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Moreover, British and Indian power discredited the views of the anti-opium forces and demonstrated that opium was a harmless drug. Two forces had different views of the prevalence of opium and its functions. By Lodwick, the majority of the advocates for the continuation of the trade were actually either opium planters or sellers or officials of the British Indian government (Lodwick, "The Pro-Opium" 84).

They were not only these businessmen, but there were also medical doctors who argued that opium was harmless who belonged to the Indian government or officers of the British army in India as well (Lodwick, "The Pro-Opium" 84). For example, the Britain consular service illustrated that moderating the opium smoking rate was not at all so bad because they argued that only an excess of it caused the evil effects that prevailed and even go ahead to make a comparison of the opium smokers in China and the alcohol drinkers in the United Kingdom. (Lodwick, "The Pro-Opium" 97). However, Lodwick argued that England itself had classified the opium as a "dangerous poison", and now wondered why they still kept advocating for its harmlessness for another race(Lodwick, "The Pro-Opium" 96).

Opium addiction in China during the closing decades of the Ch'ing dynasty afflicted all segments of society. From government officials to farmers, the population fell prey to the effects of the drug. Some provinces reported addiction rates as high as eighty percent.

With the birth of Chinese nationalism, reformers—missionaries who had witnessed the effects of opium on Chinese society, students who had studied abroad and returned to their native land with broader perspectives, families who had lost all through the addiction of a loved one, doctors who had firsthand knowledge that opium use led only to death—cried out against the drug.

Even though many were convinced that opium use had sapped the strength of China, ending the use of the drug was a complicated problem. Opium trade financed the colonial government of India, and imports amounted to many tons annually. Domestic poppies were also cultivated as source of income.

Guest gtpm above wrote: Tue Dec 13, 2022 2:29 am How about regular white people in America and Europe trying to survive after a collapse? Wouldn't ethno-states be a necessity?

aeden wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:24 pm H what do we know we only watched in real decades before they even drew breath.

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:25 pm I was surprised to find a link with extensive data which supports this view.

It's from an organization called the Triple Nine Society, which only admits people with IQs proven to be above the 99.9th percentile, and they did an extensive survey of political views among members. It turned out that their members support neither a Democrat nor Republican agenda, but rather lean strongly Libertarian toward very limited government.

Higgenbotham wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:02 pm It was my opinion that the US government was broken beyond repair in 2011 when they failed to control Bernanke. What that meant to me was Donald Trump would not be able to fix it. Ross Perot could have because his bid was prior to 2011. Of course, this is the opinion of one person only and the opinion of one person is not consequential. But that was why I believed that, although it would be good to have Trump in there because that took control away from the people who ran it into the ground, Trump would not be able to fix anything, just speed up or slow down the established downtrend in different areas from where the political establishment was heading. He did a good job of that in my opinion.

The year was 1992. The place was Dallas, Texas. It took me 46 years to get from 2940 Hone Ave. in the Bronx, where seven of us lived in a five-room walk-up, to Dallas.

It was there that the former Democratic governor of Texas and former Treasury secretary appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, John Connally, who almost was assassinated along with Kennedy, wanted to meet me on a Sunday.

I’d planned to get away that fall weekend with my wife to an Adirondack lake resort where I was to give the keynote address to a healthcare association the following Monday.

But I knew in my gut that going to Dallas was more important than going to Lake George.

Weeks before the 1992 presidential election, there I was having lunch with Connally and a few others in the restaurant at the Anatole Hotel. I was asked to meet with him because he wanted to know how, three years earlier, I’d forecast the rise of a third political party when only 13 percent of the public thought such a movement possible.

What’s more, in my book Trend Tracking (1989), I had singled out Ross Perot as just the kind of political maverick who could pull it off. Perot, a third-party candidate, was making a serious run for the White House.

It was then that I figured out why I was so taken with the way Connally was speaking, with his calmness, extraordinary clarity, his gestures and assuredness. I knew with absolute certainty that he was a man with a lot to say… and not much time to say it.

Connally was dying.

