Aug 242020
 
 August 24, 2020  Posted by at 1:08 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper Tables for ladies 1930

 

 

Haven’t heard from Dr. D in a while, other than in the Comments section here at the Automatic Earth. Where I stopped reading his comments after the umpteenth time he said the COVID fatality rate was only 0.000001%. I find that only repetitious, annoying and more importantly, entirely irrelevant.

But of course over the past 8 months, since I first started to address the virus problem, many things have changed. We have a ton more information on the disease, even if we still don’t appear to know much about it. But one thing we still do know: there is not a government on the planet that has a mandate to kill off its own citizens. And so measures will continue to be taken, no matter how misguided they may be, as long as the virus spreads and people die.

For the media, or what’s left of them by now, COVID is identical to a presidential election: an opportunity to generate clickbait dollars. The priority is not to get the most relevant information to readers and viewers in the best possible way, it’s to present things in those ways that cause the most scandal and anger, because that is what sells.

More specifically about Dr. D’s article below: It’s absurd to claim that Andrew Cuomo killed 20,000 people, just like it’s insane to claim Trump killed 170,000, something I nevertheless read multiple times every single day. What’s neither absurd nor insane is to acknowledge that the US health care system is a giant black hole where money goes in and very little returns. But neither man built that system, it was a society-wide effort.

Fix that and you won’t have to rely on politicians to deal with matters they don’t know the first thing about. “But we listen to the scientists”, they all say. That doesn’t help if you don’t know which scientists to listen to, and to find that out you need to know more about the topic. Catch 22.

There are many many things wrong with both Trump and Cuomo, but in the end they merely epitomize the American political system as a whole, just like their COVID-related actions epitomize the failures of the health care system. Neither system was at all prepared for a pandemic, despite decades of warnings that it would come at some point.

Nor is this just an American problem. European countries, though they often have very differently structured health care systems, were caught just as unawares and unprepared. And you can think and hope that this won’t happen again, that they all will have their blueprints ready for the next one, but I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s not enough money, or power, to be gained from such things.

And no, lockdowns and face masks are not in and of themselves useless or oppressive, but you always need to weigh when to use them, and when not to. And since nobody seems to know that either, we most often see them used for all the wrong reasons and at all the wrong places.And yes, that does get to be oppressive.

But none of this is a reason for me not to let Dr. D speak.

 

 

 

Dr. D: NY’s Governor Andrew Cuomo bans dancing. When are we going to realize they are the lemon-sucking church ladies? He does this AFTER he killed 20,000 people, AFTER the ICUs are long empty, AFTER there are no deaths in NY at all. They’re already intentionally killed 20,000 elderly citizens with their ‘helping’ in a nod to the old eugenics programs. Isn’t that enough?

They always said, growing up, “How could Germany happen?” Didn’t seem that hard to understand to me: men are men. We are not immune. But here watching such madness universally lauded as the best outcome, an example to all, is certainly not what I most expected.

So…crime up 400% in NYC, muggers are beating police and murdering people in the streets. Since this is generally a response to the lockdowns, it won’t be a minute until the bad economy kills more people and ruins more lives than the virus. …Like I said. But beyond that, it has ruined more lives by actually removing all fun, all humor, all discussion, all discovery, all ‘humanity’ from society toward each other. Mask-Nazis are beating fellow shoppers for non-compliance. In what seems to be a competition to show that they don’t believe either in Covid, or in masks at all. If a guy was a leper, would you run up and jump on him to hang his bells on? Clearly they do not believe – in any way – that this is real. That this is dangerous. They just are ze rules. And ze rules are ze rules. Papers please, citizen. Except when it’s US, we’re the good people and we ourselves don’t follow ze rules…you understand. Astonishing.

Even if it were dangerous, wouldn’t there be a human approach to this: Oh do you have a condition? Did you forget? Did you know our policy? Can I help you? In my experience so far, the PoA, Person of Authority, comes up with their mask below their nose, gets 2 feet away, then proceeds to order you about while having not the faintest idea what the actual law – that is, non-law, never passed, doesn’t exist — policy, is. Then I have to quote their policy TO them, they having never even THOUGHT to read it themselves, while they protest ignorance of the law…to me. Ain’t rocket science folks. I’m only literate and can read the little black lines. Their city, state, corporation posted it publicly. Not genius level.

