Jan 132021
 
 January 13, 2021  Posted by at 10:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Alfred Wertheimer Elvis entering the Warwick 1956

 

The Ireland Event (Ben Hunt)
Japan To Suspend Entry Of All Foreigners (NHK)
China Sees Growing COVID-19 Threat As More Cities Locked Down (R.)
Ron Paul Criticized Social Media Censorship Before Being Blocked (Turley)
How Silicon Valley Monopolistic Force Destroyed Parler (Greenwald)
Pence Responds To Pelosi, Won’t Invoke 25th Amendment (Mike Pence)
Trump’s Last Chance to Declassify Secrets of the Russia Collusion Dud (Maté)
Israel Isn’t A Democracy, It’s An ‘Apartheid Regime’ – Rights Group (CNN)
Upbeat Xi Says “Time And Situation On China’s Side” (ZH)
Food Hampers In Wales As English Mum Posts Picture Of £30 Package (WO)
Top Scientists: ‘Ghastly Future Of Mass Extinction’, Climate Disruption (G.)

 

 

“There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right: It is the ideal American who is all wrong.”
– G.K. Chesterton

 

 

 

 

“..a 30x spike in Covid cases in Ireland over the span of two weeks in late December..”

The Ireland Event (Ben Hunt)

And when I say “insane infection numbers” I mean a 30x spike in Covid cases in Ireland over the span of two weeks in late December, where the R number – the basic reproductive rate of the disease – went from something around 1.2 to something around 3. Where you suddenly went from a few hundred new Covid cases every day to more than six thousand cases every day. All in a country the size of Alabama (which, btw, currently has about 4 thousand cases every day). [..] I believe there is a non-trivial chance that the United States will experience a rolling series of “Ireland events” over the next 30-45 days, where the Covid effective reproductive number (Re not R0) reaches a value between 2.4 and 3.0 in states and regions where a) the more infectious UK-variant (or similar) Covid strain has been introduced, and b) Covid fatigue has led to deterioration in social distancing behaviors.

A single Ireland event is a disaster. A series of Ireland events on the scale of the United States is catastrophic. If this were to occur, I’d expect to see a doubling of new Covid cases/day from current levels in the aggregate (today’s 7-day average is 240k/day), peaking somewhere around 500,000 new daily cases before draconian economic shutdowns (more severe than anything we’ve seen to date) would occur in every impacted major metro area. Hospital systems across the country would be placed under enormous additional strain, leading to meaningfully higher case fatality ratios (CFRs) as medical care was rationed. Most critically, this new infection rate would far outpace our current vaccine distribution capacity and policy. Assuming that vaccines are preferentially administered to the elderly, aggregate infection fatality ratios (IFRs) should decrease, but the overall burden of severe outcomes (death, long-term health consequences) would shift to younger demographics.

Current US government policy rejects the possibility of an Ireland event, largely because of what I believe is a politically-motivated analysis by the CDC that models more than 100 million Americans already possessing Covid antibodies, prior to any vaccination effort. Using data from flu monitoring programs in prior years, the CDC models project that 70 MILLION Americans have already gotten sick with symptomatic Covid, but decided to just write it off as a bad cold and never got tested. I am not making this up. Add in another 10 million or so Americans who the CDC models as having already had asymptomatic Covid, add in the 23 million Americans who we know have had Covid, and voila! – per the CDC, one-third of the American population is already effectively immunized against getting Covid in the future. And obviously enough, if >30% of Americans are already effectively immunized against Covid because they’ve already gotten sick, then it’s very difficult to hit the Re numbers of 2.4 – 3.0 that Ireland is currently experiencing.

I think this model is wrong, and I think the CDC knows that it’s wrong. I think it’s wrong because the 2021 behavior of someone who thinks they might have Covid is very different from the 2015 behavior of someone who thought they might have had the flu, but the CDC assumes it is the same in their models. You don’t ignore Covid. You don’t just brush it off. I’d say that no one just brushes off Covid symptoms the way they might have brushed off flu symptoms in the past, but of course that’s not true. I’m sure there are millions of Americans who have, in fact, had symptomatic Covid and ignored it, particularly in spring and early summer when our national testing capability was pathetic. But 70 MILLION Americans? Twenty percent of ALL Americans? More than three times the number of known Covid cases? C’mon, man.

I think the CDC knows this model is wrong because if it were true – if they actually thought that one-third of Americans were already effectively immunized by having Covid antibodies – this would be an ENORMOUS factor in determining vaccination policy. Otherwise, you are going to be wasting one-third of your precious supply of vaccines on people who don’t need it. I think the CDC knows this model is wrong because if it were true, how do you make sense of Covid hospitalization rates?

Read more …

Soon to come in a country near you.

Japan To Suspend Entry Of All Foreigners (NHK)

The Japanese government plans to suspend the entry of all foreigners as the coronavirus continues to spread around the world. Japan halted all new arrivals of non-nationals last month after new strains of the coronavirus that are believed to be highly transmissible were confirmed in the UK and elsewhere. But it continued to allow entry by businesspeople from 10 Asian countries and Taiwan. The government plans to suspend the entry of travelers, regardless of whether a coronavirus variant has been detected in their country, as part of its tighter entry restrictions following the declaration of a state of emergency.


No foreigners will be allowed to enter Japan, except for special reasons, such as a relative’s funeral or childbirth. Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said last week he plans to ban travel to and from countries and territories where a new strain of the coronavirus has been confirmed. But members of his party and others described the measure as confusing.

Read more …

China’s nervous.

China Sees Growing COVID-19 Threat As More Cities Locked Down (R.)

China has recorded the biggest daily jump in COVID cases in more than five months, despite four cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second biggest economy. Most of the new patients were reported near the capital Beijing, but a province in northeast China also saw a rise in new cases, official data showed on Wednesday, amid a resurgence that has seen more than 28 million people under home quarantine. The National Health Commission said in a statement that a total of 115 new confirmed cases were reported in the mainland compared with 55 a day earlier. This was the highest daily increase since July 30.

The commission said 107 of the new cases were local infections. Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing, accounted for 90 of the cases, while northeastern Heilongjiang province reported 16 new cases. [..] Hebei has put three cities – Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang – into lockdown as part of the efforts to keep the virus from spreading further, while Beijing city authorities have stepped up screening and prevention measures to prevent another cluster from developing there. Heilongjiang province on Wednesday declared a COVID-19 emergency. The city of Suihua, which borders the provincial capital Harbin, put its 5.2 million people under lockdown.

Most of the cases in Heilongjiang have been found in Wangkui county, under Suihua’s jurisdiction, which had already been put into a lockdown earlier this week. Tieli, a city of about 300,000 people that borders Suihua, said on Wednesday it will not allow any people or vehicles to leave for three days as part of new COVID-19 prevention measurs.

Read more …

An 85-year old apostle for peace. Boy, you guys screwed up.

Ron Paul Criticized Social Media Censorship Before Being Blocked (Turley)

We have been discussing the chilling crackdown on free speech that has been building for years in the United States. This effort has accelerated in the aftermath of the Capitol riot including the shutdown sites like Parler. Now former Texas congressman Ron Paul, 85, has been blocked from using his Facebook page for unspecified violations of “community standards.” Paul’s last posting was linked to an article on the “shocking” increase of censorship on social media. Facebook then proceeded to block him under the same undefined “community standards” policy. Paul, a libertarian leader and former presidential candidate, has been an outspoken critics of foreign wars and an advocate for civil liberties for decades. He wrote: “With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ @Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified.”

His son is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted, “Facebook now considers advocating for liberty to be sedition. Where will it end?” Even before the riot, Democrats were calling for blacklists and retaliation against anyone deemed to be “complicit” with the Trump Administration. We have been discussing the rising threats against Trump supporters, lawyers, and officials in recent weeks from Democratic members are calling for blacklists to the Lincoln Project leading a a national effort to harass and abuse any lawyers representing the Republican party or President Trump. Others are calling for banning those “complicit” from college campuses while still others are demanding a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to “hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the crimes they have committed.” Daily Beast editor-at-large Rick Wilson has added his own call for “humiliation,” “incarceration” and even ritualistic suicides for Trump supporters in an unhinged, vulgar column.

After the riots, the big tech companies moved to ban and block sites and individuals, including Parler which is the primary alternative to Twitter. Also, a top Forbes editor Randall Lane warned any company that they will be investigated if they hire any former Trump officials. The riots are being used as a license to rollback on free speech and retaliate against conservatives. In the meantime, the silence of academics and many in the media is deafening. Many of those who have spoken for years about the dark period of McCarthyism and blacklisting are either supporting this censorship or remaining silent in the face of it. Now that conservatives are the targets, speech controls and blacklists appear understandable or even commendable. The move against Paul, a long champion of free speech, shows how raw and comprehensive this crackdown has become. It shows how the threat to free speech has changed. It is like having a state media without state control. These companies are moving in unison but not necessarily with direct collusion.

Read more …

“..exactly at the moment when it became the most-downloaded app in the country…”

How Silicon Valley Monopolistic Force Destroyed Parler (Greenwald)

Critics of Silicon Valley censorship for years heard the same refrain: tech platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter are private corporations and can host or ban whoever they want. If you don’t like what they are doing, the solution is not to complain or to regulate them. Instead, go create your own social media platform that operates the way you think it should. The founders of Parler heard that suggestion and tried. In August, 2018, they created a social media platform similar to Twitter but which promised far greater privacy protections, including a refusal to aggregate user data in order to monetize them to advertisers or algorithmically evaluate their interests in order to promote content or products to them. They also promised far greater free speech rights, rejecting the increasingly repressive content policing of Silicon Valley giants.

