Feb 222022
 
 February 22, 2022  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops Balanced on Her Shoulder 1933

 

“Joe Biden” Wins World War Three (Kunstler)
How the United States Has Provoked the Ukraine Crisis (Cathey)
Putin Recognizes Donbass Independence as Violence Soars (Lauria)
What Accounts for Putin’s Assertiveness on Ukraine? (Ray McGovern)
How Much The EU Has Destabilised Ukraine (Nuttall)
Donbas or Ottawa? The Dizzying Spiral of Government Violence! (Daniel McAdams)
The Neoliberal War On Dissent In The West (Greenwald)
In The Age Of COVID, We’re Reminded An Unjust Law Is No Law At All (McMaken)
Future UK Covid Waves Will Be Treated With Drugs Not Restrictions (Peston)
The Demise of Restaurants (Ugo Bardi)

 

 

 

 

Australia true Covid stats
https://twitter.com/i/status/1495853869242494983

 

 

 

 

Not okay

 

 

Rogan Maajid Nawaz decentralization

 

 

Canada Military
https://twitter.com/i/status/1495749143142322180

 

 

“His Democratic Party is looking everyday more and more like some hell-borne spawn of Satan bent on wrecking what’s left of the old USA.”

“Joe Biden” Wins World War Three (Kunstler)

Enter Monsieur Macron of France. After two years of antagonizing his countrymen with lockdowns and put-downs, he needs a boost for the national election forthcoming in April. So, he has heroically sued Mr. Putin of Russia for a Ukraine “ceasefire.” Note: the Russians haven’t fired. Anyway, that opened the way for a proposed “summit” meeting between “Joe Biden” and Mr. Putin — when the Russians feel like it. They’re playing it a little coy for the moment, letting the West twist slowly, slowly in the wind. If a summit does happen, what will the two summiteers talk about? Mr. Putin will reiterate that the US and NATO made a solemn promise (in writing) to not expand NATO along Russia’s borderland in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell apart, and y’all reneged on that… and now it stops with Ukraine… really… got it?

“Joe Biden” will not have a coherent response. Maybe he’ll want to talk ice cream flavors or dogs. He is, as the Russians say, not negotiation-worthy, though he can be trotted out for photo ops. But “Joe Biden” needs a big win so he can brag on something in his State of the Union address. His Democratic Party is looking everyday more and more like some hell-borne spawn of Satan bent on wrecking what’s left of the old USA. Everything they’ve done since 2016 has degraded the life of the nation — weaponizing the “Intel Community,” queering a national election, besetting the people with race-and-gender mindfuckery, and inflicting the deadly “vaccines” on the population to “fix” the Fauci-created Covid-19 crisis. Never has the country seen a president so obviously incompetent and unpopular. The people backstage running him like an animatronic automaton are in a panic.

By default, then, the summit meeting will be game-set-and-match, Mr. Putin, only both parties will pretend that it’s some kind of moral victory for “JB,” while Russia gets exactly the terms it seeks: Nord Stream-2 will be completed and Germany will get natgas; there will be no additional stupid sanctions and get rid of the old ones; and the US will close up its CIA shop in Kiev and quit all the pointless antagonism. There will be peace in that corner of the world. And then, on cue, the West’s financial system will implode.

Yes, that’s what is actually going on in the background. That roar you hear is bad credit whooshing out of the banks. It looks like we’re going to get both a ripping inflation and a collapse of equities and assets all at once — with a side-dish of disappearing livelihoods, vaporizing pensions, and sinking standards-of-living. One surmises that all the meshugas over Ukraine was designed as a distraction from the financial disorders now at hand. The news media has faithfully played the Ukraine story to the max while ignoring the growing disarray in North America.

The Toronto Star barely even reported today on the weekend dispersion of truckers in Ottawa — like it never happened… a kind of national hallucination. The big rigs are gone from the streets around Parliament Hill, but one suspects the action isn’t over. Mr. Trudeau’s stupid vaxx mandates are still in place and every passing day more is known about their inefficacy and ghastly after-effects. Nor has the national legislature of Canada voted, as required, in support of the Emergencies Act — meaning that the financial punishments inflicted on the truckers and their supporters was arguably illegal.

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“..a conflict, into which the US and NATO can pour support and implement various measures, economic and financial and, eventually, military against Russia, while blaming the Kremlin for starting it.”

How the United States Has Provoked the Ukraine Crisis (Cathey)

The very simple conclusion that may be drawn from what is occurring is this: our foreign policy elites–Neoconservatives and their zealous followers in both the GOP and the Democratic Party–see Russia as a major obstacle in the continuing process of imposing economic and political control over countries which have heretofore not acceded to their hegemony (i.e., Russia and Hungary). Using NATO as a strategic shell and Ukraine as its frontline player, the Neocon/globalist combine seeks to:

(1) prevent an economic disaster for the US of a functioning Nord Stream II pipeline, which would give Germany and potentially other European countries, a climb off ramp from economic domination by the US (journalist Mike Whitney has written conclusively on this topic in the Eurasia Review); and (2) eventually impose politically a pliant government in Moscow, which has become the chief stumbling block in preventing Neocon globalist hegemony and the realization of “the Great Reset.” Russia, like Hungary, has expelled CIA-infested and Soros-sponsored NGOs which in many locations around the world have incited “color revolutions” to install favorable client governments.

More concretely, the Biden administration and US foreign policy establishment (with congressional Republicans in tow) are accusing Russia of “false flag” operations, or more specifically, accusing the pro-Russian secessionists in Lugansk and Donetsk republics of violent attacks against Ukraine (on civilians, schools, all the usual claimed targets), while in fact it is elements of the Ukrainian military, with American encouragement and technical “advisors” embedded, who are responsible for the shelling and the attacks across the cease-fire line. This is one more example of disinformation strategy, projecting onto the Russians what we are actually guilty of.

Just listen to the braindead Biden essentially mouthing this propaganda line. If warfare breaks out it will be because the US State Department and our agents have impelled the Ukrainians to launch such “false flag” actions, literally forcing the Russians to react and thus producing a conflict, into which the US and NATO can pour support and implement various measures, economic and financial and, eventually, military against Russia, while blaming the Kremlin for starting it.

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“The president of France and the Federal Chancellor of Germany expressed their disappointment with this development. At the same time, they indicated their readiness to continue contacts.”

Putin Recognizes Donbass Independence as Violence Soars (Lauria)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized the independence from Ukraine of two breakaway provinces in Donbass as violence in the region continues to escalate. In Monday evening televised remarks after signing decrees recognizing the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk, Putin denounced the government of Ukraine as “puppets” of the United States. He said: “As for those who captured and are holding on to power in Kiev, we demand that they immediately cease military action. If not, the complete responsibility for the possibility of a continuation of bloodshed will be fully and wholly on the conscience of the regime ruling the territory of Ukraine.” After Putin had spoken by phone earlier on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday, the Kremlin issued this statement:

“The president of Russia said that he intended to sign the relevant decree in the near future. The president of France and the Federal Chancellor of Germany expressed their disappointment with this development. At the same time, they indicated their readiness to continue contacts.” The Duma last week passed a resolution recommending that Putin recognize the provinces’ independence from Ukraine. Putin had resisted for eight years recognizing the independence of the self-declared republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the Donbass, insisting instead that Kiev implement the 2014-15 Minsk agreements that would have given autonomy to the provinces, while they remained within Ukrainian territory. The decision by Putin effectively declares that the Minsk process is over.

