A $1.9 trillion stimulus package was recently signed into law in the United States. Can such a stimulus bill, plus packages passed in other countries, really pull the world economy out of the downturn it has been in since 2020? I don’t think so.
The economy runs on energy, far more than it operates on growing debt. Our energy problems don’t appear to be fixable in the near term, such as six months or a year. Instead, the economy seems to be headed for a collapse of its debt bubble. Eventually, we may see a reset of the world financial system leading to fewer interchangeable currencies, far less international trade and falling production of goods and services. Some governments may collapse.
[1] What Is Debt?
I understand debt to be an indirect promise for future goods and services. These future goods and services can only be created if there are adequate supplies of the right kinds of energy and other materials, in the right places, to make these future goods and services.
I think of debt as being a time-shifting device. Indirectly, it is a promise that the economy will be able to provide as many, or more, goods and services in the future compared to what it does at the time the loan is taken out.
Common sense suggests that it is much easier to repay debt with interest in a growing economy than in a shrinking economy. Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff unexpectedly ran across this phenomenon in their 2008 working paper, This Time Is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises. They reported (p. 15), “It is notable that the non-defaulters, by and large, are all hugely successful growth stories.” In other words, their analysis of 800 years of governmental debt showed that default was almost inevitable if a country stopped growing or started shrinking.
The IMF estimates that the world economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020. There are many areas with even worse indications: Euro Area, -7.2%; United Kingdom, -10.0%; India, -8.0%; Mexico, -8.5%; and South Africa, -7.5%. If these situations cannot be turned around quickly, we should expect to see collapsing debt bubbles. Even the US, which shrank by 3.4%, needs a rapid return to growth if it is to keep its debt bubble inflated.
[2] The Inter-Relationship Among (a) Growing Debt, (b) Growing Energy Consumption and a (c) Growing Economy
When we are far from energy limits, growing debt seems to pull the economy along. This is a graphic I put together in 2018, explaining the situation. A small amount of debt is helpful to the system. But, if there gets to be too much debt, both oil prices and interest rates rise, bringing the braking system into action. The bicycle/economy rapidly slows.
Just as a two-wheeled bicycle needs to be going fast enough to stay upright, the economy needs to be growing rapidly enough for debt to do what it is intended to do. It takes energy supply to create the goods and services that the economy depends on.
If oil and other energy products are cheap to produce, their benefit will be widely available. Employers will be able to add more efficient machines, such as bigger tractors. These more efficient machines will act to leverage the human labor of the workers. The economy can grow rapidly, without the use of much debt. Figure 2 shows that the world oil price was $20 per barrel in 2020$, or even less, prior to 1974.
Figure 3 below shows the historical relationship between the growth in US energy consumption (red line) and the dollar increase in US debt growth required to add a dollar increase in GDP (blue line). This chart calculates ratios for five-year periods because ratios for individual years are unstable.
Based on Figure 3, the US average annual growth in energy consumption (red line) generally fell between 1951 and 2020. The quantity of debt that needed to be added to create an additional $1 dollar of GDP (blue line) has generally been rising.
According to Investopedia, Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. Notice that there is no mention of debt in this definition. If businesses or governments can find a way to make large amounts of credit available to borrowers who are not very credit worthy, it becomes easy to sell cars, motorcycles or homes to buyers who may never repay that debt. If the economy hits turbulence, these marginal buyers are likely to default, causing a collapse in a debt bubble.
[3] Analyzing Energy Consumption Growth, Debt Growth and Economic Growth for Broader Groupings of Years
To get a better idea what is happening with respect to energy growth, debt growth, and GDP growth, I created some broader groupings of years, based primarily on patterns in Figure 2, showing inflation-adjusted oil prices. The following groupings of years were chosen:
- 1950-1973
- 1974-1980
- 1981-2000
- 2001-2014
- 2015-2020
Using these groupings of years, I put together charts in which it is easier to see trends.
Figure 4 shows that for the US, there has been a general downward trend in the annual growth of energy consumption. At same time, real (that is, inflation-adjusted) GDP has been trending downward, but not quite as quickly.
We would expect that lower energy consumption would lead to lower growth in real GDP because it takes energy of the appropriate kinds to make goods and services. For example, it takes oil to ship most goods. It takes electricity to operate computers and keep the lights on. According to the World Coal Association, large quantities of coal are used in producing cement and steel. These are important for construction, such as is planned in stimulus projects around the world.
Also, on Figure 4, the period 1981 to 2000 shows an uptick in both energy consumption growth and real GDP growth. This period corresponds to a period of relatively low oil prices (Figure 2). With lower oil prices, businesses found it affordable to add new devices to leverage human labor, making workers more productive. The growing productivity of workers is at least part of what led to the increased growth in real GDP.
Figure 5, above, is disturbing. It strongly suggests that the US economy (and probably a lot of other economies) has needed to add an increasing amount of debt to add $1 of GDP in recent years. This pattern started long before President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package in 2021.
To make matters worse, GDP growth in Figure 5 has not been reduced to remove the impact of inflation. On average, removing the impact of inflation reduces the above GDP growth by about half. In the period 2015 to 2020, it took about $4.35 of additional debt to add one dollar of GDP growth, including inflation. It would take about double that amount, or $8.70 worth of debt, to create $1.00 worth of inflation-adjusted growth. With such a low return on added debt, it seems unlikely that the $1.9 trillion stimulus package will increase the growth of the economy very much.
[4] Falling interest rates (Figure 6) are a major part of what allowed the rapid growth in debt after 1981 shown in Figure 5.
Clearly, debt is more affordable if the interest rate is lower. For example, auto loans and home mortgages have lower monthly payments if the interest rate is lower. It is also clear that governments need to spend less of their tax revenue on interest rate payments if interest rates are lower. Changes made by US President Ronald Reagan when he took office 1981 also encouraged the use of more debt.
A major concern with respect to today’s debt bubble is the fact that interest rates are about as low as they can go without going negative. In fact, the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is now 1.72%, which is higher than the February 2021 average rate shown on the chart. As interest rates rise, it becomes more costly to add more debt. As interest rates rise, businesses will be less likely to take on debt in order to expand and hire more workers.
[5] Interest expense is a major expense of governments, businesses, and homeowners everywhere. Energy costs are another major expense of governments, businesses, and homeowners. It makes sense that falling interest rates can partly hide rising energy prices.
A trend toward lower interest rates was needed starting in 1981 because the US could no longer produce large amounts of crude oil that were profitable to sell at less than $20 per barrel, in inflation-adjusted prices. Lower interest rates made adding debt more feasible. This added debt could smooth the transition to an economy that was less dependent on oil, now that it was high-priced. The lower interest rates helped all segments of the economy adjust to the new higher cost of oil and other fuels.
[6] The US experience shows precisely how helpful having a rapidly growing supply of inexpensive to produce oil could be to an economy.
US oil production, excluding Alaska (blue “remainder” in Figure 7), rose rapidly after 1945 but began to decline not long after hitting a peak in 1970. This growing oil production had temporarily provided a huge boost to the US economy.
Up until almost 1970, US oil production was rising rapidly. Figure 8 shows that during this period, incomes of both the bottom 90% of workers and the top 10% of workers increased rapidly. Over a period of about 20 years, incomes for both groups grew by about 80%, after adjusting for inflation. On average, workers were about 4% better off each year, with the rapid growth in very inexpensive-to-produce oil, all of which stayed in the US (rather than being exported). US imports of inexpensive-to-produce oil also grew during this period.
Once oil prices were higher, income growth for both the lower 90% and the top 10% slowed. With the changes made starting in 1981, wage disparities quickly started to grow. There suddenly became a need for new, high-tech approaches that used less oil. But these changes were more helpful to the managers and highly educated workers than the bottom 90% of workers.
[7] Most of the world’s cheap-to-extract oil sources have now been exhausted. Our problem is that the world market cannot get prices to rise high enough for producers to cover all of their expenses, including taxes.
Based on my analysis, the world price of oil would need to be at least $120 per barrel to cover all of the costs it needs to cover. The costs that need to be covered include more items than an oil company would normally include in its costs estimates. The company needs to develop new fields to compensate for the ones that are being exhausted. It needs to pay interest on its debt. It also needs to pay dividends to its shareholders. In the case of shale producers, the price needs to be high enough that production outside of “sweet spots” can be carried on profitably.
For oil exporters, it is especially important that the sales price be high enough so that the government of the oil exporting country can collect adequate tax revenue. Otherwise, the exporting country will not be able to maintain food subsidy programs that the population depends on and public works programs that provide jobs.
[8] The world can add more debt, but it is difficult to see how the debt bubble that is created will really pull the world economy forward rapidly enough to keep the debt bubble from collapsing in the next year or two.
Many models are based on the assumption that the economy can easily go back to the growth rate it had, prior to COVID-19. There are several reasons why this seems unlikely:
- Many parts of the world economy weren’t really growing very rapidly prior to the pandemic. For example, shopping malls were doing poorly. Many airlines were in financial difficulty. Private passenger auto sales in China reached a peak in 2017 and have declined every year since.
- At the low oil prices prior to the pandemic, many oil producers (including the US) would need to reduce their production. The 2019 peak in shale production (shown in Figure 7) may prove to be the peak in US oil production because of low prices.
- Once people became accustomed to working from home, many of them really do not want to go back to a long commute.
- It is not clear that the pandemic is really going away, now that we have kept it around this long. New mutations keep appearing. Vaccines aren’t 100% effective.
- As I showed in Figure 5, adding more debt seems to be a very inefficient way of digging the economy out of a hole. What is really needed is a growing supply of oil that can be produced and sold profitably for less than $20 per barrel. Other types of energy need to be similarly inexpensive.
I should note that intermittent wind and solar energy is not an adequate substitute for oil. It is not even an adequate substitute for “dispatchable” electricity production. It is simply an energy product that has been sufficiently subsidized that it can often make money for its producers. It also sounds good, if it is referred to as “clean energy.” Unfortunately, its true value is lower than its cost of production.
[9] What’s Ahead?
I expect that oil prices will rise a bit, but not enough to raise prices to the level producers require. Interest rates will continue to rise as governments around the world attempt more stimulus. With these higher interest rates and higher oil prices, businesses will do less and less well. This will slow the economy enough that debt defaults become a major problem. Within a few months to a year, the worldwide debt bubble will start to collapse, bringing oil prices down by more than 50%. Stock market prices and prices of buildings of all kinds will fall in inflation-adjusted dollars. Many bonds will prove to be worthless. There will be problems with empty shelves in stores and gasoline stations with no products to sell.
People will start to see that while debt is a promise for the equivalent of future goods and services, it is not necessarily the case that those who make the promises will be able to stand behind these promises. Paper wealth generally can be expected to lose its value.
I can imagine a situation, not too many years from now, when countries everywhere will establish new currencies that are not as easily interchangeable with other currencies as today’s currencies are. International trade will dramatically fall. The standard of living of most people will fall precipitously.
I doubt that the new currencies will be electronic currencies. Keeping the electricity on is a difficult task in economies that increasingly need to rely solely on local resources. Electricity may be out for months at a time after an equipment failure or a storm. Having a currency that depends on electricity alone would be a poor idea.
“Emerging-Market Stocks Are Close to Wiping Out This Year’s Gains:
“The surge in U.S. yields and a wave of monetary tightening in nations from Brazil to Russia this month is raising concern the rally in emerging stocks can’t be sustained.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-25/emerging-market-stocks-are-close-to-wiping-out-this-year-s-gains
“Turkish banks have $88.7 billion in short term, foreign currency, external debts maturing in the next year, according to Capital Economics, equivalent to about 12% of its gross domestic product.
“In past years, banks have been able to roll over those loans to the future, but the shake-up in confidence has some worried that institutions will want repayment and not push back loans.
““This is a kind of event that can be the trigger of a balance of payments crisis because now the credibility to me seems to be lost,” said Nikolay Markov, a senior economist at Pictet Asset Management.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-history-of-erratic-economic-policy-erdogan-plunges-turkey-into-fresh-turmoil-11616599501
“The Banking Association of South Africa has warned that land expropriation without compensation could pose a significant risk to the banking sector.”
https://businesstech.co.za/news/banking/478233/land-expropriation-threatens-to-destabilise-south-africas-banking-sector/
“India’s government is considering resuming fresh bankruptcy filings after the current suspension expires on March 25, people with knowledge of the matter said.
“The lifting of the halt would come even as a resurgence in virus cases threatens the nascent economic recovery. It could spark a wave of new insolvencies…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/india-likely-to-resume-new-bankruptcy-filings-after-halt-expires
India is one of the countries that had big problems coming into the COVID-19 crisis.
The big issue is falling property values and the impact this has on the ability of borrowers to repay debt with interest.
Raising interest rates in emerging nations from Brazil to Russia will make debt harder to get in those countries, squeezing back those economies. In theory, the higher rates will raise the level their currencies relative to the US dollar, making oil and other commodities more affordable.
Brazil and Russia?
About as far away from each other as possible.
Russia has vast resources, imports very little, and has a well educated population.
Plus, if he US needs to get to the space station over the last 10+ years, they needed to get a ride with the Russians.
Brazil– take a look.
It could take weeks to reopen the Suez Canal, salvage experts say
Freeing the vessel “can take from days to weeks, depending on what we will be confronted with, Peter Berdowski, chief executive officer of SMIT’s parent company Boskalis Westminster, said in an interview on the Nieuwsuur TV program in the Netherlands on Wednesday “I can’t exclude that it can last weeks if the ship is really stuck and you need to get rid of cargo and you need to do dredging.”
“Dislodging a grounded ultra-large container ship in the Suez Canal will be challenging due to the confined nature of the canal’s shipping channel,” said Rockford Weitz, director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program at Tufts University. “This presents additional complications in comparison to a grounding on a reef or shoal.”
The best chance for returning shipping to normal may not come until Sunday or Monday, when the tide will reach a peak, according to Nick Sloane, the salvage master responsible for re-floating the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that capsized on the coast of Italy in 2012.
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/3/25/it-could-take-weeks-to-reopen-the-suez-canal-salvage-experts-say
Planners don’t think about what could go wrong when businesses decide to use bigger and bigger container ships to transport goods through narrow canals. The situation reminds a person of the inadequate planning for the Fukushima nuclear disaster. No one had thought through the disruption of a major tsunami that might take out back up electrical generation. Engineers thought that they had every problem considered, but they really hadn’t. These big ships can become “un-steerable” in bad weather.
