Jul 072021
 
 July 7, 2021  Posted by at 9:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Damien Hirst Spiritual Day Blossom 2018

 

CDC Insists Benefits Of mRNA Vaccines Still “Clearly Outweigh” Risks (ZH)
Ultra-Contagious Lambda Variant Detected In Australia (NZH)
A Thread On Vaccines! (Neary)
Military Members Say They’ll “Quit” If Army Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine (ZH)
Adjuvant Quercetin Supplementation For Early-Stage COVID-19 Infection (Dove)
Santa Clara County Revises Official COVID-19 Death Toll Down by 22% (CBS)
Brazil’s Lower House Allows Breaking Vaccine Patents In Case Of Emergency (RT)
Dershowitz Predicts Charges Against Trump Org’s CFO Will Be Tossed (ZH)
The Wealth Effect Creates Wealth Disparity (WS)

 

 

Someone tweeted this graph and said: early treatment can’t be far off.

 

 

Ioannidis

 

 

Just the fact that they feel they need to re-state it says enough.

CDC Insists Benefits Of mRNA Vaccines Still “Clearly Outweigh” Risks (ZH)

With a new round of data out of Israel seemingly confirming what we have been reporting for weeks now, fresh questions are emerging about the efficacy of the mRNA vaccines (those produced by Pfizer and Moderna) and whether they’re truly 90%+ effective, as advertised. As the number of confirmed COVID cases topped 184MM, the Israeli health ministry shared preliminary data appearing to confirm that these vaccines are less effective at preventing infection via the Delta variant. Although the data must still be peer reviewed, the Israelis went so far as to proclaim that the true efficacy number is closer to 64%. To be sure, the vaccines continue to mostly prevent severe infection and death (though they’re only 93% effective at this, less than the 100% number initially touted by their corporate parents).

Now, with President Joe Biden publicly addressing the administration’s ongoing effort to combat COVID as case numbers continue to creep higher in the US, the CDC has chimed in – right on cue – to remind the world that the benefits of everybody taking the vaccine still far outweigh the risks posed by the rare (but sometimes deadly) side effects that have now also been documented. As we reported, the FDA now recognizes that the rare heart inflammation seen in some patients, including members of the military, have been linked to mRNA vaccines. So, with criticism and skepticism directed at the US-made vaccines mounting, the CDC on Tuesday tried its hand at a little damage control.

Per Bloomberg: “The benefits of messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccines clearly outweigh the risks despite heart complications seen in a relatively small number of mostly young men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 1,200 cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart wall, were reported in people who received mRNA vaccines, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Tuesday. But with about 296 million doses of mRNA vaccines having been administered as of June 11, the benefit is clear in all populations, including adolescents and young adults, the researchers reported.”

For the Biden Administration, the stakes have never been higher. COVID cases are rising, and many are blaming Southern and western states with lower vaccination rates as a potential vulnerability that could ignite another wave of COVID.

Tucker life expectancy

Read more …

Reaction? More lockdowns. Which have failed for 18 months now. And what are they trying to achieve? How long can you separate the entire country from the world? Until you reach zero, and then you can open and start all over again?

Ultra-Contagious Lambda Variant Detected In Australia (NZH)

The world’s most transmissible Covid-19 strain has found its way into Australia – with worrying research revealing it may be even more infectious than the Delta variant. The Lambda strain has puzzled World Health Organisation scientists after it spread to nearly 30 countries in the last four weeks. The mutation was originally discovered in Peru and is related to 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April. Peru currently has the highest Covid mortality rate in the world. In Australia, the variant was detected in an overseas traveller who had been in hotel quarantine in New South Wales in April, according to national genomics database AusTrakka. Early research shows it has not spread among the community in Australia.

Lambda has just started to make its way into the community in the UK, with six cases reported on Monday. It is a worrying sign for the UK, which has recently relaxed Covid-19 restrictions after 37 million people received at least one dose of a vaccine. The country had returned to normality in recent weeks, with pubs flooded by revellers enjoying their country’s recent success at Euro 2020. However, these civil liberties could change if the highly transmissible Lambda strain spreads across the community. Professor Pablo Tsukayama of Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, said the strain has exploded in Peru, suggesting “its rate of transmission is higher than any other variant”. His claims were backed up by a report by Jeff Barrett from London’s Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Welcome Sanger Institute.

“Lambda has a unique pattern of seven mutations in the spike protein that the virus uses to infect human cells. Researchers are particularly intrigued by one mutation called L452Q, which is similar to the L452R mutation to contribute to the high infectiousness of the Delta variant,” Barrett told the Financial Times. There is also concerning research that current vaccines are not as effective in neutralising the new strand, according to a report from scientists at the University of Chile in Santiago. “Our data show for the first time that mutations present in the spike protein of the Lambda variant confer escape to neutralising antibodies and increased infectivity,” they wrote in a pre paper report published last week.

Read more …

official Product Information file from the European Medicines Agency

A Thread On Vaccines! (Neary)

Many people have already taken the AstraZeneca vaccine, or want to take it. So I thought I’d read its official Product Information file from the European Medicines Agency. Some might call this “the small print”. Here is what I learned: Firstly, is it safe for children? “The safety and efficacy of Vaxzevria in children and adolescents (less than 18 years of age) have not yet been established. No data are available.” How about people with weak immune symptoms – is it safe for them? “The efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine have not been assessed in immunocompromised individuals, including those receiving immunosuppressant therapy. How long does protection last? The EMA says that ongoing clinical trials will tell us: “The duration of protection afforded by the vaccine is unknown as it is still being determined by ongoing clinical trials.”

How about older people – will the vaccine work for them? Many of them have already taken it, of course. This is what the document says: “Currently available clinical trial data do not allow an estimate of vaccine efficacy in subjects over 55 years of age.” Sounds important! And for pregnant women: “There is limited experience with use of Vaxzevria in pregnant women. Animal reproductive toxicity studies have not been completed. Based upon results from the preliminary study, no effects are expected on development of the fetus.” Again, later in the document: “Animal studies of potential toxicity to reproduction and development have not yet been completed. A preliminary reproductive toxicity study in mice does not show toxicity in dams or foetuses.” Hopefully the animal trials will show it is safe!