It does not mean at this point, however, that the people of Lugansk and Donetsk are ready to hold a referendum to join Russia or that Moscow is interested in making them part of Russia, as happened in Crimea in 2014. The two provinces declared independence after the 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Kiev that overthrew democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the violent capital to the Donbass, his base of support, exactly eight years ago today, on Feb. 21, 2014. On the next day Parliament, with only opposition leaders present, impeached him. After anti-Russian language laws were passed by the coup government, hand-picked before the coup by the United States, and after neo-Nazis burned dozens of people alive in a building in Odessa on May 3, 2014, both Lugansk and Donetsk declared independence nine days later on May 12.

The coup government launched a civil war against the separatists, whom they called “terrorists.” In essence the Donbass was defending their democratic rights to vote, as a majority of the region voted for Yanukovych, in an election certified by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In the eight years since, as many as 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting. The violence from that continuing conflict has soared since Thursday with thousands of ceasefire violations and explosions in and around Lugansk and Donetsk reported by OSCE monitors on the ground.


Putin speech Feb 21

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Xi.

What Accounts for Putin’s Assertiveness on Ukraine? (Ray McGovern)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s well choreographed decision yesterday to recognize the independence of the pro-Russian Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk points to two key realities: (1) Putin despairs of persuading U.S. allies, Germany and France, to press Ukraine to honor its commitments under the Minsk accords that provide for regional autonomy as well as a ceasefire; and (2) Putin feels assured of very strong backing from China (as long as he is not stupid enough to invade Ukraine). What about this China factor? Why do Western pundits/savants pay so little heed to this game-changer? It should not require my half-century of studying/reporting on Russia-China relations to notice that China and Russia have never been so strategically close as now. Putin and Xi have done their part to demonstrate that. Why cannot most Western pundits and savants see it and recognize the implications?

There are, happily, notable exceptions – for example, Edward Wong’s Bond Between China and Russia Alarms US and Europe Amid Ukraine Crisis. Wong writes of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s speech on Feb. 21 in Munich: “It was the latest instance of what Western officials say is China taking a bold new swing at the United States and its allies by wading into European security issues to explicitly back Russia.” Wong includes quotes from a PR person, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, and a true expert on China, former prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd. Kirby: “China’s support for Russia is deeply alarming, and, frankly, even more destabilizing to the security situation in Europe.” Rudd: “China’s explicitly pro-Russian position on European security is new and significant and quite a radical departure from the past.”

Kevin Rudd is right, of course; and it’s nice to know that the Pentagon, too, is aware. Crazed as the generals and admirals have long shown themselves to be, it is questionable whether even they would want to risk war on two fronts with major adversaries – for another star on their shoulder. I recall Amb. Chas Freeman telling me last December, “It is clear that the Sino-Russian entente is expanding under the pressure of US threats to both. Nothing will happen on either Taiwan or Ukraine without coordination between Beijing and Moscow.

That nothing will happen on either Ukraine or Taiwan without coordination between Beijing and Moscow seems to be key to understanding why Putin is feeling his oats. Yesterday, Chas further reminded me that “China agrees with Russia that the US global sphere of influence needs rollback. It does not agree that Ukraine should be invaded, occupied, or annexed. Ironically, China is this century’s citadel of Westphalianism.

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“..after more than a year of protracted negotiations, Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement in November 2013, which set off a chain of events that eventually led to his downfall.”

How Much The EU Has Destabilised Ukraine (Nuttall)

Eight years ago, a democratically elected president was removed from office by protesters waving European Union flags. Viktor Yanukovych had been elected as president of Ukraine in 2010 to serve a five-year term. His time in office was, however, brought to an abrupt end when he was removed for his refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU. The first decade of the 20th century was a golden period for the EU. The euro currency had been launched, the bloc was expanding, and Eurosceptic movements in its existing member states had barely got off the ground. The federalist ideologues in Brussels confidently believed that this was to be the EU’s century, and nothing could prevent it from accruing more powers and expanding further eastwards.

After the accession of central European countries and the Baltic states, Ukraine was the next logical step –highlighted by a vote in the European Parliament in 2005, which floated the possibility of Ukraine eventually joining the bloc. As a consequence, EU cash was poured into Ukraine as a precursor to eventual accession. The first step towards this eventuality was a deepening of economic ties, and to this end an association agreement was initiated in 2012. However, after more than a year of protracted negotiations, Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement in November 2013, which set off a chain of events that eventually led to his downfall.

[..] Now Yanukovych may have been a bad president, but that is not really the point. He was elected to serve a five-year term, and if the electors wanted rid of him, and it seems a sizeable number did, then they could have waited another year and voted him out of office. That is, after all, how democracy works. Nevertheless, with Yanukovych out of the way, the Ukrainian government signed the association agreement with the EU in March 2014. The EU proudly holds itself up as a defender of democracy – although anyone who understands how it really works knows what a contradiction this is – so you would assume that Brussels would have roundly denounced these ugly scenes in Kiev. But no, EU chiefs instead acted as enthusiastic cheerleaders.

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“Even insane San Francisco is in the process of eliminating its mandates, yet somehow Justin Trudeau’s Canada is willing to literally go to war with its own people..”

Donbas or Ottawa? The Dizzying Spiral of Government Violence! (Daniel McAdams)

Will the Russians attack? Well, they’ve been clear for years: a Kiev attack on three-quarters of a million Russian citizens in eastern Ukraine – who because of a Washington coup found themselves ruled by a government that came to power illegitimately – will be met with a Russian military response. In the breathless world of the braindead media hacks, the world began yesterday. But actually we are seeing a situation similar to 2008 in South Ossetia, where Russian passport holders (and Russian OSCE monitors) found themselves under attack by Georgia. The result was lightening fast, effective, and limited. Russia could have held and “regime-changed” Tbilisi. They did not. They made their point and left.

Even the US government-funded RFE had to admit that yes, in fact, it was Georgia that started the hostilities…and Russia that ended them. Will Russia come to the aid of Donbas? Yes. They are not trying to hide it. They’ve been saying it for years . The renowned historian and international relations theoretician Edward Luttwak – never accused of being a political partisan – put it best on Twitter: “The latest IC forecast: war is imminent and Russian forces will rely on exceptionally intense artillery bombardments, of Kiev too. That implies a reckless-gambler Putin, willing to make Ukrainians hate Russia & Russians forever. Neither is congruent with Putin’s record so far.”

This is the difference between astute analysts and the cardboard cut-outs who populate the media. People of intellectual substance like Luttwak are not in the business to grind an axe. They analyze past behavior and seek the truth. Sadly these days we are stuck with the former, with the latter being rarities. Meanwhile in Canada, a liberal Western democracy has declared war – literally – on its own peaceful citizens who have gathered to oppose the absurd continuation of Covid-related mandates. Even insane San Francisco is in the process of eliminating its mandates, yet somehow Justin Trudeau’s Canada is willing to literally go to war with its own people to keep them in place.

What is funny about Canada (and this is also true of the US and many “Western” liberal democracies), is that they are very happy to preach to the rest of the world that peaceful protests must be allowed while literally at the same time brutally cracking down on same protests in their own countries. As in the late Soviet era, the hypocrisy is impossible to ignore. The regime disintegrates under the weight of its own contradictions.

