SirPalomides

The past few mornings while walking the dog I've been singing this to myself:

Another excellent article from Max Blumenthal and the Grayzone, this time laying bare what's behind the claims about the Wuhan lab: With US deaths from Covid-related complications peaking above 30,000, allies of President Donald Trump are taking their anti-China public relations blitz to new heights of absurdity, hoping to legitimize a conspiracy theory blaming a Chinese biological research lab for engineering the novel coronavirus. The theory points to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the culprit behind the pandemic, either through an accidental leak caused by unsafe research on bat coronaviruses or deliberately, by manufacturing a biological weapon. First deployed in January by the right-wing Washington Times, the conspiracy was dismissed and discredited at the time by journalists and scientists. With an apparent cue this April from a Trump administration desperate to shift the blame for its feckless coronavirus response, Fox News and the Washington Post have fished the story out of the right-wing’s political wet market and polished it off for public consumption. Though neither outlet published a single piece of concrete evidence to support their claim, the story has gained traction among even fervently anti-Trump elements of the political establishment. Regarding the real source of Covid-19, the conclusion by a team of American, British and Australian researchers could not be more clear: “we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible…. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the virologists stated in a March 17 article published in the scientific journal, Nature. Read the rest here: https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/trump-media-chinese-lab-coronavirus-conspiracy/ Max Blumenthal is a journalist whose work I consider essential reading. His book The Management of Savagery is one the best things written about current US foreign policy and especially the ongoing "war on terror", as well as the key role played by major American media in cheerleading and manufacturing consent for one disastrous intervention after another.

Cool graphic I saw today:

The banning might take a month to happen but it seems inevitable at this point

How is that negative? I'm reporting a thing that actually happened. You're the lot complaining how you're oh-so-oppressed by multiculturalism, women having these awful "rights" thingies, etc.

I had a co-worker who taped a print-out of Peterson's stupid rules on his work computer. Despite it being an incredibly easy but well-paying job, and the boss being extremely patient and kind, he got fired after about a month; the guy called out almost every other day so he could get stoned and play X-Box or whatever; when he did show up, he would be watching KKK and other white supremacist videos half the time and showing them to everyone. Also his favorite band was Oasis. Good grief.

Ha, that's rich, Peterson's fan club runs on baseless resentment and persecution mania.

Considering his bizarre beef-only diet and his benzo addiction I’m guessing his heart is somewhere in the vicinity of his left calf at this point. Or you meant his metaphorical heart. Also wrong. The guy is a scam artist.

In a development surprising to no one who has followed the rhetoric of Hong Kong protestors, mainland supporters of the protests are treated with scorn and suspicion by their Hong Konger "friends": https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-hongkong-mainlande/a-coronavirus-betrayal-even-friends-shun-mainland-protesters-in-hong-kong-idUSKCN21Y14G

It kind of makes me think of Calvinism, except imagine the Calvinist god is not an evil sadistic bastard.

Faux News "journalist" (read: Trump stenographer) citing anonymous spooks in a claim that conveniently fits Trump's "blame China" propaganda drive. Seems legit. I'll also mention that when various branches of US intelligence made assertions about Russian election interference in 2016, Trump himself pointed out that US intelligence services are not trustworthy- he prominently mentioned the Iraq war deception, which of course the CIA et al were complicit in. Yet suddenly unnamed sources within these agencies are infallible with the MAGA chuds. Curious!

This is one classical view of Pure Land, especially when Pure Land practice is within the context of a larger comprehensive system like Chan or Vajrayana, but it is one that is fiercely rejected in the tradition of Shandao, best known today in the Jodo and Jodo Shin Shu sects of Japan. Shandao's teaching has also seen a revival among Chinese Buddhists in the past few decades (the Chinese lineage did not survive persecutions of the late Tang dynasty and the key texts were preserved only in Japan). From their perspective it is unrealistic to expect that we can become enlightened or single-minded enough to merit rebirth in the Pure Land- we have to depend on Amitabha's merits.

Coronavirus leading cause of impotence Alex Jones reports

Immortal 4 Life Old dude at the frat party Did he come with you?

Ha, they even cite Gordon Chang as an expert, hilarious.

China in Focus, a product of NTD, part of the Falun Gong cult. Seems legit.

Yeah, you misread that post. But racists generally aren’t the best readers.

Also true. Iran and allies are driving the US out of Iraq as we speak.

China is a better place than America and far less destructive on the world stage. I look forward to them, Cuba, Venezuela, etc defeating this shithole country.

A good article from France 24 about the bat soup phenomenon: https://observers.france24.com/en/20200203-china-coronavirus-bat-soup-debunk-videos-viral-palau-indonesia Bottom line, eating bats is not common anywhere in China.

Yeah if you can seriously look at pigs and chickens in American factory farms and determine that is more humane or environmentally friendly than dogs at a wet market in China, that's the racism talking. Also, the whole "bat soup" rumor got started from videos filmed not in China but Indonesia or Palau. Some of them involved Chinese tourists indulging in local cuisine but naturally people framed it as Chinese people indulging in a widespread Chinese custom.

True. That is a Buddhist teaching that I have always found hard to accept- yes, it is plain that many animals suffer, but it also seems plain to me that they have an inherent dignity and goodness, not simply as sentient beings but as they are- birds, fish, insects, mammals, etc. That animal species are not just a woeful, transitory condition of ignorance and suffering but beautiful expressions of the creative power of the Dao/ Heaven/ Mind. (Yes, even the tapeworms and centipedes). In the sutric descriptions it is not. It is possible that Sumeru features in Vajrayana descriptions. The Longer Pure Land Sutra says, "In that land, there are no mountains, such as Mount Sumeru and the Encircling Adamantine Mountains." Interestingly, it then says: "But one can see those manifestations by the Buddha's power if one so wishes."