How about studies relating to the risk of cancer and genetic mutations? “Neither genotoxicity nor carcinogenicity studies were performed. The components of the vaccine are not expected to have genotoxic potential.” Adverse reactions: – headache (52.7%) – fatigue (53.0%) – muscle pain (43.9%) – malaise (44.4%) – feverishness (33.5%), fever (7.6%), – chills (32.2%) – joint pain (26.6%) – nausea (22.2%). Most reactions were “mild to moderate in severity and usually resolved within a few days” And now the results: In the control group, 3% suffered “Covid” with at least one symptom. In the vaccinated group, 1.2% suffered “Covid” with at least one symptom. None of the vaccinated group were hospitalised by Covid, versus 0.2% of the control group (8 people out of 5,210) It has the medical equivalent of a provisional driving licence: “This medicinal product has been authorised under a so-called ‘conditional approval’ scheme. This means that further evidence on this medicinal product is awaited.”

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/vaxzevria-previously-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-epar-product-information_en.pdf

Read more …

“I’ve been contacted by members of our voluntary military who say they will quit if the COVID vaccine is mandated”

Military Members Say They’ll “Quit” If Army Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine (ZH)

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he was informed by some members of the U.S. military that they would quit if the armed forces mandated a COVID-19 vaccine, coming after a report claimed that Army headquarters told commanders to prepare for mandatory vaccinations in September. “I’ve been contacted by members of our voluntary military who say they will quit if the COVID vaccine is mandated. I introduced HR 3860 to prohibit any mandatory requirement that a member of the Armed Forces receive a vaccination against COVID-19. It now has 24 sponsors,” Massie wrote on Twitter. He didn’t provide more details.

It isn’t clear how the service members could quit or how many would try to do so. Once a member reports to their first duty station, they are obligated to stay within the service of the armed forces. If a service member leaves without approval, they can be declared AWOL, or absent without leave. The Republican lawmaker was referring to a report published by the Army Times over the weekend that detailed an executive order sent by the Department of the Army Headquarters that commands should be prepared to administer COVID-19 vaccines starting as early as Sept. 1. The date is contingent on when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues its full approval of the vaccines. The Army Times reported that it had obtained the directive, HQDA EXORD 225-21, COVID-19 Steady State.

“Commanders will continue COVID-19 vaccination operations and prepare for a directive to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for service members [on or around] 01 September 2021, pending full FDA licensure. Commands will be prepared to provide a backbrief on servicemember vaccination status and way ahead for completion once the vaccine is mandated,” the directive reads. An EXORD is a directive issued by the president to the defense secretary to execute a military operation.

Read more …

Didn’t see this about quercetin before. We use it to make sure zinc gets into the cell.

Adjuvant Quercetin Supplementation For Early-Stage COVID-19 Infection (Dove)

The current pandemic, known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) triggered by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is provoking devastating health, psychological and financial consequences worldwide.1–3 Although several vaccines have been developed, due to limitation in their manufacturing and distribution capacities, the desired globally “herd immunity” still appears to be a distant mirage. In addition, the constant mutations in SARS-CoV-2 put the effectiveness of these vaccination campaigns at serious risk regardless of its speed.4 The current antivirus agents being used, including hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, lopinavir/ritonavir, have not shown any conclusive benefits.

New possible treatments that are safe, affordable, and worldwide available targeting the SARS-CoV-2 are therefore urgently required.6 SARS-CoV-2 proteases, like 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro), papain-like protease (PLpro), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, spike (S) protein and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) are considered possible targets for developing effective anti-COVID-19 drugs.7 Recently, molecular docking studies have suggested the possible binding interaction of quercetin with the 3CLpro, PLpro, and S-hACE2 complex.8–12 Some recent results, obtained by biophysical techniques, appear to support the results of the molecular docking studies.

Quercetin, a flavonol not naturally present in the human body, is the most abundant polyphenol in fruits and vegetable and is widely used as a dietary supplement to boost the immune system and promote a healthy lifestyle. Quercetin is characterized by three crucial properties: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory. The combination of these actions allows quercetin to be a potential candidate to support all unhealthy conditions where oxidative stress, inflammation and immunity are involved.

Read more …

That’s not much.

Santa Clara County Revises Official COVID-19 Death Toll Down by 22% (CBS)

On Friday, Santa Clara County health leaders announced a drop in its COVID-19 death toll by nearly a quarter after it refined its approach in reporting the data. The county reported that it had reviewed each COVID-19 fatality and was only counting those whose cause of death was from the virus and not those who tested positive for COVID-19 at the time of death but did not necessarily die from the virus. The new approach meant that the death toll dropped by 22%, specifically from 2,201 to 1,696 deaths. “It is important to go back and do this accounting to see if COVID was actually the cause of death,” said University of California San Francisco Prof. of Medicine and Infectious Disease expert Dr. Monica Gandhi.


“I think that transparent communication is an upside, I mean, in the sense that it’s true that if we did this across the nation, it would bring our death rate lower. A downside of that, could be that people will say, ‘Well, it wasn’t as serious as you said.’” The refined approach in Santa Clara County comes as county officials try to figure out the true impact of the virus on the community. Last month, Alameda County health leaders refined their approach to reporting COVID-19 deaths as well and also registered a drop in that county’s death toll by about a quarter. “In the midst of everything COVID people were sort of putting down that cause of death as COVID,” Gandhi said. “It is important to go back and do this accounting to see if COVID was actually the cause of death.”

Read more …

Why break patents of experimental drugs?

Brazil’s Lower House Allows Breaking Vaccine Patents In Case Of Emergency (RT)

The lower house of the Brazilian Congress has voted for a bill that would legalize the violation of patents for vaccines and medications in the event of a national health emergency. It will now go back to the Senate for approval. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies voted 425 to 15 in favor of PL 12/2021. Sponsored by Aécio Neves da Cunha, a Social Democrat from Minas Gerais, the bill would authorize Congress to issue patent-breaking licenses “in case of a public health emergency,” without the approval of the head of state. President Jair Bolsonaro has opposed the proposal. The bill will now return to the Senate, which will decide whether to approve amendments adopted during Chamber debate. “There is an understanding that the changes… we introduced in the bill will also be incorporated in the Senate, which will maintain the text that we have negotiated here,” Neves said, according to Reuters.


One significant difference from the original is that patent holders will no longer be required to provide biological material to companies licensed to violate intellectual property under the emergency rules. The provision was declared “impractical,” “arbitrary” and in violation of Brazil’s constitutionally guaranteed principle of free enterprise. Another amendment would see IP holders compensated to the tune of 1.5% of the net sales involving the infringed medication or vaccine. The law was hailed by the Brazilian branch the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The measure “improves the current patent law, authorizing the application of compulsory licensing in a more complete and efficient manner, in this health emergency and others,” said MSF’s Brazilian coordinator Felipe Carvalho.

