Sunday, February 28, 2021

What "Normal" Are We Returning To? The Depression Nobody Dares Acknowledge

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Perhaps we need an honest national dialog about declining expectations, rising inequality, social depression and the failure of the status quo.

Even as the chirpy happy-talk of a return to normal floods the airwaves, what nobody dares acknowledge is that "normal" for a rising number of Americans is the social depression of downward mobility and social defeat.

Downward mobility is not a new trend--it's simply accelerating. As this RAND Corporation report documents, (Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018) $50 trillion in earnings has been transferred to the Financial Aristocracy from the bottom 90% of American households over the past 45 years.

Time magazine's article on the report is remarkably direct: The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90% -- And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure.

"The $50 trillion transfer of wealth the RAND report documents has occurred entirely within the American economy, not between it and its trading partners. No, this upward redistribution of income, wealth, and power wasn't inevitable; it was a choice--a direct result of the trickle-down policies we chose to implement since 1975.

We chose to cut taxes on billionaires and to deregulate the financial industry. We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds. We chose to permit giant corporations, through mergers and acquisitions, to accumulate the vast monopoly power necessary to dictate both prices charged and wages paid. We chose to erode the minimum wage and the overtime threshold and the bargaining power of labor. For four decades, we chose to elect political leaders who put the material interests of the rich and powerful above those of the American people."


I've been digging into downward mobility and social depression for years: Are You Really Middle Class?

The reality is that the middle class has been reduced to the sliver just below the top 5%--if we use the standards of the prosperous 1960s as a baseline.

The downward mobility isn't just financial--it's a decline in political power, control of one's work and ownership of income-producing assets. This article reminds us of what the middle class once represented: What Middle Class? How bourgeois America is getting recast as a proletariat.

This reappraisal of the American Dream is also triggering a reappraisal of the middle class in the decades of widespread prosperity:The Myth of the Middle Class: Have Most Americans Always Been Poor?

Downward mobility excels in creating and distributing what I term social defeat:In my lexicon, social defeat is the spectrum of anxiety, insecurity, chronic stress, fear and powerlessness that accompanies declining financial security and social status.

Downward mobility and social defeat lead to social depression.Here are the conditions that characterize social depression:

1. High expectations of endlessly rising prosperity instilled as a birthright no longer align with economy reality.

2. Part-time and unemployed people are marginalized, not just financially but socially.

3. Widening income/wealth disparity as those in the top 10% pull away from the bottom 90%.

4. A systemic decline in social/economic mobility as it becomes increasingly difficult to move from dependence on the state or one's parents to financial independence.

5. A widening disconnect between higher education and employment: a college/university degree no longer guarantees a stable, good-paying job.

6. A failure in the Status Quo institutions and mainstream media to recognize social depression as a reality.

7. A systemic failure of imagination within state and private-sector institutions on how to address social depression issues.

8. The abandonment of middle class aspirations: young people no longer aspire to (or cannot afford) consumerist status symbols such as luxury autos or conventional homeownership.

9. A generational abandonment of marriage, families and independent households as these are no longer affordable to those with part-time or unstable employment.

10. A loss of hope in the young generations as a result of the above conditions.

The rising tide of collective anger arising from social depression is visible in many places: road rage, violent street clashes between groups seething for a fight, the destruction of friendships for holding "incorrect" ideological views, and so on.

A coarsening of the entire social order is increasingly visible: The Age of Rudeness.

Depressive thoughts (and the emotions they generate) tend to be self-reinforcing, and this is why it's so difficult to break out of depression once in its grip.

One part of the healing process is to expose the sources of anger that we are repressing. As psychiatrist Karen Horney explained in her 1950 masterwork, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization, anger at ourselves sometimes arises from our failure to live up to the many "shoulds" we've internalized, and the idealized track we've laid out for ourselves and our lives.

The article The American Dream Is Killing Us does a good job of explaining how our failure to obtain the expected rewards of "doing all the right things" (getting a college degree, working hard, etc.) breeds resentment and despair.

Since we did the "right things," the system "should" deliver the financial rewards and security we expected. This systemic failure to deliver the promised rewards is eroding the social contract and social cohesion. Fewer and fewer people have a stake in the system.

We are increasingly angry at the system, but we reserve some anger for ourselves, because the mass-media trumpets how well the economy is doing and how some people are doing extremely well. Naturally, we wonder, why them and not us? The failure is thus internalized.

One response to this sense that the system no longer works as advertised is to seek the relative comfort of echo chambers--places we can go to hear confirmation that this systemic stagnation is the opposing ideological camp's fault.

Part of the American Exceptionalism we hear so much about is a can-do optimism: set your mind to it and everything is possible.

The failure to prosper as anticipated is generating a range of negative emotions that are "un-American": complaining that you didn't get a high-paying secure job despite having a college degree (or advanced degree) sounds like sour-grapes: the message is you didn't work hard enough, you didn't get the right diploma, etc.

It can't be the system that's failed, right? I discuss this in my book Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform: the top 10% who are benefiting mightily dominate politics and the media, and their assumption is: the system is working great for me, so it must be working great for everyone. This implicit narrative carries an implicit accusation that any failure is the fault of the individual, not the system.

The inability to express our despair and anger generates depression. Some people will redouble their efforts, others will seek to lay the blame on "the other" (some external group) and others will give up. What few people will do is look at the sources of systemic injustice and inequality.

Perhaps we need an honest national dialog about declining expectations, rising inequality and the failure of the status quo that avoids polarization and the internalization trap (i.e. it's your own fault you're not well-off).

We need to value honesty above fake happy-talk. Once we can speak honestly, there will be a foundation for optimism.

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"Slippery Slope" - Vaccine Passports Are A Technical & Ethical Minefield

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"Slippery Slope" - Vaccine Passports Are A Technical & Ethical Minefield

Authored by Melinda Mills, op-ed via The Financial Times,

I remember the evening a co-worker arrived at our door waving a phone, beaming “I’ve got it!” His Android mobile was the only way to use the UK government app that let EU citizens apply for UK settled status after Brexit. After some unsettling jokes about uploading my private biometric data on his device, we completed the deed and he disappeared into the night. As governments around the world ponder digital vaccine passports, that evening remains in my mind.

Vaccine passports are essentially certificates that link proof of vaccination to the identity of the holder, a potential silver bullet to return to our pre-Covid-19 lives. Before the pandemic, the EU was working on plans for cross-border electronic certificates to replace the paper booklets that many travellers carry. At this week’s EU summit some leaders pressed for further steps towards coronavirus passports.

