so many years…”

In RECENT years, the medical establishment created the opioid overdose death pandemic, which continues to take many hundreds of thousands of mostly YOUNG people’s lives. That really does compare to war deaths. Also, the medical establishment created drug resistant bacteria by over prescribing antibiotics, and medical mistakes kill well over one hundred thousand people per year in the USA. So it is prudent not to trust “the experts”.

A mystery man: Who is Mike Whitney? What is his background? Mr. Unz claims not to know about car engines. But Mike Whitney cannot drive. He failed to counter the holes in Mr. Unz arguments, that I respond to above, that are big enough to drive a tank through.

“But my head tells me the chance is high you are correct and we’re in for genocide and crimes against humanity and God on a biblical scale. ”

More like a Stalinist/Maoist/Hitlerian/Pentagon scale to several orders of magnitude, with “Uncle Joe” Biden leading the way.

“Yes, the spike protein in the vaccines can do serious damage, but the damage is likely far more severe in an unvaccinated person exposed to the virus. ”

Anyone, please correct me if I’m wrong. The natural immune system protects most people from serious Covid complications. The “Vaccine” bypasses the natural immune system.
Never forget that it was TRUMP who savagely forced these deadly experimental vaccines upon the world. He destroyed Atlantic City with pawn shops and prostitution. Now this psychopath’s poison has gone global.

“Has there ever been a greater threat to humanity than the Covid vaccine?” Indeed.

Mr. Cook writes, “Gain-of-function experiments had been paused during the second Obama administration…”

In his article, Nicholas Wade states that through a loophole in the law, the Gain of Function research funding continued during the Obama administration. The loophole states that “in the interests of public health or ‘national security’…”, the research funding may continue.

My take away is that I see a kind of Hegelian problem, reaction, solution here. First, one has a natural immune system. There is a Covid “problem”. We have to immunize everyone because of the Covid “problem” (reaction). Then the spike protein from the vaccine is causing inflammation in the lining of the blood vessel walls (new problem). Then the antibodies from the vaccine reduce the inflammation (solution) that would never have occurred without the vaccine being given in the first place. This is caused by Scientism, the worship of “priests” in white lab coats, against nature. Whatever the particulars of the Salk study, I thank Mike Whitney for articulating this major issue to a general readership.

To Wackadoo 26:

So are you saying that the Salk conclusion is wrong, or that Mike Whitney’s understanding of it is wrong?

“…until Phase 3 trials are completed and product safety can be assured. Better to be safe than sorry.”

If safety is ever assured, that would mean all the adverse events are “just coincidence”.

“It’s a damn shame that the COVID injection (which is not a vaccine) is as piss-poor at killing people, as the pissweak SARS-nCoV2 virus.” Give it time, give it time.

“I believe it would be easier to pay off the National Debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range consequences of our national stupidity.” Frank Zappa

Oh, don’t worry, the Feral Gummint will never make a Covid “vaccine mandatory. They will leave that to the private sector, based, of course, upon, uhum, “recommendations” from the Feral Gummint, in much the same way a mob capo makes “recommendations” to one who has “gone off the reservation” or run afoul of the Syndicate.