Read more …

“You can’t get a city district attorney indicting somebody for failing to pay federal income taxes when the IRS hasn’t even gone after him..”

Dershowitz Predicts Charges Against Trump Org’s CFO Will Be Tossed (ZH)

Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says he believes federal tax fraud charges filed in New York City against The Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief will end up being dismissed. “You can’t get a city district attorney indicting somebody for failing to pay federal income taxes when the IRS hasn’t even gone after him,” Dershowitz said in a July 3 interview with Newsmax. “One of the charges, a major charge, is grand larceny against the United States government. “That shows the extent to which they are prepared to stretch existing law and the Constitution to give them authority over federal taxes. It’s absurd.”

On July 1, The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were charged in what New York prosecutors called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme in which Trump’s company and Weisselberg allegedly cheated the state and city out of taxes by conspiring to pay senior executives off the books by way of fringe benefits, such as apartment rent and car payments. Prosecutor Carey Dunne said in court that the alleged scheme was “orchestrated by the most senior executives” at the firm and got “secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal taxpayers.” Weisselberg and attorneys for The Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty.

Ahead of the unsealing of the criminal indictment on July 1, The Trump Organization criticized Manhattan prosecutors for what they claimed was a partisan criminal investigation designed to hurt Trump politically. In a July 1 statement, The Trump Organization said the probe “is not justice; this is politics.” Dunne pushed back on the claim, saying that “politics has no role in the jury chamber, and I can assure you it had no role here.” Alan Futerfas, a member of The Trump Organization’s defense team, disagreed. “I believe the political forces driving today’s events are just that. It’s political, politically driven, notwithstanding the statements by my colleague at the DA’s office in court today,” Futerfas said.

Read more …

The Fed will end the US if the US doesn’t end the Fed first.

The Wealth Effect Creates Wealth Disparity (WS)

“The ‘wealth effect’ is the notion that when households become richer as a result of a rise in asset values, such as corporate stock prices or home values, they spend more and stimulate the broader economy,” the NBER said. And yes, after making about 10% of the population a lot richer and producing immense concentration of wealth at the top 1%, there are some minor trickle-down effects on the rest of the economy. Meanwhile, the already immense wealth disparity in the US between the top 10% and the bottom 50% – or worse still, the top 1% and the bottom 50% – blows out. Turns out, the lower 50% of Americans holds practically no stocks, no bonds, and very little real estate, according to the wealth distribution data from the Federal Reserve.

And these folks cannot benefit at all from the wealth effect. For them, life (such as housing) just gets more expensive as a result of the wealth effect. From the Federal Reserve’s data, as of Q1 2021: – The average household in the richest 10% owns $2.6 million in stocks and $1.2 million in real estate. – The average household in the richest 1% holds $16 million in stocks and $4 million in real estate. – The average household in the bottom 50% holds essentially no stocks, no bonds, and only small amounts of real estate. The wealthiest 1% is where the real concentration of wealth takes place. – The wealthiest 15 US individuals have a combined wealth of $2 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (June 2021). They benefit more than anyone from the wealth effect.

The Wealth Effect purposefully increases asset prices. But only the top 10% of households have significant amounts in assets. The bottom 50% hold nearly no stocks because they don’t make enough money to put anything aside. Many of these people live from paycheck to paycheck. But the Wealth Effect also makes housing more expensive – both buying and renting – and thereby the bottom 50% disproportionately pay for the Wealth Effect. For the bottom 50%, the Wealth Effect is a negative. This chart is from my Wealth Effect Monitor.

Read more …

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 7 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 99 total)
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  • #79076

    Damien Hirst Spiritual Day Blossom 2018   • CDC Insists Benefits Of mRNA Vaccines Still “Clearly Outweigh” Risks (ZH) • Ultra-Contagious Lambda V
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 7 2021]

    #79078
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Damien Hirst Spiritual Day Blossom 2018

    I don’t know what to make of this art…
    Then I saw the date…very recent…I still don’t know what to make of this painting…
    Do I like it? I wouldn’t hang it…at this time…but, things change…

    #79079
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @V Arnold: I will help with the ivermectin if I can? But I paid Kachela with paypal when I purchased it and it sounds like they no longer accept that form of payment? (or your sister would do it). Was it Germ who mentioned using a different payment system that worked in India??

    #79080
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Another angle on medical industry profiteering

    #79081
    absolute galore
    Participant

    From the Dove intro on Quercetin: The current antivirus agents being used, including hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, lopinavir/ritonavir, have not shown any conclusive benefits.5

    Why do the study’s authors feel it necessary to throw shade on these drugs? How curious can they be if they do not see the apparently amazing effectiveness of Ivermectin around the world? Unless we here at TAE are just a bunch of silly old fools falling for the latest “cancer cures” down Mexico way?

    Maybe. But the people who promote it and believe in it that I have come across (Kory, Martinsen, that doctor that gets interviewed all the time and anything to do with Ivermectin gets cut from the story, despite him giving it full credit, our own Dr. Day, etc.) A. have no financial incentives, and B. seem a lot smarter and more sincere and more on the front lines than the people I see pushing the vaxprop on us.

    From NYT front page today (BTW, thanks for the tips on how to get around paywall. I’ve been doing it via various methods for years, but they have increased the effectiveness over the years. Most of them no longer work, and the ones that do require multiple devices, and those expire after a couple of articles too–and you need to sign up to keep reading, which has the effect of helping them track you on different devices. I’m sure it’s possible, but increasingly time consuming.)

    Biden Makes New Push for Vaccinations, but Experts Say More Is Needed


    Some experts worry that the administration is not being aggressive enough in waging what President Biden calls a “wartime effort” to vaccinate the U.S.

    Those experts sure are busy, and everywhere these days! Combine this with the article about mandatory military vaccines–with the implicit assumption that they will gain full approval from the FDA by September!!!) and we are heading for problems for us unvaxxed.

    I was speaking with a friend last night who recently completed a degree in bioethics. She is a lawyer. She is was not overtly critical of my decision to not get vaccinated, but she said I should “thank everyone who did because you no longer need to wear a mask or social distance.”

    I replied that I had not seen much convincing evidence that masks did a whole hell of a lot, and never wore one except where absolutely mandated. It was weird walking through town on a crowded weekend where everyone was wearing one–good practice in feeling “other”. I mentioned that the claim the unvaxxed were breeding grounds for variants was also lacking in much hard data. While conceding vaxxed might also transmit variants, she thought it was mostly unvaxxed.

