- Authoritarianism In The Age Of Pseudoscience
Authoritarianism In The Age Of Pseudoscience
Authored by Colin Todhunter via Off-Guardian.org,
Following the court decision in the US to award in favour of Dewayne Johnson (exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer and its active ingredient, glyphosate, caused Johnson to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma), attorney Robert Kennedy Jr said at the post-trial press conference:
The corruption of science, the falsification of science, and we saw all those things happen here. This is a company (Monsanto) that used all of the plays in the playbook developed over 60 years by the tobacco industry to escape the consequences of killing one of every five of its customers… Monsanto… has used those strategies…”
Johnson’s lawyers argued over the course of the month-long trial in 2018 that Monsanto had “fought science” for years and targeted academics who spoke up about possible health risks of the herbicide product.
Long before the Johnson case, critics of Monsanto were already aware of the practices the company had engaged in for decades to undermine science. At the same time, Monsanto and its lobbyists had called anyone who questioned the company’s ‘science’ as engaging in pseudoscience and labelled them ‘anti-science’.
We need look no further than the current coronavirus issue to understand how vested interests are set to profit by spinning the crisis a certain way and how questionable science is again being used to pursue policies that are essentially ‘unscientific’ – governments, the police and the corporate media have become the arbiters of ‘truth’.
We also see anyone challenging the policies and the ‘science’ being censored on social media or not being given a platform on TV and accused of engaging in ‘misinformation’.
It’s the same old playbook.
The case-fatality ratio for COVID-19 is so low as to make the lockdown response wholly disproportionate. Yet we are asked to blindly accept government narratives and the policies based on them.
Making an entire country go home and stay home has immense, incalculable costs in terms of well-being and livelihoods. This itself has created a pervasive sense of panic and crisis and is largely a result of the measures taken against the ‘pandemic’ and not of the virus itself.
Certain epidemiologists have said there is very little sturdy evidence to base lockdown policies on, but this has not prevented politicians from acting as if everything they say or do is based on solid science.
The lockdown would not be merited if we were to genuinely adopt a knowledge-based approach. If we look at early projections by Neil Ferguson of Imperial College in the UK, he had grossly overstated the number of possible deaths resulting from the coronavirus and has now backtracked substantially.
Ferguson has a chequered track record, which led UK newspaper The Telegraph to run a piece entitled ‘How accurate was the science that led to lockdown?’ The article outlines Ferguson’s previous flawed predictions about infectious diseases and a number of experts raise serious questions about the modelling that led to lockdown in the UK.
Ferguson’s previous modelling for the spread of epidemics was so off the mark that it may beggar believe that anyone could have faith in anything he says, yet he remains part of the UK government’s scientific advisory group. Officials are now talking of ‘easing’ lockdowns, but Ferguson warns that lockdown in the UK will only be lifted once a vaccine for COVID-19 has been found.
It raises the question: when will Ferguson be held to account for his current and previously flawed work and his exaggerated predictions? Because, on the basis of his modelling, the UK has been in lockdown for many weeks, the results of which are taking a toll on the livelihoods and well-being of the population which are and will continue to far outweigh the effects of COVID-19.
According to a 1982 academic study, a 1% increase in the unemployment rate will be associated with 37,000 deaths [including 20,000 heart attacks, 920 suicides, 650 homicides], 4,000 state mental hospital admissions and 3,300 state prison admissions.
Consider that by 30 April, in the US alone, 30 million had filed for unemployment benefit since the lockdown began. Between 23 and 30 April, some 3.8 million filed for unemployment benefit. Prior to the current crisis, the unemployment rate was 3.5%. Some predict it could eventually reach 30%.
Ferguson – whose model was the basis for policies elsewhere in addition to the UK – is as much to blame as anyone for the current situation. And it is a situation that has been fuelled by a government and media promoted fear narrative that has had members of the public so afraid of the virus that many have been demanding further restrictions of their liberty by the state in order to ‘save’ them.
Even with the promise of easing the lockdown, people seem to be fearful of venturing out in the near future thanks to the fear campaign they have been subjected to.
Instead of encouraging more diverse, informed and objective opinions in the mainstream, we too often see money and power forcing the issue, not least in the form of Bill Gates who tells the world ‘normality’ may not return for another 18 months – until he and his close associates in the pharmaceuticals industry find a vaccine and we are all vaccinated.
In the UK, the population is constantly subjected via their TV screens to clap for NHS workers, support the NHS and to stay home and save lives on the basis of questionable data and policies. Emotive stuff taking place under a ruling Conservative Party that has cut thousands of hospital beds, frozen staff pay, placed workers on zero-hour contracts and demonised junior doctors.
It is also using the current crisis to accelerate the privatisation of state health care.
In recent weeks, ministers have used special powers to bypass normal tendering and award a string of contracts to private companies and management consultants without open competition.
But if cheap propaganda stunts do not secure the compliance, open threats will suffice. For instance, in the US, city mayors and local politicians have threatened to ‘hunt down’, monitor social media and jail those who break lockdown rules.
Prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson asks who gave these people the authority to tear up the US constitution; what gives them the right to threaten voters while they themselves or their families have been exposed as having little regard for lockdown norms. As overhead drones bark out orders to residents, Carlson wonders how the US – almost overnight – transformed into a totalitarian state.
With a compliant media failing to hold tyrannical officials to account, Carlson’s concerns mirror those of Lionel Shriver in the UK, writing in The Spectator, who declares that the supine capitulation of Britain to a de facto police state has been one of the most depressing spectacles he has ever witnessed.
Under the pretext of tracking and tracing the spread of the virus, the UK government is rolling out an app which will let the likes of Apple and Google monitor a person’s every location visited and every physical contact. There seems to be little oversight in terms of privacy.
The contact-tracing app has opted for a centralised model of data collection: all the contact-tracing data is not to be deleted but anonymized and kept under one roof in one central government database for ‘research purposes’.
We may think back to Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of Facebook data to appreciate the potential for data misuse. But privacy is the least concern for governments and the global tech giants in an age where ‘data’ has become monetized as a saleable commodity, with the UK data market the second biggest in the world and valued at over a billion pounds in 2018.
Paranoia is usually the ever-present bedfellow of fear and many people have been very keen to inform the authorities that their neighbours may have been breaking social distancing rules.
Moreover, although any such opinion poll cannot be taken at face value and could be regarded as part of the mainstream fear narrative itself, a recent survey suggests that only 20% of Britons are in favour of reopening restaurants, schools, pubs and stadiums.
Is this to be the new ‘normal’, whereby fear, mistrust, division and suspicion are internalized throughout society? In an age of fear and paranoia, are we all to be ‘contact traced’ and regarded by others as a ‘risk’ until we prove ourselves by wearing face masks and by voluntarily subjecting ourselves to virus tests at the entrances to stores or in airports?
And if we refuse or test positive, are we to be shamed, isolated and forced to comply by being ‘medicated’ (vaccinated and chipped)?
Is this the type of world that’s soon to be regarded as ‘normal’?
A world in which liberty and fundamental rights mean nothing. A world dominated by shaming and spurious notions of personal responsibility that are little more than ideological constructs of a hegemonic narrative which labels rational thinking people as ‘anti-science’ – a world in which the scourge of authoritarianism reigns supreme.
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As this article was going to press, it was announced that Neil Ferguson is resigning from his role as science advisor to Boris Johnson’s government, in the wake of the allegations he has broken the lockdown rules he himself recommended in order to meet his girlfriend .
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/09/2020 – 00:05 - Hawaii Arrests 'Rogue Tourists' In COVID Contagion Crackdown
Hawaii Arrests ‘Rogue Tourists’ In COVID Contagion Crackdown
As the travel and tourism industry implodes, savvy consumers, with zero f*cks given about contracting the virus, have been buying cheap airfare to Hawaii, along with heavily discounted rooms at top resorts. Around mid/late March, when strict stay-at-home orders went into effect, locals, who were confined to their homes, noticed many of these tourists were disregarding public health orders. This infuriated some who allege that if an outbreak on the island(s) was seen, it could easily overwhelm the local hospital system.
By late March, tensions between locals and tourists were quickly building. A group of locals held a protest at Kahului Airport in Maui County, holding up signs that read: “TOURIST GO HOME,” “LEAVE OUR AINA!,” “TIME TO GO,” and “GO HOME.”
By mid-April, the Hawaii Tourism Authority issued a $25,000 grant to nonprofit Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii (VASH) to fund a program that would issue one-way plane tickets to tourists who broke 14-day quarantine orders or other social distancing rules. As of April 26, we noted about 26 tourists were provided one-way tickets back to their home airports for breaking the rules.
Now it appears things are getting serious in the state. Authorities are arresting “rogue tourist” who break quarantine orders:
“A newlywed California couple left their Waikiki hotel room repeatedly, despite being warned by hotel staff, and were arrested. Others have been arrested at a hotel pool, loading groceries into a vehicle outside a Costco and bringing take-out food back to a hotel room,” AP News said.
The strict measures, some of the most stringent in the country, have been working to suppress the outbreak. As of Friday, about 629 cases and 17 deaths have been reported in the state, a relatively low number when compared with Northeast states.
Hawaii sacrificed its largest industry: tourism – to fend off the virus. With many resorts, restaurants, and other businesses closed, unemployment has skyrocketed to 25% to 35%. At least 100 hotels have suspended operations as locals stay home to weather the public health crisis.
Honolulu City Councilmember Kym Pine said the sacrifices Hawaiians are making today to protect their communities, in the long run, is hugely disrespectful when a tourist comes to the state and blatantly ignores the rules.
“The people that are coming don’t care about us. They’re coming to Hawaii on the cheap and they obviously could care less whether they get the virus or not,” she said. “So they obviously could care less about that mom and dad who have no job and no food.”
AP says the honeymooning couple, Borice Lepovskiy, 20, and Yuliia Andreichenko, 26, of California, refused to sign a “quarantine agreement” after they came back late one night after picking up pizza. The next morning, they left their room and were arrested.
At least 20 people have been arrested statewide on charges of breaking quarantine orders. Many others have been given warnings or citations. Anyone who is convicted of the violation is subjected to a $5,000 fine and a year in jail.
“Officials have even considered having travelers wear an ankle bracelet during their quarantine period, or setting up a designated site where tourists would be required to stay at for the 14 days,” AP notes.
Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, said hotel key cards are being programmed to only allow people to check-in – so when they leave their rooms – they will need to get a new card, which would be a red flag for front-desk workers that the tourist potentially violated quarantine rules.
AP provides several other accounts of tourists being arrested:
Last month, a pair arrived on Kauai and were told to go directly to their hotel. Kauai police stopped them after they were seen going in the opposite direction of their hotel.
Adam Schwarze, 36, who police said lives on Oahu and his travel companion, Desiree Marvin, 31, of Alexandria, Virginia, were ultimately arrested in the parking lot of a grocery store.
Leif Anthony Johansen, 60, of Truckee, California, was supposed to be in quarantine but was spotted on a personal watercraft off Oahu’s famed North Shore. He was later followed to a Costco, where agents from the state attorney general’s office arrested him as he was loading groceries into his vehicle.
Hannemann said he’s surprised that people still are coming to Hawaii considering much of the attractions are shutdown:
“I am, quite frankly, quite surprised that people would still want to come because this is not the Hawaii that you’ve dreamed about, that you want to experience,” said Hannemann of the tourism and lodging association. “There’s a lot of attractions that are closed. Everyone is walking around with masks. You know, we’re just not going to demonstrate that spirit of aloha that you’ve heard so much about. … So to me, it’s just crazy for someone to still want to come here.”
And a word to the wise – it’s probably a good idea to stay away from Hawaii at the moment. The next thing you know, law enforcement might start tracking tourists with GPS bracelets.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 23:45 - Bezos Uber Alles? Homeland Security's Biometrics Database Moves To Amazon's Cloud
Bezos Uber Alles? Homeland Security’s Biometrics Database Moves To Amazon’s Cloud
Authored by Aaron Boyd via NextGiov.com,
The Office of Biometric Identity Management released a privacy impact assessment as the program begins moving the nation’s biometric database to Amazon’s GovCloud…
The Homeland Security Department is in the midst of migrating its central biometric database – used to store, manage and disseminate biometric data on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals – to the Amazon Web Services GovCloud, the first step in a major overhaul of the decades-old legacy system.
With significant advancements in biometric technologies – like iris and facial scans – and computing technology, DHS decided it was time to upgrade its decades-old Automated Biometric Identification System, known as IDENT, originally developed in 1994. In 2015, the Office of Biometric Identity Management began work on the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology, or HART, system, which will introduce new capabilities and shift the entire system to the cloud.
OBIM officially began the shift from IDENT to HART this year, including finalizing a privacy impact assessment for the first phase: migrating existing data and functionality to the cloud. The impact statement was finalized and signed in February and subsequently published in May “to align with the completion of other system requirements,” a DHS spokesperson told Nextgov.
The HART system is being rolled out in four phases, or “increments,” each with its own timetable and privacy impact assessment to be published. Increment 1 focuses on the underlying infrastructure development and ensuring the data and applications used in IDENT make a smooth transition to the cloud.
“HART Increment 1 implements a new data architecture, which includes conceptual, logical, and physical data models, a data management plan, and physical storage of records where each associated record may have multiple associated biometric modality images,” the document states. That work is being done through a $95 million contract with Northrop Grumman.
The privacy impact assessment walks through how the system will be used and by which federal agencies and partners, as well as some of the basic underlying biometric technologies, such as the various forms of facial recognition.
Once the cloud migration is complete, HART will officially become the system of record for national security biometric data. The privacy impact assessment—originally finalized in February—stated the program was on track to take over by the end of fiscal 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting productivity on every level, an OBIM spokesperson told Nextgov that the deadline might be pushed to the end of calendar 2020, if not further. However, the spokesperson said those conversations are ongoing and the revised schedule—if needed—has not been established yet.
By the completion of Increment 1, the new HART system is expected to function the same as the current IDENT system, with the same capabilities, including the ability to match biometric indicators like face, iris and fingerprints to other forms of identity, like Social Security numbers and Alien Numbers. However, with the new cloud-based architecture, the system will be “designed for scalability to address projected growth in identity and image data volumes and to accommodate any needs associated with larger files,” the impact assessment states.
The program office plans to include new capabilities in Increment 2, including “increased interoperability with agency partners and improved reporting features.”
“Increments 3 and 4 will include a web portal and user interface capability, support for additional modalities, and improved reporting tools,” as well as their own privacy impact assessments, the document states.
OBIM has also issued a request for information for services in Increments 3 and 4, though the timeline and full procurement strategy are still being fleshed out.
