“I don’t think it’s defensible,” said Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the U.S. government would do that,” said Lucey, a former military physician who assisted in the response to the 2001 anthrax attacks.
In 2019, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, Reuters reported in March. As part of that effort, a small group of operatives used bogus online identities to spread disparaging narratives about Xi Jinping’s government.
U.S. military leaders feared that China’s COVID diplomacy and propaganda could draw other Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia and Malaysia, closer to Beijing, furthering its regional ambitions.
A senior U.S. military commander responsible for Southeast Asia, Special Operations Command Pacific General Jonathan Braga, pressed his bosses in Washington to fight back in the so-called information space, according to three former Pentagon officials.
By summer 2020, the military’s propaganda campaign moved into new territory and darker messaging, ultimately drawing the attention of social media executives.
In regions beyond Southeast Asia, senior officers in the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East and Central Asia, launched their own version of the COVID psyop, three former military officials told Reuters.
Although the Chinese vaccines were still months from release, controversy roiled the Muslim world over whether the vaccines contained pork gelatin and could be considered “haram,” or forbidden under Islamic law. Sinovac has said that the vaccine was “manufactured free of porcine materials.” Many Islamic religious authorities maintained that even if the vaccines did contain pork gelatin, they were still permissible since the treatments were being used to save human life.
The Pentagon campaign sought to intensify fears about injecting a pig derivative. As part of an internal investigation at X, the social media company used IP addresses and browser data to identify more than 150 phony accounts that were operated from Tampa by U.S. Central Command and its contractors, according to an internal X document reviewed by Reuters.
Facebook executives had first approached the Pentagon in the summer of 2020, warning the military that Facebook workers had easily identified the military’s phony accounts, according to three former U.S. officials and another person familiar with the matter. The government, Facebook argued, was violating Facebook’s policies by operating the bogus accounts and by spreading COVID misinformation.
The military argued that many of its fake accounts were being used for counterterrorism and asked Facebook not to take down the content, according to two people familiar with the exchange. The Pentagon pledged to stop spreading COVID-related propaganda, and some of the accounts continued to remain active on Facebook.
Nonetheless, the anti-vax campaign continued into 2021 as Biden took office.
Angered that military officials had ignored their warning, Facebook officials arranged a Zoom meeting with Biden’s new National Security Council shortly after the inauguration, Reuters learned. The discussion quickly became tense.
“It was terrible,” said a senior administration official describing the reaction after learning of the campaign’s pig-related posts. “I was shocked. The administration was pro-vaccine and our concern was this could affect vaccine hesitancy, especially in developing countries.”
This article doesn’t cover it (specifically) so I went digging to see if this might compete with weight loss drugs as well:
Victoza (liraglutide) is also used to treat obesity. While it was originally approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, it has also been approved under the brand name Saxenda for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or who are overweight with at least one weight-related condition such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or dyslipidemia. Saxenda and Victoza contain the same active ingredient, liraglutide, but they are marketed and dosed differently depending on the indication.
Google said:
As of April 2024, the list price for a 30-day supply of Saxenda (liraglutide) is around $1,350, but the actual cost can range from $1,590 to $1,656 without insurance or discounts.
Lol, in Europe Saxenda costs around 100 per box. Victoza and other versions for diabetics are even cheaper, as they are subsidized by health insurance (while Saxenda is not).
But how else can the poor widdwe phawmaceuticaw congwomewate affowd to lobby government and aggressively market our crap to overpaid private healthcare companies so we can keep overcharging the fuck out of drugs we can make for pennies do aww ouw impowtant weseawch that’s paid for by taxpayers with subsidies and grants.
What many of us don’t know, is that the majority of people sent to the meat grinder in Ukraine is from peripheral regions like Dagestan, and not from central Russia (e.g. Moscow). These are different cultures and ethnicities subjugated by the Russian “empire”. And some of them are sick of being killed for the “emperor”, which can lead to unrest and maybe a civil war, like it did in many similar situations in history.
So instead of using law enforcement and the interior ministry and FSB (security service) to provide security for Russian citizens, it’s being used to eradicate any opposition to the regime.
Maybe don’t write good for you in response to churches and synagogues getting attacked? It’s not like these guys went after legitimate military targets (with the exception of a police checkpoint).
These attackers may very well be tied to Isis; there is absolutely nothing good about them other than the fact that this is a problem for the Kremlin.
I guess it vaguely looks like this one in terms of the large flat plane in the front. Though it's blade runner, so it's all grungy like pieces are falling off and it's all rusted and junk. Wait maybe cyber truck was inspired by bladeunner.
I finally saw one in real life. On the highway. It's shocking how aggressively dumb they look in person. Photos don't do it justice. It seriously looks like a giant unrendered N64... thing.
I was walking to the grocery store when I saw a neighbour polishing his in front of his house. I said "Wow, a Cybertruck," and he replied, "Cool, isn't it?"
I said, "No, it's a $120,000 go-kart made of scrap metal that will rust in a month."
Edit: sounds fake but I do have a picture of the car in question, but I took it on a different day—
I don’t commute to work daily but see them once in a while. I’d be lying if I didn’t say they scare me as the driver of a compact car. I’m just hoping whomever gets sliced by colliding (or being collided by) those monstrous things goes quickly. I can’t imagine what the scene will look like if we have a pedestrian near by while their stupid accelerator gets stuck again.
They literally can't sell them in Europe because of the angles are too dangerous for pedestrians. It's only legal in the good old US of A because we didn't bother having safety regulations for pedestrians. The edge is literally a knife that will slice a person on impact. Absolutely moronic vehicle.
Just saw a Wankpanzer for the first time last Friday and I agree. It is ugly and anyone who fell for this scam deserves every ounce of derision they receive.
Most of the countries that are deciding to join recently are getting absolutely eviscerated by the dollar when it comes to foreign exchange, they all have very weak currencies because the dollar is just so incredibly strong relative to everywhere else.
It's a lot more complicated than just that, but that definitely seems to be a catalyst at the moment
This strikes me as a way to bring in the thing to the dealership to address other more important issues like the accelerator while playing it down as “only a wipers issue”. They must be scared by oncoming lawsuits that they decided this was the best course of action.
reuters.com
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