I could see the signs – a stiffness and weakness like those I noticed some 10 years earlier when my father, may his soul rest in peace, was dying. Like Dad, Connally was suffering from a pulmonary condition. His was from the gunshot that had ripped through his lungs. My dad’s lungs were rotted from asbestos poisoning when he worked in shipyards during World War II.

When I looked at Connally’s hands, I saw my father’s hands before he died. They were stiff, with big, purplish splotches – a reaction to massive doses of prednisone, a cortisone used to temper his lung inflammation.

Connally, remembered as a “straight shooter” by those who knew him, would die of pulmonary fibrosis eight months later. I don’t believe he consciously knew he was dying when we met on that sunny Sunday. But I was convinced that it was his subconscious that dominated his conversation.

When the limo pulled up to the hotel, Connally and I, the middle passengers, were the last to get out. The others were a dozen steps ahead of us, heading for the elevators. Connally stopped and turned to me.

“Gerald, I read your book and it’s a fine piece of work,” he said. “And I know that your heart is in the right place, but you don’t have a clue of what’s going on in the government, and neither do the American people.

“Because if they did, there’d be a revolution in this country.”

Without another word, he headed for the elevators and caught up with the others. For an instant, I stood alone. I didn’t know what was behind that remark, but with Connally as the source, it came less as a shock than as a confirmation. Even without knowing the details, I understood what Connally was telling me.

But what I had not quite realized before my lunch with Connally was the extent of corruption and slim odds of anyone bucking the system and winning.

This was coming from the horse’s mouth. Here was a man who had been at the top of government and deep inside the corridors of power. This was not Sunday morning Beltway babble coming from Face the Nation or Meet the Press. This was a one-on-one straight scoop coming from a man in a position to know, talking outside of a public forum.

I recognized it as a singular and privileged moment. I was given insight into the real gravity of just how bad things were. It was the culmination of a long process.

My brain was back in the hotel lobby replaying Connally’s statement: “If the American people knew what was going on in this government, there’d be a revolution.”

That line reinforced my political atheism. I refused to believe in political dogma, genuflect before any political preacher or vow obedience to any political god.

I would not be a member of any party or follow any leader.

That day in Dallas strengthened my resolve to base forecasts on verifiable data and to select those facts that illuminated the actual situation rather than those supporting a particular political/economic/philosophical agenda.

“If the American people knew what was going on…” I wondered if revolution would happen and when.

A quarter-century later, most people fight among themselves, defending the political party they believe in and the cast of cowards, liars, freaks and fools… the politicians for life they pledge allegiance to who run and ruin their lives.

As I look back now, not only is the political divide worse than ever, so too is the State of the Union.

3:29

And, again, you know to put it in perspective again, this was a guy that was the Democratic Governor of Texas and then a Republican and the Treasury Secretary under Richard Nixon, the guy who tells Nixon, ostensibly, to pack up his bags and leave, the game is over. And this is the time when the United States was taken off the gold standard. People should remember that one too. You know, so Connally was a guy on the inside. And if you go back, in the emotions of the day, you know, there was a lot of optimism. We were on the beginning of the digital revolution, the Cold War was over, the Baby Boomers were almost going to get elected into the White House. To talk about revolution back then, and then you see where the county has gone since then, you can see what Connally was saying. The levels of corruption, the levels of incompetence and self-serving are so obvious now that weren't back then.

6:15

To say that there'd be a revolution in this country and talking about the corruption that was going on and how endemic it was and now it's in front of us. Oh, you need more proof? How about a fiscal cliff - did you like that one? The debt ceiling - I'm sure that was an enjoyment. Closing down the government - brilliant. How about Obamacare? How about the Iraq and Afghan wars? How about Obama saying that we're going to be out of Afghanistan by 2014 and just this week they announced, well, it looks more like 2024. Read this week's Financial Times. One of the big political stories is about how both parties are talking about income inequality. If you had talked about income inequality in 1992 you would have been called a Socialist or Marxist or a Communist. I really believe what Connally was saying was history before it happened.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:19 pm But what I had not quite realized before my lunch with Connally was the extent of corruption and slim odds of anyone bucking the system and winning.

