₿oogaloo
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I am happy to see Liz Truss gone. But I feel like she is getting off too easy. I was expecting her failure to be far more dramatic, far more spectacular — but she didn’t last long enough for that.
@Mr House
@Bill7I got kicked off of NC because of a comment I made that Bitcoin is the future and CBDCs are inevitable. I do not think they are opposed to each other. Once people learn how to use CBDCs, I think it will accelerate Bitcoin adoption. Nobody will want to hold the CBDCs — instead they will exchange them for Bitcoin. But I think that CBDCs will displace the existing stable coins, where there is always a concern whether the stable coins are sufficiently backed by actual dollars.
VietnamVet, I don’t comment much these days, and I do not comment often on your posts, but you often say what I have been thinking, or what I have been on the verge of thinking. Much appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Pelosi scheduled to land in Taiwan less than two hours. They just unplugged the live flight tracking as the plane came around the Philippines.
If I am a general/admiral in the PLA, I use this as an excuse to cross the line and move warships into Taiwanese waters – and keep them there permenently. What will the US/Taiwan do about it? It’s the perfect excuse to make the next advance.
Brother Alasdair has hit another one out of the park:
War – even a war of choice – always reveals the fragility of complex systems. An article in the Atlantic recently noted that if “you, as a typical urban professional Millennial, woke up on a Casper mattress, worked out with a Peloton, Ubered to a WeWork, ordered on DoorDash for lunch, took a Lyft home, and ordered dinner through Postmates only to realize your partner had already started on a Blue Apron meal, your household had, in one day, interacted with eight unprofitable companies that collectively lost about $15 billion in one year”.It has been a Millennial lifestyle subsidy that may vanish in the twinkling of an eye (or in one hike of an interest rate). It is a mirage. One that reflects the absurdities of the ‘cult of tech’ in a zero-interest rate era. It will soon be gone.
@Neal The good thing about collapse is that it will put an end to Triffin’s Dilemma. At least then then we can start to rebuild. But yes, we risk deepening overty, civil unrest and nuclear annihilation on the way from here to there.
By the way, I forgot to comment on today’s provocative art piece. What a great title!
Loss of reserve currency status is the only chance America has to de-fang the military industrial complex.
How I would love to see a candidate come out promising:
1. To dissolve NATO
2. To abolish the Espionage Act
3. To abolish the Patriot Act
4. To conduct target practice on the NSA facility in Utah that stores all of our data
5. To close 90% of the US bases overseas
6. To give amnesty to Assange and Snowden
7. To collapse our two dozen intelligence agencies into a single agency, and to cut the budget 90%But as that’s never going to happen unless and until the loss of reserve status, I will instead pray for loss of reserve status first. Which will be a great thing for the average person in the US, and for the average person in any other country, but a terrible nightmare for the 1% elite.
Another great article from Alastair Crooke. I think we should make him an honorary member of TAE because he thinks just like we do:
@TAESummary:
The only thing that feels ominously similar to me is that every single contrived enemy leader is compared to Hitler, and Nazi ambitions from 80 years ago are trotted out as the excuse to never, ever, ever engage in diplomacy. There are plenty of examples from history of conflicts settled by truce without fighting to total capitulation.
Raul, thanks again for all you do. I have not felt like commenting much lately, and sometimes it is hard to even read through all of the Rattles, but I always appreciate that TAE is always there.
Ilargi, I finally started using the Bitcoin Lightning network. It is faster, cheaper and more anonymous than sending funds on the Bitcoin base chain. Do you have a Lightning wallet yet? One of the easiest to set up and use is Wallet of Satoshi. If you set that up, you can get an easy to remember address to receive funds that looks just like an email address (alongside the option of a long string of letters and numbers or a QR code). If you add a Lightning address, great. If not, I will continue to send to your base chain Bitcoin address.
I know that there are a lot of Bitcoin skeptics here. But after all that has happened in Canada and now Ukraine that the brains trust at TAE is at least taking a Bitcoin test drive? You might ultimately conclude that it us all BS. But you owe it to yourself to at least open an account to see how it works.
