Debt Rattle November 2 2020

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Paul Klee Limits of Reason (Grenzen des Verstandes ) 1927   • A Contagion Of Hatred And Hysteria (Sunetra Gupta) • Trump COVID Adviser Atlas Forc
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 2 2020]

[Dr. D]

“...The results — to name just a few — include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health.
Such pitfalls of national lockdowns must not be ignored, especially when it is the working class and younger members of society who carry the heaviest burden.
I was also deeply concerned that lockdowns only delay the inevitable spread of the virus. Indeed, we believe that a better way forward would be to target protective measures at specific vulnerable groups, such as the elderly in care homes.
…proponents of lockdown policies have seemed intent on shutting down debate rather than promoting reasoned discussion. …This refusal to cherish the value of the scientific method strikes at the heart of everything I, as a scientist, hold dear. To me, the reasoned exchange of ideas is the basis of civilised society.

…our critics have also taken to ridiculing the Great Barrington Declaration as ‘fringe’ and ‘dangerous’.
But ‘fringe’ is a ridiculous word, implying that only mainstream science matters. If that were the case, science would stagnate.”

Opinions are treason.

So let me get this straight: dorks typing in their basements, executives on K Street, media pundits = scientists, while real scientists, with degrees, careers, opening scientific debate = NOT scientists. Shut up you doctorates of epidemiology, you don’t know what you’re talking about, cuz Buzzfeed said.

Yes, the end of Science in the name of “Science!” So ignorant they don’t even realize, and so proud when someone asks or introduces them they resist.

What happens to nations that are not only ignorant and proud, but wrong, unwilling to seek the truth?

Scott Atlas: Doctors, Scientists must not speak! We must stop this permission to talk so long as I have the feelz!

And he was “taken advantage of”, for the love of God, please. This is how the Left attacks you from RIGHT, trying to drive the GOP to MORE war, hawkishness, defense spending and death. …Which we knew since all the Neocons went back to their original party (they are Trotskyites) and support Biden.

Not sure about Vit D, here’s why: imagine your goal is the goodness of aspirin, so you add it to the water. Great! More cures! …Except that some minority of people are now going to be overdosed, whether they are aspirin allergic, work with water all day, whatever. That’s one argument against universal Fluoride. You don’t add prescriptions to force-medicate everyone without a doctor seeing them. And Vit D is one of those things. While rare perhaps, unlike Vit C it doesn’t just purge effortlessly. So do try to be more careful. Your health is YOURS, stop ordering the government to make everyone go to the gym ‘cause you’re too lazy to take care of yourself. WE can’t save ourselves from ourselves. It will only create Totalitarianism. Dolores Umbridge telling everyone what to do for their own good. End of all free will and choice.

Watch the “Long cold winter” thing. There was a famous (to insiders) war-game named this that gamed the re-emergence of smallpox and ACTUAL mass deaths from an ACTUAL epidemic. Not like the non-event we have now. So is somebody trying to say something? Message, or coincidence? Many countries do have smallpox and wouldn’t think twice of re-releasing it. They think the population should be 100 Million, would save the earth and be much easier to control. They say so daily.

Trump losing all over, will lose Idaho and Texas! Sez Nate Silver who hasn’t been right since he first appeared. Well ol’ Nate is now feverishly trying to hedge his bets with rallies of 57k in PA and roads shut down for 100-mile parades in NJ and AZ. Pollsters are “adjusting” their numbers. Adjusting? Whisky Tango? THE RESULTS ARE HALF IN. You were just dead wrong. With WI ALREADY for Trump when it should be a sizable Biden lead before in-person voting, they’re still calling for Biden win. So they’ll claim to be right again: 10 minutes before the in-person polls close, they will have “adjusted” for a tiny Trump win. Because, say it with me: THERE IS NO LEVEL OF FAILURE THAT CAN EVER HAVE CONSEQUENCES. It is impossible to be discredited, no matter what you do, even if you get involved in a $2T war or kill 20k grandmas on national TV. No: that makes you an Expert.

Media shutdown/purge has begun, 2 days before election. Again, as with the laptop, why? Isn’t it a bit late to tamper now? You’ll only get yourselves in 230 kinds of trouble. …No, because they also don’t care who you and I voted for. The only real election is the voting of Electors. And that begins in here. Also why they didn’t care about either of their dismal candidates, both of whom their own base hates, although I feel they didn’t expect the reaction them to be this poor, especially Kamala. It was always meant to be fought in the electoral and the courts. Telegraphed from the beginning. So the shenanigans begin, along with a bunch of canned riots, probably some dramatic arrests, accusations of overreach, etc.