* * *
Bezos Uber Alles by end 2020?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 23:25 - Military Experts Urge China To Expand Nuclear Arsenal As "Deterrence" Against US
Military Experts Urge China To Expand Nuclear Arsenal As “Deterrence” Against US
Rising geopolitical uncertainties between the US and China have been made worse by the pandemic as new rounds of tensions are unfolding on the heels of a possible flare-up of the trade war. The new reality is that Cold War 2.0 could be materializing as both countries fall into the Thucydides Trap, where a rising power (China) challenges the status quo power (the US). This often leads to a hot military conflict and both Washington and Beijing understand that could be a future reality.
Just one day after we reported an uptick in American long-range bomber activity over the East China Sea, the Global Times states on Friday (May 8) that Chinese military experts have urged Beijing to expand its nuclear arsenal as new measures to deter the US from the region.
Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin said China needs to immediately increase nuclear warhead stockpiles to 1,000 and focus on having 100 DF-41 ballistic missiles ready for use. Each DF-41 can carry a nuclear payload and strike London or the US.
Song Zhongping, a leading military expert in China, told the Times on Friday that Washington’s ambitions in the Pacific region are “threatening China in all fields.” He said the US no longer sees nuclear weapons as just a deterrence as they are being deployed on the battlefield, adding that China must increase its nuclear arsenal to combat this evolving threat.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying was asked on Friday if China would produce more nuclear warheads and DF-41s. He responded by saying countries should have prioritized responsibility and an obligation to reduce strategic nuclear weapons.”
Chunying said China operates under the “no first use” rule when it comes to nuclear weapons.
“China views nuclear weapons only as strategic deterrence, but any deterrence needs to be strong enough to halt military aggression toward China,” analysts told the Times.
Beijing-based military expert Wei Dongxu told the Times on Friday that increased nuclear weapons would be used as deterrence against “major powers from taking reckless action.” He asserted that China must exercise its right as a major power to use “nuclear deterrence capabilities appropriate to its position and strategic interests.”
This comes at a time when the Pentagon has not just ramped up the freedom of navigation sails around the South China Sea and increased reconnaissance flights across the area, but also as the Trump administration is attempting to pin the outbreak of the pandemic on a biosafety laboratory in China.
President Trump’s rhetoric directed at China also comes ahead of a presidential election where his administration is attempting to shift anger of a crashed economy and virus-related deaths of more than 75,000 Americans on Beijing and the lab. This will undoubtedly create more tensions between both countries heading into the summer months.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 23:05 - Beware Of Plans To "Build Back Better"
Beware Of Plans To “Build Back Better”
Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,
Central planners the world over disdain the free exchange of goods and services. They believe they can better shape the world around them according to their wishes. This fatal conceit compels them to intervene in destructive ways.
Some central planners, like Fed Chair Jay Powell, think they’re saving the world economy by cranking up the printing press. Others, like AOC, could care less about the economy…so long as they can mediate the redistribution of wealth more to their liking.
The mess wrought by extreme government intervention has been magnified by coronavirus. The central planners took a bad situation and made it dramatically worse. They destroyed the economy so they could ‘build back batter.’
First the shutdown was ordered to flatten the curve, resulting in over 33.5 million new claims for unemployment in just seven weeks. Then the big bailouts of big business were rolled out to counteract the breakdown of financial markets. Token checks were also sent out to the broad populace. And that’s just the beginning.
Central planners, no doubt, love this kind of stuff. They find meaning and purpose in it. What’s more, it makes them feel smart…especially when they can use fake models and fake science to support their decrees…
Guided by Garbage
On March 18, British epidemiologist Neil Ferguson and his cohorts at Imperial College in the United Kingdom used scientific models to project 2.2 million deaths in the United States from coronavirus. The central planners took these scientific models as the cornerstone truth and commanded shelter in place and social distancing orders. Yet it was all based on a crock!
For example, in 2009, one of Ferguson’s models predicted 65,000 people could die from the Swine Flu outbreak in the UK. The final figure was below 500. And during the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, Ferguson warned the government that 150,000 people could die. In the end, 200 people died.
Similarly, Ferguson estimated a potential death toll of 200 million people during the 2005 Bird Flu outbreak. The real number was in the low hundreds. What’s going on?
Here, we’ll turn to Charles Babbage, the English polymath credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, to better understand Ferguson’s deal. From his 1864 work, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher:
“On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine the wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”
In other words, garbage in garbage out (GIGO). By this, computer outputs are only as good as the data that are input. If garbage data is input the resulting outputs are garbage.
“Some of the major assumptions and estimates that are built in the calculations [of Ferguson’s models] seem to be substantially inflated.”
That was the assessment of John Ioannidis, a professor of disease prevention from Stanford University. The point is, the response by central planners to the coronavirus outbreak was guided by garbage. The economy has been wrecked. Moreover, the programs to save the economy will further destabilize it. But why stop now?
For central planners this is their golden opportunity to ‘build back better’…
Beware of Plans to Build Back Better
This week, for example, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and several other economic interventionists published a paper in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy calling for green stimulus. The paper’s title asks the question, “Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change?
Without government intervention, say the authors, “There are reasons to fear that we will leap from the COVID frying pan into the climate fire.”
The paper includes a survey of 231 central bankers, G20 finance ministers, and top academics from across 53 countries to subjectively assess the economic and climate impact potential of 25 stimulus policy archetypes. One important – unequivocal – conclusion is that the world’s leading central planners are onboard with stimulus that reduces carbon emissions.
The policy archetype of no stimulus and no intervention was not considered, as far as we can tell. But the paper is chock full of colorful exhibits that appear to be a cross between scatter plot charts and dove entrails.
The purpose of the exhibits is to graphically display the various experts’ perceptions of the desirability of various stimulus policies. Is a policy of high positive potential climate impact or high negative potential climate impact? And what is its long-run multiplier?
Like Ferguson’s death models, the study is contrived nonsense. But it’s just the sort of thing the central planners can point to as they flatter their egos and double down with the next wave of fiscal stimulus intervention. Per Cameron Hepburn, lead author:
“The COVID-19-initiated emissions reduction could be short-lived. But this report shows we can choose to build back better, keeping many of the recent improvements we’ve seen in cleaner air, returning nature and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”
For the central planners, building back better means pumping stimulus into clean energy research and infrastructure, disaster preparedness, and zero-carbon transportation. Alas, for the 33.5 million recently unemployed, there’s no booty in it.
But who cares when Class 8 heavy duty truck orders crashed to a 25 year low in April? Better to keep those diesel burning smoke belchers off the road.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 22:45 - San Diego Unemployment Rate Nearly 27%, Breaking County Record Set During Great Depression
San Diego Unemployment Rate Nearly 27%, Breaking County Record Set During Great Depression
With the worst jobs report in history under our belt, which saw a record 20.5 million jobs lost in April, and the stated unemployment rate at 14.7%, some cities have been hit worse than others by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
To wit, after steadily increasing 2-3% every week for the past two months, the unemployment rate in San Diego county is at an all-time high of just under 27% – exceeding the previous record from 1933 set during the Great Depression, according to a report by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).
According to the data, 35,000 people filed for unemployment insurance during the week of April 18, bringing to total number to just under 400,000 in the county, reports San Diego’s Fox5. And let’s not forget San Diego’s hourly workers who have seen their shifts cut as businesses struggle to stay afloat.
San Diego residents line up for emergency food distribution at SDCCU Stadium, April 5, 2020 (Photo: Brian Doll / Swinerton Renewable Energy) “It’s absolutely astounding, and this has never happened in the history of before to have this type of unemployment this quickly,” said SANDAG Chief Economist Ray Major, who added: “We will end up going into a recession because of this and so the housing sector may be hurt. You may be able to buy an automobile more cheaply but that’s because there aren’t as many people out there trying to buy automobiles.“
Major says certain industries like retail and biotech companies will come back quickly. He says it’s those working in the restaurant and hospitality industries that will take a longer time to get back to normal. Major says it could be anywhere from 18 months to two years. –Fox5
On Friday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that 75% of those who have filed for unemployment are ‘temporary layoffs.’
On what scale?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 22:25 - Staying Ahead Of The Shortages: What To Stock Up On For The Coming Year
Staying Ahead Of The Shortages: What To Stock Up On For The Coming Year
Authored by Samantha Biggers via BackdoorSurvival.com,
While a lot of people are concerned about food shortages, one should not forget that there are a lot of items that make life easier or at least more enjoyable that come from abroad. A lot of these items specifically come from China and India. I am going to mention a few other things that are mostly made in the USA but that may potentially be in short supply as a result of the pandemic.
Food and water are primary concerns as they should be but what about these other things. I have compiled this list of things that you may want to consider acquiring if you don’t think you have enough to get through the next 6 months to a year.
Do what you can with what financial resources and ingenuity you have. You don’t have to jump on buying everything I talk about all at once. Sometimes people get caught up thinking that they have to do it all at once and that is not true. I presented this information so you can use it over the coming months to determine your preparedness needs and plan accordingly. I think this winter is going to be a difficult one and that the sooner you start planning the better.
That being said, I cannot predict what is going to happen but I can tell you that if you put back things you know you are going to need sooner rather than later than in the worst case you are prepared and in the best case you are ahead of the game and won’t have to buy those things later and may have some extra funds to put towards things later.
I am not trying to encourage you to buy things that there is no way that you are going to need. The intent of this post is really to make you think about what you do need considering the situation we are all in due to the pandemic and what things you have that are close to the end of their useful life and might need replaced soon.
Just because something is available later on doesn’t mean it will be affordable.
While as a country we may not run out of coffee grinders or coffee pots, they may get a lot more expensive. Buying now is one way to avoid potentially higher prices later on.
It is easy to take some of the basics for granted. The old saying “you don’t know what you got until it is gone” is accurate.
I remember going from years of having easy hot water and reliable heating and cooling in our living space to not having any of those things while we were living in a camper and building our house. To put this on a perspective for the average person in America, what if you couldn’t buy socks at an affordable price? What if you couldn’t get a broom or vacuum to clean your home? These are just a few examples.
When manufacturing starts coming back to the USA or we start contracting with other countries for some manufacturing, the price is going to go up and it may go up a lot.
People cannot live in the USA on a wage equal to that of a Chinese or Indian laborer. Also given that there are minimum wage laws, we technically wouldn’t be allowed to work for that low of a wage if we wanted to. Americans will work but they are not going to work for wages that require them to live under the conditions that a lot of people in China and India live in.
The Items
Sheets and Bedding
Have you ever priced a hand-sewn quilt? They are really expensive because they take a lot of time and they are usually made of fabric that is at least of moderate quality. I have made them and they last for years. I no longer have the time to make blankets that are that fancy and artistic so I buy them like everyone else. Regardless of how fancy or cheap you like to buy your sheets, those are made overseas. India produces a lot of the quality cotton blankets and sheets that are sold in the United States.
You may be thinking that we grow a lot of cotton in the United States. We sure do and it often that same cotton that goes into making the blankets and sheets that we get from India and China. The manufacturing facilities and inexpensive labor are not available here at the moment.
The other day I was thankful that I had bought a set of sheets ahead for everyone because all of a sudden I started noticing holes appearing in the ones I bought years ago. It is easy to not buy until you realize that things are getting threadbare. Here is a link to the sheets I bought. Sometimes they are a little less but they are still a very good deal for the quality you get.
Right now you can still get some inexpensive blankets but I am not sure how long that is going to last. I just know that there is only so much stuff in the country at the moment and it is pretty hard to say how much consumer goods are actually coming in. Just going by total container volume, it is not much.
Small and Large Appliances
This is the best deal I could find on a small chest freezer currently. If you are looking for one and want something compact, this freezer can be had for $179 and Wal-Mart offers 2-day shipping for free. I bought the 5 cubic feet version that opens from the top and paid less for it than this upright but those deals are gone.
How many of you have went to buy a small to medium chest freezer only to find that you might be able to get one in June if you are lucky? We were in the position of having two sheep that we had to butcher but not enough freezer space. We were concerned about not being able to get a smaller freezer so we went ahead and got a small one from Wal-Mart.
For some reason I thought that more freezers and other large appliances were made in the USA but I was sure wrong about that one. Freezers sold out much faster than I thought they would. I have seen a few really big freezers for sale but they are so big that most people are just not going to have the space and they cost twice as much as what most of us are used to paying when we want to go get a freezer.
Freezers are just the beginning. If you are noticing that your microwave, toaster, coffee pot, etc are starting to act up or not run so well, you may want to get your replacement now and throw it in the garage or closet. I can imagine that if demand is much greater than supply, a seller that does an auction on eBay may be shocked to see what some are willing to pay for items that they don’t want to do without. People like you or me that cannot outbid someone with a lot of money will be out of luck.
Clothing
There is a lot of clothing in the country but a lot of it is used clothing. Items like blue jeans that you wear out more often are made in Asia with the majority being made in China. I am going to make an effort to buy American made after we wear out what I bought up. My husband works outside a lot and goes through some pants and t-shirts. Some of you may wear an odd size or a size that you find is not as available at stores.
If this is you then you need to be especially aware of what you have on hand. As I have stated many times in the past, buying out of season can save a lot of money. I routinely pick items at 50%-70% off by purchasing winter items in the spring or summer or summer items at the beginning of winter. This also means I can get better quality which in turn saves money because I don’t have to buy the same thing as often.
Shoes
People love shoes. In fact a lot of people have way more pairs than they really need but those that do often don’t choose to buy the most practical footwear. During the year ahead you may find that you need different footwear even if you have a lot of shoes overall. The majority of footwear is made in China or other Asian countries. Some companies do have a USA made line that costs more but that is the exception, not the norm. Shoes made in the USA and Italy, both known for quality footwear, cost a lot more to buy and the selection is rather limited.
Right now you can still find some exceptional deals on footwear. My husband and I live on a mountain and farm. We deal with a lot of rough terrain and do a good deal of manual labor so we have to have good work boots. Other footwear will just get destroyed. Consider what your footwear needs are going to be over the next year and start buying what you need as you can afford it. Keep an eye out for good deals.
I love to shop at Amazon Warehouse for shoes because since I can wear a men’s size and I am not picky about the color, I can find exceptional deals. You have to shop around a bit but I picked up 4 pairs of boots for us for maybe $160? A single pair had a retail value that high. These types of deals will not be around forever because a lot of those companies have severely cut back on production or are not operating at all.
Another good place to find boots is through a military surplus store. Check out this post on military surplus for more info.
Some Fertilizers
A lot of people are gardening and that has led to a big run on fertilizers. While a lot is still available, that might not always be the case. It takes quite a bit of energy and people to make a lot of the commercial fertilizers on the market. A lot of folks are also stocking up on the organic varieties.