Over the last year, Parler encountered immense success. Millions of people who objected to increasing repression of speech on the largest platforms or who had themselves been banned signed up for the new social media company. As Silicon Valley censorship radically escalated over the past several months — banning pre-election reporting by The New York Post about the Biden family, denouncing and deleting multiple posts from the U.S. President and then terminating his access altogether, mass-removal of right-wing accounts — so many people migrated to Parler that it was catapulted to the number one spot on the list of most-downloaded apps on the Apple Play Store, the sole and exclusive means which iPhone users have to download apps. “Overall, the app was the 10th most downloaded social media app in 2020 with 8.1 million new installs,” reported TechCrunch.

It looked as if Parler had proven critics of Silicon Valley monopolistic power wrong. Their success showed that it was possible after all to create a new social media platform to compete with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And they did so by doing exactly what Silicon Valley defenders long insisted should be done: if you don’t like the rules imposed by tech giants, go create your own platform with different rules. But today, if you want to download, sign up for, or use Parler, you will be unable to do so. That is because three Silicon Valley monopolies — Amazon, Google and Apple — abruptly united to remove Parler from the internet, exactly at the moment when it became the most-downloaded app in the country.

If one were looking for evidence to demonstrate that these tech behemoths are, in fact, monopolies that engage in anti-competitive behavior in violation of antitrust laws, and will obliterate any attempt to compete with them in the marketplace, it would be difficult to imagine anything more compelling than how they just used their unconstrained power to utterly destroy a rising competitor.

Tucker Greenwald
https://twitter.com/i/status/1349174579105656833

Read more …

They smell blood, this won’t stop them.

Pence Responds To Pelosi, Won’t Invoke 25th Amendment (Mike Pence)

Dear Madam Speaker:

Every American was shocked and saddened by the attack on our Nation’s Capitol last week, and I am grateful for the leadership that you and other congressional leaders provided in reconvening Congress to complete the people’s business on the very same day. It was a moment that demonstrated to the American people the unity that is still possible in Congress when it is needed most. But now, with just eight days left in the President’s term, you and the Democratic Caucus are demanding that the Cabinet and I invoke the 25th Amendment. I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution. Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation.

As you know full well, the 25th Amendment was designed to address Presidential incapacity or disability. Just a few months ago, when you introduced legislation to create a 25th Amendment Commission, you said, “[a] President’s fitness for office must be determined by science and facts.” You said then that we must be “[v]ery respectful of not making a judgment on the basis of a comment or behavior that we don’t like, but based on a medical decision.” Madam Speaker, you were right. Under our Constitution, the 25th Amendment is not a means of punishment or usurpation. Invoking the 25th Amendment in such a manner would set a terrible precedent.

After the horrific events of this last week, our Administration’s energy is directed to ensuring an orderly transition. The Bible says that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…a time to heal, … and a time to build up.” That time is now. In the midst of a global pandemic, economic hardship for millions of Americans, and the tragic events of January 6th, now is the time for us to come together, now is the time to heal. I urge you and every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment. Work with us to lower the temperature and unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. I pledge to you that I will continue to do my part to work in good faith with the incoming administration to ensure an orderly transition of power. So help me God.

Read more …

Last chance for lots of things.

Trump’s Last Chance to Declassify Secrets of the Russia Collusion Dud (Maté)

President Trump’s last days in office offer a final opportunity to declassify critical information on the Russia investigation that engulfed his lone term. Already voluminous public records – including investigative reports from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Congress and the Justice Department’s inspector general – have established that Trump and his associates were targeted with a baseless Russian collusion allegation. The fraudulent claim originated with the Hillary Clinton campaign, was fueled by a torrent of false or deceptive intelligence leaks, and was improperly investigated by the FBI, potentially to the point of being criminal. Despite these disclosures, key questions remain about the origins and the spread of the conspiracy theory.


And with a Biden administration set to take office and Democrats taking control of both chambers of Congress, there are no guarantees that the ongoing probe of Special Counsel John Durham will fill in the remaining gaps. Both the CIA and FBI have been slow to produce much material that Trump reportedly wants declassified. They argue that disclosure would reveal sources and methods vital to national security. Such claims arouse skepticism because they have been used in the past to cover up malfeasance – as the public learned when deceptive FISA warrant applications used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page were finally released.

Read more …

What’s striking here is that it’s CNN covering it.

Israel Isn’t A Democracy, It’s An ‘Apartheid Regime’ – Rights Group (CNN)

Israel is no longer a democracy but an “apartheid regime” devoted to cementing the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians, the country’s best-known human rights group said in a report published Tuesday. B’Tselem, which until now has confined its work to scrutiny of human rights issues in the Palestinian territories, has now also decided to look at what it calls Israel’s “regime” between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. “More than 14 million people, roughly half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule,” B’Tselem said in a new analysis titled: “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.”


The human rights group says that the traditional view of Israel as a democracy operating side-by-side with a temporary Israeli occupation in the territories “imposed on some five million Palestinian subjects … has grown divorced from reality.” “Most importantly, the distinction obfuscates the fact that the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group — Jews — over another — Palestinians,” B’Tselem said in its controversial analysis. Years of injustice against Palestinians, culminating in laws that have entrenched discrimination, mean that “the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met,” B’Tselem said. The allegation that Israel is an “apartheid state” has often been dismissed by rightwing Israelis and their support groups as anti-Semitic. But this argument will be harder to make now that Israel has been labelled this way by such a well-respected Israeli institution, albeit one that enjoys only minority support in its home country.

Read more …

“..build and maintain a “super-sized domestic market” to boost consumption…”

Upbeat Xi Says “Time And Situation On China’s Side” (ZH)

While the political gridlock and alarmist headlines out of Capitol Hill as well as a dramatic Democratic move to impeach look to define Trump’s final week in office, Bloomberg notes that China’s President Xi Jinping is sounding “unusually upbeat”. According to the publication he issued an unusually upbeat assessment about China’s future, noting that “time and the situation” were on the country’s side in a new year marked by domestic turmoil in the U.S. The purpose of the speech before a top-level meeting of government officials in Beijing on Monday was to lay out the Communist Party vision over the next three decades, which included the presence of the Politburo Standing Committee, Beijing’s highest decision-making body.

“The world is in a turbulent time that is unprecedented in the past century,” Xi said, striking a tone which many pundits observed stood in contrast to recent more dire sounding warnings. “But time and momentum are on our side. This is where we show our conviction and resilience, as well as our determination and confidence.” And further according to the Monday remarks in the closed-door meeting: “At the same time, we must see clearly that, for now and until this upcoming period of time, while our country is at an important period of strategic opportunity for development, there will always be changes to our opportunities and challenges,” Xi was quoted as saying. “The extensiveness of these opportunities and challenges is unprecedented but, all in all, the opportunities we face outweigh our challenges,” he added, calling for unity, diligence and flexibility to achieve the party’s goals.

The cautious optimism continued, as South China Morning Post writes, while he made vague or remote references to both the pandemic and political turmoil and uncertainty afflicting the United States: In his speech, Xi also again emphasised Beijing’s new “dual circulation” economic strategy first announced in May amid global challenges brought by the pandemic and China’s slowing growth. “Only by being self-reliant and developing the domestic market and smoothing out internal circulation can we achieve vibrant growth and development, regardless of the hostility in the outside world,” Xi said. Elsewhere in the speech he continued urged that self-reliance would in part come through rapid technological innovation in order to build and maintain a “super-sized domestic market” to boost consumption.

Read more …

Scum.

Food Hampers In Wales As English Mum Posts Picture Of £30 Package (WO)

An investigation has been launched in England after images shared online showed “woefully inadequate” free school meal parcels sent to families. One mum criticised the free school meals scheme after she claimed she was sent just a few pounds worth of food to feed her children for 10 days. It was claimed the image of a £30 parcel contained just over £5 worth of food. Posting the image on Twitter, user Roadside Mum said: “2 days jacket potato with beans, 8 single cheese sandwiches, 2 days carrots, 3 days apples, 2 days soreen, 3 days frubes. “Spare pasta & tomato. Will need mayo for pasta salad. “Issued instead of £30 vouchers. I could do more with £30 to be honest.”


Footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford tweeted another picture and wrote: “3 days of food for 1 family… Just not good enough. “Then imagine we expect the children to engage in learning from home. “Not to mention the parents who, at times, have to teach them who probably haven’t eaten at all so their children can… We MUST do better.” England children’s Minister Vicky Ford said she would be “urgently” look into the matter. England’s Department for Education wrote on Twitter: “We have clear guidelines and standards for food parcels, which we expect to be followed. “Parcels should be nutritious and contain a varied range of food.” Chartwells, the company which the mum in England said provided the parcel, said it will investigate.


The hamper received in Caerphilly (left) compared to the hamper received by a mum in England

Read more …

Paul Ehrlich. Long time no see.

Top Scientists: ‘Ghastly Future Of Mass Extinction’, Climate Disruption (G.)

The planet is facing a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction, according to an international group of scientists, who warn people still haven’t grasped the urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises. The 17 experts, including Prof Paul Ehrlich from Stanford University, author of The Population Bomb, and scientists from Mexico, Australia and the US, say the planet is in a much worse state than most people – even scientists – understood. “The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms – including humanity – is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts,” they write in a report in Frontiers in Conservation Science which references more than 150 studies detailing the world’s major environmental challenges.