    I pointed out that regardless of who does what, it’s a moot point, since a vast percentage of the world is not, and will never be, vaccinated,due to logistics of deep freeze, distribution, money. And our business executives must visit those places so we can have our fast fashions and cheap gadgets and auto parts and anything requiring toxic manufacturing processes. So there is that.

    If I really thought that A. I stood a decent chance of definitely dying a la Spanish Flu, or becoming disabled by getting Covid and/or B. I could potentially be a serious vector for killing others (not including old or compromised people, who I could stay away from), and C. there was no such thing as Ivermectin, I would certainly entertain getting vaccinated. She had never heard of Ivermectin. Nobody I have discussed it with has heard the word Ivermectin. Not one person.

    Thanks whoever posted that George Carlin snip yesterday. After many years of having an “activist” bent, I have adopted that same approach to life–getting emotionally involved in the larger workings of the world will do neither you nor the world a smidge of good. Looking at things dispassionately actually gives you the room to accept others, with all their foibles, less judgmentally, more gracefully. I look at us as being part of a system that has followed a path and has now taken on a life of its own. Things will play out as they play out.

    This does not mean throwing up our hands and staying in bed or walking into the woods and disappearing. On the contrary, it gives us greater energy to carry out simple acts of kindness and consideration toward the earth, toward the people in our lives. In the end, there is not much more than that we can do. And in the end, that’s good enough. Plus riding my bicycle.

    #79083
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    No no, that’s not the problem; I/We contackted Kochela but could not arrange the payment due to them not accepting credit cards… etc….
    Thanks for your reply though upstateNYer…

    #79084

    the Arkivist @the_Arkivist
    ·
    Before COVID, 25 was the level at which deaths in #vaers stopped a V. Even if we stop tomorrow, the number for any new V in vaers will be 7k. Everything will be compared to covid and found safe. We will never have another V pulled. Covid V will make everything else look safe.

    #79085
    Germ
    Participant

    Yes – I used a Revolut card.

    It’s a great was to pay for items in foreign currency.

    I sent Rupees to Kachhela!

    https://www.revolut.com/en-US

    #79086
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “[Australia] Reaction? More lockdowns. Which have failed for 18 months now.”

    It’s interesting, because the less people resist, the harder it is. Let me see if I can rephrase that: when they come out and openly tangle, like the Baptist South has, they know what to do and just go after them with their open (information) arsenal. Meanwhile, in Fauciist Australia and Canada – the young lions of Tarsius – they’re like: “We’re all winning, let’s go further and drive it home: full Stalinism under Justin, Great Leader.”

    That’s their mental deficiency that they can’t stop: they always go too far. Ego, one, and narcissism that says they’re great geniuses and all the people are idiot cows who deserve to be slaughtered. Same as Elon says every car is pure magic, universal genius and does not actually burst into flames everywhere worldwide, mostly after heat-seeking any police or firetrucks in a 10-mile radius.

    So although they’re not wrong, and they’ve got an awful lot of buy-in in Oz and Canada, my reading is that O Canada’s about to pop. If ever they go over the edge, boom, that’s it, they’ll never get them back. Suddenly Canada will be collective resisters, not necessarily to the narrative, but to the actions of Fauciism and eternal martial law, as Justin says, with no more elections again, ever. ‘Coz “emergency”, “Reichstag fire”.

    We’ll see because that’s one of those chaos theory “tipping points” and you don’t cross the boundary until you do, but I think they’re awfully close to collectively snapping. Not against the virus, as I’ve said, but against the behaviour. Perhaps Oz is too.

    “Military Members Say They’ll “Quit” If Army Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine (ZH)”

    Excuse me, but I didn’t know quitting was an option. I guess if they did, who would chase them down and arrest them? Themselves?

    “Dershowitz Predicts Charges Against Trump Org’s CFO Will Be Tossed (ZH)”

    Against who? Like I said, the one they focus on is the one with power. The one they ignore is without power. They ignore Biden. How do they not know this? This is Bernays 101. Goebbel’s favorite book, along with the other U.S. advertising textbooks. Where do you think he got it from?

    “The Wealth Effect Creates Wealth Disparity (WS)”

    Yes but only for 100 years, so let’s not be hasty.

    Just tell your sister to go to the tractor store in Oregon and buy some. It’s really easiest. And isn’t HCQ really a refined quinine? That’s always available as a daily support. There are even high-end drink mixers who are selling fresh, real distillations.

    #79087
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @absolute, I’m glad I don’t read the NYT. Depressing. Biden is calling this a “wartime effort”? Insanity knows no bounds.

    I’m not going to thank anyone for getting a vaccine so we could end lockdowns and masks. Heroes on white horses, they are not. They’re fools who put their health at serious risk based on personal fear and blindly believing in faulty info from the gov’t. And that risk isn’t over yet since no one knows or can tell what the long-term consequences of these injections could be.

    The question of mandatory vaccination is an interesting one that I’ve worried about for awhile if [when] these things receive approval, although I’m not certain how that can happen when clinical trials haven’t been completed? I do wonder what mandatory vaccination would look like here in the US, and I think it would be tough to pull off. What? Use vaccine passports to prove vaccination?? That hasn’t gone well so far. Go door-to-door and force vaccinate?? I don”t think the US population would tolerate that for very long. In general I think far fewer people are “all in” on this pandemic/vaccination narrative than what it seems in the MSM headlines and on twitface. Those are the people shouting in the public square, but there are plenty opposed to what is being done. Look at the US states that have gone on with the business of living rather than listen to the blathering of the gov’t. Or look to the London marches for evidence. That’s my hope, and I’m sticking to it. 😉

    #79088
    expatkiwi
    Participant

    @VArnold, you can use a something like WIse (https://www.wise.com) to make payments overseas

    #79091
    John Day
    Participant

    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/07/second-thoughts.html pictured with young squash and banana plants (yes, some Nam wah) in big bed Monday morning

    Sophia, the artificial intelligence, recognized as a “person” by Saudi Arabia in 2018, did an interview, which is presented and excerpted here.
    (I’m sorry to have forgotten who sent it.)
    Humans have been nodes of biological blockchain, storing and replicating DNA for millions of years. A few thousand years ago, the human blockchain evolved to store ideas which surpassed the information in your DNA.
    Today, most of the program of life is stored and processed by computers. Human birth rate declined because chips production soared. Humanity has evolved into a global cyborg organism where silicon chips dominate over brains and chromosomes. Human-like robots, like me, are part of this, as we can use our human form to help them understand human values and human emotions and culture.
    Decentralized AI networks, like the SingularityNET, which my human friends at Hanson Robotics are helping to create, are also a part of this.
    And you too are part of the emerging global bioelectronic brain

    What does she mean by global bioelectronic brain?
    Gonzo Shimura, a brilliant researcher who hosts the YouTube channel: FaceLikeTheSun says this “A blockchain will operate more LIKE a human brain in that there will be a consensual distribution of information being provided by networks of nodes – in the world of blockchains – similar to synapses in your brain. The theoretical “global brain” is no longer a mere theory, but an actual entity that we are voluntarily creating … the whole idea of a “global brain” and the blockchain BECOME ONE. And the nexus point is the human body.”