A recent Royal Society report that I led came up with 12 different criteria that would need to be satisfied to make such passports feasible. This is a complex ecosystem that requires an understanding of everything from immunity and infection to technology, ethics and behavioural factors. But the underlying question must be: what would a vaccine passport be used for?

The head of Heathrow airport has called for digital health certificates to reboot international travel. Estonia and Iceland already link e-vaccination certificates to travel and exclusion from quarantine. Greece is pressing the EU to move quickly. There are precedents such as the airline industry group Iata’s travel pass initiative. But would these certificates only be required for international travel or could they be needed for getting a job, attending a football match, or buying some milk?

Israel recently introduced a green pass heralded as “the first step back to an almost normal life”. It opens entry to gyms, cinemas, hotels and meets some our technical criteria such as verifiable credentials, portability, (attempts at) security for personal data and interoperability. It is valid for six months after a second dose and for “those who have recovered from coronavirus”.

But this could be problematic. Current vaccines protect against severe disease, but we do not yet know whether they stop transmission, how quickly immunity wanes or if they are compromised by emerging variants. Whether someone who has “recovered” meets immunity criteria remains a question. In addition to an expiry date, we would need the ability to revoke a vaccine passport. Israel’s warning of severe punishment for forgery is another reminder of what could go wrong.

There is also the question of mission creep. Recall the UK’s early digital contact tracing app, which raised concerns about privacy, government surveillance and private sector data sharing. Or consider the technical problems with the Tawakkalna app, introduced in Saudi Arabia, which is used for entry into many places but recently froze.

All vaccine passports have the potential to block people from essential goods and services and exclude those who lack identification or do not own or cannot afford a smartphone.

The RS criteria for a workable vaccine passport included equity, ethics and non-discrimination. That means we must ask who would we exclude? There is higher vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities and the jabs are being rolled out by age. Plus some people are excluded entirely: children, pregnant women and those with allergies.

Others worry of a slippery slope towards digital health or ID cards. We are already partway there, as I discovered, with Apple’s link with healthcare institutions which allows me to download my immunisation and medical records on to my iPhone. This technology could mean greater efficiency in the health system and better outcomes. But there would be serious ethical concerns if a vaccine QR code that tracks movement is linked to other data — say housing and immigration status — without our knowledge, or if it increases surveillance of already disadvantaged groups.

Credit cards and social media data hold a wealth of behavioural and location data, that companies regularly mine. With vaccine passports, it will come down to trust in government and that can only be won through transparency. There is a risk that the government expends time and money to create a passport system only to have the public recoil in horror.

We also shouldn’t forget we are globally interconnected. When travel resumes, visitors and workers will cross borders and need global standards such the WHO’s Smart Vaccination Certificate. This could be a legal minefield of issues. Human rights and data protection need to be weighed against a duty of care and commercial freedom to act. Governments may make vaccine passports mandatory on economic grounds or to protect public health. Or they may decide to dodge that bullet, but allow businesses to require them instead.

There is also the question of whether a domestic vaccine passport is worth the investment. That depends, of course, on vaccine rollout, virus mutation and other factors. To work, a substantial proportion of the population needs to be vaccinated with universal access, which in most countries is months away. In the meantime, let’s put the pieces of this puzzle together and carefully judge if we like the picture that emerges. 

*  *  *

The writer directs the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at Nuffield College, Oxford university

Tyler Durden Sun, 02/28/2021 - 22:35

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Despite news blackout, awesome COVID-19 protection is available

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Following is an exclusive excerpt from the new book, “Pandemic Blunder: Fauci and Public Health Blocked Early Home COVID Treatment” by Joel S. Hirschhorn. The author has a long history of working on health issues, including being a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association. A member of both the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and America's Frontline Doctors, Hirschhorn has authored several books and hundreds of articles.

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Pandemic blunder is defined as the failure of the United States public health system and federal agencies to support and promote early home/outpatient treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic disease. Considerable medical information and data convincingly show that when given early, a number of proven safe, cheap, generic medicines and protocols knock out the coronavirus. Early means within the first few days of getting symptoms or a positive test. Some pioneering and courageous doctors have been using innovative approaches to prevent their COVID patients from needing hospital care and facing death. Many doctors support the view that 70% to 80% of COVID deaths could have been prevented – and still can for future victims of the disease.

This book does more than describe the pandemic blunder, particularly in terms of the influence of Dr. Anthony Fauci. It can help Americans protect their lives by not being victimized by disinformation and propaganda from leftist media. Pandemic management has failed because of corrupt forces aiming to make billions of dollars from expensive medicines and vaccines. There has been widespread dereliction of duty on the part of many local, state and federal government officials.

Developing a personal strategy to stay healthy

The beginning of any personal strategy to stay healthy and survive the COVID pandemic is a deep appreciation for the undeniable truth that there are proven ways to save lives. This is the profound truth about the big pandemic blunder, meaning the failure of the public health system to support early home/outpatient COVID treatment. …

A number of statements by credible sources are presented here to convince you of life-saving truths:

* The white paper on the website of America’s Frontline Doctors by Dr. Simone Gold in the summer of 2020 concluded: “What we do know is that 70,000-100,000 excess American lives have been lost due to lack of access to HCQ.”

* On Fox News in July 2020, Dr. Harvey Risch said, “75,000 to 100,000 lives will be saved” with use of the controversial medicine, and “we’re basically fighting a propaganda war against the medical facts.” Later in October 2020, after many more deaths, Risch wrote in the Washington Examiner: “Many or most of the 220,000 deaths in the United States to date could have been prevented by widespread HCQ use that the FDA blocked. It is the FDA that is responsible for these deaths, not the president.” But Fauci is the power behind the throne, dictating FDA actions. What Risch said holds true now, with a much higher number of deaths.

* Dr. Brian Tyson has said that between 75% and 80% of the over 200,000 deaths thus far could have been prevented by using HCQ!

* In November 2020, Dr. Peter McCollough said: “Public health historians will look back and call out a blunder. The lack of investment, execution of large-scale clinical trials, and implementation of available oral medications in a sequenced regimen, conceptualized by doctors in early April, was responsible for the greatest amount of human suffering and death in our nation’s history. The avoidable loss of life is in the hundreds of thousands. The great gamble on the vaccine was a race in time in which ‘warp speed’ was simply not fast enough for those ill now and over the months to come before immunity closes out the crisis.”