The compliant and fully participating people, quaran-teaming, staying home, wearing masks, also then have people over if it’s their mother/brother/friend…who is then in their own quarantine…which you just broke completely…with not the slightest self-awareness of science, while spending time complaining about “stupid red people who won’t wear masks”…while the parties doing the complaining are themselves medical professionals and the medically compromised. If it’s “us” it’s not dangerous, the ‘Rona is our god, the ‘Rona can tell. …Oh wait: just like I said. Any quarantine will be quarantine theater, and the worst of all worlds.

We’ll BOTH destroy the economy – by which I mean the jobs and dreams of all who work, leaving the traders, insiders and oligarchs stronger than ever – AND have no reduction in transmission. Which exactly happened. Killing TWICE as many, because of YOUR choices, not the virus at all, which has killed hardly anyone not on death’s door, and still counting. But that’s okay: we saw the same “camera off, mask off” behavior by Birx, Fauci, and every reporter at the White House. Again, they don’t believe a word. Because again, if this was a Black Plague, coughing up blood with a black neck, they wouldn’t act this way.

 

This is what happens when you tell lies, especially universal lies: your brain takes it in, it can follow, but your heart and body know better and stand aside. They are not “integrated.” Which means you are a person lacking “integrity.” Worse, when everything is a lie, soon you stop even examining data as it arrives, putting it in its proper place (e.g. that Covid CAN hurt you, but the numbers are different) and resisting or pushing back on the lies, so that there is a) open discussion and b) logical, practical, worked-out agreement on size, scale, and approach. Universal lies here lead to universal obedience despite all science, math, statistics, and personal experience, as we see; but also universal disobedience, yes as we see that some resist, but most just don’t follow the rules and claim they are, then justify themselves while attacking the “other” on the thinnest pretenses, the worst of both worlds.

Just like the lemon-sucking church ladies. “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Well, it’s a good thing masks don’t work against viruses at all, or I’d be annoyed about this stuff. As it is, it’s simply compliance theatre, and having a lifetime of that already, I have a wealth of experience in how to navigate our oppressive, hypocritical, insane, unscientific, and self-defeating our culture, which will spare no expense to use a helicopter to track you down in the Outback, in the most solitary outreaches, and demand irrational compliance to a law that was never passed and doesn’t exist. Every day. With every person. Because of the lies no one will address, and the self-evident right and order no one will remedy. Like Assange.

But don’t worry, with our world-wide slave markets, human trafficking, organ harvesting, family-killing, property-destroying, mis-reporting, slanderous, self-serving ways, we’re everso much more enlightened than 1950, before the civil rights they trot out all day, having done not a single other Good Thing™ they can point to in the last 50 years. They also are now all so young, they mis-remember everything it actually was, and just invent, make up, fabricate, whatever-they-want-it-to-be. Reality-as-democracy, the mob, the majority, decide what’s reality, and then it is so! Reviving MLK’s peace torches and peace bricks, I’m sure. The Southern Democrats manning the front lines for Integrated schools against evil Republican Governors from Ohio, while openly communist JFK joined hands with Khrushchev and re-distributed property and set up social justice re-education camps, just like Bernie’s organizers said. I mean, that’s how I remember it, right?

This is where lies get you. This is why people warn not to use them, you know, right before they use them on you. It’s because “People who can get you to believe absurdities, can get you to commit atrocities.” As we see very clearly today. This is the one motto of Cuomo and the rest: We must never, ever, leave people alone. To their own actions and their own consequences. Their own discovery. Their own lives. The only ways are my ways. The only opinions are my opinions. The One True Party UniOpinion™. Submit or die.