Haven’t we heard they intend to bum-rush the White House and force the Marines to mow them down in crowds? I don’t think you would plan that, or riots, if your guy was the solid winner. You’d at least wait until some of the contention was clear and Cheeto had actually taken action of not leaving. Their actions betray them that they know and have long known. Otherwise their riots would be planned as rallies of joy and victory. They’re not even pretending.

But as above, once a nation is like this, what do you think can happen next? Everyone just goes “Oops, I was wrong, sorry dad” and re-thinks, re-believes everything, re-discredits, re-friends whole new social circles personally regionally, nationally? No, they do the Hale-Bopp thing and just transfer to the next comet and the next date of the political Rapture. THERE IS OF LEVEL OF FAILURE THAT CAUSES CHANGES. NO ONE WILL EVER ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG. That’s not human nature, and the handlers know it.

Handlers? Yes, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPsKvG6WMI
Yuri Bezmanov, 1984, and part of undermining a nation state to bring it down to an invade-able, colonial level is to undermine interpersonal trust, the institutions, and demoralize them. It takes decades of bad media to undo all the rah-rah America from WWII and Mayberry. But Mayberry, Ward Cleaver, other things like Firefly are purged from TV and replaced with horrific traumatizing non-stop horror shows like CSI, then movies all are based on internal corruption, not someone within each doing their best. Over time, this push matters, and I can’t find the quote, but the ultimate in sophistication or cool right now is to openly not believe in anything. No media, no politician, no religion, no science, and therefore want nothing and fight for nothing. …The last of the beliefs, the premises that America, a non-nation with a non-people, was based on. To believe in yourself, hard work, honesty, equal justice, tolerance, such things is now such an inflammatory affront that posting the flag can get you beaten. And in France as well. But it doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, it needs help and engineering, coordination and a lot of money. …Because people don’t LIKE your movies, your shows, your NBA, your MLB, your Gillette commercials “All Man Bad.” So you take perpetual losses when you shove it down their throats and need outside cash and government-protected monopolies to fund it.

But from our side, the principles of self-direction, tolerance, justice, work, ARE worth defending and fighting for. It might be embarrassing to rally, dangerous to speak to the intolerant authoritarians hating diversity, but if it falls you won’t like the outcome either. It won’t get you by to be Rick Blaine or Rhett Butler. It’s the embarrassing love of things things, of our culture or country, and that love itself is worthwhile and like other loves, leads to a better, truer life.

When you love your wife your your family, for instance, doesn’t mean she is the prettiest, better than all other women, doesn’t mean your family never does wrong. It just means you KNOW them. You can see them and the good in them, and their value. And so with our countries and cultures. We love them, and that is well as we must and should.

[sumac.carol]

Apparently in Canada there are quite a few covid tests that have been approved by Health Canada for ‘point of care’ use.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/covid19-industry/medical-devices/authorized/list.html#wb-auto-4
In Canada it is the government that does the approval, although typically studies are carried out by he manufactures and Health Canada reviews the studies rather than conducting studies themselves

Loved the spider Halloween costume.

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Apparently in Canada there are quite a few covid tests that have been approved by Health Canada for ‘point of care’ use.

There’s no way you can test everyone even once as long as doctors and nurses are needed in the process. Provide them to everyone for free, and in large quantities. Holland, pop 17 million, just ordered 9.2 million rapid tests. To be delivered in June….. We simply don’t want to understand.

[John Day]

I accidentally posted yesterday’s comments to Halloween. I’m gong Biden. That reminds me to thank Maxwell Quest for the picture of Joe the pimp and hunter the hooker, leaning into China’s car yesterday.
Thanks for posting Tessa Fights Robots’ story, Ilargi.
Here is today. Short and sweet. I’ve got to go pick up a load of compost and spread it around the nascent banana patch in Yoakum.
https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/11/coronavirus-forever.html
COVID-19 is here to stay, and keep mutating variations on its winning theme.
It has become endemic. It’s never going away. There is no way to make it go away.
Immunity lasts something like 6 months, though some reinfections occur before that.
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/professor-69-risked-his-life-by-deliberately-catching-covid-19-to-test-his-immune-response/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30783-0/fulltext

A good vaccine will always be 6 months away. Then you will need another, different one in 6 more months, but the first one is still 6 months away. https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/29/it-may-be-time-to-reset-expectations-on-when-well-get-a-covid-19-vaccine/
(There has never been an effective coronavirus vaccine. The vaccines tried on animals had a failure mode. Too many test animals died after vaccination, when exposed to the virus.)