The delay between destruction of the natural world and the impacts of these actions means people do not recognise how vast the problem is, the paper argues. “[The] mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilisation.” The report warns that climate-induced mass migrations, more pandemics and conflicts over resources will be inevitable unless urgent action is taken. “Ours is not a call to surrender – we aim to provide leaders with a realistic ‘cold shower’ of the state of the planet that is essential for planning to avoid a ghastly future,” it adds. Dealing with the enormity of the problem requires far-reaching changes to global capitalism, education and equality, the paper says. These include abolishing the idea of perpetual economic growth, properly pricing environmental externalities, stopping the use of fossil fuels, reining in corporate lobbying, and empowering women, the researchers argue.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 13 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 62 total)
  • Author
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  • #68233

    Alfred Wertheimer Elvis entering the Warwick 1956   • The Ireland Event (Ben Hunt) • Japan To Suspend Entry Of All Foreigners (NHK) • China Sees
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 13 2021]

    #68234
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Alfred Wertheimer Elvis entering the Warwick 1956

    Quite nice; but, why no other people in view?
    I remember the Elvis days of hysteria by the press; fearful of the morals of American youth…If only they had, had a clue………….
    ………they didn’t………………….

    #68236
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “politically-motivated analysis by the CDC that models more than 100 million Americans already possessing Covid antibodies”

    Let me get this correct: you think the virus has been here a year, has been completely unrestrained by all actions in that time, yet nobody in the U.S. has had it?

    Would you like to support that claim with anything besides drooling fantasies? Unlike your side, I’m listening. P.S. you’ve be DEAD WRONG about everything, every day for 365 days in a row. No impact. No brain, no pain, as they say.

    “You don’t ignore Covid. You don’t just brush it off.”

    Yes. Yes you do. Look: you can’t just make #$%& up. You have to actually support them. They have to be true.

    Hey! Remember that “Diamond Princess” thingie? That was March, 270 days ago. Remember how, crammed indoors with no protection whatsoever, ALMOST ALL passengers didn’t “Get” the disease, didn’t even show symptoms? Husbands and wives, +70y.o. One would die the other would be symptomless. Sounds like they “brushed it off” at least medically.
    YOU ARE LYING. L Y I N G . L Y I N G. And you know it, or in the long tradition of American bulls—t you just don’t care the slightest if what you’re saying is true or false. “We create reality now…” Yeah, in your own minds.

    With a long, long, embarrassing, unending, continuing list of failure and bare-faced lies, this is one of the few things we are absolutely, positively CERTAIN of is that some people “brush it off.” +90% of people, in fact. The problem is which ones and why, not IF.

    “Otherwise, you are going to be wasting one-third of your precious supply of vaccines on people who don’t need it.”

    Hahahaha you’re so funny. With a 0.54% increase in life from the vaccine, it’s not doing much. What the vaccine is for is to SELL VACCINE. It’s not a waste. It’s a forced-taxpayer transfer FROM the poor, TO the rich pharmaceutical executives and stockholders. If only they could waste more, like Cuomo arranged for, they’d get ever-so much richer.

    Is this guy a reporter? Who gave him a brain transfusion that removed all his suspicion and cynicism? Drink some whiskey or something, cupcake.

    “China Sees Growing COVID-19 Threat as More Cities Locked Down (R.)”

    But, but China doesn’t have any cases! China said so! And all reporters always believe everything China prints.

    Ron Paul Criticized Social Media Censorship Before Being Blocked (Turley)”

    While long, the title says it all here: “Attempts To Censor Conservatives FAILED, Deplatforming Failed, the Underground Network is Growing”

    “Underground”. Hahahahaha! For Yale graduates writing from Brooklyn who can barely use a keyboard, maybe. “Gee, I went on App Store and downloaded this app, I clicked this completely public and widely-advertised website, I guess I’m a Dark Net hack3r now.” No. Moving to Gab is not “Underground.” For the love of Christ and all things holy, JesusMaryJoseph and all the saints, cut the hyperventilating rhetoric, you look such the fool I’m embarrassed for you.

    No. Twitter has killed THEMSELVES. They now have no Influence to peddle, aka “sell.” They are now useless as a platform, and will be shunned by all the young, cool, edgy kids who want to make a bit of hooligan pranks as young people should / I approve this message. That is, the Democrats are now the lemon-sucking church ladies. “Could it be…hmmmmm…RACISM???”
    Santa
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHLUTltX4AAyfcJ?format=jpg&name=900×900

    And the Libertarians are the cool, funny, edgy jacket-wearing rebels to look up to. My god it’s so embarrassing. Apparently these Yale-failing, jet-setting globalists have never met an “American” before, which is easy to believe.

    Americans exist to rebel. They live make/get into trouble. Not to wear helmets and suck lemons. That’s why they DGAF about Covid, and think people who do are whiny weaklings. NOT that they won’t die of it, although clearly their approach has been proven medically, socially, and legally correct, it’s that THEY DON’T CARE if they die of it. Because they don’t live life hiding in a basement filled with anxiety. BUT YOU DO. That’s why you’re contemptible. Show some manhood, some spirit, some virtue. Fill your lungs with bravery for “today is a good day to die.”

    Hiding like a rat will not save you. Selling your soul, your nation down the river has done what so far? N O T H I N G. Texas is doing better, safer, richer, more full of life and love than New York. So you want to be China now? Slave-running, organ harvesting, billionaire-abducting totalitarian panopolic fascists? Apparently yes. China is indeed their greatest love, joy, and goal to being.

    Ooooooooooor, you could choose “Life” “Liberty” and … safety? Isn’t there a quote by a certain Benjamin about this? And the people who deserve safety?

    “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither.” Which I can attest.

    Be a man. Stop cowering. It won’t help. There is no end. The purpose of Power is Power. They’re coming for you. You’re Next if you’re not already.
    Next!
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SEo8o0s0N4k/T7c-x2yKZXI/AAAAAAAAGGQ/LU-rnnTKkXk/s640/invasion+of+body+snatchers+22FF.jpg

    Israel Isn’t A Democracy, It’s An ‘Apartheid Regime’ – Rights Group (CNN)”
    Interesting CNN and the boyz want to report this while PBS says,
    “Kids who are growing up, know nothing but Trump, for four years, you’ve got to wonder what they’re (Trump supporting children) going to be like, ” Beller told the undercover journalist. “They’ll (Trump supporters) be raising a generation of intolerant, horrible people – horrible kids.” Beller suggests removing the children from parents who supported Trump and then sending them to enlightenment camps.

    He’s not unique, I’ve been hearing this for 30-40 years and watched it happen for real all the time.

    So the ‘Apartheid Regime’ is who? The untermensch are which hat-wearers? Who supports such actions in our society? Who divides, defines people by race, not by individuality? And which side is opposed to all science when they define and divide by race? Don’t do that. It’s not smart. Why is it not smart? Because “You’re Next”. Bernie Bros were just purged off WalkAway, Jimmy Dore and every Progressive is next. Just as he warned them for 5 years running.

    “Upbeat Xi Says “Time And Situation On China’s Side” (ZH)”

    I bet he’s super upbeat. He’s about to turn the United States into an African colony. He thinks. And here he thought his 1B people were about to freeze and starve if he didn’t. I feel for his situation but besides selling grain exports, can’t help.

    “Top Scientists: ‘Ghastly Future of Mass Extinction’, Climate Disruption (G.)

    The top scientists whose every prediction has been wrong for 30 50 years (can’t forget about that Ice Age!)? Yeah, sure, this one time they’re right. Because being wrong 50 years in a row doesn’t mean anything. No one’s fired. There are no consequences. Cause and effect have been suspended forever. That’s Science! Physics now means when I have a hypothesis and it’s disproven by running evidence for 50 years, it’s correct!

    They are going to have jet-setting conferences on Ibiza and $500 salads flown in from New Zealand until this stops! Since I recently bought 5 more mansions on the beach, obviously I’m concerned!

    Since their words won’t discredit them for you, do their actions? Use your head.

    #68238
    zerosum
    Participant

    Will the fifth estate, (bloggers), be next?

    • Ron Paul Criticized Social Media Censorship Before Being Blocked (Turley)

    In the meantime, the silence of academics and many in the media is deafening. Many of those who have spoken for years about the dark period of McCarthyism and blacklisting are either supporting this censorship or remaining silent in the face of it. Now that conservatives are the targets, speech controls and blacklists appear understandable or even commendable. The move against Paul, a long champion of free speech, shows how raw and comprehensive this crackdown has become. It shows how the threat to free speech has changed.

    YouTube Suspends Trump

    Commenting on the ongoing effort to erase Trump from the face of the planet, Brexit architect, and Trump’s friend, Nigel Farage warned Democrats that it could lead to “very sinister” consequences.

    Farage said that Democrats are “so certain of their moral superiority, so filled with hatred and contempt, not just for Trump, but for the values of tens of millions of Americans, that they’re going down a course where this guy could be martyred or silenced.”

    “That is the biggest mistake anybody could make at this moment in time. Donald Trump didn’t radicalise tens of millions of Americans. Tens of millions of Americans had already become upset about the mainstream media, increasingly distrustful of social media, had a loathing for Washington and the way that it operates,” Farage added.