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“The term “dissent,” in Western democracies, connotes legitimacy, so that label must be denied them.”

The Neoliberal War On Dissent In The West (Greenwald)

This last decade of history is crucial to understand the dissent-eliminating framework that has been constructed and implemented in the West. This framework has culminated, thus far, with the stunning multi-pronged attacks on Canadian truckers by the Trudeau government. But it has been a long time in the making, and it is inevitable that it will find still-more extreme expressions. It is, after all, based in the central recognition that there is mass, widespread anger and even hatred toward the neoliberal ruling class throughout the West. Trump, Brexit and the rise of far-right parties in places where their empowerment was previously unthinkable — including Germany and France — is unmistakable proof of that. Rather than sacrifice some of the benefits of inequality that have generated much of that rage or placate or appease it with symbolic concessions, Western neoliberal elites have instead opted for force, a system that crushes all forms of dissent as soon as they emerge in anything resembling an effective, meaningful or potent form.

So many of the controversies over the last decade, often analyzed in isolation, have been devoted to this goal. The pervasive surveillance systems constructed by the West — revealed during the Snowden reporting but only partially reined in at best since then — are crucial tools, as surveillance powers always are, for monitoring and thus stifling dissent. We have now arrived at the point where the U.S. Government and its security state is officially and explicitly clear that it regards the greatest national security threat not as a foreign power such as China or Russia, and not as non-state actors such as Al Qaeda or ISIS, but rather “domestic extremists.” For years, this has been the unyielding message of the DHS, FBI, CIA, NSA and DOJ: our primary enemies are not foreign but are our fellow citizens who have embraced ideologies we regard as extremist.

This new escalation of repression depends upon a narrative framework. Those who harbor dissenting ideologies — and particularly those who do not embrace that dissent passively but instead take action to advocate, promote and spread it — are not merely dissenters. The term “dissent,” in Western democracies, connotes legitimacy, so that label must be denied them. They are instead domestic extremists, domestic terrorists, seditionists, traitors, insurrections. Applying terms of criminality renders justifiable any subsequent acts of repression: we are trained to accept that core liberties are forfeited upon the commission of crimes.

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“..when it comes to protests and other acts of which the regime approves, legality is never an issue.”

In The Age Of COVID, We’re Reminded An Unjust Law Is No Law At All (McMaken)

We could contrast the rhetoric surrounding the trucker protest with that of the Black Lives Matter protests. In the case of the BLM protests, illegal acts were downplayed and ignored, with one obvious riot labeled a “mostly peaceful” protest. when it comes to protests and other acts of which the regime approves, legality is never an issue. The regimes of the world, of course, like to use legality as a standard for judging human behavior because the regimes make the laws. Whether or not the laws actually have anything to do with human rights, private property, or just basic common sense is another matter entirely. Thus history is replete with pointless, immoral, and destructive laws. Slavery has been lawful throughout much of human history. Temporary slavery—known as military conscription—is still employed by many regimes.

In the US, the imprisonment of peaceful American citizens of Japanese descent was perfectly lawful under the US regime during World War II. Today, employers can face ruinous sanctions for hiring a worker who lacks the proper immigration paperwork. Worldwide, people can be jailed in many jurisdictions for years for the “crime” of possessing an illegal plant. During covid, the reality of arbitrary law came very much to the fore when unelected health bureaucrats and lone elected executives began ruling by decree. They closed businesses, shut people up in their homes, and imposed vaccine and mask mandates. Those who refuse to comply—and businesses who refuse to enforce these edicts—are condemned as lawbreakers and subject to punishment.

All of these legal provisions, acts, and sanctions represent mockeries of basic natural rights rather than protections of them. The notion that laws can be perversions of true justice has long been obvious to many. In fact, the disconnect between morality and legality is a fundamental aspect of Western civilization. The basic notion is very old, but the idea’s endurance in the West was reinforced by the fact that Christianity began as an illegal religion and early Christians were often considered to be criminals deserving of the death penalty. It should be no surprise, then, that Saint Augustine declared an unjust law to be no law at all and compared kings to pirates: the decrees of pirates, of course, are not worthy of obedience or reverence. And if kings are like pirates, kingly decrees are of equal respectability. This same tradition fueled Saint Thomas Aquinas’s support for regicide (in certain cases). Needless to say, regicide has been always and everywhere declared illegal by the would-be targets.

Yet, unfortunately, declaring something to be “illegal” remains an effective slur. There is no shortage of people who proudly consider themselves to be blind supporters of “law and order” and who insist “lawbreakers” are axiomatically in the wrong. Their simple-minded refrain is “if you don’t like the law, change it” and many of these people naïvely believe that acts of legislators and regulators somehow reflect “the will of the people” or some sort of moral law. The opposite is often the reality. We could contrast the rhetoric surrounding the trucker protest with that of the Black Lives Matter protests. In the case of the BLM protests, illegal acts were downplayed and ignored, with one obvious riot labeled a “mostly peaceful” protest. when it comes to protests and other acts of which the regime approves, legality is never an issue.

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“..paxlovid and molnupiravir.” Count your blessings.

Future UK Covid Waves Will Be Treated With Drugs Not Restrictions (Peston)

The core of the strategy to deal with another frightening Covid-19 wave will be pharmaceutical and medical interventions rather than lockdowns and restrictions on our lives, the PM will announce this afternoon. But this means laying in stocks of antivirals like paxlovid and molnupiravir, to protect the vulnerable, and that will cost money. And a second source of cost is a testing and surveillance system to catch a new wave early enough to distribute the antivirals. Which is also far from cheap. Hence the dispute this morning between the Treasury and the Deptartment of Health and Social Care. The Treasury seems to have won and Sajid Javid will “reprioritise” from within his existing budget.

A government source confirmed: “A minimum level of response needs to be maintained so that we have the ability to rapidly scale up and deal with future waves through pharmaceutical interventions rather than restrictions – as we did with Omicron.” UPDATE: To keep us safe, and to keep the economy open, there has to be fairly extensive Covid testing, surveillance and genome sequencing regime. Without it, we wouldn’t know if a new and dangerous strain were here, till too late to contain it with antivirals and booster vaccines As I said earlier, this monitoring regime – plus the perceived imperative of maintaining adequate stocks of antivirals – is pricey.

Over the weekend the row between the Department of Health and the Treasury has not been about new money to pay for it, though it was before, but has been a dispute about whether this Covid insurance policy was necessary at all. The Health Secretary Sajid Javid wanted it. Sunak was sceptical. In the end, Javid won this argument and will pay for it by cutting other programmes.

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“the twin impact of depletion and pollution is pushing the Western economy back to what it was a couple of hundred years ago.”

The Demise of Restaurants (Ugo Bardi)

As I said, restaurants have always been a typical middle-class thing. They appeared together with the European middle class, and they are following its destiny. During the past few decades, the middle class has been gradually pushed back into the fold of the lower class. The restaurant business could not avoid being affected by the trend. The tradition of eating out is still alive in the West, but the resources for doing that are not there anymore for a middle class that’s struggling to survive, and failing at that. On their side, the rich don’t eat at restaurants, at least not at the same kind of restaurants that the deplorables can afford. For the very rich and politically exposed persons (PEPs), appearing at a restaurant without an armed escort would be dangerous (*). They have their private cooks and exclusive places. And they socialize with each other throwing expensive parties at their homes. A habit that we find in ancient history, even in Roman times and earlier.