The new-case levels are rising with falling vitamin-D levels as the sunny months are gone, and people congregate clannishly inside, while breathing in and out, and aerosolizing virus, and sharing it.
If only vitamin-D came in a cheap, readily available pill form that could be dosed at 5000 units per hundred pounds per day, or so, through the winter. Alas!
Masks seem helpful reducing indoor spread to some fraction, thinning the viral cloud. How much? Enough to be useful, it seems.

I am convinced for numerous technical reasons that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from some military lab. Pick one. It has fingerprints of splicing, and sequences from things like HIV cut and spliced in. That is now somewhat beside the point.

We are really left with making sure we have good vitamin-D levels, which is cheap and easy, eating fresh vegetables, exercising regularly, being comfortable with our mortality, having ready access to rapid testing, and ready access to antivirals, currently ivermectin/Zn/doxycycline combination.

This is the long term outlook. Anything else is manipulation-through-fear. Cheer Up!

Ignoring Elections Today

[John Day]

I accidentally put this in Halloween’s comments, but it’s still germane: https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/11/rejecting-salvation.html

Why Propaganda is Vital In Upholding The Illusion of a Democracy​ Cynthia Chung​
​ ​The Arthashastra written by Chankya (350-283 BCE) who was chief advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta (the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire) discusses propaganda and how to disperse and apply it in warfare. It is one of the oldest accounts of the essentialism of propaganda in warfare.
​ ​Propaganda is vital in times of war because it is absolutely imperative that the people, who often need to make the greatest sacrifices and suffer the most, believe that such a war is justified and that such a war will provide them security. To the degree that they believe this to be true, the greater the degree of sacrifice and suffering they are willing to submit themselves for said “promised security”.
​ ​It is crucial that when the people look at the “enemy” they see something sub-human, for if they recognise that said “enemy” has in fact humanity, the jig is up so to speak.​”…
​ ​Mass propaganda is the very reason why in this so-called “age of information”, we are more confused and divided from each other than ever
​…​There a many different forms of warfare, but namely there is warfare that exists in the physical domain of aggression vs defense and warfare that exists in the mental domain of ideas.​..
​ Though we still use much of the same old strategies today, war is ever more located on the plane of ideas, and along with this the ever increasing focus on the manipulation of information and the populace’s perspective of who is good and who is bad.
​ ​The war that needs to be fought against the present tyranny is thus increasingly a mental war.​..
​ ​The higher battle ground is being fought on the plane of ideas and which proposed ‘new system’ will replace the current collapsing one we are presently in. On the one side the hegemonic rule of a one world government who thinks that they can use force and oppression to rule and on the other side a multi-polar system of cooperating nation states committed to progress that will offer a real qualitative return for the future.​..
​ ​Orwell identifies this under two forms of “doublethink”, which are “crimestop” and “blackwhite”. “Crimestop” meaning the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of a dangerous thought.
​ ​Orwell further states “It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop in short, means protective stupidity.”
​ ​“Blackwhite”, is the act of contradiction of plain facts, applied to an opponent. And when applied to the Party, it is the willingness to say black is white when the Party discipline demands it so.​..
​ Orwell continues “The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.” ​…(Does anybody come to mind?)

Why Propaganda is Vital In Upholding The Illusion of a Democracy

​Tulsi Gabbard’s interview with Pentagon Papers Journalist, Daniel Ellsberg commences with an Aloha Hug:
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO7inI4XjLs

Tom Luongo on “the disgust circuit” activating, at which point a person does something different.