Sorry to hear about the disc. Been there, done that … too many times. The worst part for me was when everything tightens up at night. It’s hard to move, hard to sleep, and impossible to get socks on in the morning.
My life got better when I bought a Herman Miller Aeron chair for the office. Now my disc problems are not as frequent. But still utterly terrible when it happens.
I considered the root canal but at $1,600 decided I not could afford it.
Highway robbery. I had my first root canal in Korea last year. It took about an hour. They charged me $30. I took a picture of the after xray with the roots filled — pretty cool xray.
The mass formation spell remains intact. Now mediocre Western politicians want to push us to the brink of extinction. Nobody in authority is asking how to deescalate this. Nobody in authority is thinking about compromise. Nobody is discussing history. Of course there is no knowledge of history or sense of introspection in the USA. The country cares nothing for history (even its own) and is incapable of critical introspection. And even though the West utterly failed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya — this was the result only after destroying everything. And destroying everything gave the USA enough satisfaction to never learn any lesson. So now as long as Putin lives, they will see it as “there’s still something left to destroy.”
It makes so little logic sense, I wonder if it is demonic. And I deliberately choose that word, not in the metaphorical sense, but in the literal sense.
I actually like today’s Picasso. My first thought was “it’s a Klee” but on closer inspection, no, definitely not Klee. I always liked Picasso’s shapes, but felt that he did not have the eye for color that Klee had.
I’ve lived here through 2 military coups and wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read the news…
That might be the antidote to all the madness. My Korean is good enough to get by, but not good enough to follow Korean politics. As Cypher says in The Matrix: “Ignorance is bliss.”
I follow all that is happening in the US and overseas, but the only reason I can cope is that it is happening thousands of miles away.
I
@TimGroves
I agree that co-morbidities are certainly relevant to disease outcomes. But I have not seen any data suggesting that co-morbidities have any effect on infection rates.
Quite the contrary, from my understanding, we are all going to catch this sooner or later: young and old, rich and poor, fat and thin, healthy and unhealthy, vaccinated and unvaccinated. The co-morbidities become a factor in whether a person is likely to have a severe case.
I agree that obesity is one of the most important co-morbidities, and obesity is more prevalent in Western countries. Diet may be generally better in Asia, but Asia has its own co-morbidities, particularly Vitamin D deficiency, which is also closely linked to bad Covid outcomes. Another issue in Asia is air pollution, and which is terrible in Seoul — maybe not so bad in Tokyo.
@TDK Now we are starting to find common ground. I agree that this has gone on too long. From the beginning, the priority should have been to study repurposed drugs that might be used for early treatment. China was doing small chloroquine phosphate trials in January 2020! Favorable ivermectin studies were coming out in mid-2020. Once we had reasonable treatment protocols, economies should have started reopening. Instead, Western governments insisted on waiting for a vaccine and novel/expensive new treatments (and Korea being a US vassal state went along with it). The refusal to consider early treatments, and the persecution of physicians who spoke out in favor of early treatments: This was the crime against humanity. This is why Fauci and friends should be in jail.
Yes, it has gone on too long. It was not only mismanaged, but the response has been a criminal enterprise. But my point is that masks were never the problem, and it was always wrong to say “masks don’t work.” They were always part of the solution, especially in the beginning when we needed to slow the spread for the first six months, which was the time required to identify early treatment protocols.