‘Discriminatory’: Boris Johnson hit by pub vaccine passport backlash
MPs and drinks bosses unite to attack ‘bonkers’ jab certificate plan
Boris Johnson tried to take the heat out of a growing backlash against vaccine passports on Thursday by hinting they would not be used to gain entry to pubs until “absolutely everybody” has been offered the jab.
“I do think there is going to be a role for certification,” he told reporters, but then went on to hint that any scheme would be delayed until the national vaccine rollout was completed.
“There are lots of difficult issues because there are some people who for medical reasons can’t get a vaccination, pregnant women can’t get a vaccination at the moment, you’ve got to be careful about how you do this,” he said.
“You might only be able to implement a thorough-going vaccination passport scheme even if you wanted such a thing in the context of when absolutely everybody had been offered a vaccine.”
The Prime Minister’s words came after a backlash grew among MPs, pub landlords and even scientists over a suggestion he made that pubs may be allowed to ban drinkers who fail to show a Covid vaccine certificate or pass a test.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-hit-pub-covid-vaccine-passport-backlash-b926224.html
Bottlenecks at California ports delay farm exports
Despite mounting calls for federal maritime regulators to address congestion, delays and shipping challenges at U.S. ports, California agricultural exporters say they have yet to see any relief.
Since last fall, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association has reported a surge in cargo volumes that has kept shipping containers sitting longer at California ports. With a reduced port workforce due to the pandemic and related slowdowns, exporters say bottlenecks have held up California agricultural shipments—leading to canceled bookings, increased costs and concerns about lost export business.
Because unloading and reloading ships takes much longer and export companies in Asia urgently need containers to ship more goods to the U.S., shipping lines have reportedly been leaving U.S. ports more often without refilling empty containers with American products, including declining to take agricultural exports.
Peter Schneider, president of Fresno-based TGS Logistics, said this is because ocean carriers can now be paid up to $10,000 for a container shipped from China to the U.S., whereas export cargo of U.S. agricultural commodities such as cotton fetches roughly $200 to $600.
“Right now, it’s just an absolute nightmare,” said Jim Zion, managing partner of Meridian Growers in Fresno, which exports tree nuts.
In addition to a shortage of containers and equipment to move products onto ships, Zion said some freight rates have doubled.
Even if he can get a booking, he said, ships will either be delayed or the carrier will outright deny a container, with some ships bypassing ports with no notification. The product then sits at the port incurring detention and demurrage fees, “adding insult to injury,” he added.
https://agalert.com/story/?id=14848
This is a big part of the problem:
” ocean carriers can now be paid up to $10,000 for a container shipped from China to the U.S., whereas export cargo of U.S. agricultural commodities such as cotton fetches roughly $200 to $600.”
A cargo of cheap commodities cannot afford the high prices that the ship-owners can get elsewhere. It would raise the selling price of the commodities too much. So the ship comes back empty. On the return voyage, it gets a high enough rate to make up for the loss of revenue the other direction.
Miami Heat to Create Vaccinated-Only Sections for Fans with Lenient COVID Precautions
Miami Heat fans who are vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to sit in a special section for games beginning on April 1.
The team told the Associated Press Tuesday that two sections in the lower bowl of the American Airlines Arena will be dedicated to fully vaccinated fans.
The Heat is the first team to implement a vaccine section, just a week after the NBA told teams they could do these special sections in accordance with local and state health and safety guidelines, per AP.
Vaccinated spectators who choose to be in those sections will have to show proof that their final vaccine was administered at least 14 days prior to the game they attend.
COVID-19 precautions will still be enforced, but at a more lenient level.
A rep for the Miami Heat did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
https://people.com/sports/miami-heat-create-vaccinated-only-sections-fans/
Ha ha… A section for CovIDIOTS.
Gawd….
Reminds me of the dealer I bought a car from a few months ago … he says you get a free membership in The Club… I’m like what club is that… The Car Club for people with the same kinda cars… it’s a perk he said…
Oh I said… why would I want to be in a club and hang around people just because we have the same kind of car? Sounds like a club full of pompous wankers… hahaha .. just kidding… I’ll take a pass on The Club membership though — all I care about is going fast.
https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-covid-19-its-impact-and-origins-after-one-year/
Ron Unz is in the top-tier for meta-analysis on all things Covid. The fact that his article is running basically side-by-side with Mike Whitney’s is a testament to his site. The 948 comments under Ron’s article are representative of an eco-system of often deeper-thought than whatever article is under discussion, many honest disagreements and the inevitable trolls. What I haven’t read there is an understanding of what Tim Watkins presents regarding what the Great Reset Conspiracy Buffs are missing; and/or what Gail is elucidating so clearly over here. It’s interesting the energy part of the equation is not more well known and brought into previously thought-to-be-unrelated discussions.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2020/11/27/the-real-great-reset/
According to Ron Unz, the plan was:
(1) Rogue elements within our [US] large national security apparatus probably affiliated with the Deep State Neocons decided to inflict severe damage upon the huge Chinese economy using biowarfare. The plan was to infect the key transport hub of Wuhan with Covid-19 so that the disease would invisibly spread throughout the entire country during the annual Lunar New Year travels.
(2) The biological agent they released was designed primarily as an anti-economy rather than an anti-personnel weapon… once it established itself throughout most of China, it would be extremely difficult to eradicate and the resulting efforts to control it would inflict enormous damage upon China’s economy and society.
(3) As a secondary operation, they decided to target Iran’s political elites, possibly deploying a somewhat more deadly variant of the virus.
(4) The deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks in East Asia and the Near East had never significantly spread back to America (or Europe), so the plotters wrongly assumed that the same would be the case with Covid-19. Anyway, since international organizations always ranked the US and Europe as having the best and most effective public health systems for combating any disease epidemic, they believed that any possible blowback damage would be very minor.
(5) Only a small number of individuals were directly involved in this plot, and soon after the disease was successfully released in Wuhan, they decided to further safeguard America’s own interests by alerting the appropriate units with the Defense Intelligence Agency, probably by fabricating some sort of supposed “intelligence leak.” Basically, they arranged for the DIA to hear that Wuhan was apparently suffering a “cataclysmic” disease outbreak, thereby leading the DIA to prepare and distribute a secret report warning our own forces and allies to take appropriate precautions.
(6) Unfortunately for these plans, the Chinese government reacted with astonishing determination and effectiveness, and soon stamped out the disease. Meanwhile, the lackadaisical and incompetent American government largely ignored the problem, only reacting after the massive outbreak in Northern Italy had gotten media attention.
I don’t know whether this was the plan or not. People making plans do make a lot of wrong assumptions.
@Gail, thanks for the summary!
The whole fabrication in the article does not pass the simplest of the smell tests.
If this whole thing was done to damage China’s economy, why did the rest of the world overreact so absurdly? We know the mortality rates of the virus.
Even assuming they panicked, why do they continue with all the extreme measures when the pandemic is over? Right now we have “cases” but no deaths.
This crisis showed clearly that most people’s minds are so hardened and unable to learn that they project their ideology on anything that happens.
This is true of the right-wingers obsessed with the depop agenda (as they were since the 50s) and it’s even more true about the people on the left that are convinced that wearing a mask is “heroism” and big govt will save them.
Why did Covid not really spread beyond Wuhan… millions of people from Hubei flooded out of that province during CNYr last year…
If the US wanted to wreck China – easily done – deny them USD.
(Gail) – “Within a few months to a year, the worldwide debt bubble will start to collapse, bringing oil prices down by more than 50%. Stock market prices and prices of buildings of all kinds will fall in inflation-adjusted dollars. Many bonds will prove to be worthless. There will be problems with empty shelves in stores and gasoline stations with no products to sell.”
Just listened to a Rick Ackerman interview. He agrees that deflation is baked-in-the-cake and the denouement is fairly imminent. He’s thinking that house prices fall up to 90% by the end of it (watch out for trying to catch falling-knives, this is going to last a long time says Rick) and banks will end-up renegotiating mortgages into leases. Thinks that the monetary-largesse of late is a mere drop in the bucket, relative to the size of the real problem, much of it Ponzi-leveraged, and exacerbated by over a quadrillion in derivative-contracts. Makes a couple of fine distinctions regarding the [mis] understanding of inflation and elaborates how there is no way that pensions can be bailed-out by ‘printing’. Start with Illinois and 22 other states are immediately in line. We’d have hyperinflation in a matter of months, making it all moot. No, like his mentor C.V. Myers said – ‘Every penny of debt will be paid, either by the borrower or the lender’. In that sense I guess the lender is the pensioner who was looking for a return on savings. It sounds like every kind of contract is going to end-up being re-negotiated. Detroit led the way in 2013. Every stakeholder in that disaster took a hit (except the lawyers).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_bankruptcy
The fundamental problem is that the goods and services that need to be shared are disappearing, as energy supplies contract. No amount of money printing can fix this. Social Security programs and promises of healthcare also fall by the wayside.
Portentous Sign: Covid Cases Spike in a Dozen States With High Vaccination Rates Which May Signal a Feared Health Catastrophe
Virologists and public health authorities aren’t publicly saying what this means, at least not yet… but they know there may be something very ominous unfolding. Something virologists all feared.
Something that must be kept hush-hush until vaccine makers inoculate the world and make their billions of dollars and national leaders reach their political goals. But politicians just may end up taking blame, not credit, for a health catastrophe of unprecedented proportion.
The fact COVID cases are spiking in a dozen States with high vaccination rates may indicate vaccination is spawning viral mutations that turn vaccinated individuals into superspreaders. The vaccine suppresses symptoms but fails to halt transmission.
A vaccine-induced health catastrophe may be unfolding. It is something journalist Mike Whitney recently called “Satan’s Poker.” It is what mathematicians in France recently feared in their analysis of the future course of the COVID pandemic.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/no_author/portentous-sign-covid-cases-spike-in-a-dozen-states-with-high-vaccination-rates-which-may-signal-a-feared-health-catastrophe/
Ha! As Geert v Bossche says, it’s just basic biology.
I should say we have the right to demand that the vaccinated should be locked up, so that we – the sane and intelligent – can work, socialize and travel without fear of bumping into a mass of super-spreaders.
Green Pass = Leper.
Ha ha. I wish.
Can I refuse to take any passengers who insist on wearing a mask too please?
I didn’t see where it was masks that were the problem.
The masks are just a symbol – like the nazi armbands.
Would you allow a nazi armband wearer in your taxi?
Yes, if all he did was wear a nazi armband. As you say, it’s just a symbol. I remember teaching art at a summer camp, and having a couple of f ups drawing swastikas. I shouted at them to stop it. That didn’t feel right even then. I’m sure it changed nothing. And I wouldn’t do that now. But I would engage them in some sort of conversation. In the case of masks in my taxi, that would translate to a rye (sp) comment or two. Nothing to make their alarm bells go off. sarcasm maybe.
ForeverGone has a very interesting reply to the Mike Whitney article at UNZ Review.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/operation-vaxx-all-deplorables-codename-satans-poker/#comment-4527747
As a direct result of Marek’s disease vaccine selecting the most virulent strains for replication, the mortality rate today for unvaccinated chickens that get infected is 100%.
No vaccine? You die.
One shot of vaccine enough? No. You’ll have to be inoculated at least twice a year. Refuse, you die.
Or…. we vaccine enough people to create the most virulent strains of Covid… then we don’t give them anymore shots (or placebos)… and everyone dies?
This does sound like a problem:
“As a direct result of Marek’s disease vaccine selecting the most virulent strains for replication, the mortality rate today for unvaccinated chickens that get infected is 100%.”
So perhaps (over the long run) humans need to get vaccinated, even if there are problems with the vaccines. At least the problems with the vaccines are likely to be less than the 100% mortality rate of the unvaccinated. Of course, in a declining economy, we won’t be able to keep up our vaccinating capability so that over the long run, the protection of the vaccines will be less and less. The vaccinated will become more and more like the unvaccinated, except that the vaccinated will have more of the adverse impacts of the vaccines.
The known unknown…
Are these vaccines engineered to result in Devil’s Covid(s)… but unlike the Marek’s vaccine… not be powerful enough to protect against the Devil’s Covid(s)….
We do not know enough about the Marek’s vaccine … is that being updated regularly as new strains emerge?
Is it possible to create a leaky vaccine that would cause mutations that the vaccine would not protect against?
Known knowns…
We do know that the Covid PR Team is prepping us for deadly variants (Devil’s Covid and Nightmare Scenario stories abound)…. the Leak also referencing a worsening situation…
We’ve got Vanden Bossche risking his career (it would seem) speaking out against the vaccines and warning of a bioweapon being the result of using leaky vaccines during a pandemic.
We know it takes years to test a vaccine.
We know that most people have no upside from taking a covid vaccine because it only prevents the worst symptoms (even that is disputed)… and unless you are half dead covid = a mild flu or cold…. so why would we be hell bent on getting this into 8B people?
It would make sense to get vaxxed… because the unvaxxed will be the ones who die from the Devil Covid first….
And the CovIDIOTS who are vaxxed up will be saying — I TOLD YOU SO!
But of course they won’t get the boosters… and they’ll die a few months later.
How dark is that????
Perhaps this article is correct and perhaps it isn’t.
I checked the CDC link, and it related to deaths in the first three months after Covid hit the US, even before vaccines became available. I didn’t understand that this was what the article referred to. There were a lot of COVID cases that weren’t coded as COVID back them. Also, people who didn’t go to the hospital for heart attacks or diabetic emergencies.
I am afraid the authors are pushing a bit too hard for the result they want.
Maybe they should pay commissions for every person you convince to take the lethal jab?
They could send CovDIOTS onto the streets with the jabs and have them do the job right then and there… $50 per victim.
A stooopid donkey is smarter
Better yet, have ’em use the pressure-injection ‘guns’ like we did for the Swine Flu in 1976. I was doing maintenance on those at a hospital in Detroit. They brought tons of nurses out of retirement to staff-up for that vaccine mobilization and the training was slim. You have to bunch-up the flesh and hit it at a 90-degree angle or you can lacerate the arm. Well, that’s what was happening at the front of the line on opening day and it was a hoot seeing people peel-off and decide not to risk it after seeing the blood-and-bandage thing.
