- Deep State, Deep Trouble
Deep State, Deep Trouble
Authored by Josiah Lippincott via AmericanMind.org,
America’s woke generals and the Military-Industrial Complex must be purged to save the nation…
Revelations from a new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Rob Costa, reveal just how deep the spiritual rot in the military goes. In the days after the January 6 protest, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, promised, in the event of a war, to give aid and comfort to China. According to the Washington Post, after the Capitol protest, Milley sent secret communiques to the head of the People’s Liberation Army, promising that “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
In a decent country such a brazen act of collusion with a foreign power by one of the most prominent leaders of the armed forces would be met with immediate and unrelenting backlash. Instead, this betrayer of the Constitution and the principle of civilian leadership of the military is a liberal darling. At the inauguration, Joe Biden thanked Milley for undermining President Trump in the final weeks of his presidency.
Milley, before reaching out to China, sat down with the service’s top officers and demanded from them what amounted to an oath—none of them would launch a nuclear weapon without his approval. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went behind the President’s back to secure control over the nation’s most important weapons.
Our generals are losers abroad, and grifters at home. They parrot MSNBC talking points on Twitter and grovel before Fauci. This is bad enough. But Milley’s actions show that America’s top military officers have reached another level of delusion. They fancy themselves a new praetorian guard to protect the nation—as construed by elite editorial boards—from the people’s elected representatives.
This deep state is in control. It is clear that no populist elected leader can trust America’s security establishment. As Senator Chuck Schumer warned President Trump on Rachel Maddow’s show in 2017, the intelligence community has “six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.”
The military establishment is gloating now and flexing its muscle. After the election, outgoing Syria envoy Jim Jeffrey admitted that the Pentagon and State Department had consistently lied to Trump about troop levels in Syria. Before he left office, Trump’s order to have troops out of Afghanistan by January 15 was overruled by the establishment. Trump, far from trying to start a war on his way out of office, sought to end one.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki claims that Milley was following “constitutional orders to prevent unlawful military actions.” According to her, Trump “was implementing an insurrection.” The claim that Trump wished to start a war to distract from the election, upon which Milley based his collusion with the Chinese government, was an utter lie. Nor was Trump implementing an insurrection; the FBI has dispensed with this myth, finding that there was no coordinated plot associated with the Capitol riot.
There will be no hearings, serious journalistic investigations, or outcry from the establishment.
Milley will go unpunished.
He will retire with full honors and full pension.
The Pentagon will never reform itself from the inside.
The entire military-industrial complex (MIC) must be dismantled if we are ever to have again an armed forces consistent with the Founders’ republican virtues.
The American Right must be willing to starve the Pentagon of its lifeblood. The most important asset the people have is their bodies. American mothers and fathers need to stop feeding their children into the machine. Heartland American boys and girls have better things to do and better leaders to serve under. The American people must go on strike until the generals once again learn to subordinate themselves to the people.
GOP politicians must assist their constituents in this noble task. They must find real courage and demand radical institutional change. This starts with deep and abiding budget cuts for the Pentagon and the rest of the MIC. The Founders’ distrust of permanent standing armies must be restored.
America should once again rely on true citizen soldiers for national defense.
The world has changed. America’s grand strategy must change with it. Our current conventional force cannot defeat insurgencies anyway. The proliferation of nuclear weapons, on the other hand, means that “Great Power conflict” is virtually impossible. There is no need to keep buying weapons systems designed to fight a redux of WWII. Our bases overseas are a relic of the liberal humanitarian world order. Having 20,000 troops in Okinawa didn’t prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using Twitter bots to stir up hysteria over Covid. Our dozen aircraft carriers didn’t stop our politicians from implementing lockdowns and vaccine passports. America’s air bases in Turkey, Germany, and Diego Garcia didn’t keep the Taliban from retaking control of their country.
America was never the world’s policeman. An empire in the name of democracy and freedom was always an idiotic idea.
Widespread gun ownership is a much better guarantor of American liberty than any SEAL team or aircraft carrier. The Militia Act of 1792 is a much better model for national defense than our current setup. The act enrolled every able-bodied male citizen between the ages of 18 and 45 into the militia. It also demanded that each of these men provide themselves with a “good musket or firelock” and “a sufficient bayonet.” Far from trying to take away firearms, the Founders demanded every American male citizen possess one.
Self-sufficiency in arms is the foundation of liberty, national sovereignty, and independence. Tyrannies never arm their citizens; republics always do. Our security as a nation should not depend on over-hyped “super soldiers.” The “silent professionals” with their podcasts, book deals, and TV appearances play, in the grand scheme of things, only a very minor role in protecting the life, liberty, and property of the American people.
The unmitigated corruption in the leadership of the armed forces is a sign of deep cultural rot. The patriotic flag-waving of the post-9/11 response has been used to great harm against the American people. An unwillingness by the political class to criticize and hold accountable those charged with defending the nation has led to our current spiritual crisis. America can’t win overseas, her generals sell out her leaders to foreign powers, and the retired members of this elite class do nothing but gobble up fat checks from the corporations they once purchased from. This is an untenable state of affairs.
It is time to restore republican virtue, to sweep clean our military establishment.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 23:40 - How Genetically Similar Are We To Other Life Forms
How Genetically Similar Are We To Other Life Forms
Of the three billion genetic building blocks that make us living things, only a handful are uniquely ours. In fact, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes, despite our differences on the outside, humans are 99.9% genetically similar to one another.
But how alike are we to other, non-human life forms? Turns out, we’re a lot more similar than you might think.
Comparative Genomics 101
First, how do scientists compare the genetic makeup of various life forms?
Comparative genomics is a branch of biology that compares genome sequences across different species to identify their similarities and differences.
This field of research is important because it:
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Helps us better understand evolution, and how living things have adapted over time.
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Builds knowledge around genes and how they influence various systems in our bodies.
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Has wider applications in agriculture, especially in conservation efforts among endangered species.
According to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), scientists have already sequenced the genomes of more than 250 animal species, as well as 50 bird species.
Human Genetic Makeup vs. Other Life Forms
Perhaps unsurprisingly, chimps are one of our closest genetic relatives in the animal kingdom.
Because of our similarities, chimpanzees have a similar immune system to humans, which means they’re susceptible to viruses such as AIDS and hepatitis.
Though chimps are one of our closest relatives, other species are strongly linked to humans as well—and not necessarily the ones you’d think.
For instance, according to NHGRI, fruit flies are 60% genetically similar to humans.
This may sound confusing at first, since humans and insects couldn’t be more physically different. However, because we share many of the same essential needs to sustain life, such as the need for oxygen, these similarities are reflected in our genetics.
DNA vs Genes
It’s important to note that being genetically similar to something is different than sharing the same DNA. That’s because genes (the part of DNA responsible for making protein) only account for up to 2% of your DNA, while the rest of your genome is made up of what scientists call “non-coding DNA.”
So while a banana is 60% genetically similar to humans, only 1.2% of our DNA is shared.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 23:20 -
- San Diego City Council Bans Ghost Guns
San Diego City Council Bans Ghost Guns
Authored by Yudi Hu via The Epoch Times,
San Diego City Council passed an ordinance on Tuesday that bans the sale and possession of “ghost guns” in an attempt to combat the rising gun crime in San Diego.
Ghost guns are privately made firearms that lack serial numbers, making them hard to be traced by law enforcement agencies. Under federal law, it is legal for private individuals to make their own firearms, but a license is required for the manufacture of firearms that are for sale or distribution.
The Eliminate Non-Serialized Untraceable Firearm (ENUF) ordinance was introduced by Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert after a deadly shooting in April in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter in which a ghost gun was used. San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit told FOX 5 reporters after the shooting that there has been a 169 percent increase in ghost guns from 2020.