BidenGate – That’s Quite Enough of That

​After all, you live in a system whose managers either are too dumb to understand the Vitamin D data (very unlikely) or have decided that they’d rather not promote it to the general populace for some reason. It’s a ridiculously safe vitamin with almost zero downside and virtually unlimited upside.
​ ​Either they’re colossally dumb, or this is a calculated decision. They’re not dumb. So we have to ask: What’s the calculation being performed here? It’s not public safety. It’s not your personal health. So… What is it?
​ ​This is our line of questioning and observation. It’s like the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle in Silver Blaze that many of us informally know as “the case of the dog that didn’t bark”. As the story goes, because of a missing clue – a dog who remained silent as a murder was committed – this conclusion could be drawn: the dog was already familiar with the killer!
​ ​The silence around Vitamin D alone is extremely telling. It is the pharmacological dog that did not bark.
​ ​One true inference suggests others. Here, too, we can deduce from the near total silence around Vitamin D that the health managers would prefer not to talk about it. They don’t want people to know. That much is painfully clear.
​ ​Such lack of promotion (let alone appropriate study) of safe, effective treatments is a thread that, if tugged, can unravel the whole rug. The silence tells us everything we need to know.
​ ​Do they want people to suffer and die? I don’t know. My belief systems certainly hope not. Perhaps the death and suffering are merely collateral damage as they pursue a different goal — money, power, politics? Simply the depressing result of a contentious election year? More than that?

We Are Pawns In A Bigger Game Than We Realize

​Iran is giving Bitcoin an official capacity in bypassing the US dollar in paying for imports, and is turning over 4 power generating plants to Bitcoin production. Tom Luongo has the story and perspective:
​ ​The natural outgrowth of this is bitcoin competing in the open market locally for goods and services, regardless of the legality of it. But this will be a boon for Iran, who can now act as an international clearing house for money the U.S. can’t control.
​ ​This is a real-world use case for bitcoins in a world of financial repression and control. It jumps bitcoin from a store of value, where it resides now because of government restrictions on its use through tax policy to a medium of exchange for mediums of exchange.
​ ​Iran does this while the IMF is working on a digital SDR — the currency based on its reserves — that will only flow between central banks. This is a clear move to consolidate the financial power of the world in the unelected technocracy.
​ ​It’s a small step from here to Iran accepting bitcoins for oil and gas exports, if they aren’t doing so already behind the scenes.

Market Friday: Iran, Bitcoin and The Sanctions That Won’t Be

[sumac.carol]

I get it now Ilargi -self-test needed instead of one administered by a health care person.

Would it be a challenge to create covid tests for a virus that continually mutates?

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Carol, John Day answers your question in his comments right above yours.

A good vaccine will always be 6 months away. Then you will need another, different one in 6 more months, but the first one is still 6 months away.

[sumac.carol]

Right -I missed that – phenomenal post John Day.

[sumac.carol]

No actually Ilargi I said test, not vaccine. Would you not need to continually change your test as well, due to mutation?

[zerosum]

Test/vaccines
There are millions of types of viruses in the environment.[5] Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity.[6][7]

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

For a more accessible and less technical introduction to this topic, see Introduction to viruses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_viruses

Viruses, especially those made of RNA, can mutate rapidly to give rise to new types. Hosts may have little protection against such new forms. Influenza virus, for example, changes often, so a new vaccine is needed each year.

[Dr. D]

Yes we all knew from the first week this would be true: the virus would not be stopped. Everyone would get it. We would not have a vaccine in time and likely ever. Closing the economy would double the number injured or dead. Oh, and that we had multiple therapies, well tested. Fauci himself tested HCQ on SARS, its close relative, and we’ve had decades of studies on D, C, and Zinc, so common and well-known they are sold on grocery store shelves.

Here we are. Surprise. Everything happened just the way science and logic said. And against what scientists, doctors, and politicians told us and did, in total defiance of all tradition and law.

So here we are. We now have stopped nothing, contain nothing, and proven our measures are useless. For a minute forget about blame: now that we know this — again — where do we go from here? Stop lockdowns, promote overall health, Vitamin D, better, easier, paid isolation for the vulnerable? Not on your life. MOAR lockdowns, more protests, more illegality, more forced austerity, more oppression, more surveillance, more destruction of the young, more unworking masks, more $1,000 fines, more jail time in cramped conditions if you don’t mask outside or write on Facebook.

Maybe we can find another way? One that deals with actual medicine?

This is what governments do: they cost more money and they make things worse. 100% of the time. Can we fire them now and tend to ourselves and our own families?

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

No actually Ilargi I said test, not vaccine. Would you not need to continually change your test as well, due to mutation?