Let’s check in on the CovIDIOTS in Israel… wow – they allowed 500 people into a concert… why only 500? They are all vaxxed so surely it’s ok to fill up the stadium?
Giving away pizza and drinks to vaxxers… might be a job for you their Duncan… they are hiring carnival barkers (CovIDIOTS) to encourage others to encourage non IDIOTS to join the cult.
https://youtu.be/3fk8s5hGoHk
Another mainstream news hit piece on the subject of vaccines.
12 prominent people opposed to vaccines are responsible for two-thirds of anti-vaccine content online: report
Misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccine is threatening public health efforts to inoculate Americans against the virus.
They’ve been dubbed the “Disinformation Dozen”: 12 individuals or organizations are tied to up to 65 percent of anti-vaccine content circulating on major social media networking sites, according to an analysis of popular anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter.
“Disinformation has become a direct threat to public health,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which released the report in partnership with the Anti-Vax Watch, in a release. “In the midst of a global pandemic, the Anti-Vaccine Industry has executed a targeted campaign to mislead Americans about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. Social media is enabling anti-vaxxers to recruit millions of Americans and indoctrinate them with fear and doubt. If Big Tech companies don’t act now, the pandemic will be prolonged, and more lives will be lost.”
The report accuses Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who was banned from Instagram last month — Joseph Mercola, Ty and Charlene Bollinger — whose Twitter accounts were briefly suspended at the beginning of the pandemic — Sherri Tenpenny, Rizza Islam, Rashid Buttar, Erin Elizabeth, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan, Christiane Northrup, Ben Tapper and Kevin Jenkins of spreading disinformation and claims that their social media accounts “have repeatedly violated Facebook and Twitter’s terms of service agreements.” And the CCDH has receipts — the report is full of screenshots of “example violations” that range from misleading to antisemitic.
Several of these users have responded online, calling the report a “hitlist” and accusing the CCDH of trying to “control us with tricks & lies.”
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/544712-twelve-anti-vaxxers-are-responsible-for-two
There is a saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I wonder if the person writing this article was really a person opposed to vaccines. This person may have thought, “How can I provide people a list of researchers that they should look for if they want to hear the other side of the story? Perhaps if I write a story about how awful they are, I can get the story placed.”
A little more on the Devil Covid that may be brewing in India……..
A scientist who spoke with the BBC explained why the double-mutation could make the strain more infectious, and more virulent.
A double mutation, virologist Shahid Jameel explains, is “two mutations coming together in the same virus”
“A double mutation in the key areas of the virus’s spike protein may increase these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system and make it more infectious,” he adds.
Spike protein is the part of the virus that it uses to penetrate human cells.
The government said that an analysis of the samples collected from India’s western Maharashtra state shows “an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations” compared with December last year.
“Such [double] mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Dr Jameel added that “there may be a separate lineage developing in India with the L452R and E484Q mutations coming together”.
But the government denied that the rise in case numbers was linked to the mutations.
“Though VOCs [variants of concern] and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/india-discovers-first-double-mutant-covid-strain
I was curious what hobgoblins come after variants and mutations. It seems to be double-mutations.
Not impressed.
Perhaps it has to do with these mutations coming together in a key areas of the virus’s spike protein.
LONDON, Jan. 7 (UPI) — Emergency rooms across England are filled beyond capacity after years of government spending cuts combined with the winter cold season, which has caused a “humanitarian crisis” according to the Red Cross, which has stepped in to help in several communities.
Experts said Britain’s National Health Service is underfunded after cuts made under the austerity government of former Prime Minister David Cameron had a wide impact on the health care system. In-home care and nursing homes that helped alleviate the burden on emergency rooms bore the brunt of funding cuts.
Now, many of those elderly patients without other options are turning up at hospitals, overwhelming a system meant to deal with severe injuries and illnesses.
While government officials rejected the Red Cross calling the situation a “humanitarian crisis,” officials acknowledged emergency rooms across the country are, in some instances, failing to meet even the most basic patient needs.
The BBC reported some people were forced to wait nearly a day before receiving care. Others were left stuck in hospital beds for lack of ambulance transportation home. Some patients said they were discharged without being given any way to get home, or even any clothes beyond a hospital gown.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/01/07/Britains-emergency-rooms-overwhelmed-amid-funding-cuts-flu-season/6671483820976/
That’s from 2017… btw….
Only a genius would have thought to look in the rear-view mirror … drum-roll … “and with a subtle touch, he adjusts the mirror ever-so-slightly to give the casual reader a clear view of the train-wreck piling-up rapidly from behind”. Hat’s off to Fast Eddy!!
I will reveal the trick…
Some months ago I was trying to research what happened previously with coronavirus vaccines… it was almost impossible because the searches are massively cluttered with positive articles on Covid vaccines… almost as if someone does not want the old stuff to be found.
So what I did was I searched based on time — and filtered 2000 – 2018…. it’s like going back in time when Covid did not exist (actually it did exist — in a lab — and trials were being conducted on vaccines..but that was all top secret)….
And look what I found — jack pot! Even Fauci is mentioned … https://www.wired.com/2003/05/feds-race-to-make-sars-vaccine/
Of course it requires a 1000 IQ to think of this ‘trick’
A cynic might suspect that those cuts were made precisely to ensure that the NHS would have to be saved from being ‘overwhelmed’ by Covid.
Perish the thought! That would imply long-term planning and deep malevolence -it cannot be…..
New analysis for the report finds that the total number of NHS hospital beds1 in England has more than halved over the past 30 years, from around 299,000 to 142,000
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/press/press-releases/hospital-bed-cuts
The population of England has reduced by half in the past 30 years so this makes total sense… …. …..
The people in the know… would know … when oil was going to become a problem… and like any good board… they’d have a long term plan… in place….
What a place in which to end one’s days, Boris Johnson’s Illuminati genocidal Britain!
RIP, UK plc – DNR………..
No wonder there is such a problem with the health service being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Saudi Arabia: Compulsory COVID-19 vaccine for all transport workers
Decision covers all workers in public transport services, including train and bus drivers
Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s Public Transport Authority on Tuesday announced that the COVID-19 vaccination will be mandatory for all workers in public transport services as of May 13, local media reported.
The authority said that all workers and drivers in public transport services, including drivers of trains and buses, will be given the vaccine.
Those who do not comply with the new rule are required to submit a negative PCR test every seven days at the expense of the institution they are working for.
The authority instructed all operators of public transport to start vaccinating their employees before the date of mandatory enforcement of the new rule.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-compulsory-covid-19-vaccine-for-all-transport-workers-1.1616540936158
British university criticized for planned life-size Greta Thunberg statue
A British university is drawing fire for its plans to erect a life-sized statue of 18-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on its Hampshire campus, according to a report.
Winchester University plans to unveil the likeness of the spunky environmental activist on March 30 — but has some questioning why.
“What a total waste of money,” local resident Simon Dixon told the Hampshire Chronicle. “Total waste of money. I wonder whose bright idea that was.”
University student Henry Osbourne wondered why he and others at the school “weren’t given a vote over who to have a statue of?”
“I think the statue sculpture itself is very good,” added Hampshire reader Michelle Coombs. “But Greta has no connection with Winchester, or am I wrong?”
https://nypost.com/2021/03/24/uk-university-criticized-for-planned-greta-thunberg-statue/
Here’s a list of businesses that sponsor the CDC foundation as partners to coerce your medical choices for uptake of experimental drugs.
https://www.cdcfoundation.org/partner-list/corporations
Theranos is on the list.
Who had “variants will be used to prolong this tyranny”? You win!
“With coronavirus mutations pitted against vaccinations in a global arms race, we may never go back to normal.”
We Must Start Planning For a Permanent Pandemic
With coronavirus mutations pitted against vaccinations in a global arms race, we may never go back to normal.
For the past year, an assumption — sometimes explicit, often tacit — has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we’ll go “back to normal.”
This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even if it peters out eventually, our lives and routines will by then have changed irreversibly. Going “back” won’t be an option; the only way is forward. But to what exactly?
Most epidemics disappear once populations achieve herd immunity and the pathogen has too few vulnerable bodies available as hosts for its self-propagation. This herd protection comes about through the combination of natural immunity in people who’ve recovered from infection and vaccination of the remaining population.
In the case of SARS-CoV-2, however, recent developments suggest that we may never achieve herd immunity. Even the U.S., which leads most other countries in vaccinations and already had large outbreaks, won’t get there. That’s the upshot of an analysis by Christopher Murray at the University of Washington and Peter Piot at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-24/when-will-covid-end-we-must-start-planning-for-a-permanent-pandemic
“Who had “variants will be used to prolong this tyranny”? You win!”
I did, and so did many others here at OFW and elsewhere.
we were debating this in early 2020, that it was a coronavirus, and so like the common cold, it might always be circulating.
and of course it’s pretty much basic knowledge that viruses mutate.
Oh! what a surprise! the virus is mutating in 2021.
(I went wrong last summer when I took a Stanford professor at his word that the contagion was winding down. Now, with more time and data, it looks likely that it is here to stay.)
there’s no C theeeory needed to accept that the virus is mutating, and may become endemic.
No c theory needed either when all governments of N.America & Europe are strongly pushing their population to take experimental vaccines that are already proven to be more lethal than the disease itself I suppose ?
The only blind man is he who does not wish to see.
Exactly. Plus, except for one or two exceptions, they bring in the same nonsensical restrictions at roughly the same time and even come out with the same slogans. It’s crystal clear they are all executing the same plan to order.
Exactly, Yorchichan. But with slight variations between countries -even no lock-down like Sweden – to cover their trails and to make it all look as though it’s spontaneous policy , and ‘following the science…..
But one cannot brush out such elephant-sized prints!
There were many people at Auschwitz who refused to accept their situation, even though ash fell on their heads, they could see the chimneys smoking and flaring, people disappeared never to return, and the drums of poison openly lay around them…..
Were they all stupid? Hardly, the brain simply refuses to accept something so terrible, above all when one is powerless to do anything.
We must acknowledge that the half-loony, wild-eyed, conspiracy theorists, who appeared on YT last year shouting ‘It’s starting, I told you, it’s here!’ were mostly correct in their warnings all along.
I don’t get it. Flu has been around for a long time, and at least here in the UK millions get vaccinated for it every autumn. But no super-deadly flu virus has ever evolved, and I don’t remember anyone ever raising evolving super-deadly strains as an issue. Why is it an issue with sars-cov-2, but never was with flu?
Not the same type of vaccine….
mRNA?
V. Bossche says that it is the way in which the mRNA pseudo-vaccines work that leads to this dire result, and doing the injecting bang in the middle of the infectious season.
But mRNA injections are what the planners want inside us to assimilate us into their new digitised state and economy.
They have, indeed, most probably planned for these mutations, but may have been over-sanguine about them – it could get out of their control.
If so, they will be brought down by their own arrogance.
Thanks. Difficult to keep up with so much info available.
Flu vaccine works poorly, for one thing.
‘Leaky’ Vaccines May Fuel Evolution of Deadlier Viruses
Some vaccines may cause viruses to evolve into deadlier forms, a new study suggests.
Chickens that are vaccinated against a strain of Herpes known as Marek’s virus may allow the unvaccinated birds in the flock to catch a deadlier version of the same virus.
The effect has so far been demonstrated with just one bird virus, though it’s possible it may also occur with some human vaccines, the researchers said. Still, among humans, the evolution of the virus into a deadlier strain would only be possible in cases where vaccinated people can still spread a virus even if they show no symptoms of disease, as is the case for some newer human vaccines, such as whooping cough.
https://www.livescience.com/51682-vaccines-evolve-deadlier-viruses.html
‘Some’ not all….
Covid is an engineered virus…. (Dr Luc Montagnier Nobel Prize winning virologist insists so)…
How difficult would it be to create a virus that would mimic something like Marek…. a virus that would mutate into a deadly form when confronted by a leaky vaccine….
Luc mentions in one interview how Covid was made by splicing DNA from more than one wild virus… he was absolutely certain that what he analysed was some sort of hybrid and that it could not exist in this form in nature.
Keep in mind Covid will eventually wane … eventually the fear will wear off… so shall we assume that Devil’s Covid story is not just another PR gimmick to perpetuate the fear… but rather it’s anticipating a truly deadly strain of Covid… that is being created right now … by the leaky vaccines that are being distributed globally?
Also recall that Trudeau made that slip suggesting variants were ‘under development’ … that video is impossible to locate…. I had it saved somewhere but can’t find it … a google search brings nothing….
Did he mean that the leaky vaccines are being injected… and we are waiting for the to do their job and create deadly mutations of Covid?
Tick Tock?
Here’s the VIDEO Fast Eddy:
TRUDEAU ADMITS VARIANTS ARE BEING DEVELOPED
https://www.bitchute.com/video/uLStFKAw8Okm/
Better quality VIDEO of Trudeau saying variants are being developed:
https://odysee.com/@TopShelfAnarchy:4/Trudeau-covid-pandemic:b
“10% of the world’s commerce goes through the Suez Canal, so if it stays closed for a month about 1% of the economy of the planet will be pinned up.”
Maritime historian Dr Sal Mercogliano explains the importance of reopening the Suez Canal.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1374798856504885254
>>so if it stays closed for a month about 1% of the economy of the planet will be pinned up.
1% averaged over a year. Or nearer 10% over the here-and-now month, or week.
Stranded Suez ship’s owner, insurers face millions in claims
LONDON (Reuters) – The owner and insurers of one of the world’s largest container ships stuck in the Suez Canal face claims totalling millions of dollars even if the ship is refloated quickly, industry sources said on Wednesday.
The 400-metre, 224,000-tonne Ever Given ran aground on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement, threatening to disrupt global shipments for days.
GAC, a Dubai-based marine services company, said authorities were still working to free the ship mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and that information it had received earlier claiming the vessel was partially refloated was inaccurate.
The ship’s owner, Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, and its insurers could face claims from the SCA for loss of revenue and from other ships whose passage has been disrupted, insurers and brokers said.
“All roads lead back to the vessel,” said David Smith, head of marine at insurance broker McGill and Partners.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-suezcanal-ship-insurance/stranded-suez-ships-owner-insurers-face-millions-in-claims-idUSKBN2BG31A
As a practical matter, there is a cap on the amount that can be collected from the insurer and its reinsurers. In fact, much of the coverage might be in a self-insurance “pool.”