    “If you take Trump out of the picture then what follows Trump, what follows Trump could be very sinister indeed,” Farage urged, adding “So I would urge everybody… they won’t listen, I know, but I would urge the Democrats not to be vindictive, and I would urge social media platforms to think again. Otherwise, I think America could be heading into a very, very bad place.”

    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/how-silicon-valley-in-a-show-of-monopolistic

    But today, if you want to download, sign up for, or use Parler, you will be unable to do so. That is because three Silicon Valley monopolies — Amazon, Google and Apple — abruptly united to remove Parler from the internet, exactly at the moment when it became the most-downloaded app in the country.

    That is because the dominant strain of American liberalism is not economic socialism but political authoritarianism. Liberals now want to use the force of corporate power to silence those with different ideologies. They are eager for tech monopolies not just to ban accounts they dislike but to remove entire platforms from the internet. They want to imprison people they believe helped their party lose elections, such as Julian Assange, even if it means creating precedents to criminalize journalism.

    World leaders have vocally condemned the power Silicon Valley has amassed to police political discourse, and were particularly indignant over the banning of the U.S. President. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, various French ministers, and especially Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador all denounced the banning of Trump and other acts of censorship by tech monopolies on the ground that they were anointing themselves “a world media power.” The warnings from López Obrador were particularly eloquent.

    Yet American liberals swoon for this authoritarianism. And they are now calling for the use of the most repressive War on Terror measures against their domestic opponents. On Tuesday, House Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) urged that GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley “be put on the no-fly list,” while The Wall Street Journal reported that “Biden has said he plans to make a priority of passing a law against domestic terrorism, and he has been urged to create a White House post overseeing the fight against ideologically inspired violent extremists and increasing funding to combat them.”

    https://theautomaticearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BeCool450.jpg

    #68239
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    Shocking ‘Hampers’

    For 7.5 pounds in Tesco’s [UK] You can buy 2.5 kg Maris Piper potatoes, 6 litres of milk, 1 kg onions, i kg carrots, and 2 kg oats! Still over 22 pounds to spend.

    It looks like the most disgusting rip-off!

    #68240
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Love Me, I’m a Liberal
    Phil Ochs

    In every American community, you have varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. 10 degrees to the left of center in good times, 10 degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. So here, then, is a lesson in safe logic

    I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
    Tears ran down my spine
    And I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
    As though I’d lost a father of mine
    But Malcolm X got what was coming
    He got what he asked for this time
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal
    Get it?

    I go to civil rights rallies
    And I put down the old D.A.R (D.A.R., that’s the Dykes of the American Revolution)
    I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
    I hope every colored boy becomes a star
    But don’t talk about revolution
    That’s going a little bit too far
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
    My faith in the system restored
    I’m glad that the Commies were thrown out
    Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
    And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
    As long as they don’t move next door
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    Ah, the people of old Mississippi
    Should all hang their heads in shame
    Now, I can’t understand how their minds work
    What’s the matter don’t they watch Les Crane?
    But if you ask me to bus my children
    I hope the cops take down your name
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    Yes, I read New Republic and Nation
    I’ve learned to take every view
    You know, I’ve memorized Lerner and Golden
    I feel like I’m almost a Jew
    But when it comes to times like Korea
    There’s no one more red, white and blue
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    I vote for the democratic party
    They want the U.N. to be strong
    I attend all the Pete Seeger concerts
    He sure gets me singing those songs
    And I’ll send all the money you ask for
    But don’t ask me to come on along
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    Once I was young and impulsive
    I wore every conceivable pin
    Even went to the socialist meetings
    Learned all the old Union hymns
    But I’ve grown older and wiser
    And that’s why I’m turning you in
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

    Updated for the Clinton years

    Love Me, I’m A Liberal
    Jello Biafra

    I cried when they shot John Lennon
    Tears ran down my spine
    And I cried when I saw “JFK”
    As if I’d lost a father of mine
    But Malcom-X and Ice-T had it coming
    They got what they asked for this time

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    I go to pro-choice rallies
    Recycle my cans and jars
    I’ll honk if you love the Dead
    Hope those funny Grunge bands become stars
    But don’t talk about revolution
    That’s going a little bit to far

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    I cheered when Clinton was chosen
    My faith in the system reborn
    I’ll do anything to save our schools
    If my taxes ain’t too much more
    And I love Blacks and Gays and Latinos
    As long as they don’t move next door

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    Rush Limbaugh and the L.A.P.D
    Should all hang their heads in shame
    I can’t understand where they’re at
    Arsenio should set them straight
    But if neighborhood watch doesn’t know you
    I hope the cops take your name

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    Yeah, I read the New Republic
    Rolling Stone and Mother Jones too
    If I vote it’s a democrat
    With a sensible economy view
    But when it comes to terrorist Arabs
    There is no one more red, white, and blue

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    Once I was young and had an attitude
    Stickers covered the car I drove in
    Even went on some direct actions
    When there weren’t rent-a-cops to be seen
    Ah, but now I’ve grown older and wiser
    And that’s why I’m turning you in

    [Chorus:]
    So love me, love me, love me
    I’m a liberal

    From James Caan version of Rollerball.

    Bartholomew: Jonathan, let’s think this through together. You know, how the game serves us. Its a definite social purpose. Nations are bankrupt. Gone. None of that tribal warfare anymore. Even the Corporate Wars are a thing of the past.

    Jonathan E.: I know that, I just…

    Bartholomew: Now, we have the majors and their executives. Transport. Food. Communication. Housing. Luxury. Energy. A few of us making decisions on a global basis for a common good.

    Jonathan E.: The team is a unit that plays with certain rhythms.

    Bartholomew: So does an executive team, Jonathan. Now, everyone, has all the comforts. You know that. No poverty. No sickness. No needs and many luxuries – which you enjoy – just as if you were in the executive class. Corporate society takes care of everything. And all it asks of anyone, all its ever asked of anyone, ever, is not to interfere with management decisions.

    Jonathan E.: I don’t mean to resist. I’m just tryin’ to understand.

    Bartholomew: Its for your own benefit. You must know that, Jonathan. All decisions concerning you are.

    #68241
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    They put it ALL in plain sight. So much so even Canooks get it.

    From Canadian Bacon

    General Panzer: Why don’t we just go up there with a strike force and knock out their infrastructure quicker than you can say collateral damage?

    Smiley: No!

    U.S. President: Oh no, no.

    General Panzer: Why not?

    U.S. President: Yeah, yeah, why not?

    Smiley: Because a war with Canada would be over in a matter of days. Do you remember Grenada? They didn’t even wake Reagan up.

    General Panzer: Didn’t have to.

    Smiley: And all we found there were a bunch of rich American med school rejects and a couple Cuban construction workers

    General Panzer: That’s liberal bullshit! Cuba had a division in there.

    Smiley: What about Panama? A couple of days of blasting Def Leppard over loud speakers and Noriega ran out weeping. And Iraq, ha! They were supposed to have this big bad army.

    General Panzer: They had the biggest cannon, invented by a Canadian.

    Smiley: In 72 hours after we invade they’re begging for a Big Mack.

    General Panzer: They stopped us a hundred miles short of Baghdad and we just sat there waving our dicks in the desert.

    Smiley: Mr. President do you want more of that, or 50 years of Cold War prosperity because Joe Schmo American is scared shitless the world’s gonna end before the next commercial.

    U.S. President: Well, I think I like Mr. Smiley’s approach.

    R.J. Hacker, President of Hacker Dynamics: The American public’s attention span is about as long as your dick.

    U.S. President: The American people, Mr. Smiley, would never ever buy this.

    Smiley: Mr. President, the American people will buy whatever we tell them to.

    #68242
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Raise your hand if you know the 21 foot rule? Prison rush? Why cops shoot anyone with anything in a hand?
    Dan Inosanto illustrates. Makes me think James Coburn would have won that underhand knife throw in The Magnificent seven

    21 foot rule

    #68243
    zerosum
    Participant

    Too many to list
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_services

    A social networking service is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

    #68244
    absolute galore
    Participant

    Nice juxtaposition: “Ghastly Future of Mass Extinction” and “Be Cool. Be Happy.” Even if you “believe” the first, it’s still entirely reasonable to attempt a life of cool and happy. (Just make sure to limit your doses of TAE!;^)

    Great photo of Elvis. Looks like a homage to Edward Hopper.

    #68245

    Little doubt that Trump will be impeached today. Rats and ships. But much doubt that this is justified in any way, shape or sense. It’s a feeding frenzy, there’s blood in the water.

    Only nice thing is that many who came to feed on the corpse will end up being eaten too.

    #68246
    John Day
    Participant

    YouTube suspends Trump until Biden…
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/youtube-suspends-trump

    Republican party schism:
    President Trump is – as usual – insisting that he did nothing wrong in giving his 6 January speech and won’t be resigning or be 25th-d. Perhaps legally: but the great diplomat Talleyrand summed it up best, “It was worse than a crime. It was a mistake.” And politically it was a huge error, given the collapse in his approval rating across the board.

    Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is happy to press ahead with impeachment: and if you don’t think that will trigger a Brexit-style civil war in the party you haven’t been following Brexit. Which kind of Republican Party will eventually emerge, Mitch’s or Trump’s?

    The departing Trump administration has declassified a foreign-policy strategy document 30-years early(!), which underlines its stance towards China. ABC news Australia notes this was previously classified “secret” and “not for foreign nationals”. It reveals the US Indo-Pacific strategy was heavily influenced by both Australia and Japan, and was not forced on them. It also commits the US to “devise and implement a defence strategy capable of, but not limited to: (1) denying China sustained air and sea dominance inside the ‘first island chain’ in a conflict; (2) defending the first island chain nations, including Taiwan; and (3) dominating all domains outside the first island chain”. To say that this will not go down well with China, or that China will not be happy that Australia and Japan helped drive this, is an understatement.