You may have seen the picture of Bill Gates supposedly standing in line waiting for his turn for a burger. It is surprising that many Westerners seem to believe in this kind of cheap PR stunts. In the old Soviet Union, if Leonid Brezhnev had diffused a picture of himself standing in line to buy shoes, people would have laughed themselves to death. But it is known that Westerners are sensitive to propaganda. In any case, the current Western elites are acting just like the Soviet elites of old. They don’t care about what the commoners eat, although they are worried that starving them may lead them to revolt. So, they tend to allow a basic supply of food, but they consider restaurants (and the associated tourism) as a waste of resources. They much prefer to funnel the surplus produced by the economy into their own pockets rather than having it dissipated by the commoners.

They can use several methods to obtain this result: lockdown worked nicely, but could not be imposed forever. Other methods were later used to make the restaurant experience unpleasant for the customers. Different factors reinforced each other. One result of the financial strain is that the quality of the food and of the service is going down (I can testify that myself). Finally, the QR code is the perfect method to keep the deplorables out. It is a more sophisticated and tuneable tool than the old written menu. So, Western restaurants are in the crosshair and it is unlikely that they will survive, at least in the form we are used to seeing them. It is not so much because the PTB are evil — they are no more evil than most categories. It is mostly because the economic contraction coming from the twin impact of depletion and pollution is pushing the Western economy back to what it was a couple of hundred years ago.


a Sumerian QR code to assign rations of beer. Some things never change, some things always return.

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Crowther

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 22 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 81 through 120 (of 167 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #102541
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Dr. Pierre Kory – consultation rates
    Those rates are similar to what I had to pay the skilled attorney who represented me in my family law case. Anyone know what the cash pay rates are for medical specialists? I believe that anesthesiologists get around $1,000 per hour… (very high malpractice insurance, too.)

    #102542
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @Argon: “This sums the whole discussion. Public health agencies do not publish the information if its against their narrative. So, they have the data, which show that ‘the vaccines’ are ineffective, and they don’t publish the data, because if they did, people would think ineffective ‘vaccines’ vaccines are ineffective. Usage of the word misinterpret here is nice, is the dictionary meaning for the word misinterpret as follows: ‘to make conclusions which are against the official narrative, even if the conclusion is right’ ?”

    Classic!!! Thank you for the laugh. 🙂

    #102543
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Here in Victoria aus the gov has lifted masks except for 7-10 year old children in school until more are jabbed.
    So suffocate until your parents submit!
    Madness of ego

    #102544
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    Bosco
    You wrote:

    “I can neither justify nor exonerate my life, nor is there adequate atonement I can make. But I CAN try and act in a manner congruent with my true ideals.

    Thank you for the reminder
    cloudhidden

    #102545
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “CNN on the TV non-stop”

    Hey, I can play now. Cranked out 3k words. Gaining strength by about 500 words per day. Should max at 4-5K. More than that and it loses quality.

    ANYway… when my life exploded in fall/winter of 2016, I spent the 2nd half of winter at a friend’s house who was seriously ill, morbidly so. He had MSNBC/CNN on non-stop as it blasted TDSyndrome like a never-ending hot-air-raid drill.

    Between a man dying of complications from spondylolysis, rat shit everywhere, and CNN telling me in so many fallaciously empty words that it was over for the land in which I’ve lived all my life, it was kind of gruesome for awhile.

    ***

    Meanwhile, this is how silly we’ve become:

    “Heath Racela identifies as three-quarters white and one-quarter Filipino. When texting, he chooses a yellow emoji instead of a skin tone option, because he feels it doesn’t represent any specific ethnicity or color.

    “He doesn’t want people to view his texts in a particular way. He wants to go with what he sees as the neutral option and focus on the message.

    “I present as very pale, very light skinned. And if I use the white emoji, I feel like I’m betraying the part of myself that’s Filipino,” Racela, of Littleton, Mass., said. “But if I use a darker color emoji, which maybe more closely matches what I see when I look at my whole family, it’s not what the world sees, and people tend to judge that.”

    “In 2015, five skin tone options became available for hand gesture emojis, in addition to the default Simpsons-like yellow. Choosing one can be a simple texting shortcut for some, but for others it opens a complex conversation about race and identity.”

    Which skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think

    The silliness of taking one’s emoji, much less one’s skin tone seriously, yea, even moralistically reminds me of William Gibson’s answer to this question:

    “What do you think your grandkids will find most different about your generation?”

    (paraphrase alert): ‘I think they’ll be confused by our quaint distinction between the virtual and the genuinely real.”

    But wait, there’s more: how ‘quaint’ has that distinction become? And, relevant to that, how much stronger than reality has virtuality become (because to become indistinguishable from reality, it must subsume it, an act only the strong can do to the weaker). This strong: we are now taught and coerced to believe that we can, perhaps even should, choose gender downright capriciously regardless of one’s DNA and whatever gonads are down there, but must be loyal to genetically minuscule ethnic differences even in virtuality where no DNA applies and where we are constantly taught to ignore gender and ethnicity except to… I think they say ‘celebrate its diversity’?

    If it weren’t so physically painful, I might get a kick, come my time, to euthanize myself by walking around the darker-skinned streets of Baltimore saying, “Niggers? I LOVE niggers!” I always want to see what’s under the superficially smiling surface. Personal kink, I guess.

    My wife wonders how I survived long enough to meet her at age 30. All I know is that they say God loves a fool.

    And this: “in addition to the default Simpsons-like yellow”: The Asploderator!

    #102546
    Rover
    Participant

    After watching Biden, I wonder if Blinker will answer any questions.. At least it can be seen without commercials on C-SPAN….😃

    #102547
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Thank you for the reminder, cloudhidden”

    There will be test at ten tomorrow, young man. I recommend you prepare, said:

    sgi

    Here’s an example of an image that won’t load no matter what:

    data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAoHCBUVFRgVEhUYGBgYGBkYGBgYGBgYGBgYGBgZGRkYGBgcIS4lHB4rIRgYJjgmKy8xNTU1GiQ7QDszPy40NTEBDAwMEA8QHhISHDQrJCE0NDQ0MTQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQxND80NDQ0ND8xP//AABEIALcBEwMBIgACEQEDEQH/xAAbAAACAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgEDBAUGB//EADkQAAEDAQYDBgQGAQQDAAAAAAEAAhEhAwQSMUFRYXGRBSKBobHBEzLR8EJicpKy4QYVI1LxgsLS/8QAGQEAAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQF/8QAIREBAQACAwADAQADAAAAAA…. and about 20 more lines after that.

    ***

    “…they have the data, which show that ‘the vaccines’ are ineffective, and they don’t publish the data, because if they did, people would think ineffective ‘vaccines’ vaccines are ineffective. “

    My fave logic worm of the week. I want this to be said on a talking heads ‘discussion’ show so I can respond with:

    “Yes, and let me point out that, despite what so many people believe, these are the most effectively ineffective vacciones in the history of vaccines!”

    ***

    I nominate tomorrow Everyone Talk Like Strongbad Day.