Lawmakers ask Biden to issue waiver to make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for members of military
(CNN)A group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that he issue a “waiver of informed consent” to make getting vaccinated against Covid-19 mandatory for all US military service members.
CNN obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent on Wednesday from a congressional aide.
Currently the Department of Defense cannot make vaccinations mandatory because they have only been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. A waiver from the President could bypass that rule.
Seven Democratic members of Congress signed the letter, including House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. James McGovern and House Armed Services Committee members Rep. Jimmy Panetta, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, Rep. Sara Jacobs and Rep. Marc Veasey. Rep. Panetta is the son of former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Rep. Cindy Axne and Rep. Jahana Hayes, who do not serve on the House Armed Services Committee, also signed the letter.
The Department of Defense has said publicly that the opt-out rate among service members eligible to be vaccinated is about 33%, but last week military officials and service members CNN spoke with from several bases and units across the country suggest the current rejection rate may be closer to 50%.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/politics/congress-letter-military-vaccine/index.html
Millions of tenants could get evicted again in 7 days, but Biden may extend the ban through at least July
The federal eviction moratorium that President Joe Biden extended on his first day in office is set to expire in seven days, but two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the White House may extend the ban through at least July.
This would help the Americans who have not yet received stimulus aid.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one in five renters is behind on rent, and over 10 million Americans have fallen behind on mortgage payments since COVID-19 began. That’s why Biden’s stimulus plan included more than $40 billion in assistance for homeowners and renters behind on payments. But due to implementation delays, many Americans haven’t yet received direct payments from the government, putting them at risk of eviction.
Sources told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the Biden administration is considering extending the moratorium eviction through at least July to buy more time for stimulus aid to be distributed, and it’s also considering minor policy changes to the moratorium, like implementing an education campaign to inform renters that the policy exists, along with taking a greater role in enforcing the moratorium against landlords who don’t oblige.
https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-might-extend-eviction-moratorium-following-stimulus-delays-2021-3
the end is near! now Tim Morgan uses the word “collapse”.
https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/
#193. Nothing for money
Posted on March 24, 2021
THE LOOMING FINANCIAL CRASH IN FOUR PICTURES
he concludes:
“The question of ‘how much do they know?’ must be left to readers to decide. The same applies to quite how soon you think this situation is going to unravel, and whether you want to label what’s coming as a ‘crisis’ or a ‘collapse’.”
This is interesting. Tim Morgan is trying to work with world data, while I stuck with US data. By sticking with US data, I could tell what was gross of inflation, and what was adjusted to a “real” (net of inflation) basis.
Early in the report Tim says:
“Has he considered the possibility that the price of fossil fuels will fall too low, if there is too little debt growth?”
I don’t think that he’s there yet.
if/when he gets there, that would be one more piece of the puzzle that would add to his new insight that the world is headed soon for “a crisis or a collapse”.
Dr. Sam Bailey from New Zealand does a hatchet job on Wikipedia’s CV19 page:
Wiki Wonka and the Covid-19 Factory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG6SKRwQaWQ
I am surprised this is still on YT. Sam has a good sense of humour.
Wikipedia doesn’t tell us much, but neither does WHO. The information keeps changing. No wonder Wikipedia doesn’t do a good job.
Dr Sam concentrates in her video on the guff on Wikipedia, but by doing so she indirectly attacks the whole Covid narrative, based on a false premise, which we have been fed.
Astute woman, although she will likely be banned from YT for ‘disinformation’ , but is backed up on Odysee.
If I lived in the vicinity of Sam’s clinic… I’d be a hypochondriac.
Madame Fast might catch on to my game …. Fast – you haven’t been to the doctor in years… but now you go almost every week… are you ok?
Well you know… I am getting older… and I’ve got all these aches and pains…
Hmmm…..
Why are these people not wearing masks?
One NY Times article calls this area the ‘Walmart of Heroin.” It is also known for it prostitution.
Wikipedia says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington,_Philadelphia
I imagine 2020 made it even more popular than before.
The guy with the dark hoody talking to everyone looks like my lawyer. Figures.
Lebanon failed state
Syria failed state
iraq failed state
Afganistan failed state
Libya failed state
Yemen failed state
Coming soon to the country you live in. Did you think this was for export only?
The sanctions started by trump on Syria in summer of 20 by trump and enthusiastically continued by the biden regime are starving the country. US military in control of Syria oil fields in east. Russia may soon start providing Syria with food. Interesting commentary at the end on how russia has learned to live with the sanctions imposed on it over the crimea “annexation”. All thats left is being booted out of SWIFT and they have systems of trade ready for that should it occur, Russia is now the worlds largest food exporter. Difficult to punish a country by ending trade when that trade is feeding you.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qUhrt8Zbmvo/
It is interesting. Russia is the largest food exporter now, and China is the largest energy consumer and largest manufacturer. Yet Biden seems to trying to make both of them angry.
The list of failed states includes some oil producers and some others. It is hard to see the point of many of these wars. Leaving oil in the ground in theory leaves more oil for later. Afghanistan is known more for its pipelines than its energy resources.
And .. threatened sanctions on Germany for nordstream. Nordstream is a done deal. The only reason the USA “sanctions” work is because UE plays. So what happens when the USA sanctions team member g?
Who would want a friend lke this? Why cant the USA negotiate with trade partners instead of sanctions sanctions sanctions?
It just seems to me that the USA just becomes less relevant everday. From the respect of the world to the loudmouthed neighbor no one likes in 70 years.
When the sanctions no longer cause pain will the USA embark on some ill advised military boondoggle? Shurly they cant be stupid enough to start somthing with russia/china?
How about teaming with the UK for a penguin popping show of force. That works for me!
Or perhaps the show of force will be on the “domestic terrrists” ie the 80 million trump supporters. That might be even easier than penguin popping. The US military would cut through civilians like a red hot knife through butter. Dont think so? Look what the basically brand new ukrainian army did with their “domestic terrorists” in two or three years. And those “domestic terrists” had a bunch of medium weight small arms.
Decimated. Taken down. Step by step. By a fifth rate army with brand new wet behind the ears kiddos that havnt been clearing houses for 20 years.
Just because your pretty good on the neighborhood court doesnt mean you can hang in the NBA
After that just about the whole USA would look like kensington in philly.
“It is hard to see the point of many of these wars.”
Maybe it’s food as well as oil.
David Dubyne at Adapt 2030 YT-channel thinks it’s about the climate-shifts bringing rain that will green the Sahara. Thinks the Chinese have ancient knowledge of these long-cycle events, explaining some of their vast infrastructure work in Africa. He doesn’t talk about the energy side of it much, or the wars, but one can see positioning. This one, for example, could be meaningful in terms of creating a foot in the door for the ability to deploy military force into Africa, independent of nation-state opposition in the EU.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1361222/eu-news-army-plans-exposed-germany-paper-spd-sovereignty-spt
Maybe the Brussel-ites are chafing at this?
https://www.ausa.org/news/army-consolidates-europe-africa-commands#:~:text=Army%20operations%20in%20Europe%20and%20Africa%20will%20now,for%20U.S.%20European%20Command%20and%20U.S.%20Africa%20Command.
Mon, 11/23/2020 – 07:00
“Army operations in Europe and Africa will now fall under a new command called U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the service announced.”
“The move consolidates Army Europe and Army Africa into one command that will serve as the Army service component command for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command. It will be led by Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the Army Europe commander since January 2018 who was approved by the Senate for a fourth star and this new assignment on Sept. 30.”
“The European and African theaters are inextricably linked,” Cavoli said in a Nov. 23 statement. “Their close geography and economic ties mean that regional security issues span both continents. In today’s modern security environment, we need to think across the entire hemisphere and not artificially divide problem sets—this consolidation allows that.”
Scientists have identified a single gene that accounts for most of the difference in brain size between humans and other primates.
Other ’causes’ likely include wider hips in human women, so that they do not succumb while giving birth to larger headed babies (many women still pass in birth but enough do not to keep the larger headed species going).
Also changes in the skull to accommodate larger brains – likely facilitated in part by the use of fire to cook food and allow jaws to shrink.
Cooking also allowed humans to harness the huge amount of calories needed to fuel larger brains. Hunting/ gathering technologies (culture) also would have played a part in more efficient food acquisition. Humans are dissipative structures that are integrated into wider dissipative structures, ecologies and economies, and that has conditioned their evolution (and their culture).
Possibly also a massive population bottleneck that took out the archaic, smaller brained type, although the new type would have an advantage anyway. The archaeological record seems to show a correlation between a massive population ‘collapse’ and the rise of the new type, though that may have been due to the new type deliberately doing in the old without any externally imposed ‘catastrophe’ like independent changes in the environment – intergroup competition and hostilities, which some primates are big on, especially our ‘line’.
Moreover, the larger brain would presumably allow further genes to act to increase brain complexity – many genes are in play in human intelligence and they are liable to constantly change in frequency due to breeding and selective factors, cultural and environmental.
All things come to be and pass away in this world and all previous hominid species are extinct – quite possibly at the hand of later. Some other primates did survive however back in the jungle.
So the story of modern human origins is complex and ‘dramatic’ but a single, ‘key’ gene has been identified.
> Scientists discover why the human brain is so big
Our intellectual advantage over the great apes is simply down to a ‘molecular switch’, tests show
Tests on the tiny “brain organoids” reveal a hitherto unknown molecular switch that controls brain growth and makes the human organ three times larger than brains in the great apes.
Tinker with the switch and the human brain loses its growth advantage, while the great ape brain can be made to grow more like a human’s.
“What we see is a difference in cellular behaviour very, very early on that allows the human brain to grow larger,” said Dr Madeleine Lancaster, a developmental biologist at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. “We are able to account for almost all of the size difference.”
The healthy human brain typically reaches about 1500cc in adulthood, roughly three times the size of the 500cc gorilla brain or the 400cc chimp brain. But working out why has been fraught with difficulty, not least because developing human and great ape brains cannot easily be studied.
The researchers went on to identify a gene that is crucial to the process. Known as Zeb2, it switches on later in human tissue, allowing the cells to divide more before they mature. Tests showed that delaying the effects of Zeb2 made gorilla brain tissue grow larger, while turning it on sooner in human brain organoids made them grow more like the ape ones.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/24/scientists-discover-why-the-human-brain-is-so-big
Time for the Chinese labs to go all “Planet of the apes” and manipulate this gene in the gorillas and chimps!
I’ve read that human brains are smaller now than when we were hunter gatherers. If this is true, it is not all a one-way change. Hunter-gatherers did have a lot of details to remember, I suppose.
I forgot to mention that. (blush)
Industrial civilisation has also trashed IQ. The average IQ in Britain has fallen by the equivalent of about 13 IQ points just since the 1890s. It is unclear how long the ‘IC IQ effect’ has been going on for here as the data is not available to test extrapolations further back. Other studies indicate that the same trend is continuing.
> Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time
We tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were cleverer than modern populations, using high-quality instruments, namely measures of simple visual reaction time in a meta-analytic study. Simple reaction time measures correlate substantially with measures of general intelligence (g) and are considered elementary measures of cognition. In this study we used the data on the secular slowing of simple reaction time described in a meta-analysis of 14 age-matched studies from Western countries conducted between 1889 and 2004 to estimate the decline in g that may have resulted from the presence of dysgenic fertility. Using psychometric meta-analysis we computed the true correlation between simple reaction time and g, yielding a decline of −1.16 IQ points per decade or −13.35 IQ points since Victorian times. These findings strongly indicate that with respect to g the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations.
…. Even the most simple measure of RT (i.e. the time that it takes for an individual to respond to a sensory stimulus) appears to be robustly associated with IQ. Rijsdijk, Vernon, and Boomsma (1998) for example investigated the relationship between simple RT and IQ in a genetic analysis using twins. Simple RT and IQ as measured using the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices were found to exhibit identical levels of heritability (.58 and .58, respectively) and furthermore the phenotypic correlation between the two of −.21 (increasing IQ goes with decreasing RT speed, hence the correlation is negative) was completely mediated by common genetic factors. Another relevant study is that of Deary, Der, and Ford (2001) who set out to generate benchmark estimates for the correlation between IQ and various RT measures (including simple) in a population-representative sample yielding a correlation between the two of -.31, indicating a substantive relationship.
https://jellereumer.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/woodley-ea-2013-intelligence-daling-iq.pdf
British State Plc. is set to get a huge boost of higher IQ citizens from China HK in post-Brexit plans that TP has agreed with its funders in the CBI. Numbers could range from several hundred thousand to several million, no one knows. Five and a half million are eligible to come.
TP has also arranged for more Indians to gain residency in UK post-Brexit. They too tend tend to be drawn from among professionals and to do among the best in UK. They too will boost UK IQ. Around 40% of schoolkids in UK England are already of another background, and their parents tend to be drawn from among the higher IQ groups in the original countries when they enter legally.
Movement is a kind of evolution too, with mixture boosting a waning population. The more China HKers and professional Indians who come to UK, the more the UK IQ is liable to be boosted. So, that is a counter tendency to the ‘IC IQ effect’ on the original population. Population replacement countervails population decline.
> UK not prepared for Hong Kong migration
The U.K. prime minister’s offer of a route to citizenship to potentially millions of Hong Kongers — in response to China’s imposition of a draconian national security law on the former British territory — was a major statement about the U.K.’s post-Brexit foreign policy.
“There’s a huge amount of uncertainty,” said Alan Manning, former chair of the government’s independent Migration Advisory Committee from 2016 to 2020. “In particular, in this case, how the political situation in Hong Kong is going to evolve, over which the U.K. has very little power. The very big numbers [that some predict] are really what you would get if there is absolute meltdown and anarchy in Hong Kong. That’s really in the hands of the Chinese government.”
Cheng’s group carried out a small survey of 315 Hong Kongers and found that those inclined to move to the U.K. were mostly working professionals, often in fields like financial services. Nearly three-quarters had a university degree.
https://www.politico.eu/article/hong-kong-weigh-up-new-life-in-brexit-britain-uk/
Bourgeois ‘greed’ (as Boris put it, the other day) and proletarian employment and welfare as the prevailing ‘conditions’ for the appearance of new ‘types’ in Britain – the replacement and embellishment of the declining population. The bourgeois state thus ‘fashions’ humans anew, not as an objective but as a consequence and means in its pursuit of ‘greed’.