The first reading of the ENUF ordinance passed 8-1 in August. At the city council meeting on Tuesday, citizens voiced their opinions regarding the ordinance.
Stephan Abrams is a member of Team Enough, a youth-led organization aiming to educate young people about gun violence. Abrams said he was able to purchase a ghost gun kit and build his own firearm as a minor.
“The idea [that building a gun] is a complicated process is not true. We need to pass legislation because ghost guns bypass all gun violence prevention laws,” said Abrams.
Debbie McDaniel-Lindsey, an attendee of the council meeting, said that the ENUF ordinance would enable a safe culture of sale and possession of firearms. “We are simply asking makers of ghost guns to follow the same rules they would use if they went to a dealer to buy a firearm,” said McDaniel-Lindsey.
Tim Taylor, president of District 3 representing San Diegans For Gun Violence Prevention, said one of the main arguments against the ENUF ordinance was that it is a violation of the second amendment right.
“I strongly disagree,” said Taylor. “Ghost Gun technology created an unintended loophole in the existing laws that are supported by the vast majority of Californians … Closing the loophole gets us back to where we were before the technology existed, where the overwhelming majority of adults can legally possess various types of firearms.”
A man load .223 bullets into an AR-15 assault rifle at FT3 tactical shooting range in Stanton, Calif., on May 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
However, other people spoke out against the ENUF ordinance.
Wendy Hauffen, CEO of the San Diego Country Gun Owners, urged a “no” vote on the ordinance. She said the ordinance would only put restrictions on law-abiding gun owners but not criminals.
“The serialization comes before the purchase [of] the raw materials the builder uses to make a firearm. This step is not required for criminals and criminals will continue to break firearm laws. This will only result in the punishment and charges against people who are not career criminals because criminals do not care [about] the serialization of guns,” said Hauffen.
Another attendee, Max, also objected to the ENUF ordinance. He said with the rising gun price passing, the ordinance will add more pressure to low-income residents of San Diego who can not afford a manufactured gun. He added even the ordinance is passed, criminals can always obtain guns from black markets with the serial numbers scratched off.
“No matter what, this is something that can always happen and it’s going to affect only low-income residents … because we can’t build our own,” said Max.
Council members voted after attendees commented on the ordinance. The ENUF ordinance passed 8-1 with only Councilmember Chris Cate from District 6 voting against it.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 23:00 - Survey: 40% Of People Would Have Sex With Humanoid Robot
Survey: 40% Of People Would Have Sex With Humanoid Robot
We continue to ponder artificial intelligence and robots and their role in the sex industry. For the last half-decade, we’ve covered the proliferation of sexbots and how they could screw the human race.
For more on the screwing and a pretty shocking poll by data company Tido, out of 1,200 people surveyed, 42% of respondents said they would have sex with a robot. Males are more open to bonking a silicon robot- at least 48% of them said they would have sexual intercourse with a humanoid bot. Only 33% of females said they would.
“About 42% of our survey respondents would have sexual intercourse with a robot. Yet, only 39% believe they could have a romantic relationship with an AI. There is also a large discrepancy between men and women. Men are more open to both the idea of sleeping with a robot (48%) and falling in love with an AI (43% of male respondents),” Tido said.
What’s troubling is that we outlined in 2016 that “if humans begin spending the majority of their intimate hours with sex androids, they will reduce both the energy and biological resources needed to perpetuate the human race.”
This poll couldn’t come at the worst time. The US population has declined for the first time in this nation’s existence as a demographic timebomb awaits. The younger generation needs to make more children not consider future sexual relations with a silicon robot from China.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 22:40 - Victor Davis Hanson: The Death Of Science
Victor Davis Hanson: The Death Of Science
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,
The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking.
In empirical fashion, scientists advised us to examine evidence and data, and then by induction come to rational hypotheses. The enemies of “science” were politics, superstition, bias and deduction.
Yet we are now returning to our version of medieval alchemy and astrology in rejecting a millennium of the scientific method.
Take the superstitions that now surround COVID-19.
We now know from data that a prior case of COVID-19 offers immunity as robust as vaccination. Why, then, are Joe Biden’s proposed vaccination mandates ignoring that scientific fact? Dr. Anthony Fauci, when asked, seemed at a loss for words.
Is this yet another of the scientific community’s Platonic “noble lies,” as when Fauci assured the public last year that there was no need for masks?
He later claimed he had lied so that medical professionals would not run out of needed supplies.
Fauci also threw out mythical percentages needed for herd immunity, apparently in an attempt to convince the public that it will never be safe until every American is protected from COVID-19 by vaccination only.
And why was it that hard for the scientific community to postulate a likely origin of COVID-19 Some of the very scientists engaged in gain-of-function research oversaw an investigation with Chinese authorities. They confirmed the predetermined conclusion that the virus likely had little to do with gain-of-function engineering. And they saw little proof it was birthed in a Wuhan virology lab. Yet scientific opinion, emerging evidence and basic logic have suggested the opposite.
How can the government hector citizens that they have a moral duty — and soon a legal obligation — to be vaccinated when it does not mandate vaccinations for unvetted refugees flying in from Afghanistan?
How can the government medical community remain largely silent when an anticipated 2 million foreign nationals will cross into the United States in the current fiscal year — almost none of whom are vaccinated or tested for COVID-19?
Why do the media and government blame particular races for the delta variant outbreak on grounds that they were insufficiently vaccinated?
Why wouldn’t officials simply urge the Latino and Black communities to be vaccinated as quickly as possible?
Data shows that both groups have lower vaccination rates than white and Asian populations.
Are woke political agendas discrediting science and losing public health?
We saw just that in June 2020, when more than 1,200 “health care professionals” signed a petition demanding exemptions from lockdowns and quarantines for Black Lives Matter protesters marching en masse. And they concocted medical excuses such as “vital to the national public health” to insist that violating quarantines was less unhealthy than not pouring into the streets.
Why did presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, warn the American people on the eve of vaccination rollouts that an inoculation under the Trump administration could be unsafe, thereby undermining confidence in vaccines?
Why was the medical community largely silent about such dangerous sabotaging of new vaccines, but months later became vociferous in warning the public that any doubts about the safety of these Operation Warp Speed vaccinations were scientifically misplaced? Was there a medical breakthrough on Jan. 20, 2020, to alter their consensus?
From rewarding wokeness in medical school admissions to the peer reviewing of scientific papers, the anti-scientific mania has polluted scientific endeavors.
“Critical race theory” would preposterously tell us that we need racism to fight racism.
“Critical legal theory” ludicrously claims that laws have no rational basis but simply reflect power inequities.
“Modern monetary theory” defies millennia of evidence and basic logic in stating that governments can simply print money without worrying about balancing expenditures with revenues or inflating the currency to ruination.
Corporations are now asked to substitute a new woke agenda theory — “Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG)” — in lieu of market realities, rules of investment and economic data.
Science is dying; superstition disguised as morality is returning. And we’ll all soon become poorer, angrier and more divided.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 22:20 - Restaurants Remove Crab From Menus Due To Skyrocketing Prices
Restaurants Remove Crab From Menus Due To Skyrocketing Prices
Restaurants have suffered throughout the virus pandemic, and the shortage of everything doesn’t seem to be waning anytime soon. We told readers in June about a worsening crabmeat shortage that sent prices soaring. Heading into September, crabmeat prices soared to record highs forcing restaurants to either pass along the costs to consumers or remove crab products from menus.
One of the top crab restaurants in Baltimore, Maryland, called Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, serves customers Maryland crab cakes, steamed crabs, crab soup, and other types of seafood. The restaurant ships crab cakes to customers all over the country and recently warned about “menu prices have recently increased due to the international crabmeat shortage which has decimated our industry.”