The smaller organic fertilizer companies are not used to this type of demand and they could struggle to meet it in the near future. I know that some products like Garden Tone in larger bags have become a little more scarce here lately.
Tires
I have been trying to make an effort to be more on top of it when it comes to vehicle and machinery maintenance. For example, when this pandemic situation started, we ordered some tire patch kits and a gallon of tire slime in case we have to make some repairs at home.
Months ago, Matt and I were talking about when the tires would need to be replaced on the Kawasaki Mule. We agreed that we could get through the summer but before winter hit we absolutely had to get a new set. Then the pandemic happened. We set aside a little here and there and I went ahead and bought a set.
We use the Mule for everything around the farm and to go down to see my Dad at the other property and take him things. The truck is more vehicle than we need around the farm most of the time and it costs more to maintain and operate. A lot of our roads are not for trucks either. It would cause us an enormous amount of extra work that we honestly don’t have time for with just the two of us working the farm if we could not use our Mule.
A lot of tires are made in China and Korea. Yes there are US manufacturers but not as many as you might think. Only certain sizes will work with certain vehicles and some people need heavy duty 4×4 tires for things not street tires. My point is that even if your tires are looking worn, you might consider buying a set now and setting them aside for when you need them. Take a look at your tractors and other small machinery. I know that tires are not cheap but they could get a lot more expensive, especially if you need something that is specialized.
Electronics
I am not one to have a fancy cell phone. I buy $50 and under smartphones and then barely ever keep it on. In fact some months I don’t even bother with it. At the same time, I realize that others depend on their phones for a lot of things. If you can pick up a cheap throwaway phone as a back up then it is something to consider. It may be difficult to find one that is not overpriced.
A lot of people are also choosing to keep the computer or Chromebook they have going rather than upgrading it for a different model. That being said, if you depend on your computer for work and entertainment and don’t already have a backup, now might be the time to pick up a cheap backup. Remember that nowadays cheap doesn’t mean it is not highly functional. I bought an open box Samsung Chromebook a few years back for $110 and used it for all my writing and for watching shows for over a year. It is still what we use for our TV but we hook it up to a big monitor.
Computer parts and internet equipment are mostly made overseas too. Network and technology needs vary by the person but there is nothing wrong with having an extra wireless router or network card. I bought a USB wireless adapter when all this started because my computer stopped going online. It seemed like some of the better adapters were already more expensive or harder to find. Not sure what it looks like out there now.
Cat and Dog Food
A lot of meat processors are shut down due to the pandemic. Some have stated that they are shut down indefinitely. When meat processors shut down that means that there are not byproducts and leftovers to be used in dog and cat foods. Maybe if some animals are put down they will go for pet foods but that is not a guaranteed thing.
It may also come to pass that the more affordable pet foods sell out while the more expensive ones are still somewhat available but out of reach for a lot of people due to cost. If your dog or cat requires a special diet then you need to be even more concerned. Here are a few links to posts on pet food storage and calorie needs that may be helpful with your planning.
Small Hand and Power Tools
Almost all the hand tools and power tools that we use often are made in China. There are a few companies that manufacture in the USA. Bully Tools and Eastwing both come to mind for hand tools. Milwaukee and Dewalt make some items in the USA. Remember that a lot of tool companies have products made in many different countries. You cannot assume that because they have a few USA made products that everything you get with their logo on it is made in the USA.
Tools make it possible to be more self-sufficient. I would never want to give up our tools. If you don’t have a basic household toolkit or the garden tools you need then try to buy them as you can. You will not regret having a few basic tools around.
Nail, screws, and other fasteners
I just put in an order to Lowes and it was amazing what they were out of. Most of the screws, nails, and fasteners are made in China or similar. If I wanted a screw under 2 inches, my only choice as the star bit variety. A standard Phillips head was not available in that size.
Just for the record, I have never seen Lowes out of such a basic size and variety in over a decade of helping build houses, barns, etc.
Even more of the over the counter and basic medical supplies we are used to having.
Some medical and personal protective gear have been in short supply for quite some time. Since a lot of the ingredients that are necessary to produce many medications are made in foreign lands, it seems like we would be bound to see more medications in short supply the longer the pandemic continues and especially if there is a devastating second wave.
Besides medications, there are a lot of other medical supplies made overseas as well. Those without a good medical kit should start putting one together so that they can deal with basic needs at home.
Other Items
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Soap
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Batteries
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Laundry products
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Coffee
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Herbs and spices that are usually foreign grown. Black peppercorns are an example. A lot of black pepper is grown in India.
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Sewing supplies
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Anything imported that you would really miss.
Are you experiencing shortages in your area? What are you having the most trouble finding? For a more comprehensive list of items to put back for hard times, check out my article “The Supplies You Need To Stockpile For TEOTWAWKI”.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 22:05 -
- Chicago Murder Rate Soars Despite Stay-At-Home Orders, Activists Blame "Lockdown Segregation"
Chicago Murder Rate Soars Despite Stay-At-Home Orders, Activists Blame “Lockdown Segregation”
Despite the pandemic and strict stay-at-home orders, one would naturally assume violent crime in Chicago’s inner cities would subside. But that was not the case in April, according to a new report via AP News, which said, “the city’s most deprived neighborhoods are still echoing to the sound of deadly gunfire and raucous partying.”
Homicides in America’s inner cities are cyclical. As the weather improves and daily temperature highs increase, everyone comes outside and hangs out in the streets. Many low-income folks have limited respect for government and law enforcement, so implementing social distancing measures have been challenging for Chicago officials. Drug dealers are still going to hustle on the corner, though some now wear masks and gloves.
Life continues in these areas, as the Chicago Police Department (CPD) reports a total of 56 murders in April despite lockdown orders. When compared to last year, that is only an 8% reduction from the same month. Now, this is contrary to what has been seen in New York and Los Angeles, where violent crime has dramatically declined during lockdowns.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently warned residents, mostly taking aiming at low-income neighborhoods, said that all partying during lockdowns must be stopped. She said residents must follow social distancing rules or could go to jail. “We are not playing games,” the mayor said last weekend.
“We will shut you down, and if we need to, we will arrest you and take you to jail, period.”
‘Don’t make us treat you as a criminal’#Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot warns #COVID19 lockdown violators of serious consequences for throwing parties during a #pandemic pic.twitter.com/1v6mWfLhBy
— RT (@RT_com) May 5, 2020
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AP said the mayor’s warning did very little to thwart social gatherings on the streets as dance parties and loud music were seen.
Janeal Wright threw a house party attended by hundreds of people on April 25 while his mother, a first responder in Chicago, worked a 24-hour shift. He apologized for the incident while speaking to @DavidBegnaud:
“I put myself at risk and I put my mother at risk as well.” pic.twitter.com/ZN5YxviIkm
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 4, 2020
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New video shows people partying Saturday night in Chicago during this COVID 19 pandemic.
Police broke up two large parties on the west side. No one was arrested. No one was cited. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/y9c3tRfwZD
— Vi Nguyen (@ViNguyen) May 3, 2020
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@Chicago_Police party now, 47sy and 48st, Shields ave pic.twitter.com/wooyXnNfAN
— A L E X (@ales_74) May 7, 2020
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Father Michael Pfleger, an activist priest who has served in the Chicago area for three decades, said respect for authorities lacks in low-income areas, which have large concentrations of African-Americans and soaring income inequality.
“I think one of the reasons is that Chicago is more segregated than New York and LA,” Pfleger said while referring to why violent crime has been much higher in the city compared to other regions.
“Segregation here is horrible. You have segregated communities on the South and the West sides that you don’t have in other cities. I also think that decades of ignoring these segregated communities haven’t helped,” he said.
Pfleger said people who are looking to commit murder are unlikely to abide by social distancing rules.
Max Kapustin, senior research director at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, said most of the murders had occurred outside, and victims overlooked the public health orders.
“We don’t know if there’s anything else related to COVID-19 that may be exacerbating the issue,” he said.
Pfleger believes the pandemic has exposed the fragility of society. He said a major issue that clouds these areas is wealth inequality.
When it comes to a post-corona world and normalizing life after lockdowns for inner cities – he said, “I get so mad when I hear people say ‘I just want to get back to normal.’ No, normal was bad. Normal was evil and unjust. We want to create something new coming out of this.”
He said he wants to see the government make critical investments in neighborhoods and schools in underprivileged areas – but as we all know – the bailout money has gone to Wall Street for a second time in a little over a decade.
And what’s going to drive more instability in inner cities? You guessed it… massive unemployment.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 21:45 - CV-1984: The Accelerated Rise Of Automated Robots
CV-1984: The Accelerated Rise Of Automated Robots
Authored by Aaron Kesel via ActivistPost.com,
CV-1984 is accelerating the spread of Orwellian surveillance devices like talking drones, facial recognition cameras, and more; but that’s not the only technology that is advancing – robots or automated machines are also speeding up their deployment to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
This reporter and Activist Post has consistently stated that robots were coming for our jobs; and now as record unemployment numbers strike in the U.S., automated machines are being rolled out as well to replace even more workers.
ZeroHedge reports:
Bloomberg Law reports JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, is preparing to install robots in slaughterhouses to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among human employees working on the production line.
JBS SA CFO Guilherme Cavalcanti recently said the Brazilian processing company expects to expand automation at its facilities across the world.
Cavalcanti said the adoption of automation started before the pandemic as labor tightened at US plants due to a decline in immigration sparked by the Trump administration. He said labor shortages have developed in the US as the virus infects workers and shutters plants.”
Here’s a video of those meat packaging machines in action.
It’s not just meat packaging that could be threatened by robots; grocers themselves are also in danger of being replaced by machines. CNN reports that grocers – big and small chains alike – are turning to robots for performing various tasks like cleaning floors, stocking shelves and delivering groceries to shoppers. The covid crisis could even prompt online retail warehouses like Amazon to invest more into automation technology as well.
The New York Times reported that the outbreak is boosting demand for Zhen Robotics and its RoboPony, a self-driving cart that is sold to retailers, hospitals, malls and apartment complexes.
A group of scientists on the editorial board of Science Robotics are further calling for robots to do the “dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs” of infectious disease management by replacing certain hospital jobs like disinfecting robots combing rooms/floors and working in labs.
A recent report by A3, Association For Advancing Automation, further details all the ways that artificial intelligence and automation is being used in different industries to combat the coronavirus.
This all continues to highlight what Activist Post and this writer has detailed consistently for months — that advancement in robotics and A.I. is taking jobs daily more and more, warning that robots would soon take human jobs such as construction and farming robots, Angus and HRP-5P, being created to replace workers in the aforementioned industries. Activist Post has been sounding the alarm of the coming robot apocalypse.
Also see the article entitled: “Robots Already Replacing Bank Tellers, Drivers, News Anchors, Restaurant and Warehouse Employees. Will Your Job Be Next?” written by B.N. Frank.
As this writer has written previously on Steemit, we are shifting towards a working world with little or no humans, as automation and artificial intelligence begins to take over our jobs. It’s cheaper to hire a few robots which don’t need rest and benefits than to hire a few humans who need healthcare and retirement funds.
Last year, robots took a record number of jobs in the U.S. according to Robotic Industries Association (RIA) as Activist Post reported. Now, with the impetus of the coronavirus the number of jobs occupied by robots could multiply quite rapidly. Oxford Economics also published its own report warning that accelerating technological advances in automation, engineering, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have the potential to reshape the world in 2020 through 2030s, displacing at least 20 million workers.
Brave – The Browser Built for Privacy
With the coronavirus as a catalyst to speed up the deployment of automated machines, we can probably safely say that number will be much more severe. It seems I am not the only one to share that opinion; a recent MarketWatch article written by Johannes Moenius, a professor of global business and the director of the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis at the University of Redlands, agrees with this author’s conclusion stating “at least 50 million jobs could be automated in just essential industries.”
In fact, the Brookings Institution said in a report last month that “any coronavirus-related recession is likely to bring about a spike in labor-replacing automation … Automation happens in bursts, concentrated especially in bad times such as in the wake of economic shocks, when humans become relatively more expensive as firms’ revenues rapidly decline.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 21:25 - 'Not If You're Too Hot' – Nevada Brothels Unveil Temp-Taking, Mask-Wearing Plans To Re-Open
‘Not If You’re Too Hot’ – Nevada Brothels Unveil Temp-Taking, Mask-Wearing Plans To Re-Open
Last month a brothel owner told KRNV Reno that she had adopted safety procedures for when Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak gives the green light to reopen the state’s legal brothels.
Madam Bella, the owner of Bella’s Hacienda, said reopening the state’s legal brothels will be challenging amid the pandemic, and she expects to enforce social distancing and new disinfectant protocols to ensure the safety of her sex-workers, staff, and guests.
“Since the governor’s reopening plan closely mirrors the White House guidelines to Open Up America Again, I expect legal brothels to be allowed to open our doors by at least stage two of the Governor’s phased reopening, along with bars,” Bella said
“But until there’s an effective and readily available vaccine for COVID-19, it certainly can’t be ‘business as usual’ at the brothels. I’m announcing my procedures for reopening my brothel in order to be proactive and transparent, so that my customers know that the courtesans and I have every intention to reopen safely, and stay open.”
Bella said several key procedural changes would include testing sex-workers for COVID-19 on a weekly basis, integration of personal protective equipment (such as mask-wearing for anyone in the facility), and temperature checks.
“A brothel, like a nursing home, involves a group of people living in a communal environment and sharing common areas like a kitchen and gym. Regularly testing each courtesan residing at the brothel for COVID-19 will be crucial in order to reasonably ensure the health of the sex workers living alongside each other,” she said
“It will also give potential clients peace of mind in knowing that the ladies are free of coronavirus, as several of our customers are of advancing age and may be considered at-risk persons with regard to the virus.”
Chuck Muth, a spokesperson for the Nevada Brothel Association (NBA), said there is no concrete industry-wide guideline of how a brothel will operate in a post-corona world. “Things are still very up-in-the-air,” he said.
The Daily Beast said it was a mixed bag of responses among brothel owners, sex workers, and other industry players about reopening.
“It’s not ethical to open these establishments now,” said Roxanne Price, a sex worker in the Nevada brothel industry, adding that she will live off savings until an effective treatment or vaccine emerges. “Any close-contact work is probably not a good idea.”
Roxanne Price Price said the push to reopen brothels was not based on greed or disregard for danger but due to the fragility of the industry.
Brothels in the state have no way in reopening unless Gov. Sisolak clears the industry. It appears, at this moment, there is no timeline on when a reopening will occur.
Nathan Robertson, the mayor of Ely, a town with several brothels, told The Daily Beast that he likens brothels to “health, beauty, and wellness services,” suggesting they could reopen the same time as hair and nail salons.
Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts told The Daily Beast that brothels involve closer forms of contact, including sexual acts, which pose more risk than say sitting in a barber’s chair.
Brian Labus, a communicable disease surveillance expert at the University of Nevada, said he was encouraged to see brothels “taking steps to think about how they can mitigate risks to customers.”
Anna Yeung-Cheung, an infectious disease expert at Manhattanville College, asked are sex-workers going to wear masks when they service clients?
Jeffrey Klausner, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said restricting mouth-to-mouth contact, regular screenings of sex-workers and clients, constant hygiene care, and disclaimers about the risks of having sex with strangers, could be adequate in mitigating risks.
“Opening any business too early potentially puts people at risk,” though, Labus added.
Irwin Redlener, an infectious disease expert at Columbia University, said rapid virus tests of sex-workers and clients could become standard before every sexual encounter.
In the meantime, sex-workers like Price, are living off savings during the pandemic.
“Financially, I am feeling pressure,” said Jasmine of the Desert Rose brothel in Elko, “and I will definitely be at work as soon as we can open.” Imogen Steele, a sex worker, affiliated with the Sagebrush Ranch brothel outside of Carson City, said she feels like her only alternative if she can’t go back to her brothel soon, will be “shooting deer and making deer meat jerky to sell on the street.”
Barbara Brents, an expert on Nevada’s brothels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said anti-brothel organizations would try to seize this moment to enforce stricter government rules on the industry, which could force brothels to stay closed for a much longer period.
Like the brothel industry, casinos are also struggling to survive as they prepare to adapt to a post-corona world.
So when things do reopen, who in their right mind will have sex with a stranger at a brothel then go gamble at a Vegas casino?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 21:05 - Is This The End Of The LNG Boom?
Is This The End Of The LNG Boom?
Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
The glut of natural gas could lead to more cancelled LNG exports in the next few months.
“It is clear that yes we face today people talk lot about the oil market, but the gas markets are suffering a lot,” the CEO of Total SA, Patrick Pouyanne, told investors and analysts on an earnings call on Tuesday.
“We are on the way to, I would say, cancel some of the of the LNG tankers during summer time in order to limit some losses.”
Global LNG supply is expected to rise to 380 million tonnes in 2020, up 17 Mt from a year earlier, according to data from Rystad Energy. However, demand will rise by a relatively modest 6 Mt, putting total demand at 359 Mt for the year.
Two obvious things stand out from those numbers.
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There was an oversupply problem heading into 2020, even before taking the global pandemic and economic downturn into account.
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Second, the supply overhang will be made worse this year as new additions exceed demand growth.
The market can often digest excess gas, either by burning more for electricity or putting more in storage.
“But in 2020, when ample LNG supply is coupled with demand destruction, prices have already hit record lows and storages have already filled faster than usual. Production shut-ins are becoming a realistic possibility,” Rystad Energy said.
Europe has often soaked up excess cargoes, but storage is much higher than usual, leaving little room for extra shipments. That has LNG prices in the Netherlands (a key price marker for Europe) trading below $2/MMBtu. A recent report found that the economics of the LNG market are “imploding.”
“European storage could reach its limit and LNG cargoes with deliveries in the summer months are at risk of being canceled,” Rystad said.
The problem is similar in the U.S. – tepid demand and high inventories. Natural gas prices in the U.S. have also traded below $2/MMBtu for much of 2020, although prices have edged up recently. A depressed economy and weak prices have walloped coal, which is now generating less electricity in the U.S. than renewable energy.
At least 20 LNG cargoes have already been cancelled, according to an April 22 report from Reuters.
“[T]hese cargos are unlikely to get placed by other entities since export economics are so far out of the money,” Bank of America said.
“Although earlier than we expected, we are not surprised that US LNG exports are getting cancelled, and expect more cargos get cancelled in subsequent months.”
At the same time, the depressed market will surely delay or cancel final investment decisions in new LNG export projects.
“Due to the low LNG prices in 2019, and into 2020 amid a global LNG supply surplus and uncertainties in the trade environment, some of the proposed projects are seeing slower progress towards FID,” a recent report from the International Gas Union warned.
But gas bulls have some factors working in their favor.
U.S. gas production actually began declining late last year after peaking in November. At first, Appalachian gas drillers were hurting from low prices, made worse by the associated gas boom in the Permian. But the pandemic and meltdown in the oil market has killed off the gusher of gas from the Permian, which could accelerate the tightening of the gas market. “Oil might unintentionally bail out the global gas market this summer,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report.
Associated gas production could by 0.6 bcf/d by July simply from the recent oil drilling cutbacks. But the actual decline will likely be larger as more curtailments are announced, Bank of America said. “Sluggish oil activity might make natural gas great again!” the bank said, before cautioning that future natural gas prices are “at the mercy of oil prices.” Bank of America forecasts prices for gas in 2021 at $2.75/MMBtu.
Goldman Sachs is more bullish, forecasting gas prices to rise sharply to $3.50/MMBtu by next winter.
That isn’t great news for LNG exporters in the U.S., however. Higher priced U.S. gas means there is little room to ship it overseas, where prices remain depressed.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 20:45 -
- Elon Musk Says He's "Not The Biggest Fan" Of Warren Buffett
Elon Musk Says He’s “Not The Biggest Fan” Of Warren Buffett
Elon Musk took to the Joe Rogan Podcast for a second time in a recording that was released this week, shortly after the birth of his child. The array of topics covered included Elon’s new child, artificial intelligence, why Elon decided to sell all of his belongings (“possessions kind of weigh you down”), Neuralink, SpaceX, the Tesla Roadster, Covid-19 and dieting, among other things.
But when the topic turned to business, reopening the economy and billionaires, it then that Musk voiced his disapproval for Warren Buffett. And why wouldn’t Musk disapprove of Buffett? Aside from Buffett being a well-known name synonymous with value investing that refuses to own Tesla stock or seemingly make any profoundly positive comments any of Elon’s ventures, the two also have totally different management styles.
Buffett has a reputation of being thoughtful, patient and seeking to invest in entities that can generate cash and earnings consistently. Musk is brash, acts quickly out of emotion and has a history of burning billions of dollars in other people’s capital.
Perhaps that’s why Musk, while talking about capital allocation on the podcast, said of Buffett:
“So when you take Warren Buffett for example, and to be totally frank I’m not his biggest fan, he does a lot of capital allocation. He reads a lot of annual reports of companies, all the accounts, and it’s pretty boring honestly. What he’s trying to figure out is ‘does Coke or Pepsi deserve more capital.”
Recall, Buffett was asked about Musk in late April and said: “Well, I think you’re trying to bait me a little bit. He’s done some remarkable things.” When asked if he would invest in Tesla, Buffett simply replied: “No.”
But now, who knows? Maybe the comment will inadvertently inspire Buffett to pick up and read a “boring” annual report of Tesla’s. We think he’d be simply amazed by what he finds.
Musk’s comments, along with the rest of his underwhelming podcast with Joe Rogan, can be seen here:
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 20:25 - NY Times Accused Of Ripping Off Pulitzer Prize-Winning Stories From Russian Journalists For 2nd Time
NY Times Accused Of Ripping Off Pulitzer Prize-Winning Stories From Russian Journalists For 2nd Time
Authored by Ben Norton via TheGrayZone.com,
The New York Times has been accused for a second time of stealing major scoops from Russian journalists. One of those stories won the Times a Pulitzer Prize this May.
The journalists who have accused the Times of taking their work without credit also happen to be the same liberal media crusaders against Vladimir Putin that Western correspondents at the Times and other mainstream outlets have cast as persecuted heroes.
The Pulitzer Prize Board is comprised of a who’s who of media aristocrats and Ivy League bigwigs. Given the elite backgrounds of the judges, it is hardly a surprise that they rewarded reporting reinforcing the narrative of the new US Cold War against official enemies like Russia and China.
Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times correspondent who has since become a critic of US foreign policy, noted that the three finalists in the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting “were one story about how evil Russia is and two about how evil China is. These choices encourage reporters to write stories that reinforce rather than question Washington’s foreign-policy narrative.”
The finalists nominated in this category were Reuters and the New York Times for two separate sets of stories.
The US newspaper of record ended up winning the 2020 award in international reporting, for what the Pulitzer jury described as “a set of enthralling stories, reported at great risk, exposing the predations of Vladimir Putin’s regime.”
The 3 finalists in the #PulitzerPrize2020 “international reporting” category were one story about how evil #Russia is and two about how evil #China is. These choices encourage reporters to write stories that reinforce rather than question Washington’s foreign-policy narative.
— Stephen Kinzer (@stephenkinzer) May 5, 2020
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The Times was nominated again as a finalist for what the jury called its “gripping accounts that disclosed China’s top-secret efforts to repress millions of Muslims through a system of labor camps, brutality and surveillance.”
The staff of Reuters was selected as the third finalist for its reporting in support of anti-China protesters in Hong Kong. (The photography staff of Reuters ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for the same coverage.)
Among the five members of the Pulitzer jury who selected these finalists was Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the neoliberal magazine The Atlantic and a former volunteer in the Israeli army who worked as a guard at a prison camp where Palestinians who rose up in the First Intifada were interned.
Joining Goldberg on the jury was Susan Chira, a former New York Times editor.
While this elite Pulitzer jury praised the New York Times for “at great risk, exposing the predations of Vladimir Putin’s regime,” it is not exactly clear what that “risk” is supposed to entail – because the major US newspaper appears to have stolen at least part of its reporting from Russian journalists.
I’m proud and humbled to share a Pulitzer Prize with @ddknyt, @dionnesearcey, as well as @malachybrowne and his visual investigation wizards for our reporting on Russia’s shadow wars. https://t.co/yczpVAw1QW
— Michael Schwirtz (@mschwirtz) May 4, 2020
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On May 4, journalist Roman Badanin published a Facebook post accusing the Times of ripping off a story he had released months before without credit. Badanin is the founder and editor-in-chief of the liberal anti-Putin news website Proekt, known as The Project in English.
“I have no illusions about the real role of Russian journalism in the world, but I have to note: the two The New York Times’s investigations, for which this honored newspaper won the Pulitzer prize yesterday, repeat the findings of The Project’s articles published a few months before,” Badanin wrote on Facebook.
“I would also like to note that the winners did not put a single link to the English version of our article, even when, for example, 8 months after The Project, they told about the activities of Eugene Prigozhin’s emissaries in Madagascar,” he added.
Badanin linked to an article he published, both in Russian and English, back in March 2019 titled “Master and Chef: How Evgeny Prigozhin led the Russian offensive in Africa.” The story details how the businessman Evgenу Prigozhin, who is sanctioned by the US government, has been promoting business opportunities in Africa. The piece focuses specifically on Madagascar, where Russia also has a military agreement.
This report is eerily similar to a report published by the New York Times eight months later, in November, titled “How Russia Meddles Abroad for Profit: Cash, Trolls and a Cult Leader.” This story, which was filed in Madagascar, does not once link to or credit Proekt’s original reporting.
Another anti-Putin Russian news website, Meduza, published an article on May 7 drawing attention to these allegations, titled “‘Fuck the Pulitzer — I just want a hyperlink’: Russian journalists say ‘The New York Times’ should have acknowledged their investigative work in the newspaper’s award-winning reports about the Putin regime’s ‘predations.’”
Meduza interviewed Badanin, who said the New York Times “report about Madagascar from November 2019 repeats all the main and even secondary conclusions from our reporting about Madagascar and Africa generally between March and April last year.”
While Badanin did not outright accuse the Times of plagiarism, he was frustrated that “nowhere in the story did they acknowledge that we’d already reported on this topic,” and said it was either a “professional issue” or an “ethical problem.”
A New York Times spokesperson denied that Proekt’s reporting was used in any way. And the Times reporter who authored this report from Madagascar, Michael Schwirtz, responded dismissively to the accusations in a Twitter thread full of sarcastic quips.
Another anti-Putin Russian activist accuses the New York Times of lifting his reporting
Michael Schwirtz authored another New York Times article in December that was cited by the Pulitzer jury for the 2020 prize. This piece, “How a Poisoning in Bulgaria Exposed Russian Assassins in Europe,” is also suspiciously similar to reporting published before by yet another anti-Putin website, called The Insider.
The Insider is edited by the Western-backed, diehard anti-Putin activist Roman Dobrokhotov. In response to Schwirtz’s Twitter thread, Dobrohotov angrily asked why The Insider’s reports were not credited as well. Schwirtz denied having used information from the previous stories.
Schwirtz’s Twitter thread tagged four Russian accounts: Proekt, The Insider, Dobrokhotov, and Yasha Levine, the last of whom is an occasional contributor to The Grayzone and the author of “Surveillance Valley.”
Time to learn the hard truth: The New York Times — like the Empire it represents — doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’ll take whatever it wants, give nothing in return, and suffer no consequences. And who’ll believe you Russians anyway? https://t.co/V1YtZ7K6OB
— Yasha Levine (@yashalevine) May 7, 2020
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Levine reflected on the scandal writing,
“Time to learn the hard truth: The New York Times — like the Empire it represents — doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’ll take whatever it wants, give nothing in return, and suffer no consequences. And who’ll believe you Russians anyway?”
“The reverence with which liberal Russian journalists have treated the New York Times has always been baffling to me,” Levine continued. “But that’s what you get when you’re a colonial subject like Russia. You fetishize the master. That reverence is starting to wear off, but it’s still there.”
New York Times was also accused of stealing Russian journalists’ reporting back in 2017
This is not even the first time that the US newspaper of record has been accused of stealing reporting from Russian journalists.
Back in 2017, the New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for its reports on “Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Russia’s power abroad.”
At the time, journalists from the anti-Putin website Meduza accused the Times of ripping off their reporting. The website Global Voices highlighted the controversy, in an article titled “Russian Journalists Say One of NYT’s Pulitzer-Winning Stories Was Stolen.”
Meduza reported Daniil Turovsky accused New York Times Moscow correspondent Andrew E. Kramer of lifting his reporting. Kramer actually took the time to respond in a Facebook comment, acknowledging that his report was based on the Russian journalist’s.
“Daniil, I spoke with you while preparing this article and explained that I intended to follow in the footsteps of your fine work, that I would credit Meduza, as I did, and thanked you for your help,” Kramer said.
This did not satisfy Meduza, which also reminded readers in its latest 2020 article that the Times had ripped off its 2017 reporting.