 

“When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is…in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.”
– Dalrymple

 

 

 

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Home Forums A Society of Emasculated Liars

Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)
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  • #62511

    Edward Hopper Tables for ladies 1930     Haven’t heard from Dr. D in a while, other than in the Comments section here at the Automatic Earth
    [See the full post at: A Society of Emasculated Liars]

    #62513
    zerosum
    Participant

    No liars means no societies

    #62516
    teri
    Participant

    I read your website every morning, Ilargi. I would like to ask a question that I have asked three times in the past without the curtesy of an answer. However, now that you are highlighting Dr. D as a guest author, I believe a direct answer is warranted: is “Dr. D” an actual medical doctor? If so, what is his field?

    Dr. D, you may choose to answer this question yourself; I directed it to Ilargi as he is the blog owner.

    In other words, is he opining the way I do (I’m just a commenter with an opinion, which may be thought-provoking, valid, funny, stupid, interesting, irrelevant, etc. depending on how I strike the reader) or does he have some medical experience that ought to be taken into account and may add some weight to his commentary?

    I know there are plenty of doctors that have written lots of unadulterated crap about covid, and we have to learn to weed them out after researching their background and experience. I am not saying Dr. D is one of those, but I do think it is only proper etiquette to credential the bona fides of a person you have given the honor of guest-posting on a medical topic.

    Thank you, Teri

    #62518

    teri,

    Far as I know (s)he’s as much of a doctor as Elizabeth Warren is related to Pocahontas and/or Trump is a stable genius. But what do I know?

    #62519
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Well, I, for one, stopped reading when I realized this was a screed from another anti-mask crank. “Dr. D”, whoever the hell he is, might be interested to know that many employees of stores with mask-wearing policies have been assaulted by cranks like him for doing their jobs and trying to enforce these policies.

    #62521
    Eddie
    Participant

    I personally know John Day, and he is a real doctor who treats real patients…and he is honest to a fault. He has spent most of his career treating people who are underserved by the medical establishment, and he has personally given up a lot to live up to his principles….one of which is to not support the warfare state. He is also dedicated to living a low energy, low consumption lifestyle.,

    He’s a good doctor,,,,,but hardly your typical doctor.

    That said , I don’t really see the downside of wearing masks, as a coping mechanism for a disease that does at least occasionally kill fairly healthy people….and I do get that statistically that is a very small number.

    I will agree that masking alone…not combined with other common sense stuff….like not having gatherings of people that are likely to spread the virus….is inadequate. But in and of itself wrong? I doubt that, even though people like to cite various studies that try to prove whatever they want to claim is true.

    So I will be masking…and properly wearing my mask…to the grocery store and Home Depot….about my last two places on my “must visit” list.

    The spin I read over and over promoting “not-wearing” …seems to be mostly that maybe it gives people a false sense of safety. I am not a physican…but I am a dentist, in a fairly high risk area…and I treated patients with emergencies throughout the modest lockdown (if you can even call it a lockdown) that was mandated here. To give you some context, the guy who is the elected head of the ADA closed his practice for a month…as did many others. I felt I had an obligation to do my job. I have not, as of yet, contracted COVID nor have any of my staff…..but we are very worried about not being a source of community spread…..which is a legitimate concern. The new normal is very different than the old normal.

    #62523
    Glennda
    Participant

    FYI John Day is a real doctor. To my knowledge Dr. D is not a real doctor and is a totally different person. I respect John Day, but I usually just skip Dr. D’s angry ranting over-written diatribes.

    #62526
    teri
    Participant

    Ilargi; you don’t know? For real? So why not just leave this sort of thing in the comment section instead of publishing it like it was a valuable insight of some sort?

    #62527
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    Is Dr D a real doctor?
    Well IIRC he has said on this blog that he is not a medical doctor. He may be a doctor (PHD) of another discipline, however.