Gail Furman is one of the owners of Max’s Taphouse in the Inner Harbor region of Baltimore. She told ABC News crabmeat prices are at “astronomical” levels that are forcing her to “remove crab products off our menus.”
“Everyone knows about crab cakes and crab meat in Maryland. The price per pound has gone up from $21 a pound. Yesterday, it was $52 a pound, which is astronomical, so a lot of us have had to take crab products off our menus,” Furman said. “People just aren’t going to pay the prices we would need to charge to produce that product.”
She said:
“Every supply chain that you look at is broken,” Furman said. “Because of the limited labor, because of the limited product out there, products and costs are dramatically increasing.”
Adding:
“Chicken wings, pre-pandemic, they were roughly $45 to $50 for a case. Last week, they were $196 a case,” Furman said.
Another restaurant owner just south of Baltimore told local news WJZ that crabmeat prices continue to skyrocket, which has forced menu prices to edge higher.
“It does hurt, and with COVID, we’re way behind in our sales and our break-even points,” said CindyLee Floyd, the owner of Floyd’s Crossroads Pub.
She had to raise crab cake prices by $4, but that wasn’t enough to cover her costs.
“Over the weekend, we changed it to $6,” she said. “We’re not losing money. We’re just barely breaking even.”
Bill Sieling, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, told WJZ that soaring prices are due to “just the old law of supply and demand.” He said there’s no shortage of workers in the labor market and added a lack of mature crabs is the problem.
“Right now, more people want to purchase crab and crab meat than there is crabs and crab meat,” said Sieling.
Just north of Baltimore City in a suburban area called Cockeysville, Pappas Restaurant told local news WBALTV about the shortage of crabmeat.
“It is in very short supply. The quantity is not there, the quality is not there, and they’re asking for enormous prices,” Pappas Restaurant Group CEO Steve Pappas said.
Pappas said he can no longer keep crab cake prices low due to soaring wholesale costs. He had to raise crab cake dishes by $3 and expects to go up even more.
“If we raise the price the same amount that crab meat has gone up, it would be $60 a crab cake. Right now, it’s $25.99 for two sides and for one crab cake,” Pappas said.
Pappas said crabmeat costs between $50 to $60 a pound. He said he couldn’t get colossal blue crab and jumbo lump due to supply woes.
“I think there is a shortage of workers, a shortage of transportation and just like many other industries right now, it’s hard to find products of any sort,” Pappas said.
Year-to-date, blue crab meat prices are at record highs. As per individual restaurant reports above, there’s reason to believe crabmeat prices per pound are currently between $50-$60.
By the pound, some websites are selling the meat for up to $121 per pound, shockingly high, consider prices were in the $19 to $30 range for the past half-decade.
It’s not just blue crabs that have soared in price. According to Sea Food News, king crab prices are well above seasonal averages as the market is tight and demand remains robust.
… and prices for Asian blue crabs are surging.
For US importers, buying crabs overseas means paying record-high shipping rates and delays.
Some on social media are pointing out the crabmeat crisis at Maryland restaurants.
I had lunch at Pappas in Cockeysville – prices on #crabmeat are on the rise! There’s a surcharge on anything made with crabmeat (still worth it and good though!) pic.twitter.com/RdzjTGqzf8
— Phil Yacuboski (@WBALPhil) June 21, 2021
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.@neelkashkari, any plans to address food inflation? pic.twitter.com/CgDOEd92Cb
— Alastair Williamson (@StockBoardAsset) September 12, 2021
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For crab processors, their costs have doubled since the pandemic and are being pushed to restaurants, who in return raise menu prices.
The ripple effect of this all is crushing the low- and middle-classes the most as hyperinflationary food prices shows no signs of stopping.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 22:00 - More US Troops & Aircraft Will Deploy To Australia After New 'Counter China' Pact Unveiled
More US Troops & Aircraft Will Deploy To Australia After New ‘Counter China’ Pact Unveiled
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
A day after the US, UK, and Australia announced a new military pact to counter China, Australia’s defense minister said more US military aircraft and troops will deploy to the country.
Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said Canberra made the comments in Washington after a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Dutton said the US and Australia agreed to enhance “our force posture cooperation.”
US Army image “This will include greater air cooperation through rotational deployments of all types of US military aircraft to Australia,” he said.
When asked about more US troops deploying to Australia, Dutton said, “So I do have an aspiration to make sure that we can increase the numbers of troops through the rotations.”
He also hinted that Australia might host US medium-range missiles that were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the Trump administration withdrew from in 2019. Dutton signaled Australia is open to basing “different ordinances,” which he said was in “Australia’s best interest.”
With the Pentagon focused on China, Australia will play a significant role in Washington’s strategy in the Pacific. The nuclear-powered submarines Canberra gains from this new pact will give Australia more abilities to patrol sensitive areas like the South China Sea.
Australia is a member of the Quad, a security dialogue that also includes the US, India, and Japan, and is seen as a foundation for a possible anti-China NATO-style alliance in Asia. Biden is trying to strengthen the group and will host the first in-person summit between Quad leaders later this month.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 21:40 - Watch: Tourist Attacks NYC Restaurant Hostess Over Vaccination Proof To Dine
Watch: Tourist Attacks NYC Restaurant Hostess Over Vaccination Proof To Dine
A hostess at a well-known Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan was brutally attacked by a group of tourists from Texas after she asked to see proof of COVID vaccination, a new requirement for indoor diners, according to CBS New York.
A disturbing cellphone video shows an altercation outside Carmine’s Italian Restaurant around 1550 ET Thursday when three tourists beat the living daylights out of the 24-year old hostess.
The tourists, who were identified as Sally Rechelle Lewis, 49, Keita Nkeenge Rankin, 44, and Tyonnie Keshay Rankin, 21, of Texas, got into a heated argument with the hostess about COVID requirements before it quickly escalated into a brawl. The three tourists punched and slapped the young girl, who was sent to the hospital with injuries.
“This turned into a mess. And from there, it’s inexcusable, ridiculous,” Carmine’s owner Jeff Banks told CBS New York.
Carmine’s on the UWS says a hostess was assaulted after asking a group for proof of Covid vaccine to eat inside. “It’s a shocking and tragic situation when one of our valued employees is assaulted for doing their job – as required by city policies…” @NBCNewYork after football. pic.twitter.com/xrqZoNm74R
— Adam Harding (@HardingReports) September 17, 2021
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“Our employee, thankfully, is safe right now. She’s extremely shaken up,” Banks said. “Two other people had minor issues.”
All three of the tourist were arrested and charged with assault before being released from police custody.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer spoke out against the assault and the need for harsher punishments:
“Do not assault restaurant workers who are doing their job to keep us safe. I can’t believe this happened here,” Brewer said. “We have to increase the fines, if that’s what it takes.”
The New York City Hospitality Alliance was appalled by the incident and issued this statement:
“It’s a shocking and tragic situation when one of our valued employees is assaulted for doing their job – as required by city policies – and trying to make a living. Our focus right now is caring for our employee and the rest of our restaurant family. We are a family-style restaurant, and this is the absolute last experience any of our employees should ever endure and any customers witness.”
Last month, New York City required patrons of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and outdoor music festivals to carry a COVID vaccine card or a digital copy for entry. The enforcement policy began on Monday.
If the tourist had any sense, they could’ve cooled their jets and asked for a table outside, an area that doesn’t need COVID passes.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 21:20 - How Bitcoin Fixes The Money, Saves The World
How Bitcoin Fixes The Money, Saves The World
Authored by Bruce Fenton via BitcoinMagazine.com,
Two things are undeniable: We are living in times of massive change, and Bitcoin is a part of it.
We are living in times of massive change, a “fourth turning.” The book “The Fourth Turning” by Strauss and Howe covers centuries of history and shows that demographics and other factors lead to massive change in societies every 100 years or so.