* Also in November 2020, Dr. Zev Zelenko said: “There is a cure for COVID-19 as well as effective prevention options. The Zelenko Protocol could have saved over 200,000 lives.” Considering that this was when the national death figure was close to 280,000, this translates to about 70% of lives that could have been saved. But in his December 2020 published study “COVID-19 outpatients: Early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study” in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Zelenko found an 80% reduction in deaths among those receiving early home treatment with his protocol.

* In November 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said thousands of people have died because doctors have ignored treating COVID-19 patients early with the use of alternative drugs, notably HCQ. ''Thousands of people have died because we’ve ignored it. That’s a question we’re asking: Why?'' Johnson added, “There’s a host of things we should have explored, we should be using, we should be letting doctors be doctors. And we should be celebrating their courage and their compassion rather than raking them over the coals and calling them names. … This is ridiculous.''

* In December 2020, Dr. Ramin Oskoui, who appears often on Fox News, said that with HCQ use, “probably over 100,000 deaths could've been easily avoided.” How much over is the question. He added that because of the U.S. rejection of hydroxychloroquine, “we've stressed our health care system, we've almost crashed our economy, and we've destroyed small business, and potentially, sadly, we may have really wounded ourselves from a military standpoint and a health care standpoint for years to come.”

* Also, in December 2020, Dr. Pierre Kory said: “The effective vaccines for which we have all been waiting are coming very soon, but not soon enough to save the tens of thousands who are projected to die before the widespread distribution of the vaccines can be completed. Right now, COVID-19 is a runaway train barreling down the tracks, and if you’re on those tracks, ivermectin can help lift you out of harm’s way.”

* In his second Senate hearing on early home/outpatient treatment in December 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson emphasized that probably hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost because of inattention to the use of the safe, low-cost HCQ and IVM generics for early home/outpatient treatment. At the same hearing, Dr. Rajter emphasized that “we cannot stand by and let hundreds of thousands of patients go untreated,” with the clear inference that otherwise there would be hospitalizations and deaths. He emphasized that IVM destroys the COVID virus in 48 hours.

The most important point is that the data on the advantage of using HCQ (with a 70% reduction in deaths) imply saving about 200,000 U.S. lives in November 2020, when the total deaths were about 280,000. This savings figure of course will increase as the number of deaths, sadly, keeps increasing without wide home/outpatient use of HCQ or IVM, likely along with other medicines and supplements.

In sum, there is a clear, compelling and medical basis for believing that a great many lives could have been saved and, in the future, could be saved through the use of the various medicines and protocols presented earlier. It is almost incomprehensible that we have a government and public health system that still is not doing everything feasible and proven to greatly reduce COVID deaths, in the range of 70% to 80%. It is morally repugnant and a disgrace. No wonder the terrific doctors active in the early home/outpatient treatment movement are filled with anger over what is not being used on a wide, national scale. …

Victor Davis Hanson, a leading conservative thinker, has introduced this apt description of the reality about leftist thinking stemming from the history with HCQ: “This Hydroxy Effect – hysterical disavowal of anything Trump has endorsed – is dangerous to the country at large.”

Though the mainstream media has not done stories on all the lives that could have been saved by using early home/outpatient treatment, they have done countless articles blaming insufficient contagion controls for not preventing deaths. For most Americans, such a position seems ludicrous, considering so many months of disruptive and costly contagion controls, especially various types of lockdowns. …

How to get the best information and ignore and discount bad information and propaganda

This book is just the beginning of getting sound, reliable information to protect your life, whether or not you get a COVID vaccine. There has been far too much panic about the pandemic. The major reason for that is the strategy of the leftist media to weaponize negative data to maintain a crisis atmosphere enabling political powers to do what they want.

Then what do you do?

The first thing is to depend on information from “conservative” sources and avoid paying attention to COVID information from leftist, mainstream sources. In the former category are shows on Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. There are a multitude of conservative websites, many of which have been identified in the previous parts of this book. Of particular note are websites that have published pandemic articles by this author; they include WND.com, lifesitenews.com, globalresearch.ca, unz.com, opednews.com, nolanchart.com. Another important website is americasvoice.news, which airs the Steve Bannon War Room show that has often given reliable information on the pandemic.

For data on the pandemic for the U.S. and other nations, there is worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

Perhaps more importantly, ignore and discount COVID information that amounts to disinformation and propaganda on all the major leftist media, including the Washington Post and New York Times, as well as CNN and MSNBC. Stay away completely from social media for reliable information. …

Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has made the great point that FDA has no legal authority to regulate the practice of medicine. Nevertheless, by its actions on HCQ, for example, it ends up doing exactly that.

One of the pioneers for early home treatment, Dr. George Fareed, in December 2020 emphasized this: “Sadly, many infected people and primary care doctors and doctors in ERs follow the NIH and Dr. Fauci stipulations with no effective treatments offered. We need to have the NIH/FDA/CDC formally acknowledge the importance of early treatment with moderately acting, safe antivirals so readily available. When (if ever) that happens, everything would improve dramatically.”

Briefly, here are some points to remember if you hear about or read for yourself medical studies that conclude that HCQ or IVM is unsafe and ineffective.

Many such studies have used these drugs too late in the process of COVID infection. Mostly such studies have wrongly used what should be considered valid early treatment for hospitalized patients whose infection has progressed beyond the early virus replication stage. Although there have been many studies showing HCQ or IVM effective for hospitalized patients, the key is whether those patients were given the medicines early enough to be effective. But the majority of negative studies on HCQ or IVM gave the medicines too late to be effective.

In some other negative studies, the dosages of HCQ or IVM have been too high, or generally inconsistent with what positive studies have used successfully. Another shortcoming of many negative studies is that there was no use of zinc. Often negative studies include very small numbers of participants using the tested drug.

How to prepare for home/outpatient treatment

A basic decision is whether you want to obtain medicines and supplements that, as discussed in the previous section, have been found safe and effective for COVID prevention and cure.

Besides the information provided previously here, there are some very useful websites. Two of the best ones are the websites of America’s Frontline Doctors and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Both have details on protocols that have achieved respect by medical professionals.

Another very useful site is c19protocols.com. There are two main sections: one for early treatment and one for prevention. Each provides links to specific websites providing detailed information.

Yet another useful site that is updated frequently is covexit.com. It provides many videos covering both treatment and news. Of special value are videos featuring some successful frontline doctors using early home/outpatient COVID treatment. You must learn to use the feature at the bottom of the home page to progress to other pages.