The NYT times has been honored with a Pulitzer Prize for “exposing the predations of Vladimir Putin’s regime” in 2019, but several top investigative journalists in Russia say the U.S. newspaper ignored their groundbreaking work in this area — again. https://t.co/R4WZdqHDp4
— Meduza in English (@meduza_en) May 7, 2020
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The Grayzone has also experienced this kind of shameless journalistic theft. In March 2019, the New York Times released a report acknowledging that the so-called “humanitarian aid” convoy that the US government tried to ram across the Venezuelan border in a February coup attempt had been set on fire not by government forces, but rather Washington-backed right-wing opposition hooligans.
At the time of this February 23 putsch attempt, the Times had initially joined US politicians like Senator Marco Rubio and the majority of the corporate media in blaming Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal, who was reporting in Venezuela, published a report showing that all of the available evidence pointed to the opposition being responsible.
When the Times finally admitted this fact weeks later, it made no mention whatsoever of Blumenthal’s reporting. Glenn Greenwald was the only high-profile journalist to credit Blumenthal and The Grayzone.
New York Times had ironically heroized these Russian journalists before stealing their reporting
Further compounding this staggering hypocrisy is the fact that the New York Times has in fact published numerous articles lionizing these anti-Putin Russian journalists, while simultaneously ripping off their work.
Proekt founder and editor Roman Badanin is not some kind of crypto pro-Kremlin activist – far from it. He has spent years working within mainstream outlets, and was previously the editor-in-chief of the decidedly anti-Putin Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
Badanin does friendly interviews with US-based neoconservative think tanks like the Free Russia Foundation, a right-wing anti-Putin lobbying group that appointed regime-changer Michael Weiss as its director for special investigations.
In an interview conducted by Valeria Jegisman, a neoconservative anti-Russian activist who worked as a spokesperson for the government of Estonia and now works at the US government’s propaganda arm Voice of America, group accused the Kremlin of spreading false information, claiming “Russia will continue its disinformation tactics.”
Badanin also called for “the West” to “support independent media projects with non-profit funding,” stating clearly: “I think that what the West can do is to continue to support independent media in the most transparent and clear way, and to stop being afraid of the million tricks that the Russian authorities come up with to force the West to abandon these investments.”
The Russian journalist’s pro-Western perspective has been rewarded. Badanin was honored by the European Press Prize, a program backed by Western governments and the top corporate media outlets in Europe, particularly The Guardian and Reuters.
Badanin was also given a Stanford John S. Knight international fellowship in journalism. Stanford University has established itself as an outpost for Russian pro-Western liberals, and its journalist fellowship program provides institutional support for dissidents in countries targeted by Washington for regime change.
Badanin’s extensive links to Western regime-change institutions should not come as a surprise to the New York Times; it has in fact honored him in numerous articles.
In 2017, the Times published an entire article framed around Badanin. Reporter Jim Rutenberg explained, “I wanted to better understand President Trump’s America… So I went to Russia.”
In Moscow, Rutenberg met with Badanin at the headquarters of the anti-Putin station TV Rain, which he described as a “warehouse complex here, populated by young people with beards, tattoos, piercings and colored hair. (Brooklyn hipster imperialism knows no bounds.)”
While praising Badanin and TV Rain, the Times also noted that the channel published a poll suggesting that the Soviet Union “should have abandoned Leningrad to the Nazis to save lives.”
The Times even featured Badanin prominently in the header image of the story — just two years before the same newspaper would go on to rip off his reporting.
The New York Times also reported on Roman Badanin in 2016 and 2011. It is abundantly clear the newspaper knew who he was.
The Gray Lady’s willingness to snatch Badanin’s reporting shows how little respect newspapers like the New York Times actually have for the anti-Putin journalists they claim to lionize. For the jet-setting correspondents of Western corporate media outlets, liberal Russian reporters are just tools to advance their own ambitions.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 20:05 - Daily Briefing – May 8, 2020
Daily Briefing – May 8, 2020
Ash Bennington hosts Real Vision’s Roger Hirst. Today, Bennington and Hirst explore the relationship between fundamental and technical analysis in the context of the Coronavirus crisis. The pair also discuss the role of the European Central Bank in light of the recent landmark decision by the German constitutional court.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 19:52 - "I'd Send In The Army For An Invasion": Trump Addresses Botched "Little" Venezuela Raid On FOX
“I’d Send In The Army For An Invasion”: Trump Addresses Botched “Little” Venezuela Raid On FOX
President Trump on Friday addressed in greater detail the bizarre events of Sunday and Monday which witnessed two American ex-special forces soldiers attempt to lead a small ‘invasion’ force of Venezuelan defectors and mercenaries into the country. The plot was foiled the minute they came ashore on fishing boats, leading to a propaganda victory for Nicolas Maduro, as he later paraded the American contractors in front of state TV cameras throughout the week.
Trump called into Fox & Friends and had some candid remarks, saying “If I wanted to go into Venezuela I wouldn’t make a secret about it.” He again denied that he or the US government had anything to do with it, calling it “rogue”, and insisting that if it were an officially sanctioned op, it would have certainly been a proper “invasion” with an “army”.
“If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldn’t make a secret about it. I wouldn’t send a small little group, it’d be called an Army,” Trump said.
Trump denies involvement in a failed operation to overthrow Maduro in Venezuela, adds, “If we ever did anything with Venezuela it wouldn’t be that way. It’d be slightly different. It’d be called an invasion.” pic.twitter.com/y2YIgaT6x0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 8, 2020
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“If we ever did anything with Venezuela, it wouldn’t be that way. It’d be slightly different. It’d be called an invasion,” the president asserted.
“It was’t led by General George Washington obviously. This wasn’t a good attack. I think they were caught before they ever hit land. I know nothing about it,” he added.
This after Maduro along with top Caracas officials have claimed to be in possession of “evidence” Trump as well as Colombian leaders ordered the failed raid, intended to spark a mass uprising eventually leading to the overthrow and US capture of the socialist leader.
Two days ago 34-year old captured American Luke Denman was made to issue a “confession” broadcast on Venezuelan television wherein he claimed the coup plot was ordered by President Trump. Likely this is the “evidence” to which Maduro has been referring.
Image source: Miraflores Palace presidential press office/AP. Maduro has also presented the personal documents and passports of Americans Airan Berry and Luke Denman in an online news conference in Caracas Wednesday.
The group of a least a dozen men, who were trained by Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp, are still in Venezuelan custody, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier said the US is working to get the Americans back.
Video “confession” of Luke Denman wherin he says Trump ordered the covert operation to “secure” Caracas and oust Maduro:
The Pentagon and State Department have formally denied involvement:
“As President Trump and [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper said, the United States government was not involved in recent events in Venezuela. There is a major disinformation campaign underway by the Maduro regime, making it difficult to separate facts from propaganda,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News late Tuesday.
“We are making efforts to learn more, including about the activities of two U.S. Citizens who are reportedly in the custody of the former regime, as well as Mr. Goudreau.”
US authorities are said to be investigating Silvercorp, the apparently ‘rogue’ operation, and its founder and head, ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau – who has been speaking to reporters from Florida and confirmed being behind the failed and somewhat embarrassing operation.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 19:45 - Surviving 2020, Part 3: Plans A, B, And C
Surviving 2020, Part 3: Plans A, B, And C
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Readers ask for specific recommendations for successfully navigating the post-credit/speculative-bubble era and I try to do so while explaining the impossibility of the task.
As the bogus prosperity economy built on exponential growth of debt implodes, we all seek ways to protect ourselves, our families and our worldly assets. There are any number of websites, subscription services and books which offer two basic “practical recommendations:”
1. Buy gold (and/or silver) and don’t worry about timing the market as everything else will become worthless.
2. Establish a heavily armed and well-supplied hideaway before everything implodes.
My problem with these suggestions is that they are predicated on a decisive “end of the world as we know it” collapse of civilization.
While I am alive to the possibility of this cataclysm, an analysis of the many feedback loops which will slow or counteract such a decisive collapse suggests other alternatives are even more likely: my term for the slow, uneven decline of the credit/speculative-bubble era is devolution.
I cover feedback loops, historical cycles and why a lengthy devolution is as least as likely a scenario as abrupt collapse in my book Survival+ (free downloadable version is linked below).
In other words, I do not see planning for eventualities as “either/or.” I look at it in terms of three levels:
Plan A: dealing with devolution: government services are cut back, prices for essentials rise over time, fulltime paid jobs become scarce, the State (all levels of government) becomes increasingly repressive as it pursues “theft by other means,” i.e. the stripmining of private assets to feed its own fiefdoms and Elites; most assets fall in purchasing power (value) as the system’s financial props erode.
Plan B: When things become rationed/unavailable, services become sporadic, pensions stop being paid in full, spontaneous homeless encampments arise in heretofore “nice” areas, cities go bankrupt, small businesses go underground to survive the ever-higher taxes being levied on the few remaining productive enterprises, etc.
Plan C: if things fall apart: either move to communities where you or your family have roots (tough luck for all the millions of rootless Americans shifted around by corporate “relocations” the past 50 years) or turn to your neighborhood, town, friends, family, church and other social networks for cooperative strength.
The problem with putting all your resources into a “bug-out” strategy (Plan C) is that it might not come to pass, in which case you’ve misallocated your assets.
This is why I focus Survival+ on structuring a prosperity which will work on all levels. This prosperity has five basic parts:
1. Prepare for hybrid work by developing multiple skillsets, interests and contacts and understand that being productive and reciprocal is more important than getting paid (as I put it: “to take care of Number One, first take care of numbers 2 through 9.”)
2. Develop sustainable, overlapping social networks (self-organizing networks) in which you have more than one place to interact with the same person, i.e. at church or in the neighborhood. I call these non-State, voluntary networks transparent non-privileged parallel structures because they are independent of the State and Monopoly/Predatory Capital Elites.
3. Cut expenses to the bone so you no longer need a large income to “survive.” Consider lowering your taxable income by working less so you’re no longer working so hard just to pay taxes generated by high incomes. (Thanks to correspondent Stephen A. for noting that barter that results in gains is generally taxable. As always, check with the I.R.S. or a licensed tax advisor to confirm what income is taxable/nontaxable.)
4. Reach a new understanding of “prosperity”: health and social wealth are the “treasures” which money cannot buy. Yes, we all need some money, and preserving/growing whatever capital you do have will be difficult and time-consuming. There is no easy “one size fits all” solution.
5. Understand the importance and strength in building and maintaining personal integrity, the one asset we each control in totality and that no one can take from us. All reciprocal networks (financial, political, religious or social) depend entirely on trust, and the bedrock of trust is complete personal integrity.
Much of the devolution we now face is a direct result of the degradation of integrity. This moral/ethical component of financial implosion is glossed over by the corporate media because the Power Elites have implicitly undermined integrity and morality as a means of soldifying their control of the media and of the national income.
Yes, I know this all sounds wonderful, but how do you do it in real life? Well, life is and always has been a do-it-yourself affair. With 200 million+ employable people in the nation, what advice or recommendations can I possibly give to any one individual, when only that person knows their own interests, strengths and potential customers, clients, allies, competitors and mentors?
Let’s start with one simple truth: nobody knows the future. Thus everything we discuss now is contingent on a number of unpredictable interactions. To base our planning on one scenario is to risk misallocating our scarce assets and resources.
Now let’s hear from two readers and then I’ll pick up the narrative.
Correspondent Mac posed this question–one which millions of other citizens should also be interested in:
As a 56-year old watching his company lay off more and more… are there more books/blogs that give advice/information on post-credit/speculative-bubble economy livelihood?
Reader Marc M.W. offered this insightful critique of general advice:
If I may be permitted to make a subjective (and friendly constructive) comment about your essays in general: I am having somewhat the same problem that I have with all such writings by assorted authors: superb analysis of what’s wrong with the current American situation, but not much detail on what individuals can DO about it–money, job, choice of place to live–in arranging one’s life for a future likely to be very different from both the present and the past half-century.
So I get to the end of my David Korten (“The Great Turning”) or my Jim Kunstler (“The Long Emergency”) and I find a lot of GENERALITIES about “building a fine-grained, earth-centered, decentralized and localized community,” and I have difficulty translating that into CONCRETE actions in our personal lives. (That situation is aggravated by the fact that my wife and I are in a sprawly, car-centered Sunbelt place where she loves her job but where we might not otherwise have chosen to live–but the need to translate glittering generalities about the future into concrete actions would exist no matter where we lived.) . . .
It is particularly difficult to decide what to DO to prepare for the future we see, when so few other people around us see it. We feel quite alone. Most of the people we know have a definite interest in living an ethical and environmentally less damaging life, but they are still focused on recycling, fair trade coffee, and finding a way to run cars and the suburban lifestyle on something other than gasoline.
Talk to them about “a fine-grained, earth-centered, decentralized and localized community,” or talk to them about co-housing or some sort of mutually cooperative/supportive living arrangement intentionally chosen by a group of people, and they look at you as if you have just spoken in some obscure foreign language. . . .
We also have trouble figuring out what to do with our MONEY for this world ahead, as the day will come when we stop working (at least for regular wages), so exactly what kind of “retirement” future are we supposed to be preparing for, and what are we to do with our savings in the PRESENT if saving money is still a good idea at all but the “consensus trance” assumptions about the FUTURE are about to become “inoperative”? . . .
We think of moving to other places–but don’t know how to evaluate them in terms of a future which is just now beginning to form. Our current fallback definition of such a place is: “university town with Amtrak service, good local public transit and/or walkability/bike-ability, relatively benign climate not dependent on oil for household heating, and good agricultural land with locally selling growers of food (for humans, not herd animals) nearby.
Would certainly appreciate more online commentary from persons as perceptive as yourself about what people should DO to position themselves for the economy and living patterns appearing on the horizon. In other words, somewhat less analysis of “what is” and somewhat more “how to” guidance on positioning one’s own life for it.
Reasonable questions/suggestions: thank you, Mac and Marc.
Here are some concrete suggestions which flow directly from the Survival+ framework.
1. Join existing networks based on your interests and locale. A church can be an amazing organization, and if you find the right church, the one where you feel comfortable with the congregation, the pastor/minister/priest, it is a rewarding experience.
Yes, people are still petty and annoying, but there are strengths which cannot be duplicated on one’s own.
It is possible to start your own networks of like-minded people, but it’s a lot easier to join an existing one. Most community groups (recycling, conservation, hunters, religious, political action, education, etc.) are desperate for people willing to contribute some time/energy.
My own view is that history suggests that any environment, be it violent inner-city ghetto or near-wilderness, is more survivable if you have multiple layers of social reciprocity working for you.
2. Your neighbors/neighborhood are already a community. You don’t have to agree with their politics or lifestyle, but you already share an interest in keeping the street safe and attractive.
Now here’s the thing that’s completely, utterly lost on the Internet. Any fool can diss someone else and insult them on the Web because it’s anonymous. Real life is not anonymous.