Generations change distinctly: the ’60s were different from the ’50s and the ’80s. But a fourth turning is a different level of change. If history is any indication, in this fourth turning we will see changes in maps, society, religion, belief systems and we may see the very nature of economics and money itself change.
Bitcoin came into the world at the right time.
Any earlier, and Bitcoin could not have practically been used due to internet usage rates. It is interesting that Bitcoin is here just as the global economy faces such massive change to the old-school fiat system that has been running for the last half century and driving our world into the ground. The old fiat system is unsustainable. Bitcoin presents the ultimate hedge against the failed monetary policies of central banks.
It’s key to remember that central banks don’t just devalue the money of citizens, their very existence causes some of the greatest evils that we see in modern society. In a world of sound money, people would value their hard-earned coins more. People would also have custody and control over their own money. If politicians had to convince people to voluntarily pay for wars, for-profit prisons, and heavy regulations. citizens would exercise much more scrutiny over where their money is spent.
Whether you believe the narrative of bitcoin as better money or not doesn’t matter. It would be hard to deny that we are in a fourth turning right now. The last year and a half has seen some of the most dramatic change that people have seen in the last 50 years or more. So, there is no question that we are in times of massive change. The only question is what role Bitcoin will play in this.
Bitcoin has been around for 12 years now and has created wealth and built an entire industry around itself. Bitcoin is now held by tens of millions of people and has become a global phenomenon. Bitcoin is on the radar of everyone in the world, from the poorest to the richest, from the vaunted halls of power to the streetside corner store.
We will never know how Bitcoin would’ve done without the extraordinary economic events of the last several years. The massive spending which began more than 20 years ago and started reaching unsustainable levels around 2008 with government bailouts has been thought to be unsustainable by many for several years. This last year we have seen more money printing than what we’ve seen ever before in history.
This massive money printing increases Bitcoin’s appeal. Bitcoin is a more major part of the global financial system than most realize. This is not reflected in the market capitalization right now. Bitcoin is still smaller than Apple, but its impact, importance and its message is much greater. We have a country adopting bitcoin as legal tender. We see major banks and brokerages offering bitcoin exposure and bitcoin-related products. We have an entire industry with varying degrees of quality which has cropped up around and adjacent to Bitcoin.
When you think about Bitcoin relative to the current world and the backdrop of the weaknesses in the central banking system, it’s not so lofty to say that Bitcoin just might save humanity. Remember that the problem with central banking only begins at the debasement of the money of the people. The true problem is that it centralizes power and creates these massive money honeypots which contractors vie for. The Afghanistan war alone cost taxpayers — specifically children who will be paying this debt for years — $2 trillion. The most effective way for government contractors to receive handouts in the deca-billion range is to promote fear. So, now we have companies that have a vested interest in promoting fear so that taxpayers will support giving their own money back to those companies. This is the end of an empire with broken thinking — it leads to death and it’s evil. And Bitcoin fixes this.
There is so much broken in the current system that it is very difficult to fight. An alternative way to fight is through peaceful use of another form of money.
If you deny the politicians their money, then you deny the tyrants their money. Money of the people is more peaceful. Money of the people is free of coercion. It’s voluntary. It can be one of the most meaningful revolutions the world has ever seen without anyone needing to fire a shot.
The good news is that we have Bitcoin. The good news is that we can see light at the end of the tunnel. We can starve the beast of war and aggression which is fueled by fake fiat money printing processes. We can build a society based on voluntary exchange of trade and with the foundation of solid, sound money. The kind of money people measure wealth in. Like gold of centuries past. Sound money inspires savings, it inspires wise investment, it inspires people to avoid risks and it fosters innovation.
Some fourth turnings see even more significant epoch shifts in the world, such as the creation of the printing press. The technological revolution that we are in right now and that Bitcoin is a central part of will see our global economic system and monetary systems radically change.
Overall, this change will be for the better. Just as we saw a separation of church and state centuries ago, we can see a just separation of money and state today. People using voluntary decentralized money would be a freer people and centralized powers will have their significance reduced.
The old saying “money is the root of all evil” is wrong. Indeed, this is an easy mistake to make — for money and economics has been at the center of much of our world struggle. Great evils such as slavery, wars and great things like trading routes, art, languages and culture have all been influenced by money. Money has been one of the most crucial tools for the growth of humanity. Money is a way for people to share value based on goods and services provided to them.
We cannot only reduce the power of tyrants and evil, we can increase the power of the people with sound money. Fix the money, fix the world.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 21:00 - Here Are The States Receiving Bulk Of Afghan Refugees (With D.C. So Far Taking In Zero)
Here Are The States Receiving Bulk Of Afghan Refugees (With D.C. So Far Taking In Zero)
“I strongly oppose the resettlement of these Afghan nationals in Montana,” Republican representative Matt Rosendale said in a Thursday statement after it was revealed Montana is due to resettle 75 Afghan refugees who fled on US evacuation flights in August.
According to recent New York Times estimates, a minimum of 50,000 Afghans are expected to be resettled in the United States over the course of the next month, while some 31,000 have already arrived, many still undergoing DHS processing. Over the next year it’s expected this number will reach nearly 100,000 – based on White House estimates of how many the administration hopes to admit to the country.
Afghan evacuees arriving at Dulles airport, Getty images. This would end up being more than all Afghan refugees resettled in the US since the war began in 2001, according to prior State Dept. data.
While many of these are said to include translators and their families or other Afghans who over the past two decade long US occupation assisted US and NATO forces in some way, it’s as yet unclear how many were simply Afghans who crowded into military transport planes without any level of vetting. Others who are to be admitted were reportedly deemed “at risk” by the US government – essentially a declaration of asylum.
Fresh State Department data suggests most of the first wave of Afghan resettlement will go to California and Texas, after the majority were initially flown into Virginia and Washington D.C. Fox News breaks down the numbers as follows:
California (5,255) and Texas (4,481) will receive the largest numbers of the first wave, while smaller populated states like Oklahoma and Missouri will receive 1,800 and 1,200 respectively. Michigan, Florida and Georgia will both receive more than 1,000 Afghans each. New York will receive 1,143 and Arizona will receive 1,610.
A number of mid-west and western states will begin receiving smaller numbers, but as Fox points out the irony is that despite Washington officials and pundits at times being the loudest in their calls for resettling Afghan allies, it remains that D.C. is not actually slated so far to receive any.
The report points out that “Washington D.C., along with Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming, will not receive any refugees in the initial wave.” But it remains that Virginia, for example, in prior years of the war already took in a huge amount compared to its population size.
Since 2001 a mere ten states have received the bulk of all Afghan refugees given asylum due to the war…
A handful of Republican leaders, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, are among those fighting back against their states being pressured to receive the refugees. Close to a dozen other governors are still said to be undecided on the issue.
A DHS memo that emerged this month said that homeland security “anticipates processing tens of thousands more” Afghan evacuees and refugees in the coming months. Most were initially taken to Qatar, and others further going to US bases in Europe, before arriving at Dulles airport for further processing in Virginia.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 20:40 - 7 Signs Your Friend Or Family Member Has Fallen Victim To The Woke Mind Virus
7 Signs Your Friend Or Family Member Has Fallen Victim To The Woke Mind Virus
Authored by Brett Sinclair via TheFreeThoughtProject.com,
COVID is not the only virus sweeping the West, obsessively woke politics is running rampant with the most virulent variants emerging in newsrooms and colleges.
As an acquaintance of mine slowly succumbed, here’s what I observed.
There are certain traits that appear to be extremely common among people who are ‘woke’. Woke being now a common term for those among us who become righteously incensed with progressive social justice issues (typical of mainstream Western media imbibers or recent university graduates). Often, we can see this obsession manifesting in the form of aggressive protest activism – not just as a hobby, but at every social, private, and professional level of their lives. That is a ‘woke’ personality.