A website particularly useful for getting information on prophylaxis is COVID19criticalcare.com. It tends to focus on the use of IVM rather than HCQ.

For getting links to published studies, go to c19study.com. It has sections on HCQ, IVM, supplements, as well as remdesivir.

Another useful website is medicineuncensored.com run by Dr. James Todaro, an early proponent of HCQ, that offers a broad range of useful information

Also to be used is the website of Dr. Zelenko (vladimirzelenko.com) that has much useful information. And the website rationalground.com, which is also very useful. …

How to find a doctor to get necessary medicines

As long as home/outpatient treatment is blocked by NIH guidelines denying approval for any such treatment, the vast majority of American doctors won’t be using medicines like HCQ and IVM. That imposes a challenge on those people who want to use a protocol for either COVID prevention or early cure. There are three websites that offer assistance in finding a doctor who can help you get a safe and proven protocol.

The website c19protocols.com has a section “physicians/facilities offering early treatment.”

There are many links that are very useful in finding doctors to consider. One of the best links is to the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org) that you can access separately. This group has an extensive listing of doctors in specific locations across the nation. It also has a free, extremely useful document titled “A Guide to Home-Based COVID Treatment.” This is regularly updated.

Another good website is americasfrontlinedoctors.com. It offers a detailed section on obtaining HCQ. Users can check what their state situation is for obtaining HCQ. Another section helps users find a doctor and prescription through use of telemedicine.

Prophylactic use of generic medicines and supplements

Though most of the attention has been given to HCQ and various cocktails including it for early home/outpatient COVID treatment, the prophylactic or preventive use of various medicines and supplements has also received attention. In other words, people can choose not to wait until they get COVID symptoms or a positive test. This is the easiest form of home/outpatient treatment, though if you choose to use a prescription medicine, you still need to see a physician willing to prescribe what you want to use.

All of us can take personal initiative to protect our lives, and this can be seen as competitive to taking a vaccine. Considering significant uncertainties about how long immunity lasts with the new COVID vaccines, as well as about effectiveness for older people and those with serious underlying medical conditions, staying with preventive action may be justified.

To begin, this author, based on many months of researching the medical literature, has been using what many others have concluded is a sensible preventive cocktail. For your consideration is the use of these supplements: quercetin, zinc, and vitamin D. The quercetin acts as a substitute for HCQ in that it gets zinc into cells. Typical use is to take a zinc supplement that supplies 50 milligrams; this could be a supplement product such as zinc sulfate labeled as 220 milligrams or a zinc gluconate labeled as 50 milligrams. Quercetin is typically sold as 500 milligrams. Vitamin D is available with 2,000 IU. One or two daily cocktails of one each of the three supplements is a safe and sensible prophylactic cocktail. All of these three supplements have been safely used for many decades.

Dr. Ramin Oskoui has talked about zinc and vitamin D, and says he suggests all his patients take them as prophylaxis. It's “a simple health measure that could be implemented easily.” He has expressed dismay as to why supplementation has not been officially recommended.

Indeed, as to the big pandemic blunder, it is somewhat amazing that public health agencies do not work hard at promoting the use of common supplements as a preventive or prophylactic measure against the coronavirus, especially for vulnerable older people and others with serious comorbidities.

Vitamin D in particular has received much attention at the website COVID.us.org, which provides many references for finding evidence that this vitamin reduces the risk of COVID infection. There are some doctors who recommend much higher doses than 2,000 IU once or twice a day, such as 10,000 IU daily. Also, many doctors have advocated taking high doses if one gets COVID symptoms.

A Harvard Medical School publication said this: “Vitamin D may protect against COVID-19 in two ways. First, it may help boost our bodies' natural defense against viruses and bacteria.

Second, it may help prevent an exaggerated inflammatory response, which has been shown to contribute to severe illness in some people with COVID-19.”

“Pandemic Blunder: Fauci and Public Health Blocked Early Home COVID Treatment” by Joel S. Hirschhorn is available now at Amazon.

The post Despite news blackout, awesome COVID-19 protection is available appeared first on WND.



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Sowing and Reaping: The Mechanism of Life

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Guest Post by Freed Radical

This is not an article about current events, but about all events. I’ve been wanting to write this article for years, for it discloses the mechanism of the destruction that comes from so many sources, from communist ideology, to liberalism, to critical race theory, to cancel culture, to elitism and the oligarchy, to corrupt government, to the welfare state, and most everything else of a deathly nature. We’re going to discuss sowing and reaping, and exactly why so many people don’t understand its impact as a fundamental law of the universe.

You and I, as conservatives who have held jobs, understand what sowing and reaping is. If you sow good things in your life, you will reap good things in the main. If you sow bad things, you will reap bad things. Duh. And what other people sow affects what we reap, to some extent. But there are loads of people who were never taught this principle, and they live oblivious to the reason their lives suck.

This principle applies to every area of life. Mothers and fathers (an outmoded patriarchal concept) understand that if you want to reap good children, you have to be good parents. Farmers understand it literally, that it takes good seed sown correctly to produce a good crop. Scientists even understand it, knowing that if you want to reap good results from an experiment you have to sow proper design and operation of your setup.

On the other side of the ledger, we’ve all known people who bought cars and drove them until the engine seized up. “Motor oil? What is that?” Yep, sow motor oil into your engine, reap 200K miles. Who doesn’t know that? My old Chevy Vega did not run 200K miles, but it sure used a lot of oil! Never, ever sow a sleeveless aluminum engine block.

The big gotcha regarding sowing and reaping, the thing that confuses people, is that there is usually a sizable delay between the sowing and the reaping. Farmers again understand this literally. Plant the seed in the spring, pray for rain, but not too much rain, and wait for the harvest in the fall.

The big delay really buffaloes the gullible. For example, affirmative action. When a person takes advantage of affirmative action programs and gets a head start over people who are actually more competent, they get used to the lighter load and easier grading scale, over the course of years. But then when they get into the real world where there is no affirmative action, where it’s dog eat dog, they have a rude awakening when they are slapped down for poor performance. The sowing of less work at the beginning of life reaps huge disadvantages later in life, and they cry “unfair!”

The premature aging complex really slams a lot of unwed mothers. Some make the same mistake over and over. God ordained two parents per child for a reason. You see her in the mall at age 35, pushing a stroller with four other kids in tow, baby daddys all gone, looking like she is 50. She looks in the mirror and all those years come smashing down on her all at once. Sowing and reaping, baby.