I think Eugene McCarthy (PhD Genetics) has a hypothesis that answers a number of things we’ve all wondered about at some level; i.e., humans as hybrid-animals. On page 2 he stops teasing the reader and gets right to it. Check out the Green Sidebar of Human Traits Not Seen in Other Primates. Warning:: Once visualized, it can’t be un-visualized.
http://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins-2.html
“What is this other animal that has all these traits? The answer is Sus scrofa, the ordinary pig. What are we to think of this fact? If we conclude that pigs did in fact cross with apes to produce the human race, then an avalanche of old ideas must crash to the earth. But, of course, the usual response to any new perspective is “That can’t be right, because I don’t already believe it.” This is the very response that many people had when Darwin first proposed that humans might be descended from apes, an idea that was perceived as ridiculous, or even as subversive and dangerous. And yet, today this exact viewpoint is widely entertained. Its wide acceptance can be attributed primarily to the established fact that humans hold many traits in common with primates. That’s what made it convincing. But perhaps Darwin told only half the story.”
He sounds like a nutter. There is zero evidence to support his extraordinary theory, of which he has many. Zero pig DNA in humans would seem to refute him.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eugene_M._McCarthy
This is the crux of the problem with this hypothesis. McCarthy has made an extraordinary hypothesis, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and McCarthy admits that there is no way to verify his hypothesis with genetic evidence.
Because McCarthy is unable to use the genome to support his hypothesis, he instead points to morphological similarities to make his case.[20] Nearly[45] all biologist bloggers have rejected this.[21][46] This theory has been cited uncritically by both InfoWars[47] and YourNewsWire.[48]
While there might be morphological similarities, nearly all other evolutionary biologists have long ago come to the conclusion that this does not necessarily imply a relational connection between two species (e.g., see convergent evolution).[21][46]
McCarthy considers in detail the hypothesis that echidnas and platypuses are derived from hybrid crosses between birds and mammals.[49][44] His website also features a large catalog of other cases he proposes might be similarly clade-defying hybrids,[50] among them a list of possible human-goat hybrids.[51]
McCarthy’s theories have appealed to various media (Daily Mail,[52] The Times of India,[18] Infowars[47]) because of its sensationalism. These media do not necessarily agree with McCarthy, but McCarthy’s sloppiness (lack of evidence, refusal to cull out bad data, and extraordinary claims) enables this circus.
I would doubt that humans ever went full bore Holocaust on lesser species in general. After all, our brethren still live in the trees, however close to extinction with shrinking habitats.
My theory is this; since the large size of the human brain causes deaths at childbirth and thus female shortages. Why not just abduct females from species with smaller brains, yet has reproductive compatibility. Surely the bigger brained humans must have exported males as well into the female surpluses of smaller brained humanoid groups. Males generally die younger, because testosterone induced crazy and risk taking.
A puny few centuries later and voila, the planet of the humans. With some Neanderthal and Denisovan gene pockets ‘sprinkled in’ here and there.
The real world is more messy than the black and white of a bunch of rapacious primates killing lesser rapacious primates. It is too simplistic.
It is what evolution does, that which works stays, that which doesn’t, well, you do the thinking. Natural selection just doesn’t care. All worth caring about is leaving it alone.
Stagflation Strikes As PMIs Signal Slowing Production, Soaring Costs
Service Costs Soaring:
Reports of ongoing supply chain issues led to marked hikes in input costs across the service sector during March.
The rate of input price inflation was the sharpest since data collection began in late-2009. Firms were able to partially pass higher costs through to clients, however, as selling prices rose at the fastest pace on record.
Manufacturing Costs Soaring:
Amid substantial supplier shortages and input delays, manufacturing firms registered the fastest rise in input costs for a decade in March.
At the same time, firms sought to partially pass greater input prices through to clients, with the rate of charge inflation the sharpest on record.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/stagflation-strikes-pmis-signal-slowing-production-soaring-costs
This report is with respect to production in the US.
The biggest problem reported:
Not having raw materials could be a big issue. Bidding up prices doesn’t really produce more raw materials, unless there is idle capacity to spare plus the ability to transport the raw materials to where they are needed.
Are consumer goods really needed in the great reset? Its clear the small businesses just eliminated are not. Whats really Needed-UBI in then out for some food, energy rest to the banks. Biden slapped both Russia and China with new sanctions today. Took them out back of the gym! It may be unthinkable as it is that biden could tell China to get lost. With that source of consumers goods gone the UBI social score units might go places they would prefer. It may be that just destroying the dollars purchasing purchasing power is just a interim measure. Eliminating undesirable consumer goods might be a a key component of the great reset.
This is exactly what Bossche said would happen:
Amid Maharashtra’s worsening COVID-19 situation, virus variant with double mutation detected in state
“Of the samples from Maharashtra, about 20% have two mutations, E484Q and L452R,” said a source.
“While it is difficult to conclusively say that the variant is behind the surge, it has been established elsewhere that E484Q can escape antibody neutralisation and L452R is known to increase infectivity and has been linked to large pockets in the US.”
The Centre in December had formed a genomic surveillance consortium INSACOG of 10 institutes under the NCDC to work on genome sequencing of virus samples from various parts of the country amid concern over detection of the UK variant in India.
ALSO READ | Mumbai COVID-19 spike: BMC asks schools to discontinue rotational attendance for teachers
A team sent by the health ministry to Maharashtra had also pointed to a possible role of the variant virus causing the second wave of infections in the state.
Officials said an epidemiological investigation being undertaken by the NCDC, will involve probing whether variants are causing the disease to spread in clusters and whether they are more infectious.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/mar/17/amid-maharashtras-worseningcovid-19-situation-virus-variant-with-double-mutationdetected-in-state-2277579.html
Excellent! Success!
Now we are just waiting for the full-blown Devil Covid to be on the move killing both jabbed and unjabbed…
The goal is to get enough people around the world jabbed so that a nice range of Devil Quality Covid’s start circulating…. then the Devil Strains breed with each other … kinda like breeding brothers and sisters — and then you get some seriously re tar ded and deformed Covid Strains into the mix…
Remember .. Boshy said these things mutate every 10 hours… so this will be like breeding brothers and sisters… then breeding the freaks resulting from that unholy union… then the children of the freaks breed…and the children of the children breed over and over and over…
Boshy also suggested we’d create a bio-weapon with this strategy… oh ya…. more accurately we’ll get an Nuclear Bioweapon… unleashed on 8B of us….
Let’s take a look at what all this looks like… this is first generation:
https://www.fudzilla.com/media/k2/items/cache/812492728dce0280eaf7a13f9a87ebe0_L.jpg
+
https://ahseeit.com/king-include/uploads/2019/09/70630079_418779442110456_1928511716323308409_n-3849294815.jpg
=
Something like this .. only worse:
http://theblogabroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/8.jpg
Then you breed the above with something equally messed up …. then you keep on going — in 10 hour shifts… eventually the Frankenstein / Nightmare virus will enter each of us…. and that will end very badly (like it did for the chickens… dead within 10 days)
As unpalatable as it sounds… this does seem to be the strategy….
It just seems far too early for Bill’s Big Kill; not that I do not think that they have it planned – it is logical for them to do so – but only after everything has been deeply restructured and we are completely on our knees, not now. This is not selective enough, and they could lose vital technical people.
And yet it is just possible that working on so many levels, they have over-looked this aspect and will be taken by surprise themselves – it happens in military planning when there is too much eagerness to get things moving.
Or they felt it was a risk worth taking and underestimated, even while they allowed for it.
http://oil-price.net/
Oil prices are down for the month, for the first time in about a year.
They seem to have bounced back up this morning, perhaps related to the stuck ship, but still down for the month.
Does anyone know anything about these developments:
From Zerohedge: “Like Taking A Vitamin Pill” – World’s First Oral COVID Vaccine Nears Human Trials
This is the press release link: https://www.oramed.com/oramed-forms-a-joint-venture-oravax-medical-inc-for-the-development-of-novel-oral-covid-19-vaccines/
The Zerohedge article also notes:
This is Pfizer’s press release link:
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-initiates-phase-1-study-novel-oral-antiviral
The article further notes:
This is a link to a news story about it:
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/merck-ridgeback-covid-19-antiviral-drug-data/596302/
..Or just use cinnamon, same interferon effect, minus the risk and ‘ human guinea pig experimentation’
Don’t use more than 1/4 teaspoon a day.
Any medicine has a negative impact on Health if taken in large doses.
content://com.amazon.cloud9.FileProvider/images/screenshot/16165980351111509050706.jpg
There seem to be articles about the anti-inflammatory effect of cinnamon. This is one.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28444928/
I see one article on the list of similar articles is “Anti-inflammatory activity of clove.”
Tumeric seems to be another spice with anti-inflammatory properties.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/
Its bioavailability seems to be enhanced it combined with the active ingredient in black pepper.
My family has been taking turmeric pills. Perhaps we need to use black pepper with these. Or perhaps switch to cinnamon. We use cinnamon in our oatmeal.
Sounds like a nice hot curry every day followed by cinnamon rolls for afters will cure anything.
Also, ginger is well worth adding to the mix.
“If it succeeds in trials, the pill could be prescribed early on in an infection to block viral replication before patients get very sick.”
Sheez, wasn’t this one of the benefits to using HCQ? Oh that’s right Anthony Fauci demonized HCQ and the cancel/delete movement swept the benefits of using HCQ under the rug. No money in it for them when you can make “BILLIONS” by repeatedly selling their chemical cocktail every 6 months to the Covidiots
Ivermectin also inhibits viral replication.
It almost seems as if viruses didn’t come into existence in 2019…
Oregon Considers Making COVID Restrictions PERMANENT
If enacted, this OSHA regulation would also mandate that employers assist with employee vaccinations. An employer would be required to document any instances of employees who refuse to take the vaccine:
(A) The employer must cooperate by making its employees and appropriate space available at no cost to the workers whenever a local public health agency or Oregon Health Authority indicate that COVID- 19 vaccination within the workplace is necessary.
(C) Unless the local public health agency or Oregon Health Authority directs otherwise, employers need not require employees to accept the vaccination. If employees who are offered the vaccine decline to be vaccinated, the employer must document that declination.
https://rfangle.com/politics/oregon-considers-covid-restrictions-permanent/
More medical tyranny by another leftist state.
Sheep farmers use dogs to herd…
The Elders use money… no jab.. no job.. no money…
I expect that children will not be permitted to attend school ….
The unjabbed will be few and far between …
The Probe into the Israeli Vaccine Policy and its Outcome is beyond Damning.
In Israel yesterday, an independent legal body that calls itself the Civilian Probe (CP)* published its finding regarding the catastrophic impact of the Pfizer vaccine on the nation.
In their report, which they submitted to the Attorney General and the Health Minister, the committee listed a chain of critical legal and ethical failures that point at a possible attempt to mislead not just Israelis but also the entire world. Since the beginning of January I have been reporting on an undeniable correlation between vaccinations, cases and deaths (here , here, here and here ). The CP confirms my suspicions but their study also presents alarming medical findings regarding the scale of lethal side effects.
In the document the CP points at a government attempt to conceal its dealing with Pfizer. The document states that “the Pfizer-Israel agreement is suffocated with redacted segments, consequently, it is not possible to analyze it legally and/or fully grasp Its implications as far as public health is concerned… This concealment casts a heavy shadow over anyone who took part in the (Israeli/Pfizer) negotiations…”
The CP then continues arguing that “in order to generate demand (amongst the people) for the vaccine, the government and the Ministry of Health have launched an unprecedented aggressive campaign, aiming to make Israelis rush to ‘get vaccinated.’ During that campaign all the basic rules of medical caution and ethics were disregarded, and with them also key guidelines formed after WWII regarding participation in medical trials (the Nuremberg Code). Instead of transparent and clear explanations, the public was misled by repeated official statements that the (Pfizer vaccine) has been ‘approved by the FDA’ after passing ‘rigorous tests.’”
https://gilad.online/writings/2021/3/23/the-probe-into-the-israeli-vaccine-policy-and-its-outcome-is-beyond-damning
From the report:
Hello from Spain. Thanks Gail once again for your precise analyse. You title your Chart/Figure 8. US Crude Oil Production. Wouldn’t it correspond to US Oil Production instead. All the best.
I took the numbers from an EIA chart called “Crude oil production.” Very often, the numbers that are quoted for US oil production include natural gas liquids as well. These do not. The also do not include ethanol added to gasoline, nor do they count “refinery gain.”
It gets to be very confusing. Every group that counts oil production counts it a little differently. Thus, EIA, IEA and BP numbers do not match up exactly. OPEC also counts oil, but it counts it a bit differently as well. The data is sort of maddening to work with. It is also subject to frequent after-the fact revisions.
U.S. oil companies launch on-site vaccinations as supplies rise
(Reuters) – U.S. energy companies are organizing employee vaccinations as more COVID-19 doses become available, officials and employees told Reuters, setting up on-site clinics or offering time off to workers to get the shot.
The drive comes as the United States ramps up shipments, with 164.3 million doses sent since rollouts began, and as more companies are encouraging staff to return to offices.
More than a quarter of the U.S. population has received at least one dose, and 45.5 million, out of 331 million residents, were fully inoculated as of Tuesday, according to government data.
Energy companies are able to get doses with employees classified as essential workers. Shots are not required but are being made available to staff. Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips have already begun inoculations, representatives said, and other large energy firms aim to begin shots soon.
Chevron Corp, which received approval to set up clinics, expects supplies in coming weeks from health officials in California and Texas.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-corporate-jabs/u-s-oil-companies-launch-on-site-vaccinations-as-supplies-rise-idUSKBN2BF2QD
See ‘ and the virus replicates wherever it finds warm and unvaccinated bodies with cells that let it reproduce its RNA.’
The unvaxxed will be the Villains… and blamed when Devil Covid arrives… when in reality, as Vanden Bossche has indicated it will be the vaccinated who will bring the Nightmare Scenario upon us..
Some fabulous prep work by the Ministry of Truth – Covid CEP Division
We Must Start Planning For a Permanent Pandemic
With coronavirus mutations pitted against vaccinations in a global arms race, we may never go back to normal.
And that process can’t happen fast enough, nor cover the planet widely enough. Yes, some of us may win a regional round or two against the virus, by vaccinating one particular population — as Israel has done, for instance.