    #68247
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    “Little doubt that Trump will be impeached today”

    And?
    Trump ends being a hero. Rollerball they keep changing the rules because no one like Caan should succeed in the game.
    Trump goes down as one of the best presidents in US history.
    Trump and allies fail miserably because Trump does NOT want to be in office when the fallout from 2020 hits. O’toole in The Lion in Winter, ranting and raving to keep everyone off balance.
    Trump wins becomes the Assange of the revolting peasants.
    Trump wins because the game was rigged on both sides and it is obvious.
    Trump wins because he has a very large family and social support structure.
    Trump wins because the peasants are forced to shut their mouths and every peasant has family and friends who are not as outspoken but still outraged.
    Trump wins because eventually the same tactics will be used against those who conspired to destruction and erasure.
    Trump and the Alamo, great imagery.
    In the long run Trump (or family members) is back on tv commenting on future political failures. Like that Miss me Bush sign in the Obama years.
    Trump is the master showman revealing the ugly weak faces of fear.
    All this is a Trump victory for a guy who was rumored to be running as a joke candidate and was furthered rumored to have a very upset wife when he actually did win.

    “In order to put voting in its proper perspective, imagine that you are a prisoner in a state penitentiary. But it’s a democratic prison, in which the inmates are allowed, every four years, to select who is to be the warden. The prison system presents you with two choices: candidate A, who promises larger cells and less crowding, and candidate B, who promises better cafeteria food and extended exercise periods. You may vote for either candidate, but implicit in the process is the understanding that you will remain a prisoner. If a fellow inmate decides to run for the job as a “Prison Liberation Front” candidate who promises to tear down the prison walls, his name will not appear on the ballot. Indeed, he will likely be sent to solitary confinement. He will have learned, as will you, the real lesson implicit in every election: no matter who you vote for, the government always gets elected, for if voting could change the system it wouldn’t be legal.” -Butler Shaffer

    (Side notes David Wong’s last novel renamed UBI as PDR, Please Don’t Riot.
    Everything has always been out in the open for those who care to look, media makes it pretty clear how the mechanisms of power work, And we the people accept that.
    For some reason people have forgotten Dale Carnegie’s advice in How to win friends and influence people, and Abby Hoffman’s from Steal this Book.
    And finally ENTROPY actually applies to every action. Why is that ignored?)

    #68248
    John Day
    Participant

    Here is the link to the graph of ivermectin use in Chiapas, Mexico, and COVID deaths compared to the rest of Mexico. https://covid19criticalcare.com/i-mask-prophylaxis-treatment-protocol/epidemiologic-analyses-on-covid19-and-ivermectin/

    #68249
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    The question not asked is why are the Democrats acting like Bush 2000?
    What do they know?
    Why the interest in UFO’s and MRNA vaccine?
    Wasn’t there a plan for the military to create aliens as an enemy?
    And why the Trump overkill?
    BigGov has all the power so why o out of your way to crush someone like a bug? To disenfranchise his supporters both vocal and silent?
    I assume the little gray people with real power, those who will never ever be mentioned or photographed, whos’ names we will never know, are terrified of a potential something. And it ain’t revolting peasants.
    The problem I have is not all participants in a secret society are on the same page nor have the same goals.
    Chinese great reset vision is not Northern White Folk ( US/EU) vision nor Russian vision.
    so what’s the frequency Kenneth? What kind of weird psycho fuckery is coming our way. At least the US direction.
    Screw social media. I read that the eastern block nations used copiers to print large billboard type posters because they did not have the technology of the west..
    Bad gas travels fast in a small town, to steal from Letterkenney.

    #68250
    John Day
    Participant

    @BDK: “What’s The Frequency Kenneth?” Good choice.
    Chinese Great Vision is global Chinese colonization, isn’t it?
    I can’t tell what Trump=card is scaring TPTB into impeaching him right now.
    Declassification? More Pardons? He’s been muzzled electronically.
    Yeah, wassup?

    #68251
    John Day
    Participant

    You’ve seen most of this: https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/01/inexplicable-urgency.html

    Gab CEO Andrew Torba released a statement on Friday on the latest suspicious activity on the social media platform. Torba says the company has noticed a slew of activity “popping out of nowhere” and promoting violence. He suspects this is a “CIA Mockingbird Media Complex” operation.
    ​”​They want to shut down all unapproved and opposing voices.​”​
    ​”​This is not America​”​.

    Gab CEO Blames CIA and Mockingbird Media for Latest PSYOP Campaign of Slew of New Accounts “Popping Out of Nowhere and Making Threats of Violence”

    ​ ​Former Texas congressman Ron Paul, 85, has been blocked from using his Facebook page for unspecified violations of “community standards.” Paul’s last posting was linked to an article on the “shocking” increase of censorship on social media. Facebook then proceeded to block him under the same undefined “community standards” policy.

    Ron Paul Posts Criticism of Censorship on Social Media Shortly Before Facebook Blocks Him

    Russian Influenced:
    The Democrat-Big Tech censorship alliance just ran a masterclass in media control for dictators around the world
    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/512044-capitol-democrats-coup-trump/

    #68252
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @Dr D
    After seeing Covid sweep through my own household and that of my sister and parents, yes, I agree that most folks can shrug Covid off. Out of 14 people, only one had a case that was bad enough to not be shrugged off, and my partner’s case wasn’t bad enough to go to a hospital — it was just odd for him to have intermittent fevers and exhaustion for 9 days straight.

    For me, the greatest unknown is not whether or not the CDC’s model about community immunity is accurate or not, but rather how the immunity for Covid plays out over the ensuing months and years. If I get it once, am I likely to get it again? If I get it again, will it be about the same as the first time, not as bad, or worse? Is my immunity over time benefitted by encountering it often in the community — continually boosting my immunity whilst I am unaware? (Maybe I should wear ill-fitting masks at the grocery store on purpose to keep up my immunity!) If I get it again and it is very mild will I be contagious? I still have vulnerable people in my circle who have not had it, and while I may be able to handle Covid easily, I am willing to undergo minor inconvenience to prevent transmission to those who are vulnerable. Of course…it is my understanding that we lack the data to answer any of these questions definitively. I am now 3 months post-Covid and I ponder these questions regularly, trying to decide how best to conduct myself in light of Covid.

    #68253
    zerosum
    Participant

    The gov. has been overthrown. Look who is controlling the troops.
    If you say Trump. Then your eyes are lying.
    If you say the Democrats then you are close to the truth.
    The democrats want to send Trump into exile before the peaceful transfer of power on 20 Jan 2021
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/national-guard-troops-stationed-capitol-armed-m-4-rifles-ahead-inauguration-chaos

    Moments ago, Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said the National Guard is boosting the numbers of guardsmen around the Capitol complex to more than 20,000.

    This is a substantial increase from over the weekend when 6,000 were deployed. The number was increased to a total of 15,000 on Monday.

    Now, more than 20,000 guardsmen are expected to be armed and patrolling the Capitol grounds. It makes us wonder how large is the threat ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan 20.

    * * *

    Last week, the Associated Press, citing the Secretary of the Army, said National Guard troops in the Washington Metropolitan Area, especially around the Capitol complex, could carry assault rifles and pistols though the decision was under review.

    #68254
    Noirette
    Participant

    Trump Legacy. Might some accounting take place, as was usual in the past?

    Or is US politics now at the level of quarrels amongst clapped-out geriatric media-cum-mafia figures hurling insults with no zero references to policy, on any matters at all of importance to ppl, internally?

    Ex. Wikip. Terrorist attacks USA lists for 2016 to end 2020:

    October 22–26, 2018: At least twelve packages containing pipe bombs were mailed within the U.S. Postal Service system to several prominent critics of U.S. President Donald Trump, including various Democratic Party politicians (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Cory Booker), actor Robert De Niro, billionaire investor George Soros, former CIA Director John O. Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

    October 8, 2020: The FBI announced the arrests of 13 people for attempting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government.

    No injuries, no deaths. The Las Vegas shootings may have been an exception, as the tall tale of Stephen Paddock as a lone shooter was obvious BS, hastily constructed as a cover-up as no time to do a semi-convincing job. Trump’s speech about it was rather strange, cautious, over-general – imho he was holding back, he was twitching and uncomfortable:

    https://bit.ly/3bFvW9l – 5 mins

    Michael Smith. Was ISIS responsible for the Las Vegas attack? 2017, in *Foreign Affairs.* (paywall but can be found.) Argues it was a ‘terror’ attack. ISIS claimed the attack btw. Twice.

    Trump followed the no-notoriety guide-line (don’t give ‘terrorists’ media exposure, fame, etc.) which France adhered to until Hollande, who presided over the Thalys train attack, the Charlie Hebdo attack, and the multiple Paris attack (Bataclan, Death Metal Concert, etc.) as well as the Nice boulevard truck ramming, all of which together killed a HUGE no of ppl. In all these cases, the terrorists, plus their associates (etc.) were identified, given much media space, etc.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_France

    — The main reason why Hollande could not be re-elected and did not stand.