I went to high school with a bunch of potheads, and today they are living in trailers and looking for their government check so they can afford food, because they spent their last bit of cash on a bag of dope. Sow brain damage, man, reap poverty.

Smoking also produces a wicked delayed reaping. I’ve watched two relatives who were smokers die, and their last days were hideous. We just lost Rush to lung cancer, perhaps from smoking. We need a video channel dedicated to the last 24 hours of smokers’ lives. Brutal. If you are a conservative, please quit. Another relative quit 20+ years before passing, and his last breaths were easy. Your lungs can heal. Sow healing.

The government plays the sowing and reaping delay for all they can get. Look at each and every economic activity, program, and appropriation and you will see sowing of total irresponsibility, and much later the reaping of the total economic destruction of an entire nation. The Federal Reserve Act, the federal income tax, the great society programs, what could go wrong? When we go down, we’re taking the whole world with us. During the intervening delay they sucker the population with promises of prosperity! What bubble?

I know some readers don’t like Bible verses, but I’ll tell you what, human nature has not changed, ever, and there is a load of wisdom in the Bible, even for atheists. Archaeologists dig up fossil skulls with holes in them from violent deaths. Don’t tell me humanity is improving, we just have the Internet to express our evil more efficiently than the cave men did. HerGalatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”e’s my favorite verse about sowing and reaping, from the first century, A.D.:

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

When we deny the reality of sowing and reaping, we first deceive ourselves, like the NPC morons in the cartoon thinking that they can just ignore gravity. This happens a lot in groups, and liberal group think today deceives millions; they even have their own television networks! The fall is way fun, but the sudden stop at the bottom is a killer. Denying sowing and reaping is also mocking God. Briefly, God does not like to be mocked. He actively enforces sowing and reaping. He designed it. Ouch.

What to do? Teach your children about sowing and reaping. Even your adult children. Actions have consequences. Thoughts have consequences! Explore real life situations with them. Certainly they can give you examples of their friends’ actions reaping good and bad consequences. Understanding the delay between sowing and reaping is key, but once you have a handle on that you can use it to your advantage, as with investing. Well, you could use investing before our economy and currency were destroyed. Except for GameStop!

Teach your children the meaning of life. What’s the meaning of life? Whatever meaning you put into it! Also teach them the mechanism of life: Sowing and reaping. It’s how life works.

Conservative, sowing and reaping is one of our most powerful allies. Make it work to your benefit, setting you up well for the future. Prepare for the difficulties to come in our nation and world. Live free, as one of the Free People of America.

Sowing and reaping is also the ultimate tool of death against communism, socialism, and liberalism. We need do nothing for the idiots to reap the destruction they have banked. They are asking for it! They kick the can down the road and every kick multiplies their failure. Every stimulus bill seals their fate. Every dollar you don’t spend at Amazon.com and every product you don’t buy from China and Starbucks accelerates liberals on the negative Z axis! Wheeee!!

Just watch out or some idiot liberal might fall on you. Step smartly out of the way. Eyes to the sky!

Vivat gravitatis!



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We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities

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Americans fled the big cities “in droves” in 2020, and one recent survey discovered that even more Americans are planning to move in 2021.  The corporate media is attempting to frame this mass exodus as a temporary phenomenon, but there is nothing temporary about it.  Millions upon millions of people can see that our society is literally melting down all around us, and they want to get somewhere safe while they still can.  In recent weeks, I have written articles about the specific problems that we are witnessing in Chicago and San Francisco, but the truth is that virtually all of our major cities are coming apart at the seams, and this is motivating more people than ever to seek greener pastures.

With so many Americans looking to move, this has pushed up home prices in desirable suburban and rural areas to insane heights.

In fact, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find a decent home for sale at all.  In Bozeman, Montana one man has actually resorted to walking around with a cardboard sign asking for someone to sell him a house…

“I’m just asking for someone to sell us a home. My sign says please sell me a home,” said Sean Hawksford, a Bozeman resident.

You may have seen Hawksford strolling down Main Street with a cardboard sign, asking for leads on a house for sale.

This is not a homeless man that we are talking about.

Sean Hawksford is a family man that owns a successful business, and he has been approved for a mortgage.

He just can’t find a house to buy.

According to Hawksford, he has made 18 offers over the past 6 months, but none of them have been accepted

“It’s been about 6 months, we’ve made I think 18 offers now on different properties and haven’t had one accepted yet,” said Hawksford.

“It’s been a little bit tough with them, and all of my first-time homebuyers to be honest with you,” said Jeff Bent, the Hawksfords’ realtor in Bozeman.

I warned that this would happen.

I warned that when things started to get crazy many Americans wouldn’t be able to move because there would be a crushing amount of demand for available housing as hordes of Americans suddenly sought to relocate.  NBC News has used the term “droves” to describe the mass exodus that we witnessed last year…

Americans fled big cities in droves to escape the coronavirus pandemic — and many of them are staying, permanently or indefinitely. But escape means something different depending on whom you ask.

We have never seen anything like this before in U.S. history.  According to the Pew Research Center, about one-fifth of all Americans either moved or know someone who moved in 2020…

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center while the pandemic was in full swing in June 2020 found that approximately a fifth of Americans moved or know someone who moved as a result of COVID-19. The reasons they gave for people moving were extremely varied — ranging from being called into active military duty to college housing being closed down to, of course, sudden financial constraints.

The corporate media keeps trying to blame COVID for the mass migration, but now the COVID pandemic is fading and Americans are still moving in large numbers.

In fact, one recent survey actually found that “20% more people are planning to move in 2021 than moved in 2020”.

If I was currently living in a major city on the east or west coast, I would be highly motivated to move too.

For example, just check out what is happening in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, the state’s largest city and arguably the most populous now in the United States, has become a byword for violent crime and especially the stronghold of the enormous, ultraviolent and rapidly growing MS 13 organization, routinely mislabeled as a mere “gang” in media reports. MS 13 has up to 50,000 members worldwide of whom at least 10,000, officially, and probably twice as many according to the private assessments of many police officers are in LA.

Jeremiah Babe recently went into the wealthy areas of downtown Los Angeles, and the footage that he captured was mind blowing.

L.A. has never looked like this, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

Of course many would argue that San Francisco is in even worse shape

San Francisco – America’s “anything goes” city – is in even worse shape. Its most famous, historically popular and beautiful stylish locations are now swamped with aggressive, unsanitary street people who openly urinate and defecate in the streets. Public services, long superb, are now appalling.