But evolution doesn’t care where it does its work, and the virus replicates wherever it finds warm and unvaccinated bodies with cells that let it reproduce its RNA. As it copies itself, it makes occasional coding mistakes. And some of those chance errors turn into yet more mutations.
These viral avatars are popping up wherever there’s a lot of transmission going on and somebody bothers to look closely. A British, a South African and at least one Brazilian strain have already become notorious, but I’ve also seen reports of viral cousins and nephews showing up in California, Oregon and elsewhere. If we were to sequence samples in more places, we’d probably find even more relatives.
We should therefore assume that the virus is already mutating fast in the many poor countries that have so far received no jabs at all, even if their youthful populations keep mortality manageable and thus mask the severity of local outbreaks. Last month, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, reminded the world that 75% of all shots had been administered in just 10 countries, while 130 others hadn’t primed a single syringe.
A pathogen’s evolution is neither surprising nor automatically worrisome. One frequent pattern is that bugs over time become more contagious but less virulent. After all, not killing your host too efficiently confers an advantage in natural selection. If SARS-CoV-2 goes this route, it’ll eventually become just another common cold.
But that’s not what it’s been doing recently. The variants we know of have become more infectious, but no less lethal. From an epidemiological point of view, that’s the worst news.
Consider two alternative evolutionary paths. In one, a virus becomes more severe but not more transmissible. It will cause more disease and death, but the growth is linear. In the other path, a mutating virus becomes neither more nor less virulent but more contagious. It will cause increases in disease and death that are exponential rather than linear. Adam Kucharski at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explains the math here.
If this is the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2, we’re in for seemingly endless cycles of outbreaks and remissions, social restrictions and relaxations, lockdowns and reopenings. At least in rich countries, we will probably get vaccinated a couple of times a year, against the latest variant in circulation, but never fast or comprehensively enough to achieve herd immunity.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-24/when-will-covid-end-we-must-start-planning-for-a-permanent-pandemic?srnd=premium-asia
And in other news today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g5Bo3cEMew
Pavan Kapoor’s Keynote at Dubai Summit
@ 8:20 – “India was pleased to supply adequate quantities of HCQ tablets to the UAE on a priority basis.”
good find 🙂
Well, that tells us what the propaganda line will be.
Vaccines can’t keep up with variants? No herd immunity? No holidays? No flights? More lock-downs? perpetual testing? No return to our dear old normal – ever?
The vaccinated have been well and truly suckered, it is ever more clear.
My only aim now is to keep this poison out of my niece and nephew. Going for the babies and children is a step too far.
“Vaccines can’t keep up with variants? No herd immunity? No holidays? No flights? More lock-downs? perpetual testing? No return to our dear old normal – ever?”
These are the hints I have been picking up from the BBC over the last week or so, from UK govt ‘advisers’. So many people I know, especially family, are talking about where to go for summer holidays, and I am thinking – do we inhabit the same planet?
Whenever some misguided soul tells me I must get the vax or I will be trapped in NZ forever… I ask them about the variants… and drop the Devil Covid or that Bloomberg story on them…
And I say — I don’t think you will be moving to far either.
It’s just two weeks to flatten the curve, suckas. 🤣
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a hundred times in a row, I’ll vote for you.
You’ve heard of Occam’s razor, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
If applied on Covid-19, what is Covid-19?
Occam’s razor is sometimes simplified: “The simplest explantation is usually the right one.”
I know that I am often criticized for making too complex a story regarding how the whole system of the economy works. There are many different forces working together. For example, a decision to shut down the economy is based on many different factors coming together at once. A politician will see a chance to damp down protests and to disguise the fact that factories are not working at anywhere near full capacity, at the same time that a shutdown might perhaps save a few lives. The governmental response will be fully blamed on COVID-19, when in fact, it likely would never have happened this way without the energy problems.
Occam’s razor is increasingly 100% wrong as an explanation, I am afraid.
I think debates about Occam’s razor end up in challenging the meaning of words.
Instead I prefer the scientific method. Whatever your explanation is, make some predictions (concrete and measurable) and let’s compare.
@Jarle, what are your predictions? Gail was very clear in recent posts about what she expects for the future. If you disagree, make a different one and we’ll see.
Similarly, @Fast Eddy’s predicted lockdowns cycles going on forever and a complete transformation into authoritarian states. I don’t believe his explanation but up to now he was correct. The optimists believed that lockdowns would last 2 weeks or that the economy will rebound in 2020.
Even people 2000 years ago knew better than to debate words: “By their fruits you shall know them”.
Another useful guide to understanding what might be going on in an obscure situation can be:
‘Look at what they actually do, not what they say about it.’
And, of course, our old friend:
‘Cui bono?’
And now that we are constantly being told that the vaccination ‘campaign’ is a Great British success story, I’m inclined to recall:
‘The last refuge of the scoundrel is patriotism.’
The final – topical – observation is from Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet:
‘Men are hidden by their tongues more often than by masks….’
“@Jarle, what are your predictions? Gail was very clear in recent posts about what she expects for the future. If you disagree, make a different one and we’ll see.”
I mentioned Occam’s razor as a tool to help understand what Scam-19 is.
When it comes to the main topic at OFW I agree with Gail.
“Occam’s razor is increasingly 100% wrong as an explanation, I am afraid.”
I don’t believe in Occam’s razor as “The Superior Method” but as a good tool that absolutely shouldn’t be left untried.
Occam’s and Covid-19:
1) Politicians making the most out of Covid-19 because it takes the focus away from the real problems/is a great scapegoat is a simpler explanation than 2) all politicians are involved in “the great reset” and “the new normal” or 3) all politicians are under the command of “the elders”.
good thought.
perhaps even simpler:
politicians bumbling and stumbling their way through a minor crisis which has no good and easy solution.
@Jarle, I tend to agree with you. But why the insistence on dangerous behaviors/acts(untested vaccines, plastic and moldy masks, locking people in their homes)?
There are explanations for all of these taken separately (masks are there to remind us we are in a crisis, vaccines enrich pharma corps etc). But… don’t you have this little nagging doubt that everything they do actually hurts people? If the pols were just using the Covid as a cover for collapse, why at every turn they chose the worst alternative?
Again, I don’t know what to believe. I hope you are right and we are “just” facing collapse!
I’d agree, Nomadic, that in everything they are doing there is an element not just of the inhumane, but the anti-human, of malice, a delight almost in imposing humiliation, mental suffering, and physical degradation through lock-downs..
Atomising life, families,friendships, throwing the already poor into disaster and hopelessness, en masse. . A hatred of truth, and a delight in ever-tighter control. Above all, lies.
Psychopathy, a manifestation of the deep hatred the rich often feel towards those who are outside their circle, perhaps; or even demonic influences? The ‘Father of Lies’?
Transhumanism, which seems to be their ideology, shows a deep dislike and mistrust of individuality and everything human and biological.
At root, self-hatred and a desire to self-extinguish in technology.
“Beware the aftershocks of the Covid-19 recession: History shows that recovery from a crisis is never smooth sailing…The economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic… will… have aftershocks affecting companies, workers and governments.”
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/beware-the-aftershocks-of-the-covid-19-recession
One big issue:
Another is the potential big drop in asset prices, such a building prices.
I saw an article today pointing out that even if women are able to go back to work, adequate day care facilities likely will not be available in the US.
50:47 mark… The Elders are discussed:
https://youtu.be/jj3qoRL6NZc?t=3046
Elders don’t want us to know what don’t know. Only a few at the top know what is going on. Level of control is one layer up from Democratic or Republican Party. People fight over which person should run. Those really in charge really want “divide and rule.”
Global hidden government has big center in London. Queen plays important role. People think the country is run from Parliament, but it isn’t.
1990 – Neocon organization – Put together a plan for war against list of countries, including China.
Plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years. Iraq first. Made excuse of weapons of mass direction.
Included Libya, Syria, and Iran. Even Trump followed this line.
Demonize Russia. Build up troops in Eastern Europe.
Build nightmare future for the children. Get population in the country to unseat the the leader you don’t want.
George Soros is part of this. $32 billion donation to Open Society Foundation.
Trigger for this sequence was 9/11.
Need to understand the outcome they are looking for. Hunger Game Society. Want 1% in control of the society; everyone else at the bottom. They want police military state, world government, and world monetary system.
—-
I didn’t listen to the part after 1.13.32. The video continues another 20 minutes or so.
The catch is that with limited fuel supplies, particularly oil, the overall system cannot hang together the way these leaders would like it to. It will have to start falling apart. A world government cannot work, I don’t think.
You’ve summarized the key parts of a rather long video.
And yes, Icke is not seeing the big picture… he fails to understand that what he is observing is desperation.
Imagine you were a newly minted Elder…. you are all powerful… you are full on Machiavelli (power if everything… you might realize you are a bit twisted… or maybe not… probably not)…
Decades ago your predecessors realized that the Limits to Growth would be a problem about now — they tried everything from nuclear to solar to hydrogen — to try to extend their reign… none of that worked so they were left with shale… the retirement party for oil….
And now you are left with this sack of sh it!!! You have nowhere to turn… you flail about printing cash by the trillions…. but the writing is on the wall… you are DOOMED.
In a final gesture — possibly the only kind thing you have ever done in your entire life… you vote for the CEP at the board meeting.
There are those (fortunately in a minority) who pushed back and preferred a hands-off approach — one of the more vociferous anti-CEP proponents screamed ‘f%^& the cattle… let them rip each others faces off… what do we care – they are dumb beasts and they are no longer of any use to us!!!!’
The CEP was passed… and you sit in despair in your oak-panelled library … in despair… as your omnipotence crumbles…
Icke is unaware of this….
I’d simply start with some artificial constraint in society to limit dumb ass frivolous consumption. Let’s say a reasonably sizzling virus, not too lethal, not completely harmless.
That should get them off competition and projects of vanity at work and home. And god forbid those moronic charters to some sad ass beach, with the only result in dullard Facebook and Instagram brags. White ass sanctimonious hypocrites glistering and baking in the sun, doing what they do best: Being completely useless while burning petroleum.
Phase two; artificial shortages of the dumb useless shit MOARons buy for money they don’t have, to impress other MOARons they secretly hate.
Personally, I’d fucking love to see them squirm as they crank those pedals and eat the potatoes. Funny enough, give it a couple of years ahead and megatons of flubber less, they revel in the “misery” of having dropped mostly all medications.
Get them waned off the petroleum spigot tit. How I would revel in it. Schadenfreude to the tilt when the myopia of the ordinary goes lucid.
🍿😎🍿
What’s ahead? When the debt bubble bursts then the US will in all likelihood lose its reserve currency status causing hyperinflation in the economy. All bets are off. Such a phenomena has historically lead to economic collapse combined with social and political upheaval. In short we have pushed ourselves to the edge of the cliff and are mere moments from an unprecedented disaster. Your analysis and conclusions support our terrible conundrum and predicament.
Key agricultural commodities ( corn, wheat and soybeans) are moreover already showing signs of hyperinflationary pressures and as the ravages of climate change and ecocide advance we can anticipate further exponential pricing increases.
No wonder Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. Hmm.
Yes, Fine wrap up on things to come for most, but the Wall Street Casino is still open by all to play by the graces of the Fed, CBs and Ever expanding stimulus…
Yes, the bubbles are truly Historical….
Jordan Belfort, the author and former stockbroker known as “The Wolf of Wall Street,” has changed his previous critical stance on bitcoin, predicting the cryptocurrency’s price will go on to hit $100,000.
Belfort told Fortune in an interview he believes bitcoin holds advantages over stocks such as its limited supply, which could see the cryptocurrency reach the $100,000 level.
He also cited the increase in support bitcoin has received from institutional investors compared to its previous bull run in 2017.
At that time, Belfort voiced his agreement with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s assertion that bitcoin was a “fraud.”
“I don’t think it’s a great model,” Belfort told The Street in September 2017, adding that cryptocurrencies would require some backing by central governments.
“Sooner or later, a central bank or a consortium is going to issue their own cryptocurrency and that’s what will take hold.”
Belfort pleaded guilty to stock fraud and money laundering in 1999, subsequently writing a memoir called “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which was turned into a film in 2013.
More fraud to come, step right up and get in line…..
https://sports.yahoo.com/wolf-wall-street-jordan-belfort-135855864.html
You are quoting a guy who ripped people off and snorted coke off of hookers asses….
Here’s a better prediction – Bitcon will continue to increase in value … the cult members who own it will rejoice and not take the cash off the table because they believe it’s going to infinity… it will keep the mice amused…. (which is its purpose)
And then the Lethal Injections and the resulting Devil Covid … will kill everyone … and Bitcon… will vapourize, like everything else.
At least in some views, the UK lost its reserve currency status in 1919, after World War I. This was after World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex-currencies/092316/how-us-dollar-became-worlds-reserve-currency.asp
I associate World War I with peak coal in the UK. Once the UK stopped being the world energy leader, it lost its reserve status.
We are now in a troubled situation worldwide for energy production. China is now the energy leader. It is having trouble with its coal production, which allowed its energy product to grow. It cannot keep its price up enough.
US oil production is down in 2020 and 2021. US coal production seems to be headed down, following a long pattern. Partly, we are exporting less coal to China. US natural gas dry production was down for 2020 as well. This does not bode well.
There is little doubt that the exhaustion of fossil fuels will play a big role in the inevitable economic and structural collapse of global civilization but so will the depletion of all other non-renewable resources by 2050.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXdaIsfio8
Moreover as the consequences of abrupt climate change, species extinction and biosphere destruction accelerate the exhaustion of our renewable resource supplies particularly agricultural commodities and that will make it increasingly more difficult to feed the world. All these variables are highly interrelated so just one card being drawn from the comprehensive puzzle should bring the whole house tumbling down.
Under any such situation the US dollar and crypto currencies will the become totally worthless IOUs and abstractions as our complex supply chain will disintegrate and there will be no way to satisfy the claims on resources these IOUs convey. Because there will be little if any available. – hyperinflation will be rampant.
All this could even occur in one or two year as we head towards abrupt climate change as a result of the Arctic ice melting. .