Not as much, I would think. You can test for a generic virus, whereas you would need a specific type to get your vaccine A-OK.

But I’m ready to be corrected on that one.

[zerosum]

@ Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Did this happen in Greece? Everywhere?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/business-closures-doubled-in-canada-during-height-of-pandemic

Business Closures Doubled in Canada During Height of Pandemic
By Shelly Hagan
August 5, 2020, 7:16 AM PDT
Statistics Canada finds 88,187 businesses shut doors in April
Loss of companies raises concern over lasting economic damage

A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business taken at the end of June found another 150,000 Canadians businesses, or 14% of the total, are at least somewhat considering bankruptcy or winding down their operations because of Covid-19.
=====
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-money/rising-commercial-property-taxes-put-small-business-owners-in-a-bind/article35152561/

In Toronto, the commercial property tax rate is 2.5 times the residential rate for the first $1-million in assessed value of a property. In many other parts of the country, non-residential property owners pay an even higher tax rate.
In Toronto and Vancouver, the soaring residential real-estate market is also complicating matters. A tax bill is a function of a tax rate multiplied by a property’s assessed value, and assessed values in commercial areas are rising, thanks to skyrocketing residential real-estate prices in those cities. If a property’s assessed value increases at a higher rate than the city’s average change in property values, the taxes for that property will increase.

While the appeal process can extend beyond the deadline for paying property taxes, business owners are typically still on the hook for paying upfront, then waiting for a potential refund.
—–
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/property-tax-toronto-budget-2019-1.5042301
Here’s how much more you’ll pay in property taxes in 2019 — and where that money’s going
Lauren Pelley · CBC News · Posted: Mar 07, 2019
One recent Ryerson University report noted more than 20 municipalities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area “recorded higher average property taxes than Toronto,” and suggested the city could easily hike taxes by up to 20 per cent.
——
https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/which-cities-are-contemplating-property-tax-increases-to-offset-covid-19-financial-woes-219881
Which Cities Are Contemplating Property Tax Increases to Offset Covid-19 Financial Woes?
Vancouver and New York are currently weighing hikes to fill budget gaps
BY V.L. HENDRICKSON | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 1, 2020 | MANSION GLOBAL
———-

‘Trade offs’ required to keep Vancouver property tax hike under 12%: city report

‘Trade offs’ required to keep Vancouver property tax hike under 12%: city report

By Simon Little Global News
Posted November 1, 2020 12:55 pm
—–
Businesses pass the taxes to their clients/renters/etc. or close their losing operations

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Did this happen in Greece? Everywhere?

I don’t have the numbers, zero, but it would appear to be a safe bet that this happens all over the place. I did post this thing the other day that Greece has protected its jobs better that other countries, but who knows really? We had our last day of bars and restaurants being open today, and it’s just sad. So many people newly unemployed, and for what? This being Greece, they could have left the terraces open everywhere, and ban only indoor stuff, for the next 3-4 weeks when people can actually sit outside. With much less infection risk.

[Michael Reid]

So I have come to the conclusion, which may be incorrect, that what is going on is as I read on the Off Guardian, those that own the debt are making a play to bring the western world to its knees for the main reason of bankrupting most so they may purchase the remains at bankruptcy prices. I know very little about economics but this is where my mind is these days reflecting on our situation. Respectfully

[zerosum]

Why!
People are partying. Spreading the virus. Gov. are shutting the businesses that are feeding them the income.
Why!
They are killing the golden goose laying the golden eggs.
Why!
Those very same business people probably own million dollar homes.

HIGHER TAXES ON BUSINESS. HIGHER TAXES RESIDENTIAL.
Which cities will follow he path of Chicago, etc.

Will the municipalities be able to supply enough leakproof shelter, under the overpass, to take care of the increase of poor homeless population that they are creating?
Will the municipalities buy, seize, on the cheap, those empty houses and businesses and use them for affordable housing?

USA businesses are putting up plywood before the election.
Does it matter who wins?
Will the plywood stay up? (businesses closed)

[zerosum]

“We had our last day of bars and restaurants being open today”
Will those newly unemployed join with the unemployed immigrants wanting food.
I hope that there will be enough food for all.

[generic]

Just one more election failure in the Age of the Con Artist.