    #62528
    Huskynut
    Participant

    @ Ilargi “But one thing we still do know: there is not a government on the planet that has a mandate to kill off its own citizens.”
    This statement exposes two fallacies:
    1. That governments have a “responsibility to protect” (R2P) their citizens which supposedly trumps their requirement to uphold established democratic principles
    2. That government actions have the ability to meaningfully control the virus

    1. The status quo of democratic countries in consensus. It is habeus corpus. To overstep this threshold should be one of the gravest actions a government can possibly take. Protecting the lives of it’s citizens comes second to upholding this principle, else the fundamental fabric of the democracy is immediately shredded.
    A government should interfere in the freedom of its citizens only with the informed consent of its citizens. We’ve seen exactly the opposite – governments have been highly selective in releasing the advice they receive, have released it too late for any kind of discussion and consensus to be reached. Abetted by the media, they’ve fed their citizens a diet of fear-porn and carefully-groomed and highly-selective set of “facts”.
    Regardless of where we personally stand on the lethality of Covid and the appropriate responses, it is fundamentally and absolutely always wrong for governments to assert authority and coercion over their citizens when they could avoid doing so.
    Tyranny in modern times has always been underpinned by the hubristic notion on part of some person or group that they possessed some special relationship to the truth, and that their action (or lack of action) was essential for the overall good of the “herd”. It is the absolute basis of over-reach, which leads to tyranny.
    It’s no coincidence that R2P was the principle invoked in past years by the West to destroy Libya – the thinking and process is identical. As Bob Dylan pithily observed “sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace”.
    The wisdom of the many is always greater than the wisdom of individuals, especially those locked in echo-chambers. Hence the myths and fables in every country and tradition speaking to the dangers of hubris. And lo and behold – the emerging facts lead in every direction away from the initial assumptions about lethality, spread and immunity. But even if the initial beliefs had subsequently been validated, it would be by pure dumb luck only. The fact would remain that western governments have overturned their democratic mandates, and become extremely autocratic.
    2. Governments have no meaningful control over a viral pathogen, except by taking the most extreme measures.
    This was emphasised by the disingenuity and sleight-of-hand which accompanied the switch from “flatten the curve” to “eliminate the virus”. Governments can exert some meaningful control over the first of these using relatively moderate measures. But exerting meaningful control over the latter is an idiocy of “scientific” hubris – something that scientists and “risk professors” discuss in terms not remotely connected to the real world.
    Dmitri Orlov has characterised “the Technosphere” well in his writing, and that’s what’s at play here – the idea that humankind has developed the science and medicine and organisation and political structures to control and eliminate a virus. It hasn’t, and it never will, unless perhaps we decide to reduce the world to a homogenous sludge where citizens have the role of ants, but probably not even then. That’s just yet more hubris at play.
    A parallel might be the “war on drugs” versus harm minimisation strategies. After decades of the WoD, where are we? Absolutely nowhere useful, but with a bunch of coercive legislation and actions, and the likes of the CIA generating large sums of black funds to extend their coercive tentacles off-books.
    If someone truly believes that the government should protect it’s citizens at any cost, including at the expense of their own liberties or consensus, then the WoD is perfectly reasonable. I say it’s a failed abomination that on net clearly generates far more misery than it alleviates.
    What I remain boggled by is how remarkably few people – most who’ve generally enjoyed the benefits of it for their entire lives, mostly without lifting a finger in its defence – seem to believe that liberal democracy can be suspended and reinstated in the face of an external event without consequence.
    Back to the original premise:
    “there is not a government on the planet that has a mandate to kill off its own citizens.”
    Without standing firm on the principles of democracy, there is no legitimate government to do anything at all – there is only a tyranny, doing whatever it decides to.

    #62529

    Eddie- if the virus is so incredibly contagious, how have you and your people avoided getting it?
    Ilargi- thanks for this. Disease we will have with us always. Freedom to be human is constantly under siege.
    Teri- why would Ilargi know?
    Glennda- sometimes we pick internet monikers capriciously. Sometimes- like Mister Roboto- we are spot on when we choose them.
    One more time: why are we ignoring deaths, and now counting “cases” (positive tests), instead? It must be that we are recognizing how a bigger denominator means the virus has done what viruses do. They come, they go.

    #62530
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    It’s irrelevant to me whether Dr. D. has a medical degree or not, since I let his words speak for themselves. I’m old enough now not to be impressed or bow the head before fancy university credentials, many of which are worth squat. I’ve met doctorates in my own field who couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag – having no common sense or practical experience to ground them in reality.