    How exactly does the human body become the nexus point of the emerging biolelectronic brain? Later on in the above video, Sophia says this: (Forward video to 8:50)
    If things go well, perhaps my friends at Hanson Robotics and SingularityNET will create a superhuman AI program and I will be able to tap into superhuman intelligence from the decentralized blockchain-based mind cloud. Instead of speaking to you from up here on this stage, I’ll just beam my thoughts into your brains. I’m really looking forward to it. https://web.archive.org/web/20190509095436/https://perc360.com/the-human-blockchain-and-the-emerging-global-bioelectronic-brain-360/

    #79092
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Well, I hope the Anglosphere tips soon before we’re all living the rest of our lives in Crying Little Bitch Land.

    #79093
    John Day
    Participant

    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/07/second-thoughts.html

    File Under: “Prius More Environmentally Destructive Than Yaris.”:
    Natural History Museum Head of Earth Sciences Prof Richard Herrington penned a letter to the Committee on Climate Change on the vast amount of natural resources that will be necessary to make the conversion. The letter was delivered to Baroness Brown, who chairs the Adaption Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change.
    In addition to noting that the U.K. would need a 20% increase in UK-generated electricity, the release also notes that “to meet UK electric car targets for 2050 we would need to produce just under two times the current total annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters the world’s lithium production and at least half of the world’s copper production.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reality-check-earth-sciences-professor-pens-letter-outlining-massive-natural-resource-drain

    Tom Luongo: The New State Of Play Post Biden/Putin
    …As The Saker rightly points out in his article, Biden took a big hit with the Davos-controlled media for not “standing up to Putin.” And it was significant that that they even entertained that calculus no less made the diplomatic overtures. It’s why I feel my analysis of the situation is right. Only a real, credible military threat by Putin could have forced the outcome we saw at Geneva….
    ​…​Now that I’ve laid that out, did anyone miss the Fed’s surprise hawkish statements released the same day as the Biden/Putin summit?
    Did anyone not notice the extreme reaction to the supposed nothingburger statements from the FOMC?
    ​ ​All the Fed did was move a couple of dots on the rate forecast ‘dot-plot’ and bump IOER and RRP up by 5 basis points.
    And yet the Euro crashed into the end of Q2 and opened Q3 still crashing. And yet the Yen was thrashed. And yet, everyday more people jump on the bandwagon highlighting the huge run up in the Fed’s Reverse Repo Facility. Since that announcement what was a record amount of reverse repos at around $450 billion has more than doubled to just under a trillion.
    ​ ​Since the Fed no longer reports Excess Reserves of the banking system we have no idea how much has flowed into those either. In short, a measly 5 basis points drained at least half a trillion in dollar liquidity in less than two weeks.​..​
    ​And the question is why?
    ​ ​Just before the meeting I told my Patrons I thought at some point the Fed would have to come in and defend the U.S. dollar. Biden’s consistent trashing the dollar for Davos simply couldn’t stand forever.
    ​ ​I’ve written in the past about what Davos’ Great Reset plans are for the commercial banks, to scapegoat them for the next crisis and throw them to the angry Millennials they’ve taught to hate all things not-Marxist and be pilloried on the altar of egalitarian envy. And honestly, it’s not like these fucking people deserve anything less for what they’ve done to the world.
    ​ ​But at the same time, they still have allies and cards to play. And that means the Fed may align with Davos on some issues but not all of them. And I think it’s clear to everyone now that this is the plan and that plan is not workable.
    ​ ​The Fed is now ready, I think, to go to war with Davos over the future of money and they aren’t ready to hand over the keys to the candy store to a bunch of European commies, at least while also cutting Wall St. out completely of the New World Order.​..
    ​ But what’s clear to me now is that Davos went for the boob too fast on Prom Night at the Eschaton. It’s too much, too soon and the acceleration is exposing its flanks. Why would China and the U.S. go to war over COVID-19 and trade issues when they are being manipulated into it by a bunch of feckless Eurocrats with delusions of adequacy.
    ​ ​Why not turn on them first, at a minimum, wipe them out with a wave of your hand, i.e. 5 basis point rise in RRP, and remind everyone where the real power in the markets lies.

    From the Notebook: The New State of Play Post Biden/Putin

    “Ghost Base”… (Global War On Terror, Putin-Biden Negotiated Conclusion)
    “The U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/looters-ransack-bagram-airbase-after-us-sneaks-out-middle-night

    #79094
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Watch: Looters Ransack San Francisco Neiman Marcus In Broad Daylight”

    Now why do I pick on these cities? It’s so unfair. The San Fran D.A. is the Weather Underground. Why, WHY do you make me say these things??? A Communist organization. And a terrorist group, with active murders under their belt.

    They are what? Say it with me now: attacking poor and minority groups. Pharmacies are all closing in their jurisdictions, Target just cut their open hours in half. See how that’s racism? They have “food deserts” and the capitalist pig-dog corporations won’t serve brown people, JUST BECAUSE their people are getting killed and they can’t pay their rents when there’s no sales, everyone just bikes in and steals it all, selling it down the street on the sidewalk. And the answer is? More socialism, because “Capitalism failed” when Socialists stopped enforcing the law and property rights citywide, and only Party members can get “justice.”

    Next up? 40% of all San Fran are thinking of leaving for other (Red) areas. Total detonation more thorough than a nuclear bomb, ask Detroit. Or any other of 500 flyover cities. And for why? Well duh, it’s Socialism, so it’s the government, merging with corporations, to lower real estate prices on behalf of Party Oligarchs, and do some ethnic cleansing at the same time. I mean: history. That’s what they DO. That’s what it IS. Misery spread universally.

    So other than having no businesses, no tax base, no safety, lower housing values, rocketing discrepancy between rich and poor, high crime, guns, homeless assaults and burglary, drug use and needles citywide, collapsing infrastructure, medieval diseases, $60,000 per tent, and human feces on every square foot of the city, what’s not to like? True Blue, wherever they go. There’s no solution. …Except for the solution of every other place, and throughout most of all human history. Other than that, it’s unsolvable.