CIA confirms Ventura meeting occurred
Tim Pugmire
St. Paul, Minn.
January 3, 2008 3:36 PM

Shortly after taking office in 1999, Jesse Ventura writes he was asked to attend a meeting at the state Capitol. He says 23 CIA agents were waiting for him in a basement conference room.

Ventura's account of the meeting is detailed in an advance copy of his new book, which is scheduled for release in April. He claims the agents' questions focused how he campaigned for office, or as Ventura writes "how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?"

Memories can fade after nine years, but a meeting with 23 CIA agents is something that might stand out. John Wodele, who served as Ventura's director of communications, said the meeting was news to him.

"I don't recall any indication that the governor had met with a CIA agent," he said. "Now, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. But I was not aware of it.

Turns out there actually was a Ventura meeting with the CIA in 1999. CIA Spokesman George Little confirmed the event today in a written statement, but he offered few details.

Little said that "on occasion CIA officers meet with senior state government officials, as they did in this case, to discuss issues of mutual interest."

Ventura had it right: CIA was here Are they still?
By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: January 2, 2008 at 11:01 p.m. | UPDATED: November 13, 2015 at 4:59 a.m.

The secret is out – sort of.

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura met with a group of Central Intelligence Agency officers in 1999 shortly after he was elected, he claims in his soon-to-be-released book ” Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me.”

“There were 23 CIA agents waiting in a conference room for me. I counted,” says the book, co-written with author Dick Russell. “I got the gist of what they were after. All their questions centered around how we campaigned, how we achieved what we did, and did I think we truly could win from the start? In short, how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?”

A CIA spokeswoman, who – as is the intelligence agency’s custom – did not want to be identified by name, confirmed the meeting. But not the rest of his statement.

“It was part of a training class apparently so, yes,” said the spokeswoman. “I can’t comment on the content of the meeting. I wasn’t there. I can just say that yes, he did have this meeting but it was part of a training exercise.”

As to the number of agents in attendance: “Our population is actually classified,” she said. “So we don’t usually comment on numbers.”

Ventura also said in the book that: “there is a CIA operative inside every state government…They are not in executive positions – in other words, not appointed by the governor – but are permanent state employees. Governors come and go, but they keep working – in a legitimate job with a dual identity. In Minnesota, this person was at a deputy commissioner level, fairly high up.”

That claim, the spokeswoman did not confirm.

“We are federal employees so that, I think, is a little bit off. We are federal employees we are not anywhere near being state employees,” she said.

Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Dec 06, 2022 5:05 pm There are a lot of news articles hitting my inbox about the so-called "tripledemic". It's the triple whammy of flu, covid, and RSV, I believe.

Several months ago, I mentioned having had covid and in my case and in the case of my 2 year old, it was mild. My wife showed no symptoms. We were not tested but think we caught it from a family that had confirmed covid. For me, it was like a cold but felt different enough to think it was something else.

Anyway, in July, my wife wanted to put our daughter into day care to get more experience being around other kids. She was born 2 months before covid hit. I'll discuss the aspects of day care that don't relate to this later.

On her second day of day care she came home with the flu and it started right after she got home. This was July 8. I caught it 2 days later and, as usual, my wife didn't get it. My wife has never had the flu in her entire life. The flu was very severe and this was the sickest my daughter had ever been. It was the worst flu I had every had with maybe one exception. Neither of us needed any medical care. Recovery was slow but we mostly got over it before the next thing hit. Toward the end of it my right ear plugged (that is my weakness) but it only stayed plugged a couple days before it cleared.

Next came something else. It started as a cold but became much worse. For the first time in my life I found out what having sinus pressure and sinus infection is like. One night the pressure was so great I had to sleep partially sitting up. About that time, my daughter's breathing became noisy at night and stayed that way through the next illness, which hit almost immediately. Instead of not being sick at all, my wife had some slight congestion. She wasn't really sick, but wasn't 100 percent either. Again, we mostly got over it without any medical treatment but the recovery wasn't as complete.