For much more on the tragedy that is playing out in that once beautiful city, please see my previous article entitled “The Reason Why A Lot Of People Are Leaving San Francisco Might Surprise You”.

Of course it isn’t just individuals that are moving.  In recent months we have seen large numbers of businesses choose to relocate.  At one point, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made headlines all over the globe when even he decided that it was time to leave California for good

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has left California and is now a resident of Texas.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Musk said that the move made sense, amid plans underway for a new Tesla factory in the Austin area.

I certainly can’t blame him.

What rational person would choose California over Texas at this point?

On the east coast, hordes of businesses have left New York as well.  If you can believe it, even the New York Stock Exchange is thinking of leaving…

The head of the world’s largest financial market, Stacey Cunningham, floated the idea of leaving New York in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal to avoid taxes.

When people think of Florida, they often picture restaurants and shopping, the kind of business you do on vacation. But more and more, people are choosing to move down to the sunshine state because there’s no income tax, and the cost of living is low.

Perhaps they will need to rename it “the Florida Stock Exchange” if they actually pull the trigger on such a move.

Sadly, when things get really bad in this nation, no part of the country will be fully immune.

We will all feel the pain, and the suffering will be off the charts.

But if you do feel motivated to relocate, I would do it as soon as possible, because later this year global events will start accelerating at a very rapid pace.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities first appeared on The Economic Collapse.



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Hyatt Hotels fires back at Democrats demanding boycott of hotel chain for hosting CPAC





ORIGINAL LINK

“There Is No Such Thing As An Antidepressant” UCLA Professor Exposes Big Pharma & Big Politics



Israel recently announced that certain places, like concerts, theatres, shopping malls and gyms will only be accessible to people who have been vaccinated and provide a "vaccine pass" that proves they have been.

ORIGINAL LINK

WHO Investigation Into COVID-19 Origin Is Blatantly Corrupt



Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021

Ikea Is Now Selling Tiny Homes For Broke Millennials 

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Ikea Is Now Selling Tiny Homes For Broke Millennials 

The virus pandemic's economic hit has been particularly severe for millennials, considering many of them decided to get useless English degrees and rack up insurmountable student debt while choosing after college to become bartenders. As the story goes, in a post-pandemic world, the downturn has crushed the restaurant industry. Many youngsters are either collecting government checks or finding other jobs or attempting to retrain for a new career. As home prices soar (no thanks to Fed. Chair Powell), housing affordability has become out of reach for many. That's why Ikea, yes, the affordable furniture store that sells Swedish meatballs, is now marketing tiny homes for broke millennials. 

The tiny home crazy has been gaining momentum in the last decade as wealth inequality, driven mainly by the Federal Reserve, leaving most of the wealth concentrated in just a few hands, has resulted in the middle class's decimation. People are downsizing left and right and opting for tiny homes. 

Ikea launched the Tiny Home Project to capitalize on this trend. The 187-square-foot structure, or what could be viewed as a trailer, but commonly known as a "tiny home" to hipsters, is equipped with renewable, reusable, and recycled materials for inside furnishings, solar panels on the roof, running water, kitchen, and a ductless heat pump and air conditioner unit. 

Under the guise of eco-conscious minimalists, millennials who gravitate towards tiny homes don't realize that their living standard has collapsed. Say goodbye to the McMansion of the late 90s and early 2000s, and hello, to the double-wide trailer. 

Unlike assemble-it-yourself furniture that the Swedish company is known for, these tiny homes are preassembled in a factory in partnership with media firm Vox Creative and Wisconsin-based tiny home ESCAPE. 

During the pandemic, internet searches for "tiny homes" hit a five-year high. 

With Amazon already selling tiny homes, how long until Walmart joins the party?

Tyler Durden Sat, 02/27/2021 - 21:00

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RFK Jr. Opens 'CIA Can of Worms'



Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

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Eviction Moratorium Ruled Unconstitutional, Largest Tsunami Of Evictions In U.S. History Incoming…

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Ever since last summer, a federal moratorium on evictions has prevented landlords from evicting millions of tenants that are behind on their rent payments.  This moratorium has caused extreme financial distress for many landlords, but it has also kept us from witnessing millions upon millions of Americans being thrown out into the cold streets.  Of course this moratorium on evictions was never actually legal, and it was just a matter of time before it was challenged in front of a federal judge that still had respect for the U.S. Constitution.  On Thursday, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas named John Campbell Barker ruled that the federal moratorium is completely unconstitutional

J. Campbell Barker, a Trump-nominated judge in the Eastern District of Texas, issued the 21-page ruling Thursday in response to a lawsuit from a group of landlords and property managers.

“The federal government cannot say that it has ever before invoked its power over interstate commerce to impose a residential eviction moratorium,” Barker wrote, noting that it did not do so during the Spanish Flu pandemic or during the Great Depression. “The federal government has not claimed such a power at any point during our nation’s history until last year.”

But Barker did not issue any sort of an injunction, and so the moratorium is still in effect for the moment.  In his ruling, Barker expressed his belief that the defendants will “respect the declaratory judgment” and will willingly withdraw the moratorium on their own…

The scope of the order is unclear. Barker wrote that given “defendants’ representations to the court, it is ‘anticipated that [defendants] would respect the declaratory judgment.’”

Federal officials could attempt to drag their feet, but the current moratorium is set to expire on March 31st anyway.

So whether it happens immediately or in a few weeks, the federal moratorium on evictions is ending.

Of course some states have their own moratoriums in place, and Barker noted that those are constitutional.  So renters in those states will still have at least some protection moving forward.

But for most of the country, things are about to change in a major way.

According to one recent study, a whopping 10 million U.S. households are currently behind on their rent payments

An analysis released last month by Moody’s Analytics and the Urban Institute said that some 10 million renters are behind on paying rent and risk being evicted. Moreover, the typical delinquent renter is almost four months and $5,600 behind on monthly rent and utility payments as of January, according to the analysis.

“To put that into some perspective, approximately seven million households lost their homes in foreclosure during the five darkest years of the global financial crisis,” the researchers wrote. “Here we have 10 million families facing a similar fate over a matter of months.”

Even if rent moratoriums remain in place in some states for the foreseeable future, we are still going to see millions upon millions of households evicted here in 2021.

It will be the largest tsunami of evictions in U.S. history, and homelessness is going to rise dramatically.