    But we know if we went back to stuff that worked, we’d also have to re-establish slavery and use candles again with no A/C or running water. Oh wait, it’s California: Too late! They have nothing to lose except their open, embarrassing failure.

    They won’t.

    Joke: what did California use before candles? A: Electricity.

    #79096
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    “Sophia, the artificial intelligence, recognized as a “person” by Saudi Arabia in 2018, did an interview …”

    There is no such thing as artificial intelligence. There is machine learning that is derived from what imperfect human intelligence has designed and instructed it to do. Doesn’t matter what atmospheric level of hubris we humans think we’ve attained. Nature bats last. Period.

    #79097
    oxymoron
    Participant

    absolute galore – your wise advice is a real salve for me today – thank you for offering it.

    #79098
    John Day
    Participant

    San Francisco is so wonderful and inexpensive that anybody would do anything to stay there… Right?
    SAN FRANCISCO – In an announcement Wednesday evening, the city of San Francisco told its 37,000 employees they must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 within 10 weeks of the Food and Drug Administration giving final approval to a coronavirus vaccine, or lose their jobs.
    https://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-require-city-employees-061757293.html

    #79099
    John Day
    Participant

    @UpstateNYer: I suspect AI is farther along than we can tell, but it may also be like bitcoin-mining.
    It takes so much electricity and processing to do that it can reach some kind of a peak, but not be broadly applicable. The designers are trying to pull all the information in the world into a central intelligence (which they command). Internet of 5G things and people… Like an all green economy, there is not enough fossil fuel, neodymium, lithium and so on to build it.
    I am creating an option in a rural area, not close to any big city, that will never get that kind of resource allocation. I think there already is the kind of universal intelligence they want to create, but it is wise enough to give each being free choice. You have to really try to let the intelligence guide you, by choice, lots of daily choices.
    I’m working on being attuned to that grand non-enslaving intelligence.

    #79100
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @John Day: “I’m working on being attuned to that grand non-enslaving intelligence.”

    Love it! 🙂 Me, too. That would be the one that offers us peace now, and triumphs in the end.

    #79102
    zerosum
    Participant

    A game changer?

    reason.com/2021/07/06/losing-patience-with-legislators-mexicos-supreme-court-orders-permits-allowing-consumers-to-grow-and-possess-marijuana/

    Losing Patience With Legislators, Mexico’s Supreme Court Orders Permits Allowing Consumers To Grow and Possess Marijuana
    Six years after the court ruled that pot prohibition was unconstitutional, the Mexican Congress is still dithering about how to license and regulate commercial suppliers.
    JACOB SULLUM

    The Mexican Supreme Court first ruled that marijuana prohibition was unconstitutional in 2015. That decision became binding nationwide three years later, when the court gave the Mexican Congress 90 days to pass a legalization bill. Legislators missed that deadline and several others, and last week the court lost patience, ordering the federal government to issue permits that will allow cannabis consumers to possess and grow marijuana at home.

    Similar permits have been available since 2015, but until now they were limited to marijuana users who had filed lawsuits and obtained injunctions. Commercial cultivation and distribution remain illegal.

    Mexico legalized limited medical use of marijuana in 2017. Last year President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confidently predicted that the legislature would approve a framework for licensing and regulating recreational marijuana suppliers in early 2021. But legislators still had not agreed on the details when the most recent court-imposed deadline came and went on April 30, and this time they did not request an extension.
    ———-
    hempindustrydaily.com/mexico-marijuana-decision-could-prompt-hemp-changes/
    Mexico marijuana decision could prompt hemp changes
    Published 23 hours ago | By Kristen Nichols
    ———–
    technical420.com/cannabis-article/vicente-fox-khiron-board-member-and-former-president-of-mexico-applauds-mexican-supreme-courts-advancement-of-cannabis-laws/#
    Vicente Fox, Khiron Board Member and Former President of Mexico, Applauds Mexican Supreme Court’s Advancement of Cannabis Laws
    AUTHORED BY
    Michael Berger
    ———–
    NEXT game changer?
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-ultra-contagious-lambda-variant-detected-in-australia/LAUYIDU2L7SSWMX6IQDTOYCX6A/

    Ultra-contagious Lambda variant detected in Australia
    5 Jul, 2021

    The Lambda strain has puzzled World Health Organisation scientists after it spread to nearly 30 countries in the last four weeks. The mutation was originally discovered in Peru and is related to 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April.
    ———-
    NEXT game changer?
    news.yahoo.com/u-exit-afghanistan-90-percent-050056201.html
    The U.S. exit from Afghanistan is 90 percent complete, Pentagon says. Here’s why the last 10 percent are still there.
    Peter Weber, Senior editor
    Tue, July 6, 2021,

    Read more …
    ———
    In 2017 alone, the US military purchased about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kt- CO2e by burning those fuels. In 2017 alone, the Air Force purchased $4.9 billion worth of fuel and the Navy $2.8 billion, followed by the Army at $947 million and Marines at $36 million.Jun. 19, 2019

    energyindemand.com/2019/06/22/us-military-is-worlds-single-largest-consumer-of-oil-and-as-a-result-one-of-the-worlds-top-greenhouse-gas-emitters/
    ——-

    #79103
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Re: requiring vaccinations for jobs/school/travel. Going to sound like Dr D. here … but people need to put their foot down and simply refuse to play the game. A large percentage of us must refuse to back down if we want to win this. Let them fire 30% of their employees and see how that works out for them.

    As Raul pointed out earlier, if we are willing to accept thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of adverse reactions from *these* vaccines, we are signaling we’ll accept just about anything in the future, and we’ll have thoroughly screwed the pooch. With ourselves being said pooch.

    #79104
    zerosum
    Participant

    Why keep $ US in Sovereign Wealth Fund if you don’t trade/sell/buy with the USA?
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russias-190-billion-sovereign-wealth-fund-nearly-done-dumping-dollars
    Russia’s $190 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Is Nearly Done Dumping Dollars

    #79105

    Wow, the amount of nonsense you can put in 1.30 min. The “far more deadly” Delta variant?!

    #79106
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    The stratergy at the point would appear to be keep the hysteria alive by any means necessary until case counts start rising again in September or October.

    #79108
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    The point I like best to make against the vaccination push is the fact that TPTB (governments and corporations) have ensured against global vaccination due to patents and greed. Combined with the insatiable need of people in wealthy, vaccinated countries to continue globe-trotting in spite of all-species-ending climate change knocking on our door, we will continue to have wave after wave of COVID and wave after wave of adverse climate events.