In a real community (something many suburban Americans may never have experienced, sadly), you can’t make “enemies” because you’re going to see that person on your street, in your church/synagogue/temple, and in the grocery store–or you’ll see their brother, sister, husband, kids, etc. These multiple layers of interaction make it too risky to alienate someone over some petty difference.
(Plus in real life, someone who gets insulted might just beat the living heck out of the smartass. Word associations: “having manners,” and “live and let live because it’s not worth alienating someone.”)
3. If there really is no group or people who you can relate to, then by all means find a locale with people who have similar interests and are rooted. Rootless zombies who move every two years and who spend their time being “entertained” in the Cone of Silence in their McMansion will have little to offer in the way of reciprocity until they find they are in need themselves.
But as the Chinese saying goes, “If you wait until you’re thirsty, it’s too late to dig a well.”
4. I am a believer in the Peach Pie strategy. When we have a bounty of peaches, we make dozens of pies and share them with neighbors, friends, and customers/clients. We don’t expect anything back, but the gesture is appreciated. Networks get built by someone offering something freely. Our corrosive environment of Predatory Capitalism has created a culture of “first I get mine” rather than “what can I do for you?”
It’s not being “generous”–it’s building a base for reciprocity, which is the foundation of sustainable networks/communities.
In the book, I use the Hawaii-based organization called a Kumiai as an example.
5. OK, work/jobs. I anticipate the continuing erosion of fulltime paid work. The “factory model” of employment (the monolithic State or Corporation as employer) will be replaced by hybrid work which is an adaptable, flexible mix of paid and unpaid work, private enterprise, community work, creative endeavors, etc.
In hybrid work, what’s important is being productive and building experiential capital. The other goal is to develop multiple sources of income so you’re no longer dependent on one skillset (or one network/business).
I’m going to do a brief brain-dump here on hybrid work. Yes, I speak from experience because I’ve been pursuing the hybrid work model for several decades, even before I understood the concept. Many of you have done so, too.
The point of hybrid work is to reduce the vulnerability created by relying on one source of income or skillset. (Nowadays this is called “antifragile.”) The goal is adaptable, dynamic stability, and relying on one job/skillset is like sitting on an inverted pyramid: it’s inherently unstable. So the goal is to flip the pyramid over and have a base of multiple income streams/interests/skills.
No one can parse out another’s interests or talents. That’s up to you to figure out.
We do have one clue: we are what we do every day.
If you think you like doing some sort of work, but you never seem to have the time to pursue it, maybe you like the idea of the work more than the actual work.
I would caution anyone who is confident that the “gummit” (State) will never fold up/stop paying its employees/beneficiaries. As I say in the book, the State has various means to evade its obligations.
For instance, you might receive your $4,000/month pension as “promised,” but then a loaf of bread will cost $2,000. That’s probably not what you thought was “promised,” but strictly speaking, the State will have met its obligation to you.
Important point: skillsets and networks cannot be depreciated like money. They cannot be stolen.
As I also explain in Survival+, I am a fan of gold/silver for the simple reason they cannot go to zero value like stocks, bonds, derivatives, and paper money.
But I also point out that gold is a capital trap. It is not a productive investment like digging a well or installing a solar panel. I submit that controlling as much of the FEW (food, energy, water) assets as possible has some intrinsic value which gold does not have. Yes, gold might buy those resources in the future, but that’s a different proposition than saying gold will not go to zero. The relative price of various assets comes into play, and since we can’t know future relative prices, then it behooves us to spread our bets and to trade in and out of assets as they rise to absurd valuations and then fall to the mean.
In other words, since the future is unknown, owning a mix of non-correlated productive assets offers better probabilities for dynamic stability.
It would be easier for all of us if the “checklist” was as easy as, say, this:
1. buy and secure gold
2. learn to make decent beer
Now these are perfectly good ideas for the right person, and they are certainly a good backstop, combining a mix of skillset capital, means of exchange (gold and beer), store of value (gold) and an instant network (“anyone want a taste of my homebrew beer?” Hint: it must be good beer to be effective.)
But it isn’t that easy, because we’re each a unique mix of interests, talents, tropisms, etc.
Last important point. Some things cannot be outsourced to distant lands. These include most medical care, fitness, cooking, gardening/yardwork, childcare, caring for the elderly, fixing actual physical objects and software /networks for local enterprises, repairing appliances, installing solar panels on your house, selling at the farmers market, making sales contacts in your town/city, and having a good time.
As a result, finding some overlap of your own interests and the above enduring needs of human communities might suggest some opportunities for hybrid work and new skillsets/experiential capital to acquire.
The best way to learn is by doing with others–a mentor, a group, a friend. The best way to get paid for work is to start out offering to do it free, to show you can do it and that you’re trustworthy.
This is not a tidy checklist but then life is not tidy, and the future will likely be even more untidy than the present.
These concepts are from my book Survival+.
A completely free abridged version of the book is available (85,300 words) in PDF: free version of Survival+ If you decide afterward to buy the book to put a few bucks in my pocket–thank you.
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My recent books:
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).
The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)
Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).
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If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 19:25 - Twitter Defends China After State Department Identifies Coronavirus Propaganda Network
Twitter Defends China After State Department Identifies Coronavirus Propaganda Network
Twitter is refuting claims from the US State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which found that it was “highly probable” that the Chinese government is behind networks of Twitter accounts spewing disinformation related to COVID-19.
Illustration: Soohee Cho/The Intercept, Getty Images GEC head Lea Gabrielle said that the US “has uncovered a new network of inauthentic Twitter accounts, which we assess were created with the intent to amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation,” according to CNN.
After reviewing 5,000 of 250,000 accounts flagged by the State Department, however, Twitter said the accounts belong to government entities, nongovernmental organizations, and journalists – which, we would point out, are frequent mouthpieces for the Chinese Communist Party.
Twitter – which went on a Russian account-killing spree following pressure from congressional Democrats during the Mueller investigation – doesn’t see it that way.
Yet in March, an extensive investigation by ProPublica found that China has built a massive Twitter propaganda network and is using it to influence the coronavirus narrative.
Since August 2019, ProPublica has tracked more than 10,000 suspected fake Twitter accounts involved in a coordinated influence campaign with ties to the Chinese government. Among those are the hacked accounts of users from around the world that now post propaganda and disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, the Hong Kong protests and other topics of state interest.
…
Our examination of an interlocking group of accounts within our data linked the effort to OneSight (Beijing) Technology Ltd., a Beijing-based internet marketing company. OneSight, records show, held a contract to boost the Twitter following of China News Service, the country’s second-largest state-owned news agency.
…
Others accounts we found have taken a darker turn in response to the pandemic, using it as a vehicle for disinformation and attacks on Beijing’s usual political opponents.
“We will completely wipe out the belligerent rioters, just like the coronavirus!” declared a user who called herself Melinda Butler. Her post slammed Joshua Wong, a leader of the Hong Kong protests who spoke out in support of a medical workers’ strike in early February. Another post by Butler called on the Hong Kong Hospital Authority to “clean out” the striking “black medical workers,” alongside a graphic accusing protestors of wanting a “color revolution” in Hong Kong. –ProPublica
CCP-linked Twitter propaganda uncovered by ProPublica According to the report, “the GEC provided Twitter with a small sample of the overall dataset that included nearly 250,000 accounts,” adding that it “was not surprising that there are authentic accounts in any sample.”
“Our overall analysis is based on a confluence of factors that drive our assessment, which we stand by.”
The GEC’s latest assertions come as China has faced serious criticism over its handling of the outbreak which originated in country. The State Department has led an aggressive campaign aimed at calling out Beijing for a lack of transparency and pushing disinformation.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly accused China of withholding key information about the virus, particularly in its early stages, and has claimed without public evidence that it may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan.
“It is critical that like-minded countries and free societies call out Beijing’s use of disinformation and propaganda during this crisis to prevent these behaviors becoming the norm for Beijing,” Gabrielle told CNN. –CNN
Of course, Twitter also ignored the GEC when they claimed in February that Russian accounts were spreading coronavirus disinformation.
“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the government agencies and build on our joint efforts to address a shared threat. Twitter will continue its zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and any other attempts to undermine the integrity of our service,” said Twitter on Friday. “When we identify information operation campaigns that we can reliably attribute to state-backed activity — either domestic or foreign-led — we disclose them to the public.”
According to the report, the GEC determined the accounts were linked to Chinese state-run propaganda due to their “characteristics, content and behavior,” noting that they examine whether the “accounts are being created during and doing most of their activity during Beijing business hours.”
“We also assess that this is a coordinated and interconnected effort. Nearly every diplomatic account shares at least one follower with every other account, with some instances of diplomatic accounts sharing more than 1,000 followers,” added Gabrielle – who also said that “a significant portion of these ‘follower accounts’ are newly created – and align with China’s push to convince various global audiences of their global leadership.”
“Additionally, these accounts are pushing pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) narratives – praising China’s fight against the virus, claims that China promptly reported the outbreak to WHO, and accusations the Western media of providing bad coverage of China.”
Twitter fired back, saying that some of the accounts provided by the State Department actually criticized the CCP.
Perhaps their accounts will be banned?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 19:05 - Suspicion And Skepticism Are Vaccines For Deception
Suspicion And Skepticism Are Vaccines For Deception
Authored by Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com,
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.“
– Voltaire
I once read a definition of psychological depression as a result of anger and fatigue. That seems about right. Personally, I’m sick of COVID-19 dominating the headlines and I definitely have inner rage at the magic spell that’s been cast over society. And it is a magic spell. Or an ill wind, if you prefer. Except tracking the source of a voodoo curse, or determining where a breeze began, might be easier than identifying the many variables of this planned-demic . Truly, the overwhelming information is difficult to process on any given day.
Last week, I read an article describing how COVID-19 is a hoax propagandized by the media and, a few minutes later, I watched a video of a survival expert (whom I very much respect) chastise those who are not taking COVID-19 seriously as a genuine health threat.
Then, I was informed of an acquaintance dying from coronavirus. I knew the man personally and the last time we spoke he was telling me about his new girlfriend. His death was deemed notable enough to have a write-up included into the COVID-19 series of a national newspaper; and that’s how I learned he died – when someone sent me the link. I’ll also say he was in his seventies and his blood pressure was so high his eyes were constantly bloodshot.
So did he die with COVID-19 or from COVID-19? Yes, he did.
Indeed, lots of variables to consider. And it’s tricky because health policies are a matter of public concern AND private responsibility. It’s why considering the variables requires balance and common sense. Yet, unsurprisingly, it’s become obvious COVID-19 has been politicized by some and even commandeered by others for purposes of power consolidation and achieving authoritarian goals.
Certainly, the virus doesn’t need to be devastatingly lethal in order to accomplish the objectives of the globalists. At any given time, the ship of state progresses via (what I have designated as) the “Bulbous Bow of Confusion”, or, rather, competing narratives.
Two physicians who own five urgent care locations in Kern County California recently posted a viral YouTube video citing their own COVID-19 data and calling for an end to the draconian lockdowns. Their names are Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi and the data they compiled acted as a “resistance wave” to countermand the official narrative put forth by (as I’ve identified in past articles) the likes of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), The Gates Foundation, John Hopkins University, and UK’s The Guardian.
Yet, today, if you click on any previous articles where the doctors’ viral videos were once posted you will see they’ve been taken down; and even their other videos queued in the threads of the articles have been transitioned into dead links by our benefactors at YouTube.
Truly, censorship is the validation of ideas as the most powerful force on earth; because if you now search for the two doctors by name on YouTube, you will find a video stamped with the Washington Post logo describing “What Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi get wrong about coronavirus”.
Meanwhile, The Guardian, whose entire Global Development section is underwritten by the Gates Foundation, describes how scientists have found more evidence that Coronavirus can travel on air pollution particles.
Scary, huh?
Especially, when considering how another Gates Foundation subsidiary, the World Health Organization (WHO), has warned the worst of the virus is still ahead and that “people will need to get used to a new way of living”.
To be sure, the billionaires are committed. They can’t go back now and this is why they are on full offense in the narrative war. It means no expense will be spared in the media onslaught until every person in the world fears COVID-19 being spread from cats and farts. It’s also why various treatments are claimed to be ineffectiveand only the five innovations proposed by the New American King should be considered:
[Bill Gates] said the innovations needed to come in five areas: treatments, vaccines, testing, contact tracing, and policies for reopening the economy.
But what about Trump? He is still the U.S. President, right?
In past postings, I’ve exhaustively considered Trump as a possible “movie” or “reality TV show”. My article entitled “Personal Politics, Public Impeachment, Persuasion and Post-Apocalyptic Planning” also discussed how the Military Industrial Complex has NOT grown weaker in the decades since Eisenhower and Kennedy – and, in fact, cited the trend of its growing strength from Abe Lincoln through the creation of the Federal Reserve, and Woodrow Wilson, onward.
I’ve additionally speculated in previous writings President Trump as one of the following:
1.) The Real Deal – fighting the Dark Lords out of love of country
2.) Being used by the Dark Powers unwittingly
3.) A Judas Goat
At this point in time, it appears the possibility of # 1 is fading, if not having been completely debunked as of this writing.
So, given #’s 2 & 3 above, I’ve previously questioned if Trump was elected as a “bleeding of the brake lines” prior to the “big stop” (i.e. end of America).
Therefore, what if the Trump Reality TV Show® was meant to demonstrate the sheer power of “The Controllers” and their ability to convert the globe into One World under Communism? And, furthermore, what if the 2016 Presidential Election was staged to illustrate to all nations the futility of resistance?
Consider the waves that have crashed upon Trump’s shores over the past four years: Russiagate/Mueller, Ukrainian Impeachment, and, now, COVID-19. Each of these consecutive waves were increasingly consequential from a historical perspective.
Is the war to “drain-the-swamp” real? Because, if not, the battle lines have been made clear and the tech gods have cataloged our IP addresses.
Which brings us back to Bill Gates: His digital fingerprints are all over the COVID-19 virus because, in the years prior, Gates worked to strategically monopolize global health including research, governance, and reporting. In addition, his dirty hands have reached into online data, U.S. intelligence, mainstream media, the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, and Microsoft’s ID2020 digital ID initiative. Plus, the Gates Foundation has donated the most private money to the World Health Organization (WHO), subsidized the October 2019 “Event 201” pandemic exercise, and even sponsored an event that was labeled communist propaganda – the globally televised “Together at Home” elitist infomercial;
Since the United States recently suspended its payments to the WHO, the organization’s biggest contributor is now the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Another major contributor to the WHO is the GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation). Both of these organizations are also part of ID2020, an organization that is advocating for the use of vaccines to implement a global digital ID system using tattoos or microchips.