While there are well-known physical markers indicating a woke person (blue or purple hair, obesity, androgyny, wispy beards in men, annoying spectacles) I have for some time been a curious student of their habits and psychological mannerisms, which I have also noted, along with the physical traits, to have universal qualities.
I had until recently assumed that these universal personality traits were evidence of a condition existing in the person first (i.e smug over-confidence) which left them susceptible to ‘woke ideas’. But more and more anecdotal experience is teaching me that becoming woke, or contracting the ‘woke virus’, creates its own type of human psyche in the unsuspecting host, which is recognizable across many observable cases. It is my opinion that this psyche is the result of the mind-virus, and not necessarily a pre-existing quality. Thus, if true, this means wokeness itself reshapes the mind.
These qualities are:
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Smugness. An absolute, unwavering, and arrogantly condescending attitude toward all non-woke opinions. While a trait in itself, it is related to number 2.
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Lack of introspection. No trace of self-questioning or apparent inner monologue. No sense of fairness or understanding of relative opinion.
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Quickness to anger. Willingness to not only voice their opinion on any occasion, with anyone, even when outnumbered, but to do so angrily. A willingness to cut off any friend or family member who won’t comply with woke belief.
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Nihilist atheism. They will rant a lot about science, while at the same time ignoring science that doesn’t comply with their beliefs. They tend to assume you are dogmatically religious if you don’t agree with them. They will cling to a strongly negative nihilism believing that everything is ultimately hopeless, and that it is sardonic hubris to do or believe in anything (which ties into number 6).
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Dishonesty. They are willing to be openly dishonest to further their viral ideas. If they lose a point in an argument, they move on to a new point, never acknowledging or acquiescing that a point was lost. When all attack points are used, personal attacks begin. The past is a blank slate open to revision.
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Self-absorbed. This one took me a while to notice, but it seems a give-away idiosyncrasy that you are dealing with a woke-infection if the person has become abnormally self-centered, and in conversation, does not so much reciprocate, as talk about themselves, always positive or self-aggrandizing, often unrealistically. They may also insert self-pity, it seems to generally exacerbate a need for attention-seeking.
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Depression, low self-worth, anxiety. This one I also only noticed recently, it is likely the subconscious result of numbers 4 and 6 in particular. Any genuine personal questioning of the subject usually reveals deep worries and angst, and often mental health issues.
A recent experience with an acquaintance, a middle-aged woman who, through a new circle of friends, went from normal and apolitical to fully woke, permitted me to study changes (with a detached horror) as they occurred. Firstly, she began to exhibit extreme self-centeredness, as this new social peer group became important to her (I believe it was a ‘book club’). It began with her seemingly becoming incapable of talking about anything but herself. I had noticed that quality in other woke friends, and in many I could recall they were not previously like that, but this was the first adult person to transition slowly before my eyes, so I got out my clipboard and took notes.
She became somewhat manic, high-anxiety, more worrisome, and less healthy-seeming. Along with this came casual smug political remarks in polite conversation. It goes without saying there were constant, needy Facebook posts about woke politics, or herself, or the ideal combination: posts about herself woke-crusading. Now none of this was part of her personality previously, at all, despite woke politics being with us many years now. It began for her with a new circle of peers that she obviously wished to impress and is culminating currently in her friends and family seriously considering an intervention of psychological help, not because of the constant virtue-signaling, but for the other more self-destructive personality changes.
It reminds me of the science of psychopathy. I was very interested to learn in my youth, not just that psychopaths essentially have little or no emotional feeling, and certainly no empathy, but that they exist among us in high numbers. They don’t all become serial killers, but there are people you know who are psychopaths that you would never have guessed because they learn to mimic human behavior. Severe trauma in youth can appear to create psychopathy, so it can be an environmental condition.
I’m not saying woke people are psychos (though they both share the narcissism), I am saying psychological conditions can be created, and that the modern world, with its rampant materialist consumerism, dogmatic atheism and self-hating education system, is perhaps manufacturing a new human psyche, one both frail and fraught and in its own perverse way, merciless.
Watch as the virus spreads, watch and study and hope you have immunity.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 20:20 -
- Visualizing What's Made From A Barrel Of Oil
Visualizing What’s Made From A Barrel Of Oil
From the gasoline in our cars to the plastic in countless everyday items, crude oil is an essential raw material that shows up everywhere in our lives.
With around 18 million barrels of crude oil consumed every day just in America, Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte notes that this commodity powers transport, utilities, and is a vital ingredient in many of the things we use on a daily basis.
This graphic visualizes how much crude oil is refined into various finished products, using a barrel of oil to represent the proportional breakdown.
Barrel of Oil to Functional Fuel and More
Crude oil is primarily refined into various types of fuels to power transport and vital utilities. More than 85% of crude oil is refined into fuels like gasoline, diesel, and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs) like propane and butane.
Along with being fuels for transportation, heating, and cooking, HGLs are used as feedstock for the production of chemicals, plastics, and synthetic rubber, and as additives for motor gasoline production.
Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Crude oil not only powers our vehicles, but it also helps pave the roads we drive on. About 4% of refined crude oil becomes asphalt, which is used to make concrete and different kinds of sealing and insulation products.
Although transportation and utility fuels dominate a large proportion of refined products, essential everyday materials like wax and plastic are also dependent on crude oil. With about 10% of refined products used to make plastics, cosmetics, and textiles, a barrel of crude oil can produce a variety of unexpected everyday products.
Personal care products like cosmetics and shampoo are made using petroleum products, as are medical supplies like IV bags and pharmaceuticals. Modern life would look very different without crude oil.
The Process of Refining Crude Oil
You might have noticed that while a barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, it ends up producing 45 gallons of refined products. This is because the majority of refined products have a lower density than crude oil, resulting in an increase in volume that is called processing gain.
Along with this, there are other inputs aside from crude oil that are used in the refining process. While crude oil is the primary input, fuel ethanol, hydrocarbon gas liquids, and other blending liquids are also used.
Source: EIA
The process of refining a 30,000-barrel batch of crude oil typically takes between 12-24 hours, with refineries operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Although the proportions of individual refined products can vary depending on market demand and other factors, the majority of crude oil will continue to become fuel for the world’s transport and utilities.
The Difficulty of Cutting Down on Crude Oil
From the burning of heavy fuels that tarnish icebergs found in Arctic waters to the mounds of plastic made with petrochemicals that end up in our rivers, each barrel of oil and its refined products impact our environment in many different ways.
But even as the world works to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels in order to reach climate goals, a world without crude oil seems unfathomable.
Skyrocketing sales of EVs still haven’t managed to curb petroleum consumption in places like Norway, California, and China, and the steady reopening of travel and the economy will only result in increased petroleum consumption.
Completely replacing the multi-faceted “black gold” that’s in a barrel of oil isn’t possible right now, but as electrification continues and we find alternatives to petrochemical materials, humanity might at least manage to reduce its dependence on burning fossil fuels.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 20:00 - Almost Half Of Americans Disapprove Of Biden Vaccine Mandates, New Poll Finds
Almost Half Of Americans Disapprove Of Biden Vaccine Mandates, New Poll Finds
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
A Quinnipiac poll has found that almost half of Americans (48%) believe that Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates “go too far,” and that a slight majority are in opposition to it.
Quinnipiac noted that a “slight majority of Americans (51 – 48 percent) disapprove of President Biden’s plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for millions of Americans in the public and private sectors. Republicans disapprove 84 – 13 percent, independents disapprove 56 – 44 percent, and Democrats approve 89 – 10 percent.”
The survey found that 10 percent think the mandate does not go far enough, while 39 percent think it’s about right.
Obviously, however, this means that around half of Americans are fully on board with the mandates.
