Better in their words…

Source: Coffee & Covid ☙ Saturday, September 24, 2022 ☙ DOTS

🗞*WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🚀 Russia is already holding referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which make up about 20% of the country. There are only two boxes on each ballot: a box to join Russia and a box to remain in Ukraine. Depending on which ‘side’ you are on, the referendum is either a shining example of democratic self-determination, or it’s a disgusting travesty of a sham election. In fact, the Economist’s story about the referendum this morning even has the word ‘sham’ right in the headline:

I won’t list all the various elections issues Remainers are rightfully complaining about, there are a lot. But one is that the election is being run by armed Russian soldiers, which might tend to depress the Remain vote for some reason. And the election’s lightning speed leaves no time for campaigning, education, or even any real discussion. Just hurry up and vote! Third, Remainers validly complain that many pro-Remain voters fled when the Russians occupied the zone, reducing their voting bloc.

On the other hand, the Russians appear to be making every effort to be transparent; for example, the soldier/proctors clearly don’t object to being recorded on video, and — from what I can tell — citizens are even being allowed to record video INSIDE polling locations, which you can’t do in Florida. I have seen no complaints about cheating or backdoor ballot deliveries or secret suitcases of ballots under tables.

Even better, they aren’t using machines. No electronics. It’s just paper. I wish America would go back to paper. The machines are a problem.

Remainers in the occupied territories also have understandable gripes about the legitimacy of the vote in general. To them, it probably feels a lot like it would feel here if the Mexican cartels held a “referendum” in South Texas about whether a bunch of Texas counties should join Mexico. Um, problem.

On the other hand, the referendum would have no chance at all if there weren’t a large group of Ukrainians in the territories, obviously profoundly unhappy with their existing government, who clearly prefer to live under Russian rule. It might even be a majority; there’s no way to tell now.

Pro-Ukraine Remainers are allowed to protest and rally:

Pro-Russia voters seem happy to vote to leave Ukraine:

Maybe even a whole LOT of them:

And the Russians may have invited foreign observers to monitor the fairness of the elections:

I can’t vouch for any of the videos; I’m just including them for flavor. During my research, I found pictures and videos of rallies and protests that were re-used from other past events, sometimes other causes, sometimes even the other side of the issue. So who knows? Everybody is lying.

There’s a strategic reason Russia is racing to complete the referendums. Once the occupied territories become part of Russia — a result that seems inevitable at this point — then Russia can claim self-defense, and can legally access previously-unavailable military tools. That’s where all the nuclear talk (on both sides) comes from.

This new strategy is Russia’s response to the recent Ukrainian military gains in the occupied territories. Russia has done this before; it was the strategy it used to annex Crimea. So Western military experts should have easily predicted this would happen, but of course, well, you know. Our brain-damaged experts have been completely useless for ages. They’re just bleating packs of ‘yes’ men now, apparently.

Swirling internet rumors suggest that the warp speed Russian mobilization announced this week is secretly a whole lot bigger than 300,000 new troops. Since I can’t confirm it from any official Russian source, I won’t cite the figures. Whether it’s 300,000, or more than 300,000, the timing suggests that the new troops will be used to hold the annexed territories. In other words, Russia could end the war by just hunkering down, loudly claiming legal entitlement to the annexed regions, and threatening a nuclear response to any continued hostility.

So get ready for all the people who claimed the 2020 U.S. elections were the fairest and cleanest elections in history to start bitterly complaining about the Russian referendum election. And, whereas criticizing U.S. election results makes you a domestic terrorist and an insurrectionist, the schizophrenic psyops teams are going to try to make it your moral duty to criticize the Ukraine election, including all-new Facebook profile flags or ribbons or something.

If you say the Ukraine elections were fair, you’re also a terrorist or insurrectionist or whatever. You can follow this, right? Criticizing U.S. elections = bad. Criticizing Ukraine elections = good.

It’s so simple!

🚀 Iran has been roiled with country-wide protests by thousands and thousands of angry women who are sick and tired of being threatened into wearing the muslim hijab, or headscarf. The genesis of the massive waves of unrest is disquietingly similar to the George Floyd protests here in the U.S. in the summer of 2020.