    #102548
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    For those of us who deal with addiction (I do, constant struggle):

    “Addictions … started out like magical pets, pocket monsters. They did extraordinary tricks, showed you things you hadn’t seen, were fun. But came, through some gradual dire alchemy, to make decisions for you. Eventually, they were making your most crucial life-decisions. And they were … less intelligent than goldfish.” — William Gibson

    Also: “Addictions are the only prisons where the locks are on the outside.” anonymous. While not true (the locks are within oneself), one gets the point: oneself holds the key.

    #102549
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “If you’re fifteen or so, today, I suspect that you inhabit a sort of endless digital Now, a state of atemporality enabled by our increasingly efficient communal prosthetic memory. I also suspect that you don’t know it, because, as anthropologists tell us, one cannot know one’s own culture.”

    WILLIAM GIBSON, 2012

    #102550
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    And the hat trick:

    “If ignorance were enough to make things not exist, the world would be more like a lot of people think it is. But it’s not. And it’s not.”

    WILLIAM GIBSON, Twitter post, Jun. 30, 2012

    #102551
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Defartunista – it is funny how dumb you are. And presumptive. Your article …I want to talk about trying to make sense when things are breaking down.

    So the article says things were breaking down 1989 when I fell for the concept of non-dualistic thinking. I don’t understand your posts at all because yes Iam dumb and yes you write meaningless drivel.

    Good for the occasional dry cough

    #102552
    FinalGravity
    Participant

    Recursive Realism v2.0.1

    1. Time is the powerset of ordered events.
    2. The past is the first event.
    3. The past is the empty set full of tachyons.
    4. The future is the imaginary event.
    5. The future is the empty asset
    half full anti-tachyons and gravitons.
    6. The cause of time is relativistic mass.
    7. The cause of imaginary time is negative mass.
    8. Everything real does exist in a gravitational field
    [including itself].
    9. Nothing unreal can exist in said field.
    10. Everything unreal must exist in an electrodynamic field
    [or else].
    11. Nothing in Gravity is contingent.
    12. Belief in Gravity is always justifiable.
    13. Knowledge of anything real exists only
    in a gravitational field.
    14. Life is countable only as entropic gradient
    of said field.
    15. The fair value of life expressed as timelike geodesic
    is nontrivially nonzero.
    16. To be is to bend light.
    17. The mind is a body of gravitons
    containing [the idea of] the body’s mass.
    18. Gravity is a thinking thing.
    19. The will is gravitational potential [leveraged by,
    through] and for the understanding of said potential.
    20. Every geometry of hierarchy is a function of Gravity.
    21. History integrates intent recursively.
    22. Tone precedes time; resonance recedes reality.
    23. The world is the totality of gravitons, not of tachyons.
    24. Gravity is our algorithm.

    “Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.”

    #102553
    oxymoron
    Participant

    FinalGravity you just stopped a little time in my time with your thoughts of time. And Gravity.

    When at the age of 23 I had finished 4 months of meditating for the first 5 mins of each waking hour of each day- I had a night meditation when I experienced what can only be described as the pure consciousness of MASS. It is so hard to describe but it felt like the power of reality squeezed into but not confined by a perfect solid lead box and it was me. It felt like invincibletimeless reality and your 24 points reminded me of that experience (subjective).

    It was like Gods’ Balls or something – no bliss, no light just a fully realised aspect of something too huge to go near till more ready

    #102554
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Aw. Dis so so cwoooot:

    “Stories must be set anytime between today and the year 2200, and show a path to a clean, green, and just future. We especially want to read — and share — narratives that center solutions from the communities most impacted by climate change and stories that envision what a truly equitable, decolonized society could look like. In 3,000 to 5,000 words, show us the world you dream of building.”

    Because if we can dream it we can build it or something like that. It starts with science fiction and ends with science fact, right?

    I have a recurring dream (30 years strong) about a camping haven where a hike with my daughter, when she was tomboy age, discovers a secret underground bunker with a tank at the bottom with an atomic submarine inside glowing in green water.

    I’m-a build a ‘tomic submarine, y’all, cuz if I can dream it I can build it, right?

    They’re offering $10,700 First Prize. I oughta write a bullshit ecotopian cyber-enhanced cornuycopian story and submit it. Who knows? Not only might I win but make myself smile.

    Meanwhile, it’s c-r-r-azy-making reading stuff like what I quoted.

    #102555
    chooch
    Participant

    Cooking the data.

    “We always have to make sure of two things. The first is that the data that we release is scientifically valid … the second is that the data is also connected to a public health purpose, which is why we are ensuring that the key message is around the fact that if you have had prior infection,” you should still get vaccinated.

    https://hold2.substack.com/p/wheres-the-nyc-covid-breakthrough?utm_source=url

    #102556
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Final Gravity broke something. Hear hear!

    “When you want to know how things really work, study them when they’re coming apart.” William Gibson

    FG’s approach is extremely minimalist, some assembly required. That’s a nifty set of Tinker-Toys and I’ll ponder them before my afternoon nap.

    My approach is the opposite, or so it was when I wrtoe the following sophomorism in 1997. Too many words; some disassembly required. But, for certain minds, great fun.

    Both require significant effort in different ways. FG’s yields results based more on genuine physics than mine while, based on strictly so-so grade laymen understanding of physics, mine paints lotsa pretty pitchers.

    It will have to be split up a bit, I suppose.

    HOLOTHOUGHT
    (extract from A Manifold History of Magic)
    copyright 1997 by Robin Morrison

    “There was a time when I could visualize first the obverse and then the reverse. Now I see them both simultaneously. It’s not as if the Zahir were made of glass, for one face is not superimposed upon the other; it’s rather as if one’s vision was spherical and as if the Zahir floated in the middle.”
    J.L. Borges, “The Zahir”

    Let us consider the concept of holographic thought. To begin with, holography is a richly pregnant concept. Philosophers, potheads, scientists, theologians, and mystics alike play with the implications of holography like summer camp kids with hot-wired flashlights.

    Crudely put, a hologram is one of those funny pictures that appear as three-dimensional. Precisely described, as in the McGraw Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science & Technologies, it is a nearly incomprehensible series of paragraphs in which only two phrases : “optical image formation” and “total recording” bear any relation to the concept of picture or image or those laser gawkoramas first popularized at Disneyworld.

    An etymological dictionary serves us best. Holo means ‘whole’; gram means ‘something written or drawn’. A hologram is the whole story, the whole picture. A Gestaltic goldfish bowl. I like the latter image; let it be our defining hologram for this exploration.

    Beginning with the essential: Holography requires the separation and reunion of a pure medium. The pure medium most often used to create a hologram is Coherent Light.

    Coherent Light is a consortium of photons which, when sufficiently excited while under certain constraints, unanimously agree to behave identically and move as one. Such light, especially when expressed as a beam, is what is commonly referred to as a laser. A mere beam of ordinary light, as in a shaft of sunshine, is a simple ray, something radiating outward from a center point. A beam of Coherent Light is more than just a ray; it is an array, a flow of symmetry.