As we noted earlier this week, a OnePoll survey found that vaccinated Americans are far more likely to permanently sever relationships with friends over their opinion on the COVID-19 jab than those who haven’t been vaccinated.
America now faces that reckoning with Biden’s plan to impose federal vaccine mandates on every company that employs over 100 people.
As we previously reported, Police and firefighters are among the groups who are resisting, bringing lawsuits against the mandates.
There has also been significant resistance among military service members, who will be mandated to take the shots.
Republican attorneys general from 24 states, almost half the country, have threatened lawsuits against Biden if the mandate takes effect.
Earlier this week, Joe Biden’s Commerce Secretary claimed that “nobody is being forced” to get vaccinated, despite last week’s announcement that millions of Americans will be mandated to take the shot in order to go to work.
“We are not being forced,” Raimondo again claimed, stating “You can work from home, get tested on a weekly basis,” and adding “I think this is smart public policy and great leadership by the president.”
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 19:40 - China's War Against Crypto Is Officially Ramping Up (Again)
China’s War Against Crypto Is Officially Ramping Up (Again)
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: China’s war against crypto is officially ramping up.
The state has intensified its aggressive pursuit of crypto miners, some of whom have tried to “disguise themselves as data researchers and storage facilities to stay in business” according to a Bloomberg report.
In several Chinese provinces, inspections of companies have “intensified”, with an eye toward targeting illegal mining at places like colleges, research instiutions and data centers, according to the report.
One reason China is taking such drastic steps is that there is concern over the country’s power supplies heading into the upcoming winter.
Crypto mining has already slowed in China, which was formerly the dominant mining country in the world. The country had a 46% share of the global hash rate as recently as April, Bloomberg notes.
But as the country cracked down on crypto earlier this year, so did its global hash rate. Some miners wound up leaving the country while others took their chances in staying and trying to skirt the government’s regulation.
One miner in China told Bloomberg that his operations “remain intact” because he “regularly switches to new facilities to house his equipment” which is made up of “no more than 100 machines at one location”.
Hebei province has asked companies for a self-compliance check to ensure they are not mining by September 30.
China has said that crypto mining would “seriously affect economic and social development and directly threaten national security.” The statement says it would “disrupt” financial order.
Beginning in October, the government plans on implementing tools to monitor and follow computing activities to ensure that mining isn’t taking place.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 19:20 - World Economic Forum Tells US Colleges To "Re-Educate The Racists Among Us"
World Economic Forum Tells US Colleges To “Re-Educate The Racists Among Us”
Authored by Ben Zeisloft via CampusReform.org,
The World Economic Forum published an article last week arguing that colleges “re-educate the racists among us” to end “racism on university campuses.”
“Fighting racism demands confrontation at all levels on college campuses by uprooting racist institutional designs inherent in campus-wide admissions systems, recruitment, scholarships, cultures, and histories,” researchers from KAIST-Korea Policy Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution wrote.
The World Economic Forum is an organization that advocates for cooperation among the world’s largest governments and corporations. It is also known for its “The Great Reset” series, a provocation to redesign the global economy following COVID-19 and the lockdown-induced global recession.
The article calls for using “data-driven methods” to measure racial “climates,” as well as “promoting anti-racist culture and policies” through projects such as Centers for Racial Justice.
Additionally, universities must “support affected minorities at various levels,” which — includes “educating people to eradicate their hate” through mandatory diversity training, according to the researchers.
Aiming to solve underrepresentation among faculty and the student body, the researchers also propose a “diversity barometer” that can “track such progress and hold university leadership accountable” through periodical reviews.
The World Economic Forum is not the first prominent international organization to weigh in on alleged systemic racism in the United States.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited the United Nations to examine American police brutality.
“As the President has repeatedly made clear, great nations such as ours do not hide from our shortcomings; they acknowledge them openly and strive to improve with transparency,” Blinken wrote after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report about global police brutality against people of African descent.
Campus Reform reached out to the World Economic Forum for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 19:00 - Obama Publicly Endorses Justin Trudeau Ahead Of Canada's Upcoming Election
Obama Publicly Endorses Justin Trudeau Ahead Of Canada’s Upcoming Election
For all the hustle and bustle about interfering in foreign elections we have heard over the last 5 years, no one seemed to notice or care that Former President Barack Obama publicly endorsed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the country’s upcoming election.
Calling Trudeau his “friend”, Obama said that the Prime Minister has been an effective leader and strong voice for democratic values, and I’m proud of the work we did together.”
Wishing my friend @JustinTrudeau the best in Canada’s upcoming election. Justin has been an effective leader and strong voice for democratic values, and I’m proud of the work we did together.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 16, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Obama wished him the “best in Canada’s upcoming election”.
It marks the second time that Obama has endorsed Trudeau: he also made a similar endorsement in 2019.
“I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President,” Obama said in 2019. “He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.”
Obama also publicly endorsed President of France Emmanuel Macron during his campaign against Marine Le Pen.
Obama said in 2017: “I’m not planning on getting involved in too many elections now that I don’t have to run for office again.”
Canada’s election is less than a week away.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 18:40 - Doug Casey On The Next "Crisis" The Global Elite Have 'Planned'
Doug Casey On The Next “Crisis” The Global Elite Have ‘Planned’
Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,
International Man: Every year, the international ruling class—the most influential world leaders, CEOs of big corporations, top academics, and even celebrities—come together at Davos. They discuss topics that interest them and prescribe their preferred policies.
What’s your take on the Davos crowd and what they are doing?
Doug Casey: The Davos crowd has become the most visible element of the ruling class. Although, they overlap with lots of other groups who are pushing the same agenda—Bilderberg, CFR, and Bohemian Grove among them.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article after I attended the Concordia, which is very similar, with exactly the same people. I don’t plan on going back. It was disturbing and depressing listening to soulless bigshots natter about the best way to rule the plebs.
These people are all part of what you might call the “World Deep State.” They all know each other. They go to the same conferences, and more often than not, they’ve attended the same universities, belong to the same social clubs, and have kids in the same schools.
But most importantly, they share the same worldview. They live in their own little silo, where the rest of 7.9 billion people in the world are outsiders. So it’s only natural that people in such a relatively close-knit—albeit informal—group conspire.
Adam Smith famously observed that whenever two men from the same occupation get together, they always conspire against the interests of the public. It’s a perfectly normal and natural thing.
But these people aren’t just merchants contriving to make a few extra shekels. These people are the top dogs in all of the world’s governments, NGOs, corporations, universities, and media organizations. They have contempt for the little people, whom they treat as either useful idiots or useless mouths. They’re interested in power more than anything else.
As they’ve recently shown in this COVID exercise, they pretty much control the world. They’re very dangerous; I despise them.
International Man: In 2019, well before the first case of COVID was reported, the World Economic Forum (WEF), which hosts the annual Davos conferences, held an event to discuss the possibility of a worldwide pandemic.
In fact, they ran a simulation exercise for how the scenario could play out and how governments, large corporations, and the media should handle the situation.
What do you make of this? Was it a coincidence?
Doug Casey: These people are quite bold. They believe—correctly—that 90% of the public will basically eat whatever they’re fed and accept whatever they’re told.
I have no doubt that these people have an informal understanding with each other as to how the world ought to reset to their benefit. It’s not a formal conspiracy, per se, just a natural consequence of what inevitably happens when people of the same class, worldview, and philosophy are in a position of power.
The problem is that worldwide conflagrations over the last century have gotten much more serious each time around. World War 1 was unbelievably nasty. World War 2 was even nastier. We dodged the bullet of a global thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union. But that doesn’t mean that World War 3 isn’t going to occur. It’ll just be different than it would have been 40 or 50 years ago.
So, based on the trend in motion, if World War 1 killed 20 million people and World War 2 killed 60 or 80 million people, anything could happen in whatever turns out to be World War 3. Maybe 500 million or a billion. Think big, like the people who put together the Deagel report.