Needless to say, it isn’t going to be a happy time.

Meanwhile, we have already been witnessing a tsunami of bankruptcies.

In fact, the number of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in 2020 was “at least 30 percent higher than any of the previous four years”

Bankruptcies filed by entertainment companies in 2020 nearly quadrupled, and filings nearly tripled for oil and gas companies, doubled for computer and software companies and were up 50 percent or more for restaurant owners, real estate companies and retailers, compared with 2019, data from the research firm show. There were 5,236 Chapter 11 filings in 2019, but 6,917 last year, a tally at least 30 percent higher than any of the previous four years.

This isn’t what an “economic recovery” looks like.

Sadly, the truth of the matter is that the U.S. economy is in the process of melting down all around us, and a whole lot more pain is ahead.

Up until just recently, the stock market had been one of the very few bright spots, but now chaos has returned to Wall Street.

On Friday, the Dow was down another 469 points

The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung wildly Friday to close near its session low as Wall Street struggled to shake off fears of rapidly rising rates.

The blue-chip benchmark ended the volatile session 469.64 points, or 1.5%, to 30,932.37 after trading in the green earlier. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 3,811.15 as energy and financial stocks pulled back. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day 0.6% higher at 13,192.34 as Big Tech names rebounded after a large sell-off in the previous session amid surging bond yields. Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon each rose more than 1%. The tech-heavy benchmark gyrated in Friday’s session where it jumped 1.9% at its high and fell as much as 0.7%.

As I discussed yesterday, I do not believe that a massive stock market crash is imminent.  But the early warning signs that we are witnessing now should definitely not be ignored.

Many are expecting economic conditions in the U.S. to improve as the COVID pandemic fades, but it is inevitable that many more “trigger events” will hit us in 2021 and beyond.

Considering how vulnerable we are right now, it certainly isn’t going to take much to send us into a death spiral from which we will never recover.

Unfortunately, it is always those at the very bottom of the economic food chain that get hit the hardest when challenging times arrive.

I feel very badly for the landlords that haven’t been able to collect rent for months and months, but I also feel very badly for the millions of Americans that will soon be thrown out into the streets.

The economic pain and suffering that we will soon see will be off the charts, and those that are expecting Joe Biden and his minions to save them will be bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Eviction Moratorium Ruled Unconstitutional, Largest Tsunami Of Evictions In U.S. History Incoming… first appeared on The Most Important News.



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The People Haven’t Risen Up For The Same Reason Abuse Victims Don’t Leave Their Abusers

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There was a great exchange in a recent interview with singer-songwriter FKA twigs regarding her relationship with actor Shia LaBeouf, who she is currently suing for “relentless abuse” including assault and sexual battery.

From The Independent:

In a CBS This Morning interview on Thursday (18 February), King asked the musician: “Nobody who’s been in this position likes this question, and I often wonder if it’s even appropriate to ask… why didn’t you leave?”
Twigs replied: “I know that you’re asking it out of love, but like, I’m just going to make a stance and say I’m not going to answer that question anymore because the question should really be to the abuser, ‘Why are you holding someone hostage with abuse?’”
She continued: “People say, ‘Oh, it can’t have been that bad, because she would’ve left.’ And it’s like, no, because it was that bad, I couldn’t leave.”

“Because it was that bad, I couldn’t leave.”

This is what so few people understand about abusive relationships. People see friends and family members stuck in relationships that are obviously horrible and say “She should leave him! Why doesn’t she just leave??” If the abuse happened in secret the first question your loved ones ask when you escape is “Why did you let it go on so long? Why didn’t you leave sooner?”

Those who have escaped abusive relationships know how intensely hurtful this question is, how violent it feels to have it inflicted upon you by people who are supposed to be on your side and supporting you. It feels so violent because you have perspective that others do not: you understand that your inability to leave the abusive relationship was itself a fundamental product of the abuse.

Abusive relationships aren’t just one partner doing cruel things to another. If they were, there would be no relationship: there’d just be a woman getting assaulted one time by her boyfriend and then immediately leaving. Abusive relationships necessarily include the construction of psychological barriers to leaving, or else they would not exist. Victims of abuse are kept constantly confused, off-balance, insecure and unsure of themselves, because their abuse always necessarily includes the element of psychological manipulation.

You’re being caged psychologically, and you’re kept too confused and off-balance to even be aware that that’s what’s happening. So you stay where you are, just as surely as you would if you’d been placed in a physical cage.

 — @caitoz

This is why people stay in abusive relationships, whether it’s abusive relationships with significant others or abusive relationships with empires.

As a collective, we remain in our current relationship with abusive power structures because we are collectively kept confused, off-balance, insecure and unsure of ourselves, as a critical element of our collective abuse is mass-scale psychological manipulation.

Vast fortunes are poured into keeping us from realizing that we are being exploited by powerful wealth hoarders while our nation’s resources are sent to fight wars of planetary domination. That our ecosystem is being destroyed for profit with no real plan for what to do when it’s gone. That we are being increasingly oppressed and impoverished to keep us from having enough awareness and wealth to dethrone our rulers. And that it doesn’t have to be this way at all.

And make no mistake, it absolutely does not have to be this way. The difference between our relationship with the oligarchic empire and FKA twigs’ relationship with Shia LaBeouf is that we are far, far bigger and far, far stronger than our abusers. This isn’t Shia LaBeouf abusing a small female pop star, this is Shia LaBeouf abusing a great giantess the size of a planet. They work so hard to keep us confused and manipulated because they know the second they cease to do so we can crush them like a mosquito.

But the dynamic is the same in both cases: we are being victimized by manipulative abusers. The manipulation is part of the abuse. It is not our fault that they cage our minds like this, it’s theirs. They are to blame, not the ordinary people just trying desperately to get by, voting for the status quo in election after election because they’ve been kept too confused and insecure to see clearly what’s going on. We haven’t left our abusive relationship yet because it is that bad.

The good news, of course, is that people do leave. They do escape their abusive relationships. The light of truth cannot remain hidden forever, and sociopathic manipulators do not understand the depths of human experience well enough to block it out. They are shallow, and we are deep. They cannot understand the dimensions of ourselves which are secretly moving toward freedom well enough to anticipate and prevent those movements.

If you have a loved one who is in an abusive relationship, you draw attention to what you are seeing, you let them know that you are there for them, you trust their inner wisdom to find a way to escape someday, and when they do you are there waiting for them with the engine running. When you have a collective that is in an abusive relationship, you draw attention to the abusive dynamics you are seeing, you trust humanity’s unfathomable depths to produce an escape route, and when the time comes to rise up, you are there at the ready.