Most Americans, as well as people in other nations, recognize that Trump and Biden are both corrupt, incompetent, geriatric buffoons, and they differ in style more than substance. Both take pride in being war criminals, so be prepared for more stupid wars. They have been very good at getting their faces on TV through the years but habitually tell lies while having little intelligent to say. Their mouths are like random comment generators that routinely produce crazed nonsense.

Mike Pence appears to favor a theocracy, a dangerous and un-American idea. Pence hasn’t had as many scandals as the other three, but like them, Pence primarily attends the Church of Big Money. Kamala Harris was chosen because she was the most corrupt of the women running. Harris should be disqualified by her involvement in the National Mortgage Settlement alone, not to mention other things.

The most corrupt members of Congress are the leaders: Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Charles Schumer. This is no secret. For at least 2 decades, Americans have been responding to polls by claiming that government is completely corrupt. The Congress also has a substantial population of goofballs like Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Adam Schiff.

The Democratic and Republican parties have abandoned the American family and serve only Wall Street, the big banks and other big corporations, the military industrial complex, and the world’s billionaires. Government is engaged in a massive looting operation designed for upward wealth redistribution. Everyone knows this, but little effort is ever made to stop it.

We have many things in the US and the world operating well beyond their “sell-by” date. Some of these are newspapers, network and cable TV, colleges and universities in their present form, monopolies and oligopolies, population growth anywhere, K Street, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the US Dollar as an international reserve currency, and the Federal Reserve. Likewise, the US political parties result from flaws in our procedures to choose political leadership and should never have come into existence in the first place. Our political parties, all of them, are starting to smell like a dead goat carcass after rotting for a number of days in the midsummer sun.

Some Progressives form what little is left of the intellectual part of the old Democratic Party. They hate Obama, detest Hillary, and are appalled that someone like Biden could be nominated for president. Chris Hedges could be considered a sedate and knowledgeable representative of this group, and he says that nothing can improve until Democrats stop voting for Democratic politicians. Jimmy Dore is an often-watched spokesman for this faction. He rants that even Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other top Democratic pols are worthless sellouts:

Republicans have a similar problem. The old Republican Party has been completely replaced by an organization alien to all the old Republican values. Many people are asking how an unrepentant, hardcore, serial rapist is considered to be an acceptable representative of Republican values. Stuart Stevens has written a recent book, “It Was All a Lie,” showing that Republican campaign rhetoric is a complete fraud designed, as always, to manipulate weak-minded voters. Some Republicans have formed a new organization called The Lincoln Project that they hope can prevent Trump’s reelection. The White House has been in chaos for four years. A senior Republican official: “At the best of times, Trumpworld operates with all the strategic direction of a chicken with its head cut off .” Anthony Scaramucci talks about how so many high level people who have worked for Trump are convinced that Trump lacks the executive and management skills needed to properly function in the role of president:

In 1952, the voters had to choose between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. These two had different strengths and weaknesses, but both were capable of leading the country. The voters had a win-win situation back then. Now we have a preordained lose-lose situation.

Consider previous presidents Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Kennedy. Historians have discussed in detail the faults of these men. Of course these presidents made mistakes and sometimes blunders as presidents, but the bottom line is that these were truly substantial individuals who could reasonably be considered for the presidency. Not one of them was focused on pillaging the national assets to give to rich friends.

The last four decades have given us Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump. These con-artists lack the intellect, knowledge, experience, and character to be president. We often see writers trying to rehabilitate the reputation of one of these presidents by “defining deviancy” way, way down. The nation must have some kind of serious mental illness to continue to puke up candidates like these. I think I’ve seen well over a thousand graphs showing different aspects of the country going into continuing decline since 1980. Americans younger than 50 must think, from their own experience, that presidents are supposed to be con-artists, and the disintegration of society must be perfectly normal.

The Gilded Age defined an earlier era of US history. Future historians will come up with a label for the corrupt era in which we now find ourselves. Like maybe “Decades of Debacle,” or “Age of the Con-artists,” or “Era of Endless Darkness.” Propose your own label.

Friends and family that I talk to are deeply pessimistic and even depressed about the future of the country. They know that corrupt politicians have put the nation into a deep hole that will take years of effort to escape. Trump and Biden are the dregs from the bottom of the barrel. There are numerous essays available on the many flaws of these two men. What’s more important is that there is little good that can be said about their suitability for the White House. Where are the abundance of essays telling us how great and wonderful they are? The best thing about Trump is that he is close to a do-nothing president, so he has yet to achieve the level of evil of presidents Cheney and Obama. The best thing about Biden is that he would be the first president in a long while who actually knows how the government works; the worst thing is that he is comfortable with and accepting of how the government currently works.