As I’ve said before, this war will have little to do with obsolescent junk like Abrams tanks, F-35s, and Ford-class carriers. Those toys serve little purpose beyond bankrupting the US while enriching the Deep State. This will be primarily a cyber and biological war.
I’m just surprised that more people aren’t watching and referring to the movie V for Vendetta, which also revolves around a virus called the St. Mary’s virus. The world desperately needs a real V.
There are really a lot of parallels today. I wonder if the “little people” know that the elite have been planning or playing with the idea of a virus for years. Probably not—it’s hard to imagine anyone could be as evil as the Nazis, Soviets, or Chicoms because that was ancient history and human nature has obviously changed. A great virus to smite humanity has been the subject of lots of sci-fi novels and movies over the years. And now, as usual, life is imitating art.
Let’s fantasize for a moment. Perhaps the elite, who mostly masquerade as philanthropists, will rationalize their plan as a way to cleanse the gene pool, reducing the population by 80 or 90%. I have no doubt these people could justify a viral plague as a way to save Gaia from a human plague. Perhaps the vaccine will actually be the real vector, killing some after a time and sterilizing the rest. Perhaps it will serve as a catalyst for the vaccinated, the obedient 80%, to put the independent unvaccinated 20% in camps. Perhaps the current virus is just the first gambit, and after the Delta and Mu strains a genuinely serious Zeta variant will present itself.
Anything is possible. We’re living in a science-fiction world at this point.
Even if things just go along more or less as they are, there are lots of advantages to the COVID-19 virus from their point of view. The collapse of the economy, the Greater Depression, won’t be blamed on central banking, inflation, and the State. They’ll be sold as heroes in the fight against the virus. The depression will be blamed on COVID—a Deus ex machina device—as opposed to the real causes. It’s really quite perverse.
International Man: Earlier this year, the WEF started making a lot of noise about cyberattacks disrupting global supply chains.
Klaus Schwab, the WEF founder, has been calling for the internet to be vaccinated preemptively—presumably meaning more controls, regulations, and less freedom and privacy.
Are they foreshadowing the next real or manufactured crisis? How could it play out?
Doug Casey: There’s no question in my mind at this point that the US, and in fact many countries, are turning into genuine police states. It’s happening right before our eyes with Australia—the entire country is locked down. People, masked at all times, of course, can’t go more than a couple of miles from their homes without suffering draconian penalties. No one can enter Australia, and—this is really shocking—no one can leave. And it’s not even questioned. If it can happen in Australia, New Zealand, and in parts of Canada, it can happen anywhere.
Apparently, it’s starting to happen here in the US with Biden having laid down not-so-subtly veiled threats against people that don’t get vaccinated. It was ominous to hear the senile old scumbag say that he, and the righteous vaccinated, were starting to “lose patience” with Americans who think they control their own bodies.
I have no plans to get vaccinated. At best, the vaccine is unproven—and possibly, we won’t know how risky it is for several years. Which is why in the past, radical new therapies have always had to be tested for years. But that hasn’t happened in this case.
But the vaccine psychosis is just one aspect of this war. As much as the elite want to sell the January 6th event in Washington, DC as the equivalent of the Reichstag fire, I don’t think the average American buys it. Therefore, perhaps something real or imagined will transpire to allow them to designate a whole class of American citizens as domestic terrorists.
We now have genuinely crazy people in control of the apparatus of the state. They’re exactly the same psychological and philosophical profile as the Bolsheviks or the Jacobins. They’re not going to let go of power voluntarily. Anything is possible at this point; we’re still in the early days.
As we enter the trailing edge of the Greater Depression, there’s actually something much more serious to consider in looking at the world situation. Things are similar to 1914 or 1939. Who knows exactly what happens next?
International Man: The COVID hysteria worked out exceptionally well for power-hungry politicians around the world. The public has now accepted an unprecedented level of government control over their everyday lives.
If there is a so-called “cyber pandemic” as the elites are hinting at, what would the consequences be for personal freedom?
Doug Casey: As I said earlier, World War 3 won’t be about nuclear weapons or conventional armies, but biology and computers. The cyber war aspect will be huge because the entire world now runs on computers. In fact, the world is starting to run on artificial intelligence. I don’t doubt that robotics will come into its own soon.
As far as a cyber pandemic and closing down the Internet is concerned, I’d say that’s a near certainty. They definitely want to do that, because the fact of the matter is that you’re only as alive as you can communicate with others.
If you can’t get your thoughts or news of what’s going on out to other people, you might as well be sealed in a tomb. It makes sense that people who want to control other people want to cut down on popular means of communication. They’ll find excuses to keep what they consider to be unsound views off the internet. It’s already happened in regard to the so-called pandemic. Contrary views, no matter how well-reasoned and factual, even from renowned sources, are quashed. Dissent, or even discussion, isn’t tolerated. You’ll find that spread to all other areas of intellectual and political discourse.
We already can’t travel easily; domestic flights are inconvenient, and international flights are down about 85%. Vaccine passports are on the way. In many places, we can’t gather, even in small groups. And of course, the next big thing—the big thing—is a heavily controlled internet.
At that point, all you’ll have is what you’re told officially and what you can see in your own little local area. These people are all about quashing communication. It’s a great formula, critical, really, for control. They don’t want people organizing to challenge them.
In Biden’s recent speech, he several times made out the unvaxxed as a potential enemy—a domestic danger.
It’s no coincidence that the people who don’t want to take the jab correlate strongly with people with conventional right-wing views, Trump voters, and cultural conservatives. The battle lines are drawn. It’s really turned into a class and ideological war.
They’re playing the health card with this COVID nonsense. They’re playing the race card and domestic terror card. They’re succeeding in delegitimizing American values and history, as well as masculinity in general and white males in particular. Next will be a reemphasis on the Global Warming scam. You plebs won’t be allowed to do anything, and most will go along with it because they’ve been indoctrinated over several generations to believe it’s right. The elite are doing everything in their power to ramp up fear. Fear for your health, fear of domestic terror, fear of the non-compliant, and fear of the climate destroying the planet.
As I discussed previously, fear is the most powerful tool that governments have to control the people. That’s what governments are all about. They thrive on fear. Fear is the health of the State.
International Man: What can the average person do to protect themselves from these disturbing trends?
Doug Casey: In Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, he talks about how, when they’re all together in the Gulag under the worst possible conditions, they said, “If we had only known, when they came to round us up as individuals… if we’d only grabbed a frying pan, or a pipe, or a rock and attacked these criminals…” But they were afraid. And they didn’t think that things could possibly be as bad as they turned out to be.
It’s understandable that they were hesitant to attack the state apparatchiks when going off to the Gulag, just as the Jews rarely attacked the Gestapo when they were rounding them up to take them off to camps.
You naturally might think, “These people can’t be that serious. These people can’t be that bad….” And you’d be wrong.
It takes a lot of physical courage to even think about these things.
Why didn’t any of the nomenklatura around Stalin simply kill him? They all knew the odds were good he was going to kill them eventually. You’d think that any of the rats around him would have cut his throat.
But everybody’s afraid to take physical action because we tend to be optimists. We tend to hope for the best, as we do right now. We hope that this will blow over, and maybe it will. But it boils down to what will you do, maybe five minutes from now, when you’re confronted one-on-one with an apparatchik from the State who gives you an order.
What will you do?
It’s too dangerous to take physical action against the guy because it may bring down the whole weight of the State organization on you.
So how do you resist? Well, unless you want to be a hero, the only thing I can think of is to have enough assets to insulate yourself from the bad guys or to move yourself physically to a different location.
We’re headed into a very rough patch in US history, especially for the next three or four years.