And just as the company Gates founded (Microsoft) recently released, and then recalled, a “luciferian” advertisement starring “spirit-cooking” priestess Marina Abramović…, the Gates’ World Health Organization (WHO) mandates have allowed “heroes” to arrest mothers on playgrounds in front of their children.
Honestly, it really does add an entirely fresh perspective on the words of Isaiah 5:20:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Now, paradoxically, a new bioluminescent vaccine is making headlines. If you can believe this… it’s called… “Luciferase” and it can store vaccination history through a new dye made available with MIT research funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Wow, that was fast, huh?
Or was it planned? And for those who would say it was planned, would you call them “conspiracy theorists”? But, seriously, is it really conspiracy if it’s all been published?
Because, over the decades, it has become quite evident that wealthy individuals, influential families, and powerful organizations and corporations have coopted nation-states in order to unite the globe. World War I delivered the League of Nations and World War II brought about the United Nations. Since then, the billionaire round-table groups have only grown more interconnected as Davos Men planned and the Bilderberg’s conspired.
The modern era has progressed by committee; and to the giant sucking sounds as predicted by former presidential candidate Ross Perot.
In 2010, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Business Network drafted a document entitled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” which outlined the following potential plans schemes through 2030: “Lock Step”, “Clever Together”, “Hack Attack”, and “Smart Scramble”.
The first link below is a 54-page (2.29 MB sized) PDF file. Even if the Bill Gates’ inspired MS Windows gives you a virus warning, just know the file can be viewed (or downloaded) with no issues. Or, if you would rather watch a one-hour, forty-two-minute video presentation, just click on link # 2 below:
1.) PDF FILE: Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development
2.) VIDEO (1:42:34): COVID – LOCKDOWN – GLOBAL BANKRUPTCY – the PLAN
Note that on page 18 of the PDF (#1 above), the “Lock Step” scenario describes a 2012 pandemic leading to a global economic collapse followed by oppressive authoritarian controls:
In 2012, the pandemic that the world had been anticipating for years finally hit. Unlike 2009’s H1N1, this new influenza strain — originating from wild geese — was extremely virulent and deadly. Even the most pandemic-prepared nations were quickly overwhelmed when the virus streaked around the world… The pandemic also had a deadly effect on economies: international mobility of both people and goods screeched to a halt, debilitating industries like tourism and breaking global supply chains. Even locally, normally bustling shops and office buildings sat empty for months, devoid of both employees and customers.
…. The United States’ initial policy of “strongly discouraging” citizens from flying proved deadly in its leniency, accelerating the spread of the virus not just within the U.S. but across borders. However, a few countries did fare better — China in particular. The Chinese government’s quick imposition and enforcement of mandatory quarantine for all citizens, as well as its instant and near-hermetic sealing off of all borders, saved millions of lives, stopping the spread of the virus far earlier than in other countries and enabling a swifter post-pandemic recovery.
China’s government was not the only one that took extreme measures to protect its citizens from risk and exposure. During the pandemic, national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets. Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck and even intensified. In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems — from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty — leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.
At first, the notion of a more controlled world gained wide acceptance and approval. Citizens willingly gave up some of their sovereignty — and their privacy — to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability. Citizens were more tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight, and national leaders had more latitude to impose order in the ways they saw fit. In developed countries, this heightened oversight took many forms: biometric IDs for all citizens, for example, and tighter regulation of key industries whose stability was deemed vital to national interests.
Sound familiar? Because this was the dialectic with which we were presented: “Herd Immunity®” (an Orwellian term befitting cattle) or “Continuous” COVID-19®. And what did American’s chose? They picked “continuous“, Alex, for $1,200 per U.S. citizen. And as we Flattened the Curve®, the CDC broadcasted concerns regarding second waves of coronaviruses as telescreens the world over warned of mutant strains of coronaviruses more contagious than the original.
Yes. Both Coronavirus®, and Big Brother, Incorporated have marched forward unencumbered.
But as people sheltered in their homes they saw “conservative” Never-Trumpers weaponize the ghost of Ronald Reagan against the Bad Orange Man® with a video entitled “Mourning in America” . It was too cute by half. Then, fortunately, as the world remained mystified by “covid toes”, the president tweeted back at the Never-Trump “losers” in the most ingenious and gratifying ways.
And Trump is just getting warmed up. No doubt his Zoom® debates with Biden are bound to be hilarious. Unless Whistleblowergate Part Deux is the silver-bullet that will stop the Bad Orange Man® once and for all?
(CNN) Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, formally filed an extensive whistleblower complaint Tuesday alleging his early warnings about the coronavirus were ignored and that his caution at a treatment favored by President Donald Trump led to his removal.
For the Democrats, the future looks “Bright”, no?
In my previous article entitled “On Used Cars, Haircuts, and Buyers Beware”, I referenced “Hegelian Polemics” and therein linked an article entitled “Hegelian Dialectic: A Tool To Enslave Humanity”.
What I found interesting in that article is how it identified “opposing sides” (i.e. opposites) as “capstones” on the bottom of the “pyramid” – with the top capstone (eye) as representative of the final action:
The chess board is a well-known Masonic or Hegelian symbol, the black and white squares symbolize control through duality in the grand game of life in all aspects. Left or right, white or black people, conservative or liberal, democrat or republican, Christian or Muslim and so on. Through two opposing parties control is gained as both parties reach the same destination, which is order through guided conflict or chaos.
Left (thesis) versus right (antithesis) equals middle ground or control (synthesis). The triangle and all seeing eye we see so often symbolizes the completion of the great work…
The pyramid is supported by the bottom opposing sides. The capstone at the top is established through controlled solution or middle ground.
In my piece entitled “On Channel Surfing, Circus Acts, and Time Passages”, I discussed the 1927 movie “Metropolis” as a favorite of the occult. The words that appear on the screen at the end of that film are these:
THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!
A 2010 article posted on TheVigilantCitizen.com speculated on the “mediator” as the electronic media which manipulates the plebes (workers) on behalf of the head (controllers).
To be sure, the Modern Centralizers craft their new realities by means of the Orwellian Media. It’s why they call it programming. And what better way to manipulate the emotions (hearts) of people than by fiction and fear?
With that in mind, I now call your attention to the below video link of the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics:
The Complete London 2012 Opening Ceremony | London 2012 Olympic Games
If one cares to click that link and view the segment shown between the 45 and 55 minute marks, they will see what appears to be a staged viral pandemic. The drama takes place beneath black pyramids malevolently towering over the stadium (and the crowd) and ends with the appearance of a giant, creepy-looking baby; or maybe a still-birth – it’s hard to tell.
At the 45 to 47 minute mark, we see kids in hospital beds surrounded by dancing nurses and doctors. At around the 47:30 mark, the medical staff/dancers put the kids to bed and with fingers over their months, urging silence. What appears to be a giant virus then appears center-stage at the around the 48 minute mark.
Then, around the 49 minute mark, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reads from Peter Pan and says: “But in the two minutes before you go to sleep, it is real”. Next, shadowy virus-looking demons take the stage to chase the children, and dark horses towing a magician and a steel cage glide behind an oriental woman who is looking elsewhere as the pandemic commences.
The 49:50 mark shows what appears to be a giant (British Prime Minister) Boris Johnson sick in bed.
Finally, as the dark magicians cast their spells and the viruses dance, the nurses and doctors appear paralyzed and robotic – like puppets (50:45 to 51:45 mark) before Mary Poppins figures descend from the sky.
In my research, I found another article by the Vigilant Citizen dated August 17, 2012, and it had this to say back then regarding the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics:
The next important sequence of the ceremony paid tribute to the National Health Service (NHS) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). The set combined sick kids on hospital beds with characters from English children’s literature and had a very strange and dark undertone from the start, when it began with the theme from The Exorcist, which is, in case you don’t know, a movie about a child possessed by the Devil. Odd choice.
The sequence begins with children on hospital beds who get put to sleep by nurses. Then J.K. Rowling appears and reads a quote from Peter Pan alluding to Neverland, which becomes real in the “two minutes before you go to sleep”. I couldn’t say if that was done on purpose, but many elements of this set, mostly the mix of vulnerable children in a hospital with fairy tales and the concept of blurring the lines between reality and fiction, are all associated with mind control programming. Like the Wizard of Oz and Alice of Wonderland, the story of Peter Pan is heavily used in mind control programming as victims are told to escape to “Neverland” while inducing dissociation from reality.
The same article also addressed the 2012 Olympic closing ceremonies (video at this link) and showing a new world order rising like a phoenix; while referencing The Who, no less.
At midnight, the Olympic cauldron and the petals representing each country are slowly extinguished, but the phoenix, representing the occult elite and the New World Order, stays lit above it. In other words, as the nations of the world slowly disappear, a New World Order will emerge. On that note, let’s listen to The Who!
Of course, listen to The Who rock band? Or the World Health Organization (WHO)? Coincidence or conspiracy? You’re probably right.
So, to summarize: 2012 was the same year the Rockefeller Foundation predicted the “Lock Step” pandemic scenario as the Olympic ceremonies that year showed opposing sides battling over children during the opening ceremonies and followed by the resolution in the closing ceremonies: A new phoenix rising from the ashes – like a new world order.
Order out of chaos.
Therefore, if COVID-19 was, indeed, a PLANdemic perpetrated by dark forces, was my aforementioned friend murdered by those who now want us to self-quarantine and wear masks for the safety of those being murdered? Most likely; because observing luciferian pedophiles through their symbols is like identifying hidden planets via the observed effects of gravitation, or studying game theory when the game is rigged.
It’s how we can identify who “they” are, but only for people willing to first acknowledge that “they” exist. Unfortunately, it’s a wasted effort on most. One might as well don a tinfoil hat and chase shadows on a magic pony.
Therefore, perhaps it’s easier to digest the words of physician and former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul when it comes to explaining Coronavirus tyranny, forced vaccinations and ‘Digital Certificates’:
Proponents of mandatory vaccines and enhanced surveillance are trying to blackmail the American people by arguing that the lockdown cannot end unless we create a healthcare surveillance state and make vaccination mandatory. The growing number of Americans who are tired of not being able to go to work, school, or church, or even to take their children to a park because of government mandates should reject this “deal.” Instead, they should demand an immediate end to the lockdowns and the restoration of individual responsibility for deciding how best to protect their health.
Regrettably, it was supposed to be a season of graduation parties, weddings, and Fourth of July celebrations. But these have been displaced by lockdowns, social distancing, bodies in refrigerated trucks, fear, magic spells, and propaganda.
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson has even recently bemoaned the New America’s resemblance to communist China:
Big companies partnering with the government to spy on you without your knowledge. Americans locked in their homes, banned from going to church, placated with sedatives like beer and weed. Anyone who speaks up is silenced. Political demonstrations are illegal. Organizers are arrested. Only opinions approved by unelected leaders are allowed on information platforms. Sound familiar? It sounds a lot like China. Of all the many ironies of this moment, so many of them bitter, the hardest to swallow is this: as we fight this virus, we are becoming far more like the country that spawned it. We’re becoming more like China. It’s horrifying.
…Those in power are the ones the our professional class seeks to protect, not the country. Freedom of conscience never endangers the public. It only threatens the powerful. It endangers their control. It hinders their ability to dictate election results, to loot the economy, to make policies based on whim for their own gain. No wonder our leaders have done such a poor job protecting us from China. They’re on the same team.
– Tucker Carlson Tonight: Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Sadly, it appears Trump may be a crisis actor, like Anthony Fauci, and part of the plan from the start. The final details were solidified years ago – including the bioengineered PLANdemic.
China is quite likely part of the plan, too, since One World Under Communism has become the desired destination of the billionaires; with millions dying along the way. For those who do survive, they’ll be allowed to work, consume, and obey. Of course, many Americans will not cooperate with their planned demise and this is why The Central Planners will need a great big war.
Both President Trump and his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, are tying Coronavirus to the “government laboratory in Wuhan” and now the Chinese are warning of possible armed conflict with the U.S. over the COVID-19 backlash.
Most recently, in an Oval Office Press conference on May 6, 2020, Trump actually blamed China for Coronavirus while claiming it is the “worst attack we’ve ever had”:
“This is worse than Pearl Harbor, this is worse than the World Trade Center. There’s never been an attack like this.
– President Donald Trump – May 6, 2020
It means events could potentially occur as follows: As soon as rock-solid proof is revealed that China released the virus to take out Trump because our great president was winning the trade wars, then, the Orange-Haired Wonder will rally national support via sorrowful lamentations while standing tall on reality TV amidst the economic ruins.
A bumbling first strike by the U.S. could allow a Sino-Russian alliance to seal America’s fate once and for all; and most likely by nuclear means.
Then any surviving sheeple will eagerly line up for the Bill Gates of Hell special: A free digital tattoo along with a bonus vaccination and bowl of soup.
Welcome to the end of the rainbow. Orwell was right: we’ve always been at war with Eastasia and jackboots will stomp on human faces forever. Unless, that is, the digital drip-drops from Q-anon and our online commentaries change the future.
Conclusion
Those gathering at the round tables have been tremendously successful in our societal programming. Yet most of them are mere puppets to the inner rings of concentric power. The monsters that once lurked under our beds were set loose years ago and, today, they dress in drag and read to kids in libraries while others wear blue uniforms and arrest mothers for taking kids to playgrounds.
And where are the men of action? Where are the lovers of liberty? In my area, they’ve been fishing. And grilling. And why not? Trump is in the White House while Nancy Pelosi is locked in her gourmet kitchen eating fancy ice cream. The stimulus checks are in the bank, the grocery stores are still open, and if the fish aren’t biting, those who would stand up to tyranny can always grab a bucket of chicken through the KFC drive-thru on the way home. At least for now.
As far as national lockdowns go, this has been the best one ever. So far.
For obvious reasons, I’ve been thinking of the autistic livestock guru Temple Grandin and how she pioneered more humane methods of leading animals to slaughter. One of the methods was to have cattle march to their demise single file via tall shutes. That sort of isolation seems reminiscent of what’s occurring in America now – with people staring at walls, muzzled by masks, and numbly following orders while remaining six-feet apart.
How can people resist when they’ve been fooled? How can they fight back when they’re frightened? And why have they placed their hope in safety instead of liberty?
Good questions.