Okay. My last post about masks because everyone’s mind is probably already made up:
@EoinW
You may recall that in the early days of the pandemic, the superspreader events were events with a lot of vocalization. Churches and choir practice, for example. In Korea it was often call centers with many people sitting in close quarters and talking all day long. It was never buses and subways where people sit in close quarters but usually do NOT talk . Here is the visual evidence of what happens when you speak without a mask, but for some people, I know, seeing is NOT believing:
Yes, we learned later that the virus also passes by aerosolized transmission, but that is in addition to droplet transmission, not instead of droplet transmission. Besides, areosolized transmission requires a longer exposure in a confined space with poor ventilation.@Absolute Galore
Japan never used Ivermectin on a wide scale, though the head of the Tokyo Medical Association made favorable comments about it in August 2021. And to the extent it was used, it was used primarily for treatment, not prophylaxis. Korea has its own co-morbidities. Obesity is not as big a problem, but Vitamin-D deficiency is more severe. That is why as recently as December, Korea had to go back to strict social distancing because the hospitals were full with only 7000 new infections per day — a drop in the bucket compared to the US. Finally, I don’t think there were a lot of unreported cases here. Track and trace remained in effect, so many people were sent for testing even if they had no symptoms. Several times my employer sent me for testing because someone in the office was a positive case.@TDK
Understood with the comment about the kids, but that speaks to a different issue. Speaking from personal experience, the kids here would rather be in school wearing masks than sitting at home without a mask and connecting by Zoom. The kids have plenty of time to play at home after school with other kids in a maskless environment. If the message from the parents is that it is normal and common sense to wear a mask in schools, the kids adjust just fine. If the message from the parents is that this is scarring you for life, then I fear it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
@jpbrichta
Again, there was some use of Ivermectin in Japan, but this was never widespread, and it was never used as a prophylaxis strategy.Bottom line: This is the real life clinical trial. There are 25 million people in greater Seoul, and almost all have complied with widespread masking. We never had a lockdown. People always went along with their normal routines, except that the size of gatherings in restaurants was limited. I am convinced that widespread masking is a big factor, and I have not heard a better explanation. I look at the other major cities in Asia, and compare those to the major cities in the West, and there is an obvious difference in behaviors and outcomes. I think that is undeniable, but I also recognize that nobody in the West wants to see what I see.
Are you based in Thailand now? As repressive as it may be, does it still seem repressive if you do not read the news?
Get out while you can; but, where to go is not clear…
I think the best bet is a non-Western country, where you don’t speak the language, and where most human interaction is with people you know personally. V. Arnold, I might join you down in Thailand. The Korean countryside would be OK, but city living here in Seoul is becoming too expensive, and living with 25 million neighbors is not good for the nerves. My first choice would be Nong Khai on the Laos border. Great memories of that hamlet . . .
@TDK re yesterday’s #101520
Yes, I still maintain that masks work, and I think the analysis in that link is some of the worst I have ever seen.
Following the principle of Occam’s Razor, masks are the best explanation for why Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore have done much, much, much much much better over the last two years than the West. No, it’s not the kimchee. No, it’s not the sweet and sour pork. No, it is not the sushi. No, it’s not even the chili crab. It’s the masks.
Yes, cases have finally taken off in Japan and Korea. More than 90,000 cases in Korea today. Proof positive that masked never worked, right? Not so fast. This is all Omicron, which we all know is much more contagious. The masks were never expected to be a perfect shield to keep cases at zero. They were only intended to produce better overall outcome than what we would see if there had been no masks. Even though cases are way up, they are still much much lower per capita than we saw in the US, even though population density is much higher. Yes, the masks work. No, they are not perfect. But they the reason the numbers are better, obviously better, and why the numbers will very likely continue to better on a per capita basis in Korea and Japan than in Western countries.
I look at the overall picture, the biggest clinical trial on the effectiveness of masking that has ever been conducted, and I declare victory! I know this will not sit well with many here, but just look at the data!
What V. Arnold said was right.
These things go in cycles. Pretty soon boschorowitz will leave in a huff promising/threatening to never return. Daily messages will fall back under 80 so that everything can be read on two pages. It will get a little boring. Then deflationista will restart the insulting bot-like propaganda. Then boschorowitz will reappear, with just a couple messages per day in the beginning, but gradually increasing from there. It will eventually drive off deflationista. Then someone will say something that sets off boschorowitz and the whole cycle repeats.
I appreciate boschorowitz ‘s contributions. I would appreciate them more without the drama and the cycle.