    Under Biden-Kamala-MSM-PTB-Corp alliance, terrorism will leap forward – a re-play of the Islamists radicals stories, following the traditional neo-con-neo-lib line, with the addition of new widely defined “domestic terrorism” category, which will be hyped to death (sic) and will be laid at the door of ‘right wing’, ‘fascist’, ‘white supremacism’ etc. attitudes, speech, opinions, actions, while ignoring or down-playing radical left, anarchist, and eco-terra stuff.

    Not that any actions / attacks will be very consequent (imho, USA), ppl now are beyond all that. Yet, the MSM will continue to dish it up.

    #68255
    zerosum
    Participant

    Work from home (WFH) and lockdown
    https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-who-is-under-house-arrest-is-accused-of-breaching-covid-19-rules-by-booking-out-a-vancouver-restaurant-for-christmas/articleshow/80253869.cms

    Business Insider logoHuawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is under house arrest, is accused of breaching COVID-19 rules by booking out a Vancouver restaurant for Christmas
    Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is accused of fraud, may have violated COVID-19 guidelines while under house arrest, a Canadian court heard Tuesday.
    According to the South China Morning Post, Meng booked out a restaurant for 14 people at Christmas, which prosecutors argued contravenes local coronavirus guidelines.
    Under her house-arrest terms, Meng is allowed to leave home between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., provided she is accompanied by a security detail and wears a tracking anklet.
    Meng has been asking for the terms of her house arrest to be relaxed so that she can go out without her security team, saying it poses a COVID-19 risk, according to multiple reports.
    But lawyers pointed out that many aspects of her luxury lifestyle — including the Christmas meal —suggest she is not as concerned as she is saying.

    Meng – the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei – was arrested in Canada in December 2018 under suspicion of violating US trade sanctions. She was placed under house arrest later that month after being released from jail on a 10 million Canadian-dollar ($7.9 million) bail.

    The US government has been arguing for her extradition in an ongoing case. As this develops, she is allowed under her bail terms to leave her home between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., wearing a tracking anklet and accompanied by a security team.

    At a hearing at the British Columbia Supreme Court on Tuesday, Meng asked for a relaxation of her bail terms, arguing that her security team puts her at risk of COVID-19 exposure, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Meng has survived thyroid cancer and has hypertension.

    Meng’s family also argued that the security guards attract unwanted attention and photography, CBC reported.

    But her security team said she is already breaking COVID-19 guidelines, suggesting she is not as concerned about exposure as she claims, CBC reported.

    Meng – known for pairing her tracking anklet with flamboyant high heels – has maintained a luxury lifestyle even while under house arrest.

    Her husband Liu Xiazhong said under cross-examination that Meng hosted a 14-person dinner party on Christmas Day in a restaurant that had closed specially for them, the South China Morning Post reported.

    Lawyer John Gibb-Carsley, representing the US government’s interests in the case, suggested this went against local guidelines, which limit gatherings to six people, according to the Post.

    The court heard that Meng is also allowed to enjoy frequent shopping sprees in Vancouver boutiques, which close for her to shop privately, CBC reported.
    Meng’s Vancouver homes have a combined value of $20 million, and according to the Post, the house where she currently lives has a circular driveway, four bedrooms and six bathrooms.

    #68256
    zerosum
    Participant

    kangaroo trial – impeachment
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mcconnell-mulls-launching-senate-impeachment-trial-friday
    McConnell Won’t Convene Senate For Emergency Impeachment Trial
    According to the Washington Post, McConnell is done mulling – and has decided not to convene the Senate for an emergency trial – meaning the Democrat-controlled Senate will do so during the Biden administration.

    #68257
    Rototillerman
    Participant

    @phoenixvoice, with the caveat that anecdote is not the same as data… my sister, an international flight attendant for a major airline, believes she had Covid-19 twice: first in late January, and then again in late September. Only the latter one was confirmed with PCR testing, but she is convinced that the earlier one was, too, due to some of the classic symptoms such as loss of smell capability. Both were fairly serious (but not life-threatening) encounters, with the usual high fever, extreme fatigue, etc. I don’t think she would say that one episode was noticeably worse than the other. So, odds are that yes, you can get it more than once, with similar intensities.

    #68258
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    Did Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp just commit suicide?

    Trust in these Apps is disappearing and people are beginning to question their power over their lives. They are worried about how their data can be misused. People are realising that anything they post can be used against them. They fear posting anything no matter how seemingly innocuous. It has been made clear that only approved viewpoints will be allowed.

    How are you going to use Social Media when you fear losing your job, being arrested or being physically attacked? Social Media becomes tedious and boring.

    7.5 million new users on Signal last week
    25 million new users of Telegram over the last 72 hours

    The above figures are just a pinprick, but is it like a pinprick on a balloon?

    #68259
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    John Day

    Rather Tager

    On the evening of October 4th, 1986, Dan Rather was attacked by William Tager who, contrary to popular belief, had a very good reason for attacking Rather. Bill Tager was born in the year 2265. Bill Tager is from the future. Bill Tager is not from our planet. Well, technically he is from earth but not from our earth. Tager comes from an earth in a parallel universe and was sent here by the government of his planet. On Tagers earth, the entire planet is under the control of one government. Tagers world wide government has been experimenting with travel to other parallel universes (which involves a warp of the space/time continuum) for almost 150 years. Bill Tager, a convicted felon on his planet, volunteered to be the first human test pilot on the condition that he be given a full pardon if he returned safely (hence “12 Monkeys” and our flimsy excuse to include this story on our website). On Tagers earth the Vice-President of the world is a man named Kenneth Burrows, who just happens to look exactly like Dan Rather. (I should explain here that most everyone on our earth has a double on all of the other earths in all of the parallel universes.) Before Tager entered the travel chamber he was paid a visit by Vice-President Burrows and was told that he had a transmitter implanted in his brain and if he chose to remain in the section of time/space that he was being sent to and didn’t return at the designated time, he would be barraged with messages to return until he came back and reported on his mission. Then, and only then, would the transmitter be removed and he be given his full pardon. Tager’s trip was successful and he landed in New York on September 1st, 1986. All was going as planned and Tager was preparing to return to his own time and world when he was mistakenly arrested for putting coins in expired parking meters. After spending 30 days in jail (and staying on our planet 14 days longer than he was supposed to) Tager started receiving extremely hostile messages from Vice-President Burrows telling him to return immediately. His window of opportunity had past and he would have to wait another week to try to return but there was no possible way to let Burrows know this. The constant voices were driving him insane. He wasn’t even able to sleep at night. If there was any way Tager could find out the precise frequency that was being broadcast to his brain he could possibly override the voices and be able to sleep at night until he was able to make his return trip. As he walked the streets of New York late on the evening of October 4th, 1986, Tager saw a man who he thought was Vice-President Kenneth Burrows. He quickly came to his senses and knew that Burrows would never make the risky trip himself and figured it must be Burrows’ double on our earth. However, he thought, what were the chances that out of over 5 billion people on this planet, he would meet the twin of the man who had been sending hostile messages directly to his brain for over two weeks. Tager called out to the man, “Kenneth! Kenneth Burrows!”. To his surprise, the man, whom we know to be Dan Rather, turned to see who was yelling and was knocked to the ground. Tager repeatedly kicked Rather as he lay on the ground and yelled “What’s the frequency Kenneth?” hoping to learn the frequency of the signal being broadcast to his brain and stop the voices. When Rather didn’t respond, Tager realized he had made a terrible mistake and had indeed attacked Burrows’ double on our planet. He fled the scene and later missed his second, and last, chance to return to his home planet. Years later, in 1994, in an attempt to get in contact with someone who might be able to identify the frequency and put an end to the voices that had haunted him for so many years, Tager shot and killed an NBC technician outside the “Today Show” studios. Today, William Tager sits in a prison in New York, the voices, now an automatic message that replays itself every 20 minutes, still play in his head.

    #68260
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    “Did Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp just commit suicide?”

    I’m confused, Parler gets booted and peope get shut off mainstream but totally forget about newsgroups and E-mule?
    Newsgroups are subscription but were originally carried by every ISP until the child porn bugaboo had them removed.
    E-Mule, E-Donkey and so forth are decentralized file sharing programs with chat interfaces.
    I imagine Linux has a whole bunch of chat programs and they work with Android.
    I have to wonder in the age of internet piracy and hacking how the fuck people can’t find simple decentralized workarounds? Way back when there was a Native American created chat/file sharing program. I can’t recall the name but it was decentralized as well.
    It looks as if the revolutionaries are a bunch of Google map using tools.
    Even the Chinese spies used online gaming to share information. Probably still do, right Fang Fang?
    Oldie but a goodie, especially the first.

    Developed by the CIA, the Moscow Rules are an ode to the dangerous locale that Moscow was during the Cold War.

    Much like “Rules of Engagement” for spies, they still serve as prominent guidelines today, just as they did then.

    The original Moscow Rules were said to have contained 40 different rules, and a debate still exists over whether they weren’t recorded, or still classified.