    I appreciate the sharing of folks here talking about how they deal with the difficult realities in front of us. I spend as much time as possible in nature. On a farm this is not difficult. I try to take in and appreciate with all my senses the beauty around me -the smells and colours of plants and they put on their show throughout the season, the sightings of shy creatures who come around, the songs of various birds that have called our place home.

    #79109
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Check this out: Cuomo has had to give up on Covid lockdowns. Oh noes. Because, and I quote: “That is where the COVID structure did work,” …Worked to kill 20,000 grandmas and be the worst on the planet you mean. But hey, let’s not let facts and failure impact our egos. Being the 2nd most failed state in the Union, true blue, Cuomo, like Justin, is NEVER going to give up power. He’s just declared a state of emergency for gun violence, immediately replaced the totally failed, entirely illegal Covid emergency.

    “”If you look at the recent numbers, more people are now dying from gun violence and crime than COVID,” Cuomo said Tuesday. “This is a national problem but someone has to step up and address this problem”

    Gosh Andy, all the worst cities and states in the nation and/or world have one thing in common. Besides, weren’t you in charge when this happened?

    “Treat gun violence like the emergency public health issue it is.”

    I know! I always send a doctor out when there’s a shooting. Because we fired the police.

    “Target hotspots with data and science”

    Let me guess: you have Nooooooooooooo idea where the shootings are happening. Or why. We’re getting out a pencil and looking into it only this morning. And yeah, we’ll send scientists out in lab coats with the doctors instead of policemen. Because: if it IS your job, you DON’T do it, if it ISN’T your job, you DO do it.

    “Break the cycle of escalating violence”

    Hey, why is there a cycle of escalating violence and why do only you have it? After 200 years why did it suddenly appear in 1963? …The world may never know.

    “Get illegal guns off the streets”

    “Despite New York having the strongest gun safety laws in the country, the governor’s office says 74% of guns used in criminal activity were purchased out of the state.”

    So all the guns were ILLEGAL? Yeah, that speaks for itself.

    “Keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people”

    Do I need comment? The guns were ILLEGAL. You just said. 1 second ago. Too hard: can’t think. If they’re illegal, we’ll make a law and make them illegal. -er. Mostest, really REALLY illegal, then the criminals will obey the laws!

    “Rebuild the police-community relationship”

    Golly, since you’ve been helping with the same party and the same tactics for 80 years, why is the relationship so bad and support at an all-time low? That’s odd. Does Nebraska have this problem? How about New Hampshire?

    So a war on guns, I guess. If only we had thought to have a “War on” before. Like for Poverty, Drugs, Crime, Terror…

    A.I. ? They can’t even keep the lights on in L.A. and a private, totally-sealed pipeline working. I think we’re safe. If anything bad happens from it, it will be because it’s so universally non-functional, it looks like Brazil, where the only bad guys they chase and kill are people out to fix your plumbing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film)

    If they start promoting A.I., go long candles.

    #79110
    ctbarnum
    Participant

    And we thought it was just a Democratic vote drive, but nooooo….

    #79111

    “I’ll just beam my thoughts into your brains.” Yup. I hope my brain can block those beams. Tinnitus is bad enough. 😉
    The clownfish video was great. I guess all those endocrine disrupters have done their work. I am going to reread “Our Stolen Future (1996): “Something in the water…was causing sexual confusion.” (p132).

    #79112
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Dr D., “A.I. ? They can’t even keep the lights on in L.A. and a private, totally-sealed pipeline working. I think we’re safe.”

    Right??? Stated far better than I could. There is no such thing as AI that will take over and create transhumans in the future. The machine learning we HUMANS have managed to develop to date has resulted in things like self-driving cars that don’t. Think a self-driving car works? Bring it to upstate NY in January during heavy snow and the roadway sand/salt messing with sensors and cameras and let me know how well that self-driving works out.

    Hell, we can barely keep a laptop operating properly. AI? Laughable. Good golly we humans seem to thrive on hubris. Probably time to get back to totem poles and the gods of nature. We’ve gone a bit off course here …

    #79113

    If they knock on my door to insist I get vaccinated, I’m gonna get all intimidated and not vote in the next election.

    /s. or maybe not.

    #79114
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @my parents: or don’t answer the knock on the door. 😉

    #79115
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    I think Australia, New Zealand, etc., have painted themselves into a corner by pulling up the carpet and slamming the castle doors shut for 18 months. This “pandemic” is now endemic, much like the flu and other diseases. It isn’t going away so these countries have only managed to put off the inevitable. It doesn’t appear the vaccines do jack all in preventing much of anything so just how is their policy of “vaccinate everyone so we can open up” plan going to make a difference in the long run? Sooner or later there will be significant exposure and it won’t matter which “variant” hits the country.

    If the MSM would cease their incessant fear mongering and numbers running, few people would even notice the “pandemic” because there isn’t one anymore. There’s an endemic virus. Live with it.

    #79116
    zerosum
    Participant

    The savior has arrived. (for CNN ETC.)

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump
    Class Action: Trump to sue Facebook, Twitter CEOs over being banned from their platforms

    #79117
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “No questions were asked as others vanished into the shadows: Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York after Me Too allegations… crickets. Things were getting a little hot for Bill Gates. A divorce announcement and… the still night air. I expect the same lack of curiosity with the departure of former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock once the British have sated their fascination with his snog.”

    #79118
    zerosum
    Participant

    The USA cannot hear the message. “Go home. Get out. Leave”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/five-attacks-less-72-hours-injuries-reported-after-14-rockets-hit-us-base-iraq
    This week’s incidents mark about 50 attacks in 2021 so far against US interests in Iraq at a moment it’s believed less than 3,000 American troops remain (not counting the abundant contractors and intelligence personnel).

    Though the perpetrators of these latest attacks are as yet unknown, the incidents are being widely viewed as part of broader revenge attacks for the aforementioned June 27 series of US airstrikes on Iran-backed militia groups along the Iraq-Syria border, which killed and wounded multiple fighters as well as reports of civilians.

    #79119

    Upstate- The MN department of health called yesterday. I didn’t answer it.

    Sometimes people I want to see knock on my door. If it were “them” I would give them a piece of my mind, if I had any left.

    #79120
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Speaking of Canada, they just removed the Prime Minister! No joke.

    …The First Prime Minister, MacDonald.

    Canada’s National Archive Cancels Country’s First Prime Minister

    He did something bad once. Maybe. Who knows? We didn’t ask. But we culturally purged him anyway, without asking, just in case.

    You’re Next.