Real hope remains in the smart choices, right actions, and the prepping and survival decisions made every day by those awake and aware. But no matter what the future holds, may all reading this be surrounded by friends and loved ones who know Epstein didn’t kill himself.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 18:45 - Global Coronavirus Cases Top 4 Million, Deaths Top 275k: Live Updates
Global Coronavirus Cases Top 4 Million, Deaths Top 275k: Live Updates
Summary:
- Global coronavirus cases top 4 mil, deaths top 275k
- Russia reports another 10,699 cases as total doubles in a week
- Fewer stroke patients coming to US hospitals
- UK reports 626 new deaths
- Google says employees won’t return to office until 2021
- NY reports 216 more deaths
- Italy passes 30k COVID-19 deaths
- Spanish gov’t rejects Madrid’s request to reopen
- Larry Kudlow says 3/4ths of job losses will be ‘temporary’
- NYC announces ‘test and trace corps’
- Architect of Sweden’s lockdown response defends strategy
- Editor of Global Times says China needs more nukes
- Global COVID-19 cases near 4mil, deaths near 2,75k
- UK warns don’t expect reopening to start next week
- South Korea warns of new ‘super spreader’
- Australia PM says next phase of reopening begins today, releases 3-step plan
* * *
Update (1803ET): At least one closely-followed tally of coronavirus cases and deaths has topped both 4 million cases and 275,000 deaths worldwide. The updated figures were reported by worldometers just minutes ago.
Here’s a chart…
…and another.
* * *
Update (1620ET): The Times of London is reporting that the UK is cranking up its travel restrictions as Boris Johnson prepares to release his plans for reopening the economy.
- UK TO ASK ALL ARRIVALS TO SELF ISOLATE FOR 14 DAYS: TIMES
NY has released the rest of its numbers for Friday, reporting 2,938 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 330,407, and 21,045 deaths.
New York’s update:
– Number of new cases down
– Number of new people tested down
– Number of new deaths down
– Number of intubations down
– Number of hospitalized down— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 8, 2020
In other news, fewer stroke patients are visiting US hospitals, an ominous sign reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday as a letter to the editor.The number of patients in the US undergoing imaging for stroke evaluation has decreased by 39% since before the pandemic, the letter claims, according to CNN.
“These are stroke patients who need to be treated,” said Dr. Greg Albers, director of the Stanford Stroke Center and professor of neurology at Stanford University, who was an author of the letter.
Phase one of North Carolina’s reopening efforts will start at 5 p.m. today, Gov. Roy Cooper said.
Furthermore, everyone who de-planed Air Force 2 on Friday has tested negative for the coronavirus.
Russia reported another 10,699 new cases of coronavirus and 98 new deaths on Friday, for a total of 187,859 cases and 1,723 deaths, with cases doubling in a week once again.
* * *
Update (1425ET): California’s numbers are in. Some businesses have started to reopen for the first time on Friday.
- CALIFORNIA REPORTS 1,898 NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES, A 3.1% INCREASE
Gov Newsom is speaking at 1500ET (Noon PT):
TUNE IN NOW. https://t.co/PKQ0HfGI7Q
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 8, 2020
* * *
Update (1400ET): The UK has just confirmed the 626 deaths we reported earlier during the PM’s briefing, along with 4,649 new positive cases.
As of 9am 8 May, there have been 1,631,561 tests, with 97,029 tests on 7 May.
1,207,069 people have been tested of which 211,364 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 7 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 31,241 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/5wqGNFfCfM
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 8, 2020
Here’s more on the UK numbers.
BREAKING: UK reports 4,649 new cases of coronavirus and 626 new deaths.
Total of 211,364 cases and 31,241 deaths.
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 8, 2020
UK’s update:
– Number of new cases down
– Number of new deaths up
– Number of new people tested up
– 1.6 million tests conducted so far— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 8, 2020
Singapore reports 768 new cases, almost all of which (758) involve migrant workers or other foreigners.
NEW: Singapore reports 768 new cases of coronavirus, 21,707 cases in total.
758 of new cases are foreigners.
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 8, 2020
* * *
Update (1255ET): Just minutes ago, Dr. Deborah Birx of the (now semi-permanent) White House coronavirus task force said that she would personally oversee the delivery of Gilead’s remdesivir after reported “dysfunction” resulted in batches of the drug being sent to the wrong places.
.@PressSec tells me Dr. Birx will oversee the distribution of the @GileadSciences drug remdesivir, after reports internal dysfunction resulted in the drug going to the wrong places https://t.co/7xmTZtY6rW
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) May 8, 2020
The drug is currently the subject of an internationally coordinated trial regime to try and determine if it’s substantially effective at treating COVID-19. Data so far have been optimistic but still mixed.
Notably, this afternoon’s announcement – made minutes ago – by the Eurogroup is an important development that signals the death of the ‘coronabonds’ idea, but still offers something to Europe’s worst hit nations.
#Eurogroup agrees to 10-year credit lines for #coronavirus costs
Eurozone governments have until the end of 2022 to open credit lines from a shared bailout fund to pay health costs stemming from the coronavirus, finance ministers agreed today. https://t.co/1SWZrzsIeq
— Dan Nacu 🇪🇺 (@nacudaan) May 8, 2020
With Europe generally a step ahead (with the exception of hotspots like Madrid) of the US in terms of the timeline for reopening, Bank of America has published a comprehensive ‘reopening calendar’ which includes all of the important dates, as they stand right now.
* * *
Update (1150ET): Italy on Friday became just the third country to pass 30k coronavirus deaths (after the US and the UK) after reporting 243 fatalities Friday (data are reported with a 24-hour delay), bringing the country’s death toll to 30,291. Newly confirmed cases fell slightly to 1,327, down from 1,401 on Thursday, taking the total # of confirmed cases since the epidemic began to 217,185, the third-highest tally behind the US and Spain.
The number of patients currently carrying the virus in Italy fell to 87,961 from 89,624 the day before, while the long-running trend of falling hospitalizations and patients moved to the ICU continued, with just 1,168 people moved to the ICU on Friday, compared with the 1,311 added on Thursday.
A Eurogroup press conference is expected to get underway in an hour as finance ministers from around the bloc update the world on the latest breakthrough. France’s finance minister told reporters that the group has decided on a €240 billion Treasury line to finance relief efforts in the worst-hit countries (including Italy).
Cuomo’s latest press briefing is about to start at 12pmET>
I will be giving my daily #Coronavirus briefing and making an announcement at 12:00PM ET. Watch here:https://t.co/Fq5qEEPt23
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 8, 2020
New York coronavirus total deaths fall to 216 versus 231 yesterday, up 1.1% DoD, vs. yesterday’s rise of 1.2%. 45 of those deaths involved nursing home patients.
- Hospitalizations: 8,196 for a change of -469 (was 8665 yesterday)
- Intubations: -130 on the day, versus -108 yesterday
- Total deaths: 216 versus 231 yesterday and 232 the day before
- (three-day rolling average of new hospitalizations hits 604, versus 607 yesterday)
Additionally, Florida reported 39,199, up 1%, while deaths climbed 4.3% to 1,669.
In the UK, the PM announced at the beginning of his briefing that 626 new deaths were recorded on Friday. That’s actually down from 739 last Friday, and 1,005 two Fridays ago. The death toll in the UK climbed to 31,241. It retains the highest mortality rate in Europe.
WATCH LIVE: #coronavirus press conference (8 May 2020)
Speakers:
🔵 George Eustice, @DefraGovUK secretary
🔵 Prof Stephen Powis, @NHSEngland https://t.co/ZWAKjfL9nn— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 8, 2020
Additionally, Google will reportedly tell employees that it doesn’t expect them to return to the office until 2021.
* * *
Update (1115ET): After repeatedly delaying its plans for lifting its nationwide lockdown, one of the most stringent in Europe, Spain’s socialist government has rejected Madrid’s request to move on with the next phase of the reopening plan, which would have allowed more shops and businesses to reopen, El Pais reports.
Officials told El Pais earlier that “it is obvious” Madrid, the national epicenter of Spain’s outbreak, is not ready to scale back its lockdown measures any further, in line with other hard-hit regions such as Catalonia and Castilla y León. Official figures show 70,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Madrid and more than 15,000 deaths, compared with the national tally of 221,447 infections and 26,070 deaths.
Figures from the Spanish Health Ministry released on Friday showed 229 coronavirus deaths over the last day, up slightly from the 213 reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, in the US, Pennsylvania, California and a handful of other states are beginning the process of reopening on Friday. Spain began the process late last month when it allowed children to leave the house (though they had to be accompanied by an adult).
* * *
Update (1035ET): During this morning’s press briefing, de Blasio was confronted about the vast discrepancy in ‘social distancing violation’ summonses, which featured far more black and Latino suspects than white people.
“When I saw those numbers I found them to be an indicators that’s something wrong we need to fix” @NYCMayor says about data showing that the majority of social distancing summonses have been black and brown New Yorkers
— Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) May 8, 2020
In other news, during an interview with Fox Friday morning, Larry Kudlow said White House data suggest 3/4ths of the 20.5 million jobs destroyed by the coronavirus will be ‘temporary’.
- KUDLOW SAYS EXPECTS THREE-QUARTERS OF JOB LOSSES IN APRIL TO BE TEMPORARY -FOX NEWS
* * *
Update (1000ET): NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday he would be launching a “test and trace corps” to assist with the coronavirus containment efforts as New York State prepares to begin the process of reopening its economy.
Join us for an update on COVID-19. https://t.co/6B6dS2CtON
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) May 8, 2020
Interestingly, the NYT slammed the mayor over the decision, saying he stripped control of virus tracing from NYC’s health department.
New York City will soon assemble an army of more than 1,000 disease detectives to trace the contacts of every person who tests positive for the coronavirus, an approach seen as crucial to quelling the outbreak and paving the way to reopen the hobbled city.
But that effort will not be led by the city’s renowned Health Department, which for decades has conducted contact tracing for diseases such as tuberculosis, H.I.V. and Ebola, city officials said on Thursday.
Instead, in a sharp departure from current and past practice, the city is going to put the vast new public health apparatus in the hands of its public hospital system, Health and Hospitals, city officials acknowledged after being approached by The New York Times about the changes.
Sounds like a great plan, Bill.
* * *
Update (0940ET): Earlier this week, French authorities discovered what they believe might be Europe’s earliest-known COVID-19 patient, who was sickened by the virus in early December.
Here’s more on that.
“The doctors didn’t know what to do.”
France has discovered an undiagnosed #Covid19 patient from December 2019. It suggests the #coronavirus was spreading in Europe at least a month before official cases were reported. More via @business: https://t.co/LBWLnVpib7 pic.twitter.com/H6DcW0Y6bf
— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) May 8, 2020
* * *
On an otherwise quiet Friday morning, President Trump has announced that he will be interviewed on Fox & Friends beginning at 8amET, setting the president up to react to one of the most important data releases of the past decade in real-time.
I will be interviewed on @foxandfriends at 8:00 A.M. Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2020
Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, appeared to welcome news that the US and China would act to preserve the ‘Phase 1’ trade deal by suggesting that Beijing increase China’s supply of nuclear weapons to improve China’s ‘deterrent’ against the US.
I said on Chinese social media that China needs to expand the number of its nuclear warheads to over 1,000 to strengthen nuclear deterrent,given US’ rising strategic ambitions and impulses targeting China. It received over 60K likes. China pledges no-first-use and it loves peace. pic.twitter.com/fOyt3Pzago
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) May 8, 2020
On what was a relatively quiet morning for virus news, the global case count moved closer to the 4mil mark (JHU reported 3,862,174 at 8amET), while the death toll neared 275k (269,881 at last count).
The biggest news overnight was published in the FT, which interviewed Anders Tegnell, the architect of Sweden’s coronavirus response strategy (which famously avoided the lockdowns seen elsewhere), and the country’s top epidemiologist. Tegnell defended Sweden’s unique strategy, which some have blamed for the country’s slightly higher mortality rate. He estimated that 40% of people in Stockholm would be immune to the virus by the end of May, giving the country an advantage against a virus that “we’re going to have to live with for a very long time.” Though, to be sure, scientists are still unsure whether infection and the presence of COVID-19 antibodies will lead to lifelong immunity, and there have been many cases of patients being reinfected, or seeing their infections seemingly ‘reactivate’ after testing negative.
Tegnell argued that Sweden would be much better prepared than the rest of the world fot he “second wave” of the virus that’s expected this fall, arguing that the number of cases and casualties will be “much smaller” in Sweden thanks to the widespread presence of antibodies in the public (of course, we’re not even sure whether long-term ‘herd immunity’ is even possible, as Tegnell pointed out).
“In the autumn there will be a second wave. Sweden will have a high level of immunity and the number of cases will probably be quite low,” Tegnell told the FT. “But Finland will have a very low level of immunity. Will Finland have to go into a complete lockdown again?”
Some believe Sweden and Tegnell, which are under the global spotlight as their response to the pandemic has made Sweden a global outlier, have already won the debate on what the ideal coronavirus response would look like.
Primary and secondary schools, restaurants, cafés and shops are mostly open and operating as normal in Sweden, with health authorities relying on voluntary social distancing and people opting to work from home. Schools for over-16s and universities are closed and gatherings of more than 50 people are banned, but it is still the most relaxed approach of any EU country. However, as Goldman analysts recently explained, there are several idiosyncratic qualities about Sweden and the Swedish people that could make the country’s strategy difficult to replicate across the EU and the US.
To be sure, Sweden’s virus-linked death toll reached 3,040 on Thursday, significantly higher than Denmark, Norway and Finland, which confirmed fewer than 1,000 deaths between all three countries.
In the UK, as HMG prepares the British public for the unveiling, expected Sunday, of Johnson’s exit strategy, Oliver Dowden, UK culture secretary, has warned the public not to expect “big changes” to certain social distancing measures, including most of the restrictions on movement, to come into effect next week. As we’ve noted in recent days, many European countries are beginning the process of reopening, with several – including Belgium and Denmark – on track to make big strides before the end of the month.
According to another leak about the government plan published, this one published by the Telegraph, Johnson could ease aspects of the lockdown every two weeks, according to plans currently being discussed by ministers. Other reports suggest that Britain will remain in lockdown until next month at the earliest.
Yesterday, South Korean government officials warned about a 29-year-old who was diagnosed with the virus after partying in one of Seoul’s glitzy nightlife districts. On Friday, officials confirmed 13 more cases associated with the ‘clubber’ – technically qualifying them as a ‘super-spreader’ – though the situation appears to be well in hand. The partyer now appears to have infected 14 other people.
As Australia and New Zealand move ahead with reopening their economies, Aussie PM Scott Morrison announced Friday that his cabinet had agreed with the leaders of Australia’s state governments on a 3-step plan to make Australia safe from COVID-19 by July while saving 850k jobs. Under the plan, retail outlets small cafes and restaurants would reopen. Gatherings of up to 10 people would be allowed. In step 2, gatherings of up to 20 would be allowed, while step 3 would allow gatherings of up to 100 people.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/08/2020 – 18:07
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