Then came the third one. It started as just a slight cough and seemed like nothing to worry about. Then about day 5 or 6 it got a lot more serious. In my daughter's case, she woke up in the middle of the night with a fit of coughing. We sat her up in the bed and she would cough furiously, then freeze with chills. There were several cycles of that before it ended, maybe lasting 30 minutes. I followed her 2 days later and for the first time in years started taking cough medication. The bottle of cough syrup in the closet expired in 1998 and was mostly full so that tells you about how often I am sick. I emptied it during this illness. Also, during this third illness both my ears plugged and are still not completely unplugged 2 months later. My daughter's breathing noise at night has improved a lot but is still not completely normal

Again, during this third illness none of us required any medical care. But finally I told my wife that we need to disenroll this kid from day care because the next one she catches could put somebody in the hospital. My wife agreed, not reluctantly. I gave them notice and took her out immediately even though we had to pay for another 30 days. When I went to the day care to take her out and told them why, the assistant director said, "I don't blame you." That was late September and I think they knew something unusual was going on, but didn't know what. We didn't either.

I was never so naive as to think that because covid didn't affect me much, nothing would. For some who were not impacted much by covid, this "tripledemic" could be a lot worse.

How a viral siege is making some people sick for weeks, even months

It’s like ‘a big bomb of viruses went off,’ says a pediatrician treating kids with flu, RSV, strep and covid

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Updated December 15, 2022 at 1:39 p.m. EST|Published December 15, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST


It started in mid-September with Vance, 5, who came down with RSV and wheezed so badly that his skin was pulling in and out of his ribs with every breath. His little brother Banks, then 11 months old, caught it too. Things were just starting to get better in October, when the boys caught a nasty cold that resulted in more sleepless nights. In November, the flu hit, bringing fevers of 102 degrees.

“It feels like a never-ending cycle,” said their mom, Michelle Huber of Louisville. “We are beyond exhausted.”

The 2022 winter season has been one of prolonged misery for many American families, full of sniffles, sore throats, coughs and trips to the emergency room as bugs kept at bay during the pandemic have been unleashed by the resumption of our old lives.

It’s like “a big bomb of viruses went off,” said Christina Lane, who runs a pediatric practice in New Albany, Ind., and has seen a crush of several hundred children with respiratory symptoms in the past three months.

Parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus, adenovirus, influenza A, influenza B, respiratory enterovirus and human metapneumovirus. And then, there’s the rebounding coronavirus: The seven-day average of new daily cases is above 66,000, with hospitalizations above 40,000, the highest those numbers have been since mid-September and late August, respectively.

As Year 4 of the coronavirus pandemic approaches, Lane and other doctors agree the overlapping viral surges and how they are playing out are unusual and concerning: Patients with back-to-back respiratory illnesses. Simultaneous infection with three or more viruses, or with bacterial infections, such as Strep A. Otherwise healthy people suffering for weeks, rather than days, with simple colds.

Some U.S. hospitals and European health authorities also report out-of-season increases in scarlet fever and Group A streptococcus infections. As of Thursday, two children in the Denver area and 16 in the United Kingdom were confirmed to have died after infection with a rare, invasive form of the typically mild and common bacterial, rather than viral, infection.

But there is no consensus about whether what’s happening is a once-in-many-years phenomenon — perhaps some of it due to the hypervigilance of Americans who have become accustomed to scrutinizing every ache and pain for signs of infection with a potentially deadly virus — a change in how viruses behave that may be with us for a while, or something else entirely.

The U.S. is experiencing an unusually high uptick in both flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections, while covid cases continue to linger. Combined, the spread of these three viruses has prompted the CDC to issue advisories.

As of last week, nearly all 50 states were seeing a high or very high level of respiratory illness, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that rates are likely to continue to increase. U.S. officials estimate that so far this season, there have been at least 13 million cases of flu, 120,000 hospitalizations and 7,300 deaths, including of 21 children.

Doctors say the chaos has resulted in frazzled parents begging for antibiotics (even when they are told it won’t help their children recover from viruses), shortages of basic essential medications such as fever reducers and albuterol to open airways, and a barrage of questions about the interaction of different viruses in our bodies.

How many bouts of illness in a short period is “normal?” Is there something about having covid-19 that hampers people’s ability to resist other viruses? Or is it normal for things to be so abnormal given our unusual situation, as we head into another covid winter?