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/arctic-sea-ice-global-warming-climate-change-predictions/
Meaning that nature bats last!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_the_Arctic
And as the infamous Yogi Beushusky once said,, ” when its over, its over,,, “
“Why humanity is at risk of losing the war against the coronavirus…
” With “vaccine nationalism” intensifying by the day, the global effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic is at risk of faltering… the pandemic still has a very long way to go.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-humanity-is-at-risk-of-losing-the-war-against-the-coronavirus-11616525726
“Recovery prospects are uncertain, especially in poorer countries… Prospects for a recovery from the COVID-induced economic slowdown are uncertain and uneven, with some emerging economies and almost all low-income countries at risk of lower growth.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-wto-imf/recovery-prospects-are-uncertain-especially-in-poorer-countries-imf-idUSKBN2BF1V2?il=0
“Over 30 million people ‘one step away from starvation’, UN warns: The pandemic, climate crisis and conflict combining to drive ‘alarming’ levels of global hunger, says report…
“An estimated 34 million people are struggling with emergency levels of acute hunger known as IPC (Integrated food security Phase Classification) 4, meaning they are ‘one step away from starvation’.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/24/over-30-million-people-one-step-away-from-starvation-un-warns
Poor countries cannot afford the vaccine and all of the infrastructure required to distribute it. Even Europe has difficulty affording it.
“Coffee supplies in the United States are shrinking and wholesale prices are surging, with the hard-hit market bracing itself for further fallout from a global shortage of shipping containers that has upended the food trade…
“”Everybody is feeling the pinch,” said Mr Christian Wolthers, the president of Wolthers Douque, an importer in Florida, who estimates that shipping costs have more than doubled from Latin America. “These bottlenecks are turning into a container nightmare.””
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/world-facing-a-coffee-deficit-in-supply-chain-nightmare
Coffee is essential to some of us.
Interesting how Toby can open one window but is unable to even see the other one let alone open it.
As with most people who kinda get that Covid is crooked… they still chalk it up to incompetence stupidity, venality … whatever.
Is it not obvious that IT IS A PLAN?
‘witnessed Collective Hysteria and manias’ hahaha… like WHAT? Y2k? I would like someone to name a hysteria that involved the people who run the world shutting the shop down … this is NOT hysteria — it’s an agenda.
I could spend hours with Toby arguing that this is completely unparalleled in history… so he must look for another explanation. But I would fail … because to accept that this is a plan … is to lose all hope in the future.
‘As a country, this has not been our finest hour. But I still believe in Britain – just.’
That says it all – don’t it….
The Darkness and the Light
By Toby Young
I initially created Lockdown Sceptics – with the help of Ian Rons, co-founder of the Free Speech Union and computer whizz – in March of last year as an aide-mémoire for personal use. I was writing a lot about the new and still largely unknown virus and wanted to create a kind of online reference library, collating all the articles and papers and interviews about different aspects of the pandemic under separate headings.
Then, when I’d created it, I decided to make it public in case anyone else would find it useful. I got into the habit of constantly updating it because so much new information about the virus was being published every day and, to do that, I found myself spending the best part of the the evening looking through news sites and blogs and medical journals. That, in turn, led to the daily update – I had gathered all this information, so why not publish it in one place? And so Lockdown Sceptics, as a daily news blog, was born.
Many readers have contacted me in the past 12 months to say that reading the blog has kept them sane because, until they discovered it, they thought they were the only ones who weren’t buying into the official narrative. Compiling it has also been therapeutic for me, although in a slightly different way, which I’ll try and explain.
First, the darkling plain.
For me, the most depressing thing about the past 12 months is that it’s destroyed my faith in so many of the people and institutions that I used to have some respect for – Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, the Conservative Party, the judiciary, the police, the BBC, Sky News, the Civil Service, Imperial College, the Lancet, Nature, the Royal Society… the list goes on.
I’ve always been alive to the risk that crowds are susceptible to collective hysteria and I’ve witnessed a few manias and moral panics first hand, but I hoped that Britain’s elites, particularly those who bear responsibility for steering the ship of state, would be immune to such madness.
And it seemed they would be for a few weeks, which made their eventual surrender to a global psychosis that much harder to witness. To see them not only succumb to mass hysteria but consciously whip it up, using sophisticated psychological techniques, has been a shock. (I blame that, in part, for the British public’s willingness to surrender their liberty and hope they will recover their good sense once the propaganda ceases.)
I won’t say this has been a deep shock because I’ve always been pretty cynical, but I used to have a slither of confidence in Britain’s elites and I have struggled to hold on that. It’s not an exaggeration to say my belief in Britain has been knocked for six.
But what has kept me from slipping into the slough of despond has been all the thoughtful, intelligent people who’ve contacted me, offering not only to help put out Lockdown Sceptics, but to contribute to it, too. They’ve come from all walks of life, different sides of the political spectrum and from a wide range of academic fields, all united in doubt about the wisdom of the Government’s approach to managing the pandemic.
Some of them have been based overseas, but most have been my fellow countrymen and their presence and willingness to help has gone some way to restoring my faith in Britain. I often think, when reading a submission from a retired professor of economics or a lecturer in philosophy just starting out on her career, that here is the best of Britain – the heirs of Isaac Newton and David Hume and Rosalind Franklin.
Like Orwell, writing in the Lion and the Unicorn during another crisis in our history when the people at the helm seemed to be steering us towards the rocks, I have persuaded myself that the problem isn’t with the country, just the people at the top. As he wrote: “A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.”
The wrong people have been in charge during this crisis in almost every sphere of public life. But there are good people out there – still – and not a few of them have been involved in this website – above and below the line. And the fact that Lockdown Sceptics has become such a thing – a kind of focal point for dissent from the official narrative, with an average of 1.25 million page views a month and – even more heartening – attacked and ridiculed almost daily by the lackeys of the Establishment is also a source of hope. And a tribute to the talent and energy of all those who’ve helped and contributed.
As a country, this has not been our finest hour. But I still believe in Britain – just.
https://lockdownsceptics.org/2021/03/23/the-darkness-and-the-light/
Toby Young’s is the classic red herring interpretation here in the UK: it’s put down to governmental incompetence, hysteria, panic, listening too much to the scientists, corruption by Big Pharma, etc.
It’s also encouraged by those who seek to distract attention from what is really happening: they know that his site, Lockdown Sceptics, will change nothing at all. David Icke is far nearer to the truth of the situation, but he can be dismissed as ‘mad’.
That this is a concerted and co-ordinated plan, unfolding in slightly different ways in many countries, but with the same goal; implemented by agents of the controlling Cabal who have been placed in positions of influence over the last few decades, and have a unifying ideology ( a fully digitised world leading to the Singularity and creation of the AI God-Mind etc) is too much for people to bear – they would indeed lose hope at the first shock of this realisation.
Or the might go into complete denial, like those who said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz even as the ash from the crematoria chimneys fell on them and everything else…
What sane person wishes to face the fact that they are probably going to be living in a kind of digital Jonestown, ruled by murderous and deluded lunatics who view them as disposable vermin?
Toby Young et al seems to think vaccines are the answer and that’s bad enough for me. Some interesting comments though …
( a fully digitised world leading to the Singularity and creation of the AI God-Mind etc)
Given I am aware that of the oil situation … that’s too much for me to bear….
I am firmly in the CEP camp…. and I can understand why it’s such a lonely place… even a digital Jonestown is better than accepting the CEP….
Accepting the CEP is the agenda… kills all hope… and leads to deep despair.
Fast Eddy is the exception… because he sees humans as a cancer… and because he has not offspring…. the CEP is wonderful. Every day we get closer to The Final Solution … makes him a little more giddy with joy!!!!
As we edge closer to the abyss… the Elders desperately try to get the Lethal Injection into as many people as possible .. Go Elders Go!!!
Protesters have set up roadblocks on major highways in recent weeks with burning tyres and rubbish dumpsters set ablaze.
“Our goal is not to have an uprising of the hungry, but you have people going hungry,” Beirut protester Nora Abouchakra from independent political party Li Haqqi told Al Jazeera.
“The streets have exploded because of the economic crisis. People can’t take it anymore.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/22/were-sick-of-them-lebanon-economy-freefalls-as-leaders-bicker
A “slither” of confidence?
FE, you are correct. I have a “Lockdown Sceptic” friend who just can’t bring himself to think that there are that many people who are really are that bad, venal, manipulative, etc.
Perhaps the “most people are good” concept is itself a modern psy-op and part of the control agenda. I doubt whether historically people labored under that formula, generally speaking.
“Perhaps the “most people are good” concept is itself a modern psy-op and part of the control agenda.”
If most people weren’t good the world would have been a lot worse IMO …
There is no good or bad… there are only interests… Mr DNA’s interest is to keep you alive so he can pass on bits and pieces of himself to your offspring.
If that means cooperating within an oil-powered civilization he will do it… (good…)
But if things are shaky as the oil runs out the veneer will be discarded and he’ll urge you to fight for your very life to ensure he gets passed on. (bad0
I am sure we would all be very surprised at the heinous things we are capable of if the shit were to hit the fan…
Mr DNA runs our show — he responds and adapts to the environment — and we are for the most part…vessels.
Surprised…NOT!
Postmaster General announces 10-year plan including longer mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours
By Kristen Holmes, Liz Stark and Devan Cole, CNN
Washington(CNN)Longer first-class mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours across the country are among the changes embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday as part of a 10-year plan for the agency.
The sweeping 58-page plan, titled “Delivering for America,” promises to make the Postal Service more competitive and more modern — including a new energy-friendly fleet of delivery vehicles.
It includes investments in “advanced package processing equipment,” upgrades to post offices and uniforms, new technology such as mobile devices for letter carriers, and new employee training.
…..Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told reporters in a press briefing that the plan “takes a holistic view of the organization and is meant to elevate our business, competitiveness, and our ability to meet the needs of the nation.”
Postal Service employees and unions braced for the release of the plan after changes DeJoy made to the agency over the summer slowed mail delivery.
American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein noted that “any proposals that would either slow the mail, reduce access to post offices, or further pursue the failed strategy of plant consolidation will need to be addressed,” but applauded the plan to open “46 new annexes to handle the ever-increasing number of packages the USPS processes” as well as its recognition “that the United State Postal Service’s strength is in the people who provide the service.”
…..
DeJoy apologized in February for slow mail during the peak holiday season, telling the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee that it was “unacceptable.”
Took 6 weeks to deliver a domestic certified business letter. Took 2 months for an overseas letter that was insured! Did not receive other🌎 important mail on time.
Yep, unacceptable and the US Post Office is in trouble.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/23/politics/louis-dejoy-postal-service-changes-ten-year-plan/index.html
The pricing structure depended on a lot of first class mail, relative to packages. Its delivery system is not set up for a lot of packages. The little vehicles will not hold much besides letters and magazines.
Agreed. Another problem was created when the US Post Office substituted delivery by air for delivery by train. Trains were city centre to city centre, and the mail was sorted in transit. Delivery by air requires many more steps, and more transfers from one vehicle to another; moreover the sorting was taken offline. The result was an increase in cost and a decrease in efficiency from which the system never recovered.
Good points!
Now the US Post Office is going to more transport by truck, since many of these trucks are now being sent only partially filled. Sorting cannot be done on the trucks, however. I imagine it allows fewer changes from vehicle to vehicle.
I know that for personal travel, using an airplane rarely makes sense for short distances. A person has to drive to the airport, go through security, walk to the gate, and wait for the plane. At the other end, there is a need to arrange other transports. It takes both time and money. It is sort of the same thing for mail.
https://youtu.be/jj3qoRL6NZc
Thank you for this one..! One is easily trapped in informaton overload, particulary with regards to videos, but this was rather poignant as to the games going on behind the veil. However, one could be led to believe that the chessboard of power is what it is all about. Thanks to Gail we know that there is even another level up from what is depicted in this video. Still I confess to rejoicing upon such lucid revelations about the emperor(s) lack of clothes. Seeing the Narrative torn down is bliss..
Icke wants us to retake control…..
I assume he means that we need to reinstate democracy… I don’t think we have ever had democracy on any meaningful level… they sort of tried that after the French Revolution … that didn’t work out so well…
I have a friend who sends me links to Huffpost and Democracy Now… he is anti war koombaya and all that jazz…
I tell him — my worst nightmare is Amy Goodman being elected president with him as VP…. we’d have the Chinese boot on our necks within a month … and we’d be Somaliaized within a year…
Democracy is unworkable.
We need big vicious smart dogs to run our countries. We need them to act in a pack. Ideally they will act benevolently to us and provide us with certain levels of freedom that other packs (that desire to usurp our pack) do not permit.
It is best we are not aware that we are governed by big vicious dogs. That our prosperity is 100% based on pillaging and murdering. Our good Christian minds could not handle that…. they’d explode.
Icke adds value … but he’s still not able to snatch the pebble
https://youtu.be/9selPW2lL-M
He who remembers the vile smirk of Amy Goodman when pushed by popular demand (against her will) to interview briefly once or twice the first gen skeptics on “that 2001 thing” never forgets.. That was almost two decades ago. Many other topics followed the same pattern ever since..
Not picking on her in particular, but that’s just how the world rolls, only “insane” people are for whatever reason allowed to look under more layers of the commonly perceived and make believe reality concepts – it’s not for the majority – such behavior at large would jeopardize the daily “sane” doings of the particular species itself..
Money borrowed for development of production capacity would fit your understanding “an indirect promise for future goods and services,” but that does not cover all the debt that currently is in the world, expecting to be repaid. In the simple case of credit being offered instead of full payment for goods and services when received, that debt enables consumption of the future. If people had to have cash in hand for every purchase, then consumption would be drastically reduced. Little or no money down, gets the goods today. People could have eight credit cards with a $25,000 limit, buy $200,000 worth of goods, and not be able to pay it off. The future was consumed. Now the debt may be on the books, with the owner of it paying the minimum.
Back in the 1990’s I first learned from a credit counselor friend, that people had over a $10,000 balance on their cards. I’d always paid mine monthly; couldn’t believe it. Economists don’t seem to want debt repaid anyway; that’s destruction of money. The mountains of unpayable debt present today represent massive over-consumption of the future. Refinance has replaced repay. The unpaid balance on your current vehicle is rolled into the financing of your new one. The $20,000 old plus $50,000 new means a $70,000 vehicle loan for seven years.
There is a great shortage of true assets. This is why the market plunges have to be stopped. Values could go to zero very quickly when there are no buyers.