    Here’s the abbreviated list still circulating around the internet…

    * Edited to add the remaining rules *

    Assume nothing.
    Technology will always let you down.
    Murphy is right.
    Never go against your gut.
    Always listen to your gut; it is your operational antennae.
    Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
    Don’t look back; you are never completely alone. Use your gut.
    Go with the flow; use the terrain.
    Take the natural break of traffic.
    Maintain a natural pace.
    Establish a distinctive and dynamic profile and pattern.
    Stay consistent over time.
    Vary your pattern and stay within your profile.
    Be non threatening: keep them relaxed; mesmerize!
    Lull them into a sense of complacency.
    Know the opposition and their terrain intimately.
    Build in opportunity but use it sparingly.
    Don’t harass the opposition.
    Make sure they can anticipate your destination.
    Pick the time and place for action.
    Any operation can be aborted; if it feels wrong, then it is wrong.
    Keep your options open.
    If your gut says to act, overwhelm their senses.
    Use misdirection, illusion, and deception.
    Hide small operative motions in larger non threatening motions.
    Float like a butterfly; sting like bee.
    When free, In Obscura, immediately change direction and leave the area.
    Break your trail and blend into the local scene.
    Execute a surveillance detection run designed to draw them out over time.
    Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is an enemy action.
    Avoid static lookouts; stay away from chokepoints where they can reacquire you.
    Select a meeting site so you can overlook the scene.
    Keep any asset separated from you by time and distance until it is time.
    If the asset has surveillance, then the operation has gone bad.
    Only approach the site when you are sure it is clean.
    After the meeting or act is done, “close the loop” at a logical cover destination.
    Be aware of surveillance’s time tolerance so they aren’t forced to raise an alert.
    If an alert is issued, they must pay a price and so must you.
    Let them believe they lost you; act innocent.
    There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.

    Are you using The Moscow Rules in your daily life?

    #68261
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Stock trader time traveller
    In the space of two weeks, he turned 800$ investment into $350 mln.

    In march 2003, the FBI arrested a 44-yard old man called Andrew Carlssin. He had just enjoyed the luckiest run on the stocks market in history. In the space of two weeks, he turned 800$ investment into $350 mln. Naturally this caught the eyes of the authorities.

    Yet, instead of the usual denial, Carlssin shocked the FBI with a full, four-hour confession. He was no ordinary insider trader. His 126 high-risk trades had paid off because he always knew they would. Because Andrew Carlssin was a time traveller, 250 years in the future.

    At first Andrew confession was not believed. A spokesman for the securities and exchange commission said “he’s either a lunatic or a pathological liar. He made capitalized on unexpected business developments, which simply can’t be pure luck. The only way he could pull it off is with illegal inside information. He’s going to sit in a jail cell on Rikers island until he agrees to give up his sources.”

    But Carlssin never gave up his sources. However he admitted that he made a tactical error. As part of his plea bargain. He offered to tell authorities the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and a cure for aids. It’s not known whether he did reveal these secrets. Though determined to prove him a liar, the FBI could find no records of Carlssin’s existence before December 2002. Merely three months before they picked him up.

    More puzzlingly, an unidentified benefactor posted his $1 mln bail on 3th of April Carlssin was due in court for a bail hearing. He disappeared on the way to the hearing and never has been seen again.

    #68262
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    John Titor

    Meet “Time Traveler” John Titor, Who Said He Came From The Future To Save The World

    John Titor claimed to be from the future, a time traveler sent back to 2000 to ensure that the U.S. stayed intact, and the world didn’t descend into chaos.

    In 1998, a radio host of a popular science fiction show got a fax from an American soldier, who claimed to have detailed knowledge of time travel. In November of 2000, that same American soldier logged onto a message board. His name was John Titor, and like all of the other commenters on the forum, he posted several messages and engaged in conversation on multiple threads about a time machine. Unlike other commenters, however, he theorized the six components that would be needed to make one work.

    He knew what these components were, he explained, because he was from the year 2036.

    According to John Titor’s posts, he was an American military man, based in Tampa, Fla., working for the government as part of a time travel initiative. In his posts, he detailed the extent of the project and the results of his findings.

    He claimed that he had been selected for the project due to his paternal heritage. His father’s father had worked for IBM in the 1970s and had worked to create the IBM 5100, an early computer model. Titor said that in the year 2036, he had been selected to travel back to 1975, and obtain an IBM 5100, which would help future scientists in decoding a computer program.

    His reasons for stopping over in 2000 were in part, personal, he claimed. In addition to locating photographs and speaking to some family members, he also wanted to serve a warning.

    His later posts on the message boards began to make mention of a wild and uncertain future for America, one that was dark and foreboding.

    John Titor described a second Civil War in the United States, that would result in the fracturing of the country into five autonomous regions. Washington D.C. and Jacksonville, Fla. would be targeted and taken out by the enemy, leaving Omaha, Neb. as the new U.S. capital. The civil war would be long, beginning in 2004 and ending in 2015 with a brief but intense World War III, which would lead to the destruction of the global environment and infrastructure.

    He also warned fellow forum posters about the increasing threat of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a fatal, incurable, prion disease that causes rapid degeneration of the nervous system, and is transmitted through beef products.

    As for other people’s predictions of the future, John Titor confirmed one theory. The Everett-Wheeler model of quantum physics, also known as the “many worlds theory,” he said, was the correct explanation of the universe. There were, in fact, multiple timelines and scenarios, all of which happened in the past.

    In other words, Schrodinger was right about his cat.

    Soon, however, John Titor’s tales began to be unraveled. His validity was called into question when it was revealed that no record of anyone named John Titor, or a Titor family existed.

    Within a year or so it also became clear that his predictions had been wrong as well, as there was no civil war, and no unrest over the 2004 presidential election – Bush won reelection and though it was a close race, there was hardly the “mass unrest” that Titor had predicted.

    People on the forum also began pointing out the similarities in his predictions to popular time travel movies of the time. For instance, in one post he mentions a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette as being the home to his miraculous time machine, echoing the Delorean plot point of Back to the Future . Many of his other theories about the computer panic in the future, had striking similarities to the Y2K panic that had taken place before the previous New Year.

    Titor claimed that his mission was to create a timeline in which the second civil war and World War III didn’t happen and that the reason no one had ever heard of them before was that he had been successful.

    Thought there was an increasing air of doubt around him, he managed to keep the attention of internet and civilian sleuths for years. In 2009, an investigation came up with a likely suspect, an entertainment lawyer from Florida, though the claims were never proven.

    Eventually, his claims were debunked, as his predictions never came true. Though, of course, had he succeeded in his plan as he’d said, they never would have, would they?

    #68263
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Three time travelers. Bush 2000 steal with an already written Patriot act involving Biden. Biden steals an election twenty years later with a new 20k page terrorism bill already written.

    CIA releases UFO files

    CIA Releases “Black Vault” UFO Files

    “The CIA has released a large cache of files involving unidentified flying objects (UFOs), also known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by podcaster John Greenwald Jr.”

    “The release comes less than six months before the government’s official UFO report which was inserted into the COVID-19 omnibus bill, and includes reports that date back to the 1980s, according to Greenwald – who scanned everything by hand in order to create searchable PDFs.

    “Around 20 years ago, I had fought for years to get additional UFO records released from the CIA,” he told Motherboard in an email. “It was like pulling teeth! I went around and around with them to try and do so, finally achieving it. I received a large box, of a couple thousand pages, and I had to scan them in one page at a time.””

    #68264
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    It occurred to me yesterday that songs like ‘Holler Boys’ are a kind of shibboleth. Broadcast on an at least national scale through the radio and internet. Putting aside possible Hispanic equivalents, since I don’t know Spanish, I can’t think of any other demographic that has this outside of urban blacks.

    Interestingly, for all the association of holler boys with white separatism, that separatism doesn’t prevent them from working with and befriending blacks. They’re just defining their turf, much like rap music long ago established turf for disenfranchised urban blacks, who in turn have formed some alliances with (mostly liberal) urban whites).

    The holler boys have the overall advantage, imo, because they’re so square and behind the times, which is the best place to be as modernity plows into itself like a colossal hiway auto collision. And again, designations of white or black are not exclusive. You’ll find ample blacks working side-by-side with hollahboyz although they’ll be less inclined to flaunt Rebel flags on their trucks. White boys will work alongside urban blacks but won’t be as inclined to gold-cap their teeth or wear a do rag.

    But the urbans won’t know much about how to do things that don’t require plugging in to a power outlet, or looking things up online. Holler boys, for all their fetish with internal combustion engines, know a bit about hands-on physics and crudely applied engineering. Urban blacks, on the other hand, have as much military background in their demographic, and know less about shooting deer and gutting catfish but more about shooting cops and gang war dynamics.

    #68265
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    You are way too much fun, Big Dick Kennedy, starting with your name.

    More, please! I like hoew you an take things objectively seriously while retaining subjective detachment that embraces wonder, mystery, marvel, humor as well as the standard old outrage and paranoia.

    #68266
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    ” “You don’t ignore Covid. You don’t just brush it off.” ”

    Well, if you bought my new Wonder Nano Virus Broom, you could. WHile SUpplies Last!

    #68267
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Ooooooooooor, you could choose “Life” “Liberty” and … safety? Isn’t there a quote by a certain Benjamin about this? And the people who deserve safety?

    You should really brush up on the Sons of Liberty timeline, you just used ol’ Ben Franklin to disarm the Colonist Revolt:

    The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions ~ Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience. ~ John Locke 1690

    Way back in 1765 this was the legal precedent/theory that enabled the Sons of Liberty to engage in seditious behavior (the horror!), and many a patriot laid down his life for his future fellow man, that they might have all of the above, ie Life Liberty and … safety.

    I am a direct descendant of at least four families that participated, and I’ll miss those Rights when they are gone in toto.

    #68268
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Love Me, I’m a Liberal…

    Greece was an empire of bronze…

    Rome an empire of iron…

    America is an empire of children.

    No one has to teach a child to lie, cheat, steal or manipulate – The immature EGO will.