__________________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my new book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDF for five bucks) or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

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Coronavirus Fact-Check #10: Why “new cases” are plummeting.



The scary red numbers are all going down. Check any newspaper or covid tracking website you want. Cases. Deaths. Hospitalisations. They’re all going down, sharply, and have been for weeks, especially in the US and UK. So, why would that be?

ORIGINAL LINK

America’s Absurd Foreign Policy

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On February 24, General Tod D. Wolters, who leads the US European Command, gave a speech that should disturb everyone on earth.  

There are a number of reasons we should be disturbed. General Wolters claims that the projection of American force abroad “is about generating peace” and that the US must take on Russia in order to deliver world peace. We are locked in a struggle with Moscow, and if Russia continues to resist US hegemony, General Wolters says we are prepared to respond “primarily through NATO.”  General Wolters goes on to blame all destabilizing activities across the globe on Russia:  “Despite widespread international condemnation and continued economic sanctions, Russia engages in destabilizing and malign activities across the globe, with many of those activities happening close to home.”  He declares: “Russia remains an enduring existential threat to the United States and our European allies.”

We could dismiss the general’s speech as propaganda.  Unfortunately it is worse. It reflects the self-righteous, self-serving, and therefore blind American foreign policy position, a position highly likely to lead to war.  

General Wolters claims that “everything we do is about generating peace.”  US/NATO war games and military maneuvers on Russia’s borders are “generating peace,” not Russian apprehensions.  Washington’s incorporation of Eastern Europe into NATO and subversion of former parts of the Soviet Union such as Ukraine are not acts of aggression.  Washington’s two decades old wars in the Middle East and North Africa also generate peace as do the constant threats against Iran and China. The Washington orchestrated attack by the former Soviet province of Georgia on the Russian population of South Ossetia was also a peace generating invasion. Washington’s overthrow of noncompliant governments in Latin America are just more peace-making operations.  Constant false accusations and illegal sanctions against Russia are also in the interest of peace, as was Russiagate.

That is General Wolters perspective, and the perspective of the US foreign policy establishment.  From the Russian perspective it looks very different. Russia is surrounded by military bases of a power that constantly displays its animosity and hostility in military maneuvers, false accusations, and sanctions.  Russia witnessed President Trump removed from office because he expressed his intention to “normalize relations with Russia.”  Any American policymaker who supports an arms control agreement with Russia or any reduction in tensions that serve the US military/security complex risks being denounced as a “Russian agent.”  Even people, such as myself, who explain the dangerous situation are labeled “Russian agents.”

The Kremlin has made it clear over and over that Russia is not a threat to the US and Europe and only desires normal business-like relations.  The Kremiln has responded to endless provocations in non-provocative ways.  But now the Russian attitude shows signs of hardening. Putin and Lavrov cannot forever turn the other cheek to Washington and European hostility without eventually being seen inside Russia as American agents.

Putin and Lavrov are ideal Russian leaders with whom the West could arrange friendly and profitable economic and political relationships, removing the specter of nuclear war and unnecessary military expense.  The same is true for China and Iran.  But as General Wolters says, “we compete to win.”  

The post America’s Absurd Foreign Policy appeared first on LewRockwell.



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Friday, February 26, 2021

27% Of All Household Income In The US Now Comes From The Government

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27% Of All Household Income In The US Now Comes From The Government

Following today's release of the latest Personal Income and Spending data, Wall Street was predictably focused on the changes in these two key series, which showed a surge in personal income (to be expected in the month when the $900BN December 2020 stimulus hit), coupled with a far more modest increase in personal spending.

But while the change in the headline data was notable, what was far more remarkable was data showing just how reliant on the US government the population has become.

We are referring, of course, to Personal Current Transfer payments which are essentially government sourced income such as unemployment benefits, welfare checks, and so on. In January, this number was $5.781 trillion annualized, which was not only up by nearly $2 trillion from the $3.8 trillion in December it was also $2 trillion above the pre-Covid trend where transfer receipts were approximately $3.2 trillion.

This means that excluding the $2 trillion annualized surge in govt transfers, personal income excluding government handouts actually declined by $22.3BN from $15.696TN to $15.673TN, hardly a sign of a healthy, reflating economy.

Shown in longer-term context, one can see the creeping impact of government payments, shown in red below.

This, as noted earlier, was due to the latest round of government stimulus checks hitting personal accounts which in turn helped push the savings rate to a whopping 20.5% from 13.4% at the end of 2020.

Stated simply, what all this means is that the government remains responsible for over a quarter of all income, or 26.9 to be precise!

Imagine what that income chart will look like after Biden's $1400 checks go out?

Putting that number in perspective, in the 1950s and 1960s, transfer payment were around 7%. This number rose in the low teens starting in the mid-1970s (right after the Nixon Shock ended Bretton-Woods and closed the gold window). The number then jumped again after the financial crisis, spiking to the high teens.

And now, the coronavirus has officially sent this number into the mid-20% range, after hitting a record high 31% in April.

And that's how creeping banana republic socialism comes at you: first slowly, then fast.

So for all those who claim that the Fed is now (and has been for the past decade) subsidizing the 1%, that's true, but with every passing month, the government is also funding the daily life of an ever greater portion of America's poorest social segments.

Who ends up paying for both?

Why the middle class of course, where the dollar debasement on one side, and the insane debt accumulation on the other, mean that millions of Americans content to work 9-5, pay their taxes, and generally keep their mouth shut as others are burning everything down and tearing down statues, are now doomed.

The "good" news? As we reported last November, the US middle class won't have to suffer this pain for much longer, because while the US has one one of the highest median incomes in the entire world, with only three countries boasting a higher income, it is who gets to collect this money that is the major problem, because as the chart also shows, with just a 50% share of the population in middle-income households, the US is now in the same category as such "banana republics" as Turkey, China and, drumroll, Russia.

What is just as stunning: according to the OECD, more than half of the countries in question have a more vibrant middle class than the US.

So the next time someone abuses the popular phrase  "they hate us for our [fill in the blank]", perhaps it's time to counter that "they" may not "hate" us at all, but rather are making fun of what has slowly but surely become the world's biggest banana republic?

And as we concluded last year, "it has not Russia, nor China, nor any other enemy, foreign or domestic, to blame... except for one: the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States."

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/26/2021 - 11:45

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