True conservatives work from a real surplus. Unpayable debt is not a real asset, but it is treated like one. Back in the 1980’s, during the Reagan Presidency, Congress decided that because we just owe the money to ourselves, Federal debt was not a bad thing. Each party could borrow for its priorities.
Energy is the primary need for civilization’s built-environment, in total, the technosphere. Your analyses about the limitations and challenges to its production are insightful and accurate. Thank you for that.
When it comes to Bitcoin and crypto currencies, the most useful perspective I’ve found comes from Andreas M. Antonopoulos, whose YouTube channel is dedicated to free education about this technology https://www.youtube.com/c/aantonop/featured There is no simple way to get the complete perspective, but with study, people can see how properly designed digital currencies will be beneficial to the 85% of the world that does not have access to financial services, as well as those everywhere that pay a high fee for transactions.
Much is made of the energy cost, but what is that relative to the cost of the existing system. The FIRE sector was once 10% of the economy, but now its 20%. Does it really add value, or only inflate values? Banks no longer need depositors, so savers are lucky to get 1% interest, while financers charge up to 23% – once usurious rates. These are now legal because of deadbeats, people to whom easy credit was extended, but realistically shouldn’t have gotten it.
All this debt does nothing for the real economy. It takes money from people that they could use to buy the real things they need. Since they can’t save, credit takes the place of savings, which of course it can’t be. Necessary short term, but untenable for years on end. People buy lottery tickets.
Richard Vague https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LykeJRC52nM has spoken about the problem of consumer debt, the thing which actually drives our economy.
Our consumption of the world’s resources, as measured by the Overshoot Day, had been in 10.7 years of overshoot as of December 31, 2016, by my calculation. They reset to January 1 each year, not carrying forward the deficit. Real operations can do that.
That means full overshoot began about 2005-2006, the period when the financial crisis of debt financed real estate was becoming visible. complete overshoot since and has led to the current state of over consumption. The future is an empty cupboard
Michael Hudson published “the new road to serfdom: an illustrated guide to the coming real estate collapse” In Harpers Magazine, April, 2006. Online here: https://michael-hudson.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RoadToSerfdom.pdf
Another economist who saw a similar fate for the future is David Fleming (1940-2010). His book
“Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy” was completed for publication by Shaun Chamberlin. Dr. Fleming spoke of “Lean Energy: A Practical Guide to the Energy Descent” in 2006. https://youtu.be/keLuiUkReQI His prescription is: Lean Logic, a return to simpler ways of the past.
As long as the US can print the global currency, get real money from others for bonds, then the game will go on. Classifying Bitcoin as an asset means appreciation can be taxed. That will work for a while. Regional electronic currencies that can be used on basic cell phones give the poor something they haven’t had before; financial services.
In the West, unpayable debt is the big issue, but with that 10% extra share FIRE has, how much longer will it be invisible? Spreadsheets don’t have a problem with adding zeros, moving the decimal point.
Our future is: Pay more; Get Less. The working class haven’t effectively had increases in buying power for 30 or 40 years. They may carry more dollars, but in 2021 it takes $51,000 income to be equivalent to $15,000 in 1980.
Economists, though they don’t want money destroyed by debt repayment, do promote the idea of doing so with the cheaper dollars of their managed inflation. Trouble is, those cheaper dollars aren’t any easier to get.
Thank you for a trenchant summary of the situation, with which I largely agree. That is one of the reasons I have been debt free for over 20 years. Before that, the only debt was a mortgage on my house: no credit card debt, no car loan, no payday loan, except one I borrowed from myself, and charged myself 20% interest per month, which rapidly broke the habit. And I was able to buy this retirement home cash on the nail.
But then, my parents were both accountants of the old school, who taught me money management and thrift.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Great post, I had been pondering similar questions at times throughout my life, but it always ends up to summary finale: but was the thrift approach worth it in the end?
It sort of reminds me of the recent link posted here about Argentina ~again~ refusing to pay back IMF/WB or whomever, as I recall their ~20yrs long waves of manic people going through rapid cycles of debt induced over consumption on the up, closely followed by chilling bottom and despair.. rinse and repeat.. similar example could be found in the ClubMed countries in recent decades.. Perhaps despite these up and down cycles it was more livid pulsating experience after-all, who knows..
Gail,
I’m trying to clarify for a Third World community the recent history of fossil fuels that it knows and thinks nothing about. I plan to write the following, but could you please give me a hint or two how to do it more sensibly? Thank you in advance.
19th century industrialism was highly sophisticated while extremely restricted in range. Its carbon emissions did not significantly alter global atmosphere, and its deforestation did not yet threaten the survival of the African rainforest, one of the earth’s two lungs. 19th century industrialism was largely built on the use of coal. Coal then was better quality and cheaper to process than now, causing the early fossil fuel world economy to work with modest efficiency. But that source of industrial energy began to run short in the early 20th century, occasioning two world wars leading up to the age of oil and gas. But the age of fossil fuels in general is virtually over, and we’re living, literally, on the fumes.
It is hard to write history of fossil fuels in a paragraph.
Humans have needed energy, other than the energy from the food they eat, for more than a million years, because cooked food gave humans an advantage over other animals, allowing the population of humans to increase. Furthermore, with the use of energy products, humans could spread to areas of the world that would otherwise be too cold or dry for human population. As long as human population stayed in areas that were fairly warm and wet, not much industrialization was required. But once people moved to colder areas, or to areas that required irrigation, then industrialization was needed. The problem with industrialization was that it tended to use far more wood than would grow back quickly. Deforestation became a problem even thousands of years ago.
To save forests, coal and later oil and natural gas were found to produce energy products that could be used to heat homes, pave roads, create metal products and allow modern conveniences available through electricity. Unfortunately, now we seem to be reaching the end of fossil fuels because prices won’t rise high enough to allow businesses to continue to extract them. Depletion has caused the cost of extraction to rise; wages have not risen to keep up with these higher extraction costs. In theory, the world could to back to burning only wood and animal dung as energy sources, but the world could not support nearly as much population as today. Cold and very dry areas would be at a particular disadvantage.
Thanks Gail! And burning wood for energy seems clearly enough to be the major problem. I am targeting a warm and wet location. My drift would be to import coal, though I have no idea how that could work financially.
I know Ayn Rand is far from universally popular, and I know her followers were cult members and her ideas for society are totally unworkable, but sometimes she really hit the ball out of the stadium. On this beautiful spring (or autumn if you live down under) day, let’s quote her.
“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.”
I liked Rand when I was 16.
It was very cool being a complete a zzhole.
But by 18, the delusion and simple incompetence overtook my desire for being a violent, incompetent punk.
Big fan of Rand… live by her message or the messages of Kim, Paris and Justin?
Even she failed to do that. But that does not diminish her work.
Coincidentally… I just bought a box set of the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged… I read my brother’s copies decades ago and thought I’d get them for my library… I will hopefully have a chance to reread both before the CEP gets me
I’m mid point on Gotham… it’s a fantastic history of New York if anyone is looking for something meaty.
Never read Rand. But the movie “Fountainhead”, starring Gary Cooper, means a lot to me, it was inspirational when i saw it in my early 20s. I never forgot it. A defense of artistic freedom, and of the truth seeking individual, the enlightened pioneer, against the eternal dullness of bourgeoisie mind.
Great film, easily one of my 50 favourite ones.
Suez Canal blocked in both directions by mega container ship
https://www.cityam.com/suez-canal-blocked-with-mega-container-ship/
A cynic might wonder if someone is trying to speed up the downfall process.
The BBC just posted this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56505413
“Dozens of vessels are stuck after a giant container ship became wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest trade routes.
Rescue boats are working to free the 400m-long (1312ft) vessel, which was knocked off course by strong winds.
Egypt says it has reopened the canal’s older channel to divert traffic, amid fears it could remain blocked for days.
The incident has already created long tailbacks on the waterway, stopping dozens of other vessels from passing.
About 10% of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe…”
“Dr Sal Mercogliano, a maritime historian based in the US state of North Carolina, told the BBC that incidents such as this were rare, but could have “huge ramifications for global trade”.
“This is the largest vessel ever to go aground in the Suez Canal,” he said, adding that the ship got lodged in the embankment and would have lost power and its ability to steer.
“If they are unable to pull her free… in a high tide, they are going to have to start removing cargo.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56505413
The vessel has an interesting name painted on its side (see the link above). The name is… (drumroll)… Evergreen.
“Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature”?
There are no tides in the Suez Canal.
https://dlca.logcluster.org/display/public/DLCA/2.1.20+Egypt+Suez+Canal
Hmm, this site says that “the Suez Canal is a sea level canal and the height of water level differs slightly and the extreme tidal range is 65 cm in the north and 1.9 m in the south.”
Coincidence theorists have some splainin to do:
“According to nautical tracking service VesselFinder, the massive Ever Given charted a route resemblant of a penis, testicles and an enormous butt in the Red Sea before it became stuck, causing an intercontinental traffic jam in the maritime artery.”
https://nypost.com/2021/03/24/cargo-ship-drew-penis-before-getting-stuck-in-suez-canal/ (pics inside)
https://imgur.com/a/XZsrjCK (animation)
A Co Kildare GP who refused to administer Covid-19 vaccines to his patients has been suspended by the Medical Council.
The council, which regulates medical doctors in the State, confirmed that Dr Gerard Waters had been suspended “until further steps are taken”.
Dr Waters, a GP at the Whitethorn Clinic in Celbridge, last month told RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline programme that he was a “conscientious objector” to the Covid-19 vaccine and would not be recommending it to his patients.
He later told The Irish Times he would not administer the vaccine on the basis that he believed it was untrustworthy and unnecessary.
“My problem primarily is that I don’t think the pathogenicity of Covid is sufficiently severe to a. cause lockdowns or b. use a messenger RNA [vaccine],” he said as he expressed concern over the safety of the shots.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/gp-suspended-by-medical-council-over-refusal-to-give-covid-19-vaccine-1.4516239
If enough medical people would refuse to comply, the scam would collapse. And perhaps that will happen, enough time for the examples of brave defiance to create snowball effect. Then we can separate the honorers of their Hippocratic oaths from the hypocritical oafs.
A “conscientious objector” to the Covid-19 vaccine — like it.
What a great slogan to wear on your mask!
They’ll just post the vax in pill form…
https://www.oramed.com/oramed-forms-a-joint-venture-oravax-medical-inc-for-the-development-of-novel-oral-covid-19-vaccines/
I see you found this too. Actually, you posted your link first.
Good for him.
As always, there are probably quite a few GPs who feel uneasy, but it needs just a few bolder ones, well-publicised, to move things on and create a resistance.
This will be circumvented eventually by press-on vaccine patches, but for now it would be helpful in slowing down the Re-set for a while.
But what would they do then, release something even nastier on us to stampede the herd into the loving arms of Big Pharma?
Why not just put the vaccine (there’s a tablet form coming right?) into Coca Cola?
“What a great slogan to wear on your mask!”
Slogan: Conscientious? Sorry, I don’t speak French.
Professor Dolores Cahill was allegedly sacked last week, from her university role. According to this article, the university had to act because students demanded action:
‘Last year more than 130 students, mostly from the UCD School of Medicine, signed a letter saying the failure of the university to disavow Prof Cahill’s statements had acted “as a silent endorsement” of her views.
…However, students were frustrated that it appeared she had not been sanctioned by UCD over her comments, he said.
Amy Schranz, another medicine student, said Prof Cahill’s claims about Covid-19 were “extremely damaging” to public health efforts to fight the virus.’
Seems to me like the students were a convenient excuse.
The Great Barrington’ers are also fearful of a similar outcome for their careers…. only the brave cross the line (Geert vanden Bossche has crossed the line)
That said … why bother… what’s the upside?
In fact… if anyone could wreck the CEP… it would not be in our interests.
>>why bother… what’s the upside?
This is all in the best interests of the rest of the planet, although the rest of the planet looks like it is in a pretty bad place as well, especially our seas. But the doctors and others fighting against the scamdemic all have one thing in common – they don’t understand peak oil, peak everything and the limits to growth, and no matter what, our trajectory from here is downhill – the reason we believe the scamdemic is occurring.
If You Absolutely Must Vaccinate Against Covid-19 Out of Fear or Coercion, Hold Out for This Already Proven Vaccine
BCG vaccine mechanism: trained immunity
The BCG vaccine is not widely used in the US.
While the BCG vaccine does activate T-cells, it also works independent of B or T cells. BCG vaccine affords “trained immunity.” It works via epigenetic re-programming, that is, gene protein making, which essentially what the RNA vaccines pretend to do. This is called epigenetic memory.
This type of trained immunity is independent of B and T-cell activation and is accomplished via white blood cells (monocytes, macrophages, natural-killer cells). For physicians who must to know precisely how it works, BCG vaccine targets known cell surface receptors (toll-like TLR2 and TLR4; complement receptors CR3-CR4; NOD-like receptors).
BCG vaccine is so safe it is approved for use with neonates, children and adults for almost 100 years.
The BCG vaccine also confers immunity against Staphylococcus and Candida organisms in additional tuberculosis bacilli. BCG vaccine is also useful in preventing multiple sclerosis and cancer.
BCG Vaccine and COVID-19
Evidence for the BCG vaccine to quell COVID-19 infections is compelling.
A study published in November of 2020 confirms that BCG vaccine protects health care workers from COVID-19 infection. Healthcare workers previously inoculated with BCG vaccine experienced a marked decrease in COVID-19 infection.
Population studies reveal the potential of BCG vaccination. Epidemiologists project a 37% decrease in COVID-19 mortality between East Germany which was vaccinated with BCG vaccine and not West Germany.
Statisticians claim there would have been 80% fewer COVID-19 deaths in the US by March 29, 2020 had the country employed mandatory BCG vaccination since 2000.
Worldwide, TB kills more people than COVID-19. Now “two birds could be knocked out with one stone.”
Vaccine makers must inoculate many thousands of people with their unproven COVID-19 vaccines while population studies already show BCG to be superior and more affordable.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/no_author/if-you-absolutely-must-vaccinate-against-covid-19-out-of-fear-or-coercion-hold-out-for-this-already-proven-vaccine/
A press release straight from the Ministry of Truth that is
When you do this during a pandemic, you kill everyone.. including the vaxxed
No free doughnut ? There must be a catch
Doughnut?! I want -and deserve – a carrot!