    The photons flying from a flashlight or a superheated star are not in agreement. They are near to each other due only to an accident of birth and will soon go their separate ways. A beam of Coherent Light, as in a laser beam or a twinkle in the Eye of God, is a unified organism of luminous energy whose constituent photons will stay together for a very, very long time. Although it is a stream of motion, its structure is more akin to a crystal’s rigid symmetry than to the confused turbulence of, say, a garden hose’s turbulent flow or (to make a more taut analogy) the stream of salty water my three year old boy delights in focusing toiletward through his very favorite personal collimator.

    Consider a shaft of sunlight slanting floorward from a small window (as so many Flemish painters have) or, if none is handy, imagine one. If one inhabits a house or mind as dusty as mine, the sunbeam will be animated, even defined, by swirling specks of dust.

    Imagination is not optional but mandatory for the following image, regardless of whether the sunbeam you envision is ‘real’ or ‘imaginary’, that is, outside or inside of your mind. Imagine, please, those dust particles not tumbling randomly but dancing symmetrically in concert, like a glowing fabric that weaves itself as it flows from a loom of light.

    Yes, it is a pretty picture… now relinquish these arabesques and figure-eights, and tighten the image into a stream of perfectly parallel dust photons all streaming from window to floor in equidistant harmony. Too stark? I agree. It is more aesthetically pleasing and scientifically correct if we impart an oscillatory twist to these tiny sunspots as they flow in their chorus line of perfect coherence.

    And there you have it. Coherent Light: photonic cohorts who cohere. Having arrived at a working definition, let us proceed thence into the comparative realm of Coherent Thought.

    Describing Coherent Thought is not so easy as describing coherent light. Thought is not so reducible, as is light, to such nicely discrete quanta as photons, wavelengths, etc. There are currently no known ‘particles of thought’. (Light and thought can also be modeled as waves, which invites fascinating comparisons, especially via the known and measured evanescence of “brain waves”, but we will leave those excursions for another time or someone else. Years ago, a cousin of mine underwent certain electrocephalic tests. My aunt paraphrased the doctor’s interpretation of those tests – gibberish to her – thusly, “The doctor said he had wavy brains”. And there, with a passing salute to Mr. Wavy Gravy and the legendary brown acid at Woodstock, is as far as we will venture into the nascent study of brainwaves.)
    cntd

    #102557
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Currently, thought is as mysterious to us as were, millennia ago, our blood or the nature of stars or the exact locations of the Antipodes, to the physicians, astrologers and geographers of the past. There was a time when Time itself was perceived as an incomprehensible, amorphous flow barely delineated by the up-and-downstream notions of Future and Past, noted only by the rise and set of the sun, wax and wane of the moon and similar broad patterns. Science now has quantified it to an exactitude measured in trillionths, and qualified it sufficiently to allow it to be metrically interchanged coevally with its mythological siblings: Space, Matter and Energy. (Or do you prefer, respectively, Air, Earth and Fire. Time? Water, of course. Things never really change. They just move along. Quintessence or the fifth dimension still troubles us as it did both Aristotle and Einstein, but then, a proper cosmos needs a secluded place to keep its mysteries intact…)
    While neither the physical dissection of thought nor its cross-sectional view upon a slide are yet available, such intimate perspective is not out of the question entirely. Towards that end, this treatise will abandon all but the most superficial delvings into the physical analysis of thought.

    Which brings us happily into Metaphysics, which is surely where this piece belongs. Where but in a room full of mirrors can one reasonably hope to reflect upon the thinking of thoughts? From where else could one hope to attain a sufficiently wide perspective of one’s breadth of thought but from the meta ridge of mentality? If we cannot approach a thing from the physical realm, we must try a different approach.
    (Finish your coffee, mates. You tip the waitress – her name’s Alice – I’ll pick up the check. Let’s hoist our packs and attempt the summit. First mirror on your left!)

    In reflecting upon things beyond our ken, it may help to know that the term reflect is rooted in Latin meaning ‘to bend back’, while the term beyond is derived from a twisted labyrinth of semantic cross references which ultimately converge upon the Anglo-Saxon words for ‘it’ (or ‘that’)…but then again, it may not…may it again then…again it…it…i…t…t…i…(itty bitty bits). Imagine the process of creative reflection as a sort of mirrored particle accelerator bouncing a focused concept back against itself until it breaks into ever smaller bits of analysis wherein only the fundamental bits remain…which in the case of this sentence seem to be suspension dots… This reductio ad reflexum has been very popular in science for centuries when dealing with external realities; it remains to be seen how well thought sits still to have its picture taken by the reductionists. Anyway, keep this image in your packs, it might prove useful where we’re going.
    (As we mentally ascend inwards, let’s distract ourselves by pondering the values our culture places on the concepts of up and down.)

    The cubicle in which I’m now sitting, having abandoned a sunlit living room for a lamplit study, has upon its wall a light switch from an era closer to the middle or even beginning of this century. Made of sturdy, brown, molded styrene plastic, and elegantly trimmed with an harlequinesque border of raised lozenges, it includes lettering that clearly displays whether the switch is on or off. Almost invariably, one finds that these toggled and vertically aligned switches combine the functions on and off with, respectively, the concepts up and down. Horizontal toggles favor right=on and left=off but that is another conundrum altogether, however similar in feel.

    Heaven lies above and Hell below; the sun warms us from Above and cools us when Below; the dead go Under while the quick reach Upward toward the stars…ah well, we live after all in a stellar rockgarden known as the Solar System, so a little phototropism is only natural.

    “In”, incidentally, is usually given better status than “Out”. The In crowd vs. the Out cast; In his own right vs. Out of his mind; and most telling: “Come In” vs. “Get Out”.)
    cntd