It is one reason I rarely comment any longer…
It’s a Midwinter Night’s Nightmare in the northern hemisphere. I have started a couple of responses, but then deleted them before I finished. We are going through a phase that has become more closed to nuance and dissent.
“The lineup of speakers today at Ottawa’s trucker protest includes Maxime Bernier, head of the People’s Party of Canada, which includes in its formal platform a denial of climate change, advocates against immigrants and multi-culturalism, along with the usual pushing of the military industrial complex (overt focus on veterans and resource extraction).”
This has me scratching my head. Any mass protest is going to naturally attract people at the ends of the political spectrum. Those are the people most likely to show up. Those are the people with the most experience in organizing. To me, that is to be expected. The real test for any protest is whether people who are not at the ends of the spectrum also show up. A protest will be ignored unless ordinary people show up. They did for Occupy Wall Street (before it was co-opted). They did for Black Lives Matter (before it was co-opted). They are doing so for the Freedom Convoy. Will it be co-opted? I hope not. But it is natural for the usual suspects to try.
It is also natural for the authoritarians to try to discredit the message by infiltrating the demonstration and planting false flags — like the lone Confederate flag that was spotted and a lone Nazi flag that was spotted. If I were to bet money, I would bet that those came from people trying to discredit the protest. That’s just the way the government operates these days. Infiltrate and discredit.
The key to success is for the protest to remain mainstream as along as possible.
by freezing Givesendgo funds of course!
Yup. We need some uncensorable money, something that the courts and the politicians cannot enjoin or control. Something beyond the reach of the ruling class. Something like Bitcoin.
That was a good read. I am hungry for more good commentary on the situation in Ottawa and Windsor.
Best analysis I have seen — two well-spoken Canadians explain what’s going on, one on the ground in Ottawa. The interviewer, Peter McCormack, is English. (The relevance to bitcoin only comes in at the very end when they talk about the alternative that was set up to gofundme)
all that really mattered to me was the odds of dying if I became a case
I think this is a mistake. I think that Long Covid is a real thing. I think that short term thinking (do I die in the acute stage?) is too shortsighted, especially given that there is a possibility of reinfection. I think long term exposure to spike protein is a real risk. I think repeated exposure to spike protein vaccines, especially gene transfer vaccines that produce a different amount of spike protein in every person, is also a real risk. I think this is an unnatural bioweapon, and that the Chinese might have a good reason (other than national pride) to try to keep their people from catching this. But maybe I am just paranoid . . .
The woman, 22, was able to overcome the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus which causes COVID-19
The Epoch Times has an anti-China agenda. Fine. They also recognize that Fauci is a liar. Good. But why can’t they put these two together? For two years that have tried to rename the SARS-Cov2 virus as the “CCP virus.” It never caught on, not even with their own readers, which is why they have to remind the reader in every single article about Covid-19 that CCP virus stands for “Chinese Communist Party” virus. It’s become annoyingly pedantic. Not because they seek to assign responsibility, which the media should, but because they are giving Fauci a pass. Rather than “CCP Virus” they might try “FBF Virus” — as in “funded by Fauci”. Or maybe the CCP+FBF Virus.
this is the list of cowards (all invited) who were too chicken to go
There needs to be an investigation, and these people should be at the top of the list of those investigated. Those who suppressed early treatments must be held accountable. Those who subverted doctors who prescribed early treatments should be stripped of their licenses and should go to jail.
I enjoyed watching the two hour exchange between Bret Weinstein and Chris Martenson. Congratulations to both of them as they take a well-deserved victory lap. The official narrative has truly broken down, vindicating Malone, Kory, Marik, McCullough, Rose, van den Bossche, Lawrie and others. Although truth is on their side, truth is not as well funded as the now-discredited Fauci-Baric-Batwoman-Gates-Tedros-Walensky camp that has tried to destroy them. I really hope that some of them go to jail.
I liked today’s Sun Tzu. Superb! I got a good laugh out of that. But the snowfall comparison was even better.