There are many political party cult members who worship empty-suited politicians like Hillary and Trump. They have turned off their analytical human minds and substituted-in programmed hive minds. Look for the noisy fools with all the colorful election paraphernalia, banners, and flags. Those poor lost souls will probably never be able to make that long voyage back to the real world. Fortunately, they make up a small part of the electorate, and they don’t influence the outcome of elections because they always vote the same way.

The Trump presidency has been a failure, as has every presidency for the last 55 years, and second terms are usually worse than the first. If Biden wins, his first half dozen nominations for cabinet secretaries will almost certainly demonstrate that his presidency will be a failure as well.

The majority of the electorate is in a quandary about the disgusting nature of this election. Once again, I see people trying to make sense out of choosing the lesser of two evil futures. But choosing the lesser of two evils means embracing evil. This choice also means accepting that 99% of American families will likely be even worse off in four years than their current precarious state, and the nation and its future will continue the slide toward ruin.

The current method of selecting political leadership has failed rather spectacularly time after time and needs a complete redesign.

[Dr. D]

@Michael Reid You don’t have to look that deep because it’s so obvious. It takes years of training at a higher institution to erase the common sense of a child. “Who ya gonna trust that the Emperor has beautiful clothes? Me or your lyin’ eyes?”

Yes, the debt is exponential. At $2T/year to keep the infinite compounding CLEARLY it is exponential. They need someone to blame since they all knew this would reach vertical in 40-45 years. They are not able to start the planned and expected world war. Therefore, last ditch: no time: pandemic: force austerity, steal all hard assets from the middle class in bankruptcy and cry “whooda knowd?” Restart the digital system with universal tracking. Not all these are going well, and the people are not buying the pandemic of 99.97% as a legitimate reason for a worldwide totalitarian state and the theft of all their freedoms and assets. They mostly would have in the much hoped and planned World War.

Generic, that’s just what I say all the time: you’re not going to be better than you are, you’re not going to outrun yourself. The government made of us is not going to be BETTER than us. It’s going to be worse. If the PEOPLE, us, are totally corrupt, selfish, derelict of honor and duty, Whiskey Tango do you think the elected representatives of the same corrupt, godless, faithless, shiftless country are going to do?

“They” R us. WE need to improve because you get the exact level of leaders you’re willing to tolerate. Apparently they’re a bunch of lazy chumps (as Biden says) who like the abused children of adult alcoholics, will tolerate anything and think they’re helpless. That they, the abused, are innocent as lambs because they won’t get off their duffs and say no. Cut them off. Blow them in. Say no. Kick them out. Take over the house and stand in their stead. Collectively, of course.

If every person in America was dedicated to their higher potential, higher things, working hard to improve themselves, their country, and their children — they way they used to for 200 years and the way immigrant children from Korea to Sierra Leone still do — the U.S. would be transformed overnight and have their pick of fine statesmen. Who are even literate. We won’t. People want to complain, not work, click their phone and order the other guy to do it ’cause it’s hard, people make fun of you, and they don’t wanna. So? You get what you get. But that’s YOU. That’s US. Not them.

As you can tell, I’m not popular at parties, and I can tell you we’re about to improve once I am. Love, Jeremiah. c/o King Zedekiah, Basement Level, Dungeon Suite 1.

[Michael Reid]

Thank you Dr. D

For helping me resolve the implosion of my worldview

[zerosum]

” If every person in America was dedicated to their higher potential, higher things, working hard to improve themselves, their country, and their children — they way they used to for 200 years “

I don’t agree – Being led by a representative of God has been tried. I don’t like it.

[John Day]

@sumac.carol
Certain protein segments on the virus are essential to it’s pathogenicity. The one they target with tests is the spile protein, that binds to the ACE-2 receptor. If that doesn’t staythe same, the virus is not infectious, so it fades away quickly. The CDC test that was a failure targeted 3 viral proteins, and if all 3 bands did not show up, they read it as negative. It was the only one licensed in the US. It had a lot of false negatives.
It was soo thorough that it failed too much.
The simple saliva tests can catch an infectiously high viral load pretty well. If they are cheap enough, you could test 3 times a week, and twice on Sunday, or something.
It is possible to make point of care tests. It has been done. Everybody could be issued 10/month and a bottle of vitamin-D.
This is not too complicated if you actually WANT Public Health.
I think somebody wants war-time fearful obedience.
I say “fear is the mind killer”, as did Frank Herbert’s characters in Dune.