    #102558
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Whew. I think we’ve digressed long enough. Look below; we’ve come a long way. Funny how time flies when one is inconsequentially blathering . Don’t stop to rest just yet; we’re almost there. See? There, just in sight and up a head, is the summit of Mount Metaphysica. Watch your step; we’re crawling over the very boulders of conceptual reality. Watch out for those big pores along the nose. They’re deeper than they look. Here, this way, through the ear cavity – there’s an interior passage to the summit.
    See? Right here at the third eye. Nice view, eh?
    Now rest. Make a fire for tea, would you; it can get cold up here. Hear that lonesome whistle blow? We’re far, far from home here yet too immanently close for comfort, but here we have a fine place from which to view our trains of thought chugging along far below. Blankets and comrades make all the difference. I’ll set up instruments and calibrate a few definitions. Ah. There we are.
    As far as the I can see is the landscape of Grounded Reality, distantly framed by the horizon of Existential Experience. No, not there…there. Use the capital letters as mind marks. See? Yes, it really is SOMETHING, isn’t it? Reality is that way, you know; something, that is.
    The wind blows steady from the East as it always has up here on the Rim of Consciousness. Vegetation is sparse, almost surreal. Likewise, the ground itself seems in the minority, delicately poised underfoot, inclined to disappear from beneath one at the least mental inattention. Matter attenuates to the barest essentials when this close to the Edge and, likewise, Meta dissolves into the least inessential at this jumpoff point between the Known Facts and the Wondered Upon, where Actuality is sparse enough to let us perceive the most distant echoes of our conscious reflections.
    Wondering along the Meta’s edge, we find a few gnomic trees affirming life at the precipice. Picking our way carefully along the firmaments of our imaginations, we settle into a comfy niche along the cliff edge, just below the sheltering shimmer of a probability outcrop. Peering over the edge, we are astounded to see just how far below us Real Ground is.
    Vertigo assails me. Blink and swallow. Suddenly I feel tiny, alone, unprotected, a homesickness akin to the nautical dry heaves of seasickness, a loneliness as visceral as an astronaut’s null-grav nausea. Leaning over the edge of a pitching vessel to release a disturbing part of one’s inner self is probably how many sea victims drown, but who wants to puke on deck? Leaning over the edge of the Self in such conditions is equally risky, but who wants to puke on their mind ?
    I am saved from a dizzy fall – and further lapse into descriptive surreality – by Freuchen’s stout reach. We return to the fire. A cup of spearmint tea settles my stomach and nerves. Freuchen lights his pipe, and we relax in our blankets. A dense upwelling of Mystickal Fogg (which is, in fact, the adiabatic condensation of our mental exhalations from our earlier, panting ascent up the ridge) engulfs our view of Grounded Reality. A corresponding mist of thought enwraps my psyche, a tingling sensation which begins in my tootsies and spreads upwards, finally reaching my cerebral coretext…
    …imagine a particle of Thought, if you will. (Or imagine a particle of Will, if you think, but that is another conundrum altogether. Look for the capital letters if you need help.) This particle is a MENTRON. Regarding this particle of thought, or Mentron, please remember that it is not just a pawn of phenomena, nor a senseless byte buffeted by the winds of chaos and desire, nor is it a strictly secondary agent in harness to beings such as ourselves; it is a self-contained spark of consciousness, an intelligence in its own right (in or out of our minds), a complex of interactive tidbits as such is life, finely careening in the vortice of self that thought invariably creates…or at least that’s what I think.
    Increasing magnification, we observe how each particulated tidbit (or ERGO) can, in a process of attraction we can loosely describe as the definition of whim, conform or not to any other particle or pattern of thought, even reaching across galaxies and beyond when a sufficiently compelling geometry of desire or ignorance of natural law impels it thusly. Despite their cosmopolitan agility, most ergoes spend most of their unpredictable and indefinite lifespans within the same particle of thought in which they were formed or that first attracted them, and that particle of thought usually stays within a chosen thought pattern.
    To recapitulate: Tidbits of thought are ergoes which join together to form distinct entities of thought known as mentrons which then coalesce into various patterns of thought.
    Before leaving this level of magnification for a broader perspective, please note that any single Ergo can, if sufficiently conduced, disrupt or even dismantle its resident mentron, which can in turn similarly affect: glimmers of awareness, flashes of insight, ideas, beliefs, questions, purposes, desires, you name it, the very Mind of God, the mighty PANLOGOS Itself ! Not to worry; should a thought become so coherent as to overwhelm the Logos of Pan, the Panlogos would simply resonate harmonically with the Hypersymmetry of the upstart Omnithought, absorbing it into its Original Whim. The Panlogos has many times devoured its offspring. God knows this and abides in Its place, dancing accordingly.
    Switching now to a lens of lower power, we can see Mentrons mentating to and fro, milling about in purposeful Whimsy or nailing down in Sooth a chosen province of Reality. The two key types of mentrons are Soothic and Whimsic. A Soothic Mentron will adamantly maintain a symmetry aligned to whatever Is (whatever that might be). A Whimsic Mentron cavorts remorselessly in a questive plunder of whatever Is, for its nature is to change things into what Might Be (whatever that is).
    A Soothic or S-Mentron(SM), craves continuation of its inner design. A Whimsic or W-Mentron(WM) craves flow for flow’s sake. A dynamic process of evolution results between them. WMs, in their attempts to infiltrate and crack the crystalline SMs, become ever more symmetrical in their inner flow, since greater symmetry allows them greater penetration. In response, SMs become ever more flexible, attaining a resilience of rigidity which allows a WM to pass through an SM with very little disruption to the SM, thus satisfying the WM’s need for flux while maintaining the SM’s desire for integrity.
    A WM is to an SM as an idea is to a fact. Simply stated, the Soothic provides endurant continuity while the Whimsic allows new things to happen. It is thus that the universe becomes a cosmos and the divergent harmonies of chaos become the convergent harmonies of logos. It is through the interactive evolution of Mentrons that BOLHOKKI and its constituent Paradoxotrons form a consistent and dynamic Reality in which we as sentient beings may consensually swarm.
    Switching to yet lower magnification, we see thought forms merging into the various forms of Existential Experience…
    cntd

    #102559
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    And, finally:

    …wherein Freuchen has built a nice fire, and the burnbush crackles verily. I told you it gets cold up here ! But look at what we’ve found: a model for Holographic Thought !

    Some Groundwork is necessary. Down below, there are these things called holograms. Holograms are formed when a coherent beam of light, usually supplied by a laser, is split smoothly and equally into two distinct beams and then reunited. One beam, called the reference beam, is allowed to continue unimpeded to a target plate, usually a photographic film. The other beam, called the interference beam, is aimed first at another object (let’s envision a rose), and from there is reflected to the target plate. The two beams are aimed to converge at a right angle upon the target plate. Here an intricate simplicity, perhaps even a relative singularity, occurs as the reference beam of pure coherent light interacts with the interference beam of adulterated (from being reflected by the rose) but still coherent light.

    Purity, in the form of symmetrical coherence, is the key to what happens next. The interference beam has reflectively acquired the surface visual information of the object – the rose – it encountered along its path to the target plate. This information merges with and through the purely coherent reference beam. In passing through the other, the rigidly symmetrical (Soothic) Reference beam translates the information of the adulterated (Whimsic) Interference beam into a phototopology of the Original Thing (the Rose).
    The two beams, striving to be what they are and to continue as such, together form an informational entity which neither beam could have created individually.

    Imagine God taking a holographic snapshot (picture God taking a picture) of Mount Rainier using a companion lake at its base as a target plate. God, say, Apollo, fires a beam of coherent sunlight through the mirrored lens of an approaching comet which diverges the solar laserbeam into two, one heading straight for the lake and the other for the mountain, aimed in such a way as to reflect off the mountain and join its sibling reference beam in a transformative embrace on the lake’s surface. To tourists viewing Lake Holograph from the shore opposite the mountain, the mountain’s reflected image would not appear shimmering upside-down as it would in the conventional postcard vista, but would instead maintain its stern pose as seen from God’s view at high noon, with its volcanic crater squinting into the photoflashic sun. Since God’s point of view is presumably so removed from ours that our vantages of perspective would reveal no discernable change in our view of the holograph, it would present the same frozen facade from all points of view including that of the montanist at the summit who could enjoy the thrill of looking down over his own shoulder at himself looking down over his own shoulder at himself looking down over his own shoulder…(provided he’d closed his eyes during the solar shutterflash)…and while infinite regressions are not a necessary attribute of holography (picture God taking a picture of you picturing God taking a picture of you picturing God), they do provide a nice interferic beam of comparison that helps elucidate holography’s infinite perspective of the same view. Jeepers creepers. I think we’re now prepared to wrestle with the notion of holographic thought itself.

    Freuchen, looking down with wind-glazed eyes at the Bob’s Big Boy mannequin sign atop a restaurant far, far below (corporate intrusion via product placement has become an inescapable feature of human consciousness; I won’t edit this sentence for fear of having my consciousness cancelled or at least moved to a latenight slot), swears it looks just the same from up here as when you’re standing at the corner of Yakima Avenue and 1st Street, just outside the restaurant where we planned our trip early this morning.

