Good Morning,
Brexit Britain
Brexit and the pandemic combined, has made for a critical situation of shortages in the UK that is making the perfect storm leading to price increases in home heating gas, shortages in fuel at gas stations, and ridiculous price increases in food and goods.
And the UK Government’s Boris Johnson, who led the charge to leave the EU, now doesn’t want to take any responsibility for the current crisis. The Bank of England says every household will face price increases of at least 4% because of a shortage of gas worldwide in the post pandemic economic restart. Inflation is rising at an alarming rate.
The anger is palpable in post Brexit Britain, where people are already suffering economically because of the pandemic, where the Government Universal credit payment scheme for people forced to stay home is ending, and where prices on everything from food to Christmas trees are rising.
Johnsons Government is trying it’s best to say none of this has to do with Brexit, but so much of the labour shortages and difficulty getting drivers, and finding different brands of food, have everything to do with Brexit and the British decision to leave the EU at the worst possible time.
Inflation Europe
It’s not only Britain which is suffering post pandemic price increases, although it is worse in the UK because of Brexit, but here’s how a few other European Countries are suffering;
-Spain: Consumers' bills have spiralled in recent months, with the cost of electricity increasing 35% over the last year and nearly 8% in August alone.
-Italy: Price increases in electricity are up 15% but are forecast to rise another 40%. Italy is particularly exposed to gas price hikes: 40% of its energy comes from natural gas and around half of that is imported from Russia.
-Poland: Energy bills are rising 20% this year.
The crisis has highlighted the difficulty for Europeans in funding the move to renewable energy.
Booster Vaccines
The CDC has now recommended booster shots against Covid but only for the most vulnerable but the head of the CDC has now extended booster to high risk workers.
Americans 65 and older,
people who live in nursing homes
people 50 to 64 with an underlying medical condition
Some people 18 to 49 with an underlying medical condition
In a highly unusual decision, the C.D.C. director, Rochelle Walensky, reversed a move by agency advisers and endorsed additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for health care workers, teachers and other workers at risk.
The White House will roll out a booster shot program later today, but many Americans have already received booster shots on their own, knowing the data on declining immunity after 6 months which has been widely published.
U.S. Election
The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is calling those around Trump with direct Knowledge of attempts to overturn the election.
Four key figures in the Trump White House who either were working with or had communications with the White House in the days surrounding the January 6 insurrection: former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel, and former Trump advisor Stephen Bannon.
Salad Dressing and Vaccines
And finally this, from Trumps former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who was forced to resign amidst allegations he lied about private conversations with Russia.
Flynn on a radio program now says vaccines are being added to salad dressing. The allegation is laughable, but demonstrates the right wing disinformation vortex that sucks in millions of uninformed people who dare to follow people like Flynn down the rabbit hole of detached reality in America.
Flynn framed the salad dressing idea in terms of “these people are seriously thinking about how to impose their will on us in our society and it has to stop”.
Fact check: A few days before Flynn’s interview, University of California-Riverside announced a research program would attempt to “turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.” The idea would be to grow the vaccine in lettuce. It’s not being done. It hasn’t been proven to be effective yet. And no one would be slipped a lettuce leaf without their consent if the vaccine actually could be given this way! And it has nothing to do with salad dressing.
Have a good Friday everyone! And please subscribe to the newsletter so you get it on a regular basis.
Dana
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/23/bp-rations-petrol-and-diesel-deliveries-to-its-service-stations
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/health/covid-boosters-vaccine-cdc.html
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/michael-flynn-claims-salad-dressing-is-being-infused-with-covid-vaccine