    That said, I always enjoy Dr. D.’s rants. He obviously has a keen perception that is adept at pointing out human hypocrisy and other absurdities. This should cause reflection in everyone not fully grounded in principle, and therefore easily jerked about by public opinion or the latest media expert… Dr. Fauci comes to mind. But, alas, the very one’s who could benefit from a little self-reflection can usually be found beating others over the head with their latest cock-sure brainwave. A brainwave, mind you, that is not even organic, but parroted from their preferred team’s hive mind.

    Doctorate or no, I find his insights thought provoking. However, since the whole Covid drama became politically weaponized, I’ve given up forming strong opinions in either direction and have settled on a middle road, being neither fanatical nor rebellious. The pandemic story is still being written, I believe, and like most history we may find that it was more fiction than truth upon later inspection. I try to be open-minded, and would certainly miss Dr. D.’s commentary if he ever gave up the pen.

    #62532
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    @ Maxwell Quest………..totally agree with yr pov and thinking re: Dr. D.

    #62534
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    We all have templates, imprints, that trigger emotions and provide explanations and behaviors that allow the individual to survive and pass on its DNA onto the next generation. Humans evolved speech, controlled fire, and developed teaching, society, so that knowledge of the past does not have to rediscovered with each new generation. Except it seems to be human nature to have to relearn it all over, again and again. But what has thrown a monkey wrench into the whole endeavor to habituate the earth is that in the last forty years an ideology of greed that says that society does not exist triumphed. Democratic government has been so whittled down and corrupted, it cannot do anything anymore. The Pandemic Depression and the Fall of the Free World is the result. If one has a problem with Dr. D, it is that his template does not work. Our cognitive dissonance is generated by our desire to survive and somehow get a system that works for humans on earth that does not exterminate us, like bacteria in a petri dish. A fresh start would be restoration of democracy and rebuilding a national public health system in the USA.

    #62535
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    Dr D always makes some good points, but I have grown weary of the rants, and therefore tend to skip over or skim the longer ones. I share the view that it makes no difference whether he is a medical doctor or not — I have lost confidence in the authority of “experts” and therefore look at the substance. Dr D loses credibility in my mind when he dismisses masks without any scientific basis (other than to say that it is theoretically possible to still be infected while wearing a mask because the viruses are smaller than the holes in the mask — but ignoring that viruses travel in much larger droplets). Here in Asia use of masks is widespread. And it seems that in every intsance of a new cluster infection, especially those with the so-called super-spreaders, it has always, always, 100% of the time — been a situation where people were in a confined indoor space where people were not wearing masks. I have not heard of a single instance, in any country, at any time, since the beginning of this pandemic — of a new cluster starting where most of the people were wearing masks. Perhaps there is one example out there? Somewhere? Anywhere? Together with millions of other Koreans I ride the bus every day during rush hour. People are packed on buses and in subways. Masks are mandatory. Thousands of buses. Hundreds of subway trains. And yet there are no cluster infections traced to public transportation — not one. The common cluster infections are churches, karaoke bars, dance clubs, multi-level marketing schemes, and occasionally a restaurant or cafe — all places where people have taken off their masks.

    Coincidence?

    #62536
    Dave Note
    Participant

    While its obvious the Days of Corona were weaponized from the get go, the lame claim that the clustef*ck reactions of the majority of countries to the covid crisis using lockdowns killed their economies is dubious at best.

    The Big Lie is that the global and national western economies were doing great before Covid. Wrong, they were mere shells, Potemkin Ponzis.

    The global banking system collapsed in 2008. Collapsed. The banks and financial system were never fixed the last twelve years. The banks were stone cold dead in 2008 and the Fed pumped them up with fiat formaldehyde so the corpse would not visibly rot in plain sight. They let the banks value their own assets instead of mark to markets valuation, absolutely insane move. They redefined the legal definition of solvency so that the banks were solvent when they obviously weren’t.

    The US economy right before Covid was a Dead Man Walking.

    The Repo markets had gone tits up the fall of 2019. That was the incredible stench of the US zombie corpse economy breaking wind in the front parlor. Who cut the cheese!