    “Is that how you remember last seeing the Big Boy?”, I ask.

    “Yes…”, mumbles Freuchen, “that’s where…where are we?”

    Fearing an attack of introspective vertigo on his part, I grab Freuchen by the belt and pull him away from the Edge, then head us back to camp. The fire is warm, the coffee just brewed, and the first flask is making the rounds. Burton is telling one of his immaculately dubious stories…
    finis

    #102560
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “When at the age of 23 I had finished 4 months of meditating for the first 5 mins of each waking hour of each day”

    Wow. Wow. When I grow up, I want to be like you. Wow. Much admiration and what’s left of the ghost of envy in me.

    #102561
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “will stay together for a very, very long time”

    That should say ‘related’ not “together”. Big diff.

    #102562
    deflationista
    Participant

    that you are misguided and wrong to the point of being proactively evil . That isn’t really very much information to process, either. Just is what it is. Like doggy poo on a sidewalk.

    I will make one assumption, however. I assume that you will eventually get over it.

    What an arrogant prick.

    You can’t handle having someone address your biases. It makes you crazy. It says more about you than me.

    At this point, I do and will rub your nose in your own dog shit because of your exaggerated over reaction to what I post. Any basic refutation of your cherished beliefs is met with incredibly stupid ad hominem. A fucking essay written by someone who’s name I didn’t know until you mentioned it, prompts you to say asshole things.

    When your only response to the most rudimentary fact checks on data floated here as “iron clad//no challenge allowed” “fact”, is to call me an NSA agent, a CIA plant, a robot, whatever, don’t be surprised when the person swats back at you and calls you a dummy for believing so many easily debunked lies.

    #102563
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Well, Papa Zero, it must be a thing:

    Chrome Zero-Day

    G’nite

    #102564
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “When your only response to the most rudimentary fact checks on data floated here as “iron clad//no challenge allowed” “fact”, is to call me an NSA agent, a CIA plant, a robot, whatever, don’t be surprised when the person swats back at you and calls you a dummy for believing so many easily debunked lies.”

    Oh you started it long ago, defbot. You came in swinging from the start. LIke some kind of wannabe bully boss. It was kinda pathetic but nonetheless insulting when not boring or frustrating.

    starring Def and The Bot in WE BAD!

    #102565
    chooch
    Participant

    Somebody had a good fishing day.

    #102568
    zerosum
    Participant

    I no longer spend hours trying to find the faults/overlooked influences in the many explanations/theories of “How the universe is made”.
    I have found my own explanation/thoughts and it works/explains everything and cannot change the past/the present/or the future.
    I’m glad that other people have also found explanation that satisfies them and that the universe is not influenced by your thoughts any more than my thoughts.
    Telling you how my universe is made will not change how/what you think how your universe is made.

    #102569
    John Day
    Participant

    My blog no longer exists. Will I still have an avatar pictur.
    Google disappeared it and also disappeared the newsletter version of it, and delted that too, today. What you see archived here (minus the photograph) is as good a record of any. I was able to copy my post off a reply that somehow still exists.

    Information warfare just ramped up.

    #102570
    John Day
    Participant

    I still show up as the Daibutsu of Kamakura, at least to myself.

    #102571
    those darned kids
    Participant
    #102573
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Testing, previous post failed…

    #102575
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @deflationista remarked in late onset epiphany, “What an arrogant prick.”

    Gee, the meds must be working, you’re smarter already !

    you went on to say we here in grounded reality think that you are [ please check just one ] ” . . . an NSA agent, a CIA plant, a robot, whatever . . . ”

    Oh, you’re definitely just a “whatever”. Way too erratic to be a bot and way too dim to get hired by an agency ( and , man. that is one VERY low bar !) . I suppose you might slither in under the new diversity mandates at FBI , but Jeez ! The sheer volume of Woke competition over there makes that possibility pretty unlikely too. Naw, I’m gonna stick with the first guess. I reckon you’re just a slightly below average retired knucklehead with an overinflated sense of self importance, and an underinflated . . . well . . .you know.

    #102576
    Veracious Poet
    Participant
    #102577
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Well, able to post links, without the quotes, is 2/22/22 another phase?

    The mutiny will NOT be televised…

    The spam clowns seem unaffected though…

    #102578
    WES
    Participant

    Not that anybody has asked me but I thought I would throw it out there anyway.

    Who am I? Who are You?

    We are simply the sum of our life’s experiences.

    #102579
    those darned kids
    Participant

    wormtongue:

    I will make one assumption, however.
    •• that’s all you ever do.

    I assume that you will eventually get over it.
    •• what about the kids? will they get over the last two years?

    What an arrogant prick.
    •• you need to refocus the projector.

    You can’t handle having someone address your biases.
    •• you can’t handle that your cherished “vaccines” are maiming children. at least you have that.

    It makes you crazy. It says more about you than me.
    •• focus! focus!

    At this point, I do and will rub your nose in your own dog shit
    •• so violent, so rude.

    because of your exaggerated over reaction to what I post.
    •• overreaction is one word.

    Any basic refutation of your cherished beliefs is met with incredibly stupid ad hominem.
    •• like “prick”?

    A fucking essay written by someone who’s name I didn’t know until you mentioned it,
    •• time to reprogram those algorithms.

    prompts you to say asshole things.
    •• caca, poopoo.

    When your only response to the most rudimentary fact checks on data floated here as “iron clad//no challenge allowed” “fact”,
    •• fact checkers of the world, unite!

    is to call me an NSA agent, a CIA plant, a robot, whatever,
    •• my guess is 77th brigade.

    don’t be surprised when the person swats back at you and calls you a dummy for believing so many easily debunked lies.
    •• no shame, no honour.

    #102580
    WES
    Participant

    The 4th branch of the US government in their great wisdom put Biden and Harris in the White House.
    Since then we have experienced the 4th branches incredible stupidity at work.
    In power only one year, they have turned the domestic economy into a shambles beyond repair.
    To distract away domestic attention, they are now showing us their incredible stupidity in foreign affairs.
    All can see Putin is schooling the 4th branch.
    When are Americans going to revolt against the 4th branches coup?
    Not if deflationist can help it!

    #102581
    WES
    Participant

    TDK:

    I have it on very good authority that deflat works for WEF!

    This info was double confirmed by both the CIA and the Washington Post. I have to believe them! They have never been proven wrong!

    #102582

    Sympathies, John Day. Good grief.

    #102583
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Yup. Doc Day’s site is down. My guess is they’re taking out low-hanging fruit now, since taking down the platforms of people who’ve developed a sizable audience is by now, imo, proving counter-productive.

    Doc Day’s site committed the multiple sin of a) providing very valuable useful info, and b) not having a following large enough to likely create a backdraft/backlash.

    Blog has been removed
    Sorry, the blog at johndaysblog.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.

    Did you expect to see your blog here? See: ‘I can’t find my blog on the Web, where is it?’

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    The Void

    #102584
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “I still show up as the Daibutsu of Kamakura, at least to myself.”

    We see you too, Daibutsu. Well, I can.

    sdf

    Incidentally, the link itself reveals a site that might be a way to get your pic online here:

    https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6e323dc9e6ce8d121f1c66374ae977db?s=160&d=mm&r=pg

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