[straightwalker]

@zerosum
I don’t understand. Did Dr D mention God? I thought it was a rant about taking personal responsibility for changing our situation. No?

[Arttua]

“Has there been a worse candidate in history than Joe Biden? ”
Yes, and he is running against him.
“I don’t have to tell you. You read the same newspapers I do. A President who has said if he doesn’t like the outcome of an election, he’ll simply not leave office, and is taken seriously enough that,”
” A striking example recently was the firing of the inspectors general when they started looking into the incredible swamp Trump created in Washington. This kind of thing goes on and on.”
“Trump, but the people around him are essentially creating an international alliance of extremely reactionary states, which can be controlled by the White House, which, of course, has shifted way far to the right, tearing up every international agreement, wrecking everything in sight.”
“United Nations’ sanctions are reinstituted against Iran. Why? Because he says so. The United States brought it to the Security Council and could get virtually no support. So therefore we reinstitute the United Nations’ sanctions unilaterally. That’s the Godfather talking. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. The same is true of every international agreement. The arms-control regime has been torn to shreds, with great danger to us as well as everyone else.”
“Well, having an arms-control regime is different than not having one. That’s a break, and it’s a break on one of the two most significant issues in human history. We’ve been living for seventy-five years under the shadow of possible nuclear destruction. The arms-control regime that’s been slowly built up over the years—Eisenhower’s Open Skies proposal, the Reagan-Gorbachev I.N.F. treaty, and other pieces—has mitigated the dangers. Trump has been tearing every piece of it to shreds. “

[zerosum]

@ straightwalker
No!
Christians follow one example to perfection.
Muslims follow a different path.
Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism follow other paths
What are the motivators in the USA. Read
https://classroom.synonym.com/the-religious-settlements-in-the-13-colonies-12086540.html

[John Day]

Fear, fear, fear.
Fear of the virus slowly transforming into the fear of a civil war, and then, perhaps, if the civil war stubbornly fails to appear, transforming back into the fear of the virus. Clearly, a relaxed, thinking, united population is horrible for business.
Someone wants us all to be on edge.
Someone wants us to accept the perpetual stress and the near inevitability of violence as the “new normal.”
Someone wants us to view the people with different political beliefs as a different species, unworthy of saving or compassion.
Someone wants is to beg for security and predictability.
Someone—whoever that someone is—is messing with our heads…
I choose to honor my heart and ask my heart to guide me because I have the power to choose it.
And so do you.
Without our fear and hate of others, they cannot win.    Tessa Fights Robots https://tessa.substack.com/p/we-have-the-power-to-refuse-the-fear?

[John Day]

Marxian analysis proves Antifa to be Fascist:

Plutocrat Violence and Election-Night Horror: Marxian Analysis Shows That Antifa Is Fascist

Election night and the weeks to follow will be met with a wave of violence larger than seen before. It will be difficult for those remaining on the left to understand that the Antifa foot soldiers are agents of capital, and not of labor. This is largely because of the gradual takeover of the left by new-left identity politics which crept slowly, and then rapidly, with May of 1968 and the Situationist moment being a key signifier.

We know that the FBI’s field offices which historically have infiltrated radical left-groups are also compromised, because we would otherwise see these FBI agents – whose work is often to act as agents provocateurs – to act as de-escalating agents urging calm from within the ranks of these fascistic Antifa outfits. We have not seen this, which is a key sign that the FBI at the very top is wrought with complicit activity, which incidentally is another piece of evidence in 5., above.

Perhaps it is ironic that Marxian analysis itself is best able to demonstrate that Antifa – whose members often describe themselves as Marxists (socialists, communists, etc.) – is in fact fascist.

The defense of the republic, of the bourgeois-democratic revolutionary gains of 1776-89 which were expanded in 1865, today rests upon election integrity, voter enfranchisement, and in a strange twist of fate, the Justice Department under AG Barr.

[Author]

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