    Children raised improperly become broken…

    Broken children raise sociopaths…

    Sociopaths raise children that are beynod DSM-IV classification.

    The liberal elite puppet masters employ the useful idiots, perhaps the Fourth Turning to be fomented by GTA psychopaths?

    The finite EGO, trapped in a self-centered trance, rejects the infinite, obsessed with control+power to infect others through the lust of the eye, fear, tribal cults, and if that doesn’t work, terrorism.

    Children most fear adults awake in the infinite – It offends their fantasy…

    Party!

    #68269
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    madamski

    Now actually follow the pieces of the puzzle I’ve laid out.

    Lee: [Lao approaches Lee; both bow] Kick me.

    [Lao looks confused]

    Lee: Kick me.

    [Lao attempts kick]

    Lee: What was that? An Exhibition? We need emotional content. Now try again!

    [Lao tries again]

    Lee: I said “emotional content” – not anger! Now try again!

    [Lao tries again and succeeds]

    Lee: That’s it! How did it feel?

    Lao: Let me think…

    [Lee smacks his head]

    Lee: Don’t think. FEEL! It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon.

    [Lee looks at Lao, who is looking at the finger; Lee smacks him again]

    Lee: Do not concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of the heavenly glory!

    [Lao bows; Lee smacks him again]

    Lee: Never take your eyes off your opponent… even when you’re bowing!

    [Lao bows again, this time keeping his eyes on Lee]

    Lee: That’s better.

    [Lao walks away; opening credits begin]

    There’s a famous story involving the Persian philosopher and fool-figure, Mullah Nasrudin. One day, he was watching the Sultan of Baghdad tame a new horse. Suddenly, the Sultan was flung from the back of a new wild stallion brought to his stables from Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan). The horse was wild and uncontrollable. Nasrudin began laughing because the Sultan was covered in dirt and manure.

    Angrily, the Sultan rose to his feet and ordered his bodyguards to arrest Nasrudin. “Why are you laughing at me?” the Sultan asked. “Because I was flung from my horse?”

    “No,” said Nasrudin the fool. “Because you are trying so hard to tame the horse in a single day, and failing. You should stick to what you are good at, not breaking horses.”

    The Sultan grew red-faced. “I suppose,” he said, “that you could do better?”

    “Oh yes,” said Nasrudin, and he grew boastful. “I could tame that horse,” and here he snapped his fingers, “like that! But better than that… because of my great wisdom, if I had a year…. well, I could teach that stallion to talk!”

    The Sultan smiled an evil smile. “In that case,” said the Sultan, “you may have a year. In a year, I expect this beast to be a trained, talking war-horse. And if not, I shall take his head, and yours, and mount them both on spikes above my gate for insolence!” And the Sultan stomped away.

    Nasrudin’s followers wept, and tore at their beards. They urged Nasrudin to come with them, and escape! But Nasrudin only went into the paddock with the wild horse, and picked a handful of sweet grass, and tried to get the horse to eat it. Again and again, the horse only ran away, or kicked at him. This went on for months. Finally, one of Nasrudin’s disciples asked him, “Master, why do you not run away? The horse is dangerous, and the Sultan is even more dangerous. Why not give up this mad pursuit?”

    Nasrudin shrugged. “Ah, my disciple, how little you know! I lot can change in a year. The Sultan could die of old age, or an assassin’s knife. He could be strangled in his harem by a jealous concubine. I could die, of disease or age. I might feel an urge to make the <i>hajj</i> and go to Mecca, and even the Sultan could not refuse me that. I could be laid low by a wasting sickness, or there could be a palace coup, or the Mongols may invade.”

    “But, master” said the student in a doubtful voice, “that does not explain why you persist, day after day, in trying to tame this dangerous and wild stallion.”

    Nasrudin smiled, “Oh, that. Well, a lot can happen in a year. It may even be that I shall succeed in teaching the horse to talk.”

    #68270
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Veracious Poet
    “Children raised improperly become broken…
    Broken children raise sociopaths…
    Sociopaths raise children that are beynod DSM-IV classification.”

    I’m a broken child. Abused children handle CHAOTIC situations better. We READ people better.
    The problem is to NOT create a chaotic environment out of boredom.

    I was an autodidact then I got a degree. My Eight circuit brain only sometime slips to the fifth.
    Interesting point on being a broken child I have no preconceived notions. No religion,no politics, no false sport driven ideologies
    Broken children are also supposed to be NARCISSISTS.. Maybe we just understand ourselves better, egoists not egotists.
    I believe Gurdjieff’s statement that we are not born with a soul we must develop one.
    I UNDERSTAND the universe is ONE thing. Define me as a GNOSTIC PANTHEIST.

    Or

    According to an ancient story, there once lived a king in a Middle Eastern land. The king was continuously torn between happiness and agony. The smallest things could make him really upset or give him an intense emotional reaction, so his happiness easily turned into disappointment and despair.

    One day the king got tired of himself and started seeking a way out. He sent for a wiseman living in his kingdom. The wiseman was reputed for being enlightened. When he arrived, the king said to him, “I want to be like you. Can you bring me something that gives balance, peace and serenity in my life? I will pay whatever price you like.” The wiseman replied, “I may be able to help you, but the price is so great that not even your kingdom would be enough payment for it. Therefore I will give it to you as a gift, if you will honor it.” The king gave his assurances, and the wiseman left.

    A few weeks later he returned, and handed the king an ornate box carved in jade. The king opened the box, and found a simple gold ring inside. The inscription on the ring read, “This, too, shall pass.” “What is the meaning of this?” asked the king. The wiseman replied, “Wear this ring always. Whatever happens, before you call it good or bad, touch the ring and read the inscription. That way, you will always be at peace.”

    #68271
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    madamski

    Another thing to follow (.meaning read every book referenced and watch every film and tv episode, because most times the simi-fake-hip-intellectual dissection misses the mark by a mile) from the Australian show Rake.

    R vs Fenton (2012)

    Fuzz Greene: Legal stunts. Herewith, forthwith, pertaining to but not inclusive of. This is how people control us, isn’t it? make it all so mysterious, the rest of us don’t understand.

    Cleaver Greene: Yes. It’s why law and religion were in Latin for centuries, but then they realized they could make English just as incomprehensible as a dead language.

    Fuzz Greene: So, if I understand you correctly, you make a living strangling words so a jury doesn’t know which way is up.

    Cleaver Greene: Yeah. We also get to wear wigs.

    Cleaver Greene: [addressing ‘John Smith’ in the witness box] And so how long after observing my client in conversation with the head of MI5 and Azeo, etc. did you twig to the possibility that this former English teacher was not, in fact, a crack member of the Johns?

    Justice Beesdon: We can do without the sarcasm, Mr. Greene. These people are our gatekeepers against a very dangerous world, and it behooves you to remember that and to respect them.

    Cleaver Greene: Duly behooved, your honour.

    Cleaver Greene: Let’s cut to the chase, Lawrence. What the hell possessed you to bust into this forum?

    Lawrence Fenton: What these so-called important people are doing with words. The way they use language to actually hide what they mean. It’s a form of corruption. The writer, Don Watson, calls them ‘weasel words’, where corporations and governments complicate what they say so much that there is no longer any accountability or integrity. And once we stop believing in what is being said, once language loses its power to connect us, civilization is finished.

    #68272
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Hail Hydra

    #68273
    WES
    Participant

    Mitch is fine with President Trump being impeached. Just not while he is senate majority leader!

    Only when he is senate minority leader, then he can avoid blame for impeachment. But it won’t work!

    Republicans want to ensure President Trump can’t run again. Why? Because they are afraid of the American voters.

    #68274
    Big Dick Kennedy
    Participant

    Veracious Poet
    I’m also a liar, a thief, a hypocrite and hold a grudge forever. I’m petty, selfish, and have knowledge a mile wide but an inch deep.
    A few months ago I read The Name of the Rose. The end section where Eco is discussing the book made me realize just how much of a literary mental midget I am.
    On the other hand I do read people like Cory Goodfellow and Roberto Saviano.
    I wonder how many will pull up Amazon and purchase Sleazeland, Scum of the Earth, Unamerica, Gomorrah ZeroZeroZero or even Sometimes a Great notion. The latter being more Randian than most wold consider but Atlas Shrugged steals the limelight. Once again Fountainhead is better.
    Anyone pulling up original Rollerball or Death race 2000 for the anti-corporate message? Mr. Robot for the same?
    I’ll part with this Hell on wheels Durrant quote hat always reminds me of Trump. My god I do run on some don’t I)

    Durant: Is it a villain you want? I’ll play the part. After all, what is a drama without a villain? What is the building of this grand road if not a drama? This business is not for the weak of heart. It is a thorny, brutal affair that rewards the lion for his ferocity. But what of the zebra? What of the poor zebra? Well, the zebra’s eaten, as the zebra should be. Make no mistake, blood will be spilled, lives will be lost, fortunes will be made, men will be ruined. There will be betrayal and scandals, and perfidy of epic proportions, but the lion – shall – prevail! You see, the secret I know is this. All of history is driven by the lion. We drag the poor zebra, kicking and braying, staining the earth with its cheap blood. History doesn’t remember us fondly, but then history is written by the zebra for the zebra. One hundred years hence, when this railroad spans the continent, and America rises to be the greatest power the world has seen, I will be remembered as a caitiff, a malefactor, who only operated out of greed for personal gain. All true, all true, but remember this: without me and men like me, your glorious railroad would never be built.

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