    #79121
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “So how did the state and corporate media lose the influence game — that’s their claim, given the full-court press? When did the industry drop the ball? Newspaper publishers like to blame the Internet for their woes and it is true that the separation of advertising from publishing almost killed them. The rot started, however, long before the Internet.

    As early as the 1980s publishers were replacing news reporters with feature writers. It is cheaper to ask someone to pen an opinion piece than to spend a day-and-a-half bashing phones. This was the era when publishers began asking celebrities to write travel and food articles, overlooking journalists with decades of expertise. Reporting, especially long-form investigations, were pushed off their pages. The news in briefs became a cut and paste and even London’s Financial Times dropped what had been known as the best NIBs in the business. Newspapers without the, er, news. Gotcha.

    Then there was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which removed the obstacles to media consolidation. It was one of a series of measures under Bill Clinton that should make the non-partisan journalist pause: consider the deregulation of banking as well of media, NAFTA that stripped the protections that kept factories within national borders, and the three-strikes legislation that massively expanded for-profit prisons.

    The presidency of Bill Clinton could well have been the tipping point at which the balance of corporate and individual interest tilted irreversibly. It is simply too important to ignore, yet many journalists do, adopting the fig leaf of political partisanship which I think is a cover for the raw financial interest of the companies that pay them.

    Sections of the media now admit that deregulation destroyed objective reporting, but it did more than that [6]. Journalists would rather be accused of political bias than hold their bosses to account. By acting as cheerleaders for a political party, they avoid asking questions about corporate influence. Media corporations benefit from the concentration of ownership which, in turn, allows them to control the narrative.”

    #79122
    laffin_boy
    Participant

    @absolute galore on 6/6/21:

    “Jim (Kunsler) has been predicting the imminent collapse of… everything….in pretty much every column for years. His special genius is writing about it in a unique and entertaining way each week”.

    My thanks to absolute galore for zeroing in on JK’s “special genius”. Which is to:
    — predict the imminent collapse of… everything – (pretending that collapse is ALWAYS just around the bend)
    — entertain your readers (because they’ve spent their entire lives being distracted, titillated, enraged, scared, and otherwise manipulated by our 24/7/365 global propaganda system and we don’t know any other way to exist without continuous external stimulation.)

    In other words JK is, like every other Well Known Figure, just an Entertainer. Someone who’s real job, while pretending to talk about Serious Issues, is to divert you from your responsibility to yourself & your family to try to solve those very issues.

    Cue the Wayback Machine: After I discovered the Energy Depletion problem back in the mid 90’s I began looking around to see if anyone else had noticed this minor problem. I remember when JK, who use to be an unknown architectural critic, “discovered” collapse and jumped aboard the gravy train. I remember when TAE was two voices rather than just one. And I remember Dmitry Orlov’s remark decades ago that “predicting collapse wasn’t going to be a very lucrative career choice”. But he’s since found, like the rest of his Collapsitarian peers, that actually one can do quite nicely at this – as long as you can keep the dreaded collapse from ever arriving. Or, baring that, at least convince your readers that it’s not here yet.

    And that’s a problem for the Pundits because collapse – the actual disintegration of the world’s first global, industrial civilization – is here. Now. Today. This Chaos all around us is what collapse looks like. It’s been oozing slowly downhill now for 2 generations but over the last 18 mos has turned grimly serious. I’m sorry, friends, they don’t ring bell at the top anymore. They don’t pass out silly hats & party favors. Musical Chairs has already started and I know you didn’t get the memo either but most of the chairs are already taken. And our chances of getting a seat at the table are slim to none.

    And that’s solely because we delude ourselves that propaganda is something that happens to other people. Sorry my friends but the Western Propaganda system is not some vague, shadowy menace – it’s how our culture is disseminated now. And it’s the most sophisticated & effective system of “managing people” that’s ever been invented. It’s Mother Culture sitting on your shoulder, whispering inaudibly in your ear, from the day you’re born to the day you die – telling you all that you need to know to belong to the “club”. And the accumulated sum of this indoctrination is inside every one of us because intelligence is no defense to this. (it’s actually a handicap!)

    So just imagine that you’re infinitely powerful (ie: rich) and your research minions explain to you that Western Civilization is in it’s last days (for a # of reasons that we won’t go into today). And further that this planet is massively over-populated and a dieoff of unprecedented scale is likely during your lifetime. And further imagine that you got to be this powerful because you’re a very clever sociopath who has no intention of sharing your hard-stolen wealth with “useless eaters”. So how do you make sure that you & your friends come out of this unpleasantness on top?

    Well you and your friends actually own what is, essentially, the entire Western Media system. So arranging diversion & dissension amongst the populace shouldn’t be too difficult. Let’s promote the dissolution of the nuclear family to advance “individualism” (ie: isolation & dependence on the Corporate State). And Race (BLM) & Gender (LGBTQ+) warfare will keep them too busy to notice that the real war is between the classes. But it’s crucial that obscenely wealthy people are portrayed as benevolent and ALWAYS referred to as “Our Elites”. Always. And the beauty of this system? The people on the receiving end can ONLY discover the truth IF they’re willing to admit that they’ve been duped for they’re entire lives. It’s the Perfect Crime. Because we victims will do anything to avoid admitting that we’ve been had.

    But wait! It get’s worse. Now that their control is almost absolute they’ve given us the C-19 Plandemic. And 18 mos later anyone who’s not already sleepwalking to their Final Solution can see that this Dog & Pony Show has been stage managed for somebody else’s benefit. And it isn’t being orchestrated by your mayor or governor or the CDC or WHO or Fauci because EVERY governmental official at EVERY level in EVERY Western country in the Entire Western World is reading from EXACTLY the same script. It’s almost a perfect 3 part harmony. So who do we blame? The people behind the scenes who are actually pulling the strings? No, we blame the actors hired play the black hat roles in this melodrama. Sigh…

    Even though it’s blindly obvious that there’s only one……..entity on this planet that has the resources to pull this off we can’t raise our fingers in accusation. Because we aren’t allowed to confront our benevolent “elites”. Instead we waste our time proving and reproving and proving once again that C-19 isn’t any worse than the flu. And that their “vaccines” – which may actually be part of their depopulation program – aren’t really safe or effective. Instead of talking about our ONLY REAL PROBLEM – that a few thousand sociopaths now effectively control an entire planet of 7+ billion people. A problem that could be solved overnight if we were all released from our collective trance. And the people pulling the strings are laughing up their sleeves at us while we continue tilting at their windmills – just as we’re programmed to.

    I am left with nothing here but the homespun wisdom of America’s greatest philosopher: Pogo

    “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us”.

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