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In the months and years ahead the financial, economic, and social conditions will be scary and unpleasant. And it will be very tough to navigate for most people. That’s precisely why NY Times bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released this urgent report on how you to survive and thrive what comes next. Click here to download the free PDF now.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 18:20 - Putin: US Exit From Afghanistan More Like "A Downright Escape" – Others Left Cleaning Up Mess
Putin: US Exit From Afghanistan More Like “A Downright Escape” – Others Left Cleaning Up Mess
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday weighed in on America’s Afghan withdraw and evacuation fiasco which involved the deaths of 13 US troops and well over 60 Afghan civilians. He issued unusually blunt words while addressing a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes eight countries, foremost among them China and India.
Putin said the US exit looked much more like an “escape” than any kind of planned and coordinated maneuver, despite months in preparation. He described the August events as a “hasty withdrawal – or more like a downright escape – by US and NATO troops from the country.”
Image source: TASS “The urgent task facing our organization is to pursue a single and coordinated policy based on the assessment of serious risks related to the mounting tensions in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal – or more like a downright escape – by US and NATO troops from the country,” Putin said.
The scathing and sarcastic words of criticism come as the Eurasian allies discussed the deteriorating security situation at the borders of SCO members Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The latter two countries Russia has been cooperating with militarily to ensure secured borders after both civilians and Afghan national forces abandoning their posts fled toward Tajikistan in particular. Additionally there were widespread reports that dozens of US-trained pilots flew their aircraft into Uzbekistan – and the US will reportedly given them asylum.
Putin also said in the same statements that the US and NATO can’t shirk responsibility in providing reconstruction aid. He essentially said the West broke Afghanistan, and now must step up in terms of assisting in reconstruction (which would mean sending aid to the Taliban, ironically enough).
“The reconstruction of #Afghanistan should be funded by #US and other #NATO countries, they bare direct responsibilities for the horrible situation in the country after the conclusion of a long military occupation” – President #Putin pic.twitter.com/HFWHwq8a2j
— The Eurasianist 🧱 (@Russ_Warrior) September 17, 2021
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Putin’s Friday words weren’t the first such criticisms of US and Western action in central Asia. Earlier this month while addressing BRICS leaders he issued the following:
I have said many times that the current crisis in Afghanistan is a direct consequence of irresponsible attempts to impose alien values from outside and the desire to build so-called democratic structures by political engineering, which takes into account neither historical nor national characteristics of other nations.
He had further charged the Americans with “ignoring the traditions that other countries live by” – in continuation of his attacks on Washington efforts at nation-building abroad.
“The authors of these experiments then hastily retreat, leaving their subjects to fend for themselves as well. The whole international community has to deal with the consequences,” he had said before the earlier BRICS representatives.
Both Russia and China have been capitalizing off the botched US retreat of late, both in official statements and in state media headlines. At the same time China in particular is said to be poised to be Taliban-controlled Afghanistan’s number one investor, as Xi eyes a huge expansions of his Belt and Road Initiative projects inside the country. Taliban leaders’ comments have appeared openly welcoming of this possibility.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 18:00 - What They Really Mean When They Say "Do The Right Thing"
What They Really Mean When They Say “Do The Right Thing”
Authored by Casey Carlisle via The Mises Institute,
As a senior in high school, I ran for class president with “Do the right thing” as my campaign slogan.
Though I realized years ago how utterly pretentious that message is, I’m often reminded that it’s good politics, which proves the point that politics is poison.
To vote for someone else is to “do the wrong thing,” and you don’t want to be a bad person, do you? It’s a sinister trick that comes in many phrases—all of which are highly effective in duping the majority—yet democracy is still deified. Just as “the science” insults the scientific method, “the right thing” has the capacity to reduce peaceful interactions. How can “the right thing” be peaceful if it isn’t consensual? If the “right” thing is imposed, the thing is wrong.
Why would “the right thing” require blind obedience? If the thing were right, dissenters wouldn’t be punished. Accepting that I was arrogant to tell my senior class what is or isn’t right, imagine the hubris required to dictate morality to a third of a billion Americans.
The US president recently chastised certain governors who “aren’t willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic,” but why does the Biden regime presume to know what’s right for, say, Texans? First of all, pandemics are “beaten” only when they become endemic. Yes, involuntary (read: “political”) action can hasten that process, but at what cost? Those who answer that question with “at any cost” are the same people who would be mortified if vaccines were banned. These people see the horrors of depriving choice only when the choice is their own, illustrating why politics brings out the worst in people. Their childish and violent aspirations, if acted upon, are punishable by imprisonment, but through politics, “the right thing” is legal and enforced. Democracy tends to legalize immorality, which is bolstered by the inability to discuss tradeoffs—the best indicator of mass hysteria.
When I “served” in Afghanistan, my boss would occasionally invite the religious to pray with him prior to executing a mission. He would ask God to help his men and to hinder the enemy—whom he deemed “pure evil”—without ever appearing to think that the Taliban were likely saying the same prayer and calling us evil. It’s as if both sides were begging God to do the right thing, and over a decade later, the absurdity still bemuses me. Who can argue that twenty years of imposing democracy on a country that doesn’t want it was the right thing to do, especially after twenty years’ worth of resources were nullified in a week? War crimes or crimes against humanity began with those committing them first rationalizing them. Though the murderers might not have deemed their actions “right,” they acted anyway, because they were “just following orders.” But what of those issuing the orders, the sociopaths who believe they can define “the greater good” without the knowledge of the greater population? History repeats itself, and that too many have dismissed that fact as “pessimistic” is one of the reasons why we can’t wake from this dystopian nightmare. Is it not reasonable to expect something catastrophic to unfold when the demagogue defines the right thing?
I argued in April and November of last year that top-down edicts render useless the levels of government between the rulers and the individual. Due to proximity alone, the governor can better “serve” the individual than can the president, the county commissioner than can the governor, and the mayor than can the commissioner. Has the Biden regime forgotten that this country was founded by people who didn’t take kindly to distant rulers? American defiance is a thing of the past, but isn’t it in the parasites’ best interest to keep it there? Consenting individuals can best agree on the right thing, and the politicians lording over them are supposed to prohibit others from interfering; however, as the ongoing (and worsening) mass psychosis makes clear, each level of government only partitions, persecutes, and parasitizes individuals. It’s as if the Biden regime and every governor and bureaucrat suffering from the same delusions are doing all they can to foment violence. In October of 2020, one political party thought that the right thing to do was to refuse the then upcoming vaccine, but today, that same political party openly and sometimes joyously declare their disdain for anyone who decides what’s right for themselves so long as “right” counters the prevailing ideology. If that won’t convince you that politics is poison, I don’t know what will.
Here’s what doing the right thing actually entails: do whatever makes you feel comfortable so long as you aren’t imposing your will (or cowardice) on others. And for fans of brevity, I’ve heard that “mind your own business” is tried and true. Every American who wants to be vaccinated has the opportunity to be. The vaccinated have no moral authority to protect the unvaccinated from themselves. Every parent who wishes to abuse their child by forcing them to wear a mask has that right, but no one will force me to muzzle my three-year-old. If masks are as effective as the staunch covidians claim, why does the sight of an uncovered smile enrage the masked? That it does is the problem of those who obsequiously muzzle themselves, not of anyone else. Labeling the unmasked and unvaccinated “selfish” is nothing but pure projection. Have you noticed that those who might as well have “inclusion” tattooed on their foreheads are the same people who wish to exclude anyone who doesn’t buy into the hype?
“Conform to the insanity or else!”
After all, “the right thing” is “for your own good.”
That’s not compassion; that’s totalitarianism. Bullies don’t grow tired of bullying; they stop bullying only when shown that ceasing their antisocial behavior is in their best interest. It’ll get uncomfortable, but if you hope to ever pursue what you deem right, it’s well past time to stand up to the vicious mob.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/17/2021 – 17:40
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