What is undisputed is that a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested in Iran for not having her hijab on properly. According to reports, she was wearing a hijab, but it wasn’t the right kind or was out of place or something. After being arrested, she fell into a coma and several days later, she died. Widespread rumors in Iran claimed she was beaten to death, but Iranian authorities claimed Amini suffered from “pre-existing conditions.”

Sound familiar?

Mostly-peaceful protests broke out all over the country. Thousands of Iranians have been arrested, all over Iran, according to regional reports, and at least eight people have been outright killed by security forces.

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told media that the government’s initial investigation showed it had done nothing wrong. “Reports from oversight bodies were received, witnesses were interviewed, videos were reviewed, forensic opinions were obtained, and it was found that there had been no beating,” Vahidi claimed. In a statement last week, Tehran police said right after her arrest, Amini “suddenly suffered from a heart problem” and was “immediately taken to hospital”.

But Amini’s father says the 22-year-old had no pre-existing health problems, and he says the police are responsible for her death.

Hmm. You know, I can think of ONE reason that an otherwise healthy 22-year-old might experience sudden and unexpected heart problems, especially when under stress. It’s given in two doses. But I’m not allowed to name it on Facebook, so mum’s the word. And I doubt the officials are going to suggest that possibility, either.

Seventy-four percent of Iranians are vaccinated:

Iran didn’t use the mRNA vaccines, but it did use AstraZeneca, well-known to have similar problems to the mRNA jabs. It would be ironic, wouldn’t it, if the government’s vaccine policy led to a George Floyd event? They can’t tell the truth to stop the protests, because that would probably lead to other protests. It’s a conundrum.

I don’t know; I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying.

Finally, mandatory headscarves are a lot like mandatory masks. Both are religiously based and include strong associations with social conformity and government compliance.

So.

💉 God bless him, Tucker Carlson continues courageously reporting on problems with the jabs. Most recently, he discussed a Lancet study following up with kids 12-29 who suffered from myocarditis. Almost a third of the studied kids required chronic medication to manage the condition at three months, and a fifth (20%) said they still experienced pain.

Tucker also reported on Presbyterian Hospital’s goofy new advertisement for pediatric myocarditis — a condition that used to be so rare nobody’d ever heard of it before last year. People are upset at Presbyterian, not because it ran the ad — treating these vaccine injuries is important, as is awareness — but they are understandably upset because the ad ignores what CAUSED the kids’ heart damage.

True, so far it’s only Tucker. But Tucker’s audience exceeds the combined totals of the other networks. And there are signs the signal is getting through the noise: booster uptake is pitiful. NBC ran a story yesterday headlined, “Less Than 2% of Eligible People Have Gotten Updated Covid Booster Shots, 3 Weeks Into the Rollout.”

Oh no. (Sad emoji.)

NBC reported Dr. Scott Roberts, a Yale Medicine infectious disease expert, called the relatively low booster uptake “demoralizing.” He’s demoralized! He explained glumly, “I would expect a much higher proportion of Americans to have gotten the booster by this point.”

Dash it! Disappointed expectations!

Dr. Eeyore, I mean Dr. Roberts, blamed Joe Biden for the new jab’s pitiful performance, and he isn’t too optimistic about its future prospects either. “The fact that this booster came out days before Biden said the pandemic is over is a huge mixed message,” he sighed. “Now it’s going to be that much harder to convince those at risk who are on the fence to get a booster.”

Poor, poor experts. 🎻

Still, nearly 5 million Americans have taken the new shot, even though, as NBC admitted in its article, the jabs “were distributed without results from human trials.” There are a lot of customers who want even MORE spike protein out there, they can’t get enough of the stuff, and as long as that holds, and as long as the rivers of cash keep flowing, they’ll keep making them.

As for me, nope. No thanks. I’m doing fine!

Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy this cooler weather, and I’ll be back on Monday with some seasonal pumpkin-spiced Coffee & Covid for you.

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