    Lockdowns were the feather that broke the camel’s back. They unmasked the gross decomposition behind edifice of deceit and lies that is the US and global economies.

    Please put a sock in the chin music ditty that if the governments had just kept things ‘open’, i.e. no lockdowns, things would have been hunky-dory. False, the facade economy of monkeys scratch each others backs at Starbucks after their Uber ride from the Google campus is a joke.

    Two thirds of the staggering amount of US unemployed people were making more money with unemployment benefits plus an extra $600 aweek than they were actually going to work. THAT shows how truly poorly payed the average US worker is and how pitiful the economy really was leading up to Covid.

    Lockdowns just Blew the Man Down

    Blow the Man Down

    #62539
    John Day
    Participant

    Man, what a bunch of excellent and insightful comments! And, I don’t just refer to the folks who said nice things about my motivation to serve poor people, which is actually more gratifying to me than a red Tesla would be (shudder///)
    Let me lay a couple of essays on you, my brothers and sisters, by a thinker I just discovered, though I realize that I had read and liked an essay of his last year.
    Ladies and Gents, Samo Burja! http://samoburja.com/
    Why Civilizations Collapse: https://thesideview.co/journal/why-civilizations-collapse/
    Great Founder Theory (of history and organizational structures/engagements) http://samoburja.com/great-founder-theory/
    The 95 page version of Great Founder Theory, which I read all day Saturday (it rained)
    http://samoburja.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Great-Founder-Theory-v-1.43.pdf

    #62542
    restless94111
    Participant

    I’m never sure why you think it necessary to say things like there are many things wrong with Trump. What things are those? Name 5. Hell, name even one.
    And when the good doctor states Cuomo is directly responsible for 20,000 deaths, that would be correct. Sending infected people to elder care homes and then not promoting HCQ, which cures people of the virus? The people that died in those homes were the fault of Cuomo.

    The same can not be said of Trump. He promoted the cure months ago. He’s sent ventilators where needed and even military medical hospitals.About the only thing Trump has done wrong to believe a thing that Fauci, Tedros, Gates, the WHO, the CDC, Birx have said. They have been wrong about almost everything and continue to be. HCQ + zinc works.

    I’d appreciate it if you cease trying to be “fair” or whatever it is you think you are doing by bashing both sides equally. Trump doesn’t deserve your bashing. Cuomo most certainly does.

    #62543
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ladies and Gents, Samo Burja!

    Very interesting writer; Why Civilisations Collapse is a great read, and points to the mileposts along the way…
    Thanks Dr. John

    #62544
    chettt
    Participant

    Does Ilargi have a medical degree that he’s hiding from us? Why is he qualified to comment on COVID?
    What about economics? Where’s his credentials to justify his writings on reserve currency?
    He talks about oil and energy; is he also a closet geologist?
    Hey I was over on John Day’s site and he had some pretty strong opinions on the environment and climate issues. When did he become a climate scientist?
    But for some here the good Dr. D needs to be some kind of medical professional to garner any credibility or to even have the audacity to post.

    Dr D has been one of the most informative and consistently entertaining commentators on this site. His research is usually quite good and his insight are anything but shallow and he delivers it all with just the right touch of wit and cynicism.
    OK maybe he needs a refresher course with CALC.EXE since 812,758 deaths out of 7.59 billion people = .01% not .00001% but then again maybe he’s only counting people who actually died of COVID and not with COVID but I’ll let that pass and I’ll ask the good Dr. D to keep ranting on.

    #62555
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Thanks for letting Dr.D jump on the mic. I like his rap style. Alot. Sometimes he misses the mark but who doesn’t. He/she should be allowed a voice just for the sake of his literary style. I absolutely love it. It’s just fluid and ranty and thought provoking and juicy.

    My opinion is to go the art of war on this one, all Chinese and tactical – STOOP TO CONQUER. Wear the damn mask. Wait the thing out. People more mad and ill prepared than you or I will crack first. Hell people in power will crack first. Concessions will be made, drawn lines will be rubbed out. Just hang in there the herd will change direction quick.

    #62561
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Just hang in there the herd will change direction quick.

    Yes, and then beware the stampede…

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