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So, we rise from the rubble...
Monday, November 16, 2020
"Our COVID Police State Wants To Take Thanksgiving And Christmas Away From You Too"
"Our COVID Police State Wants To Take
Thanksgiving And Christmas Away From You Too"
by Michael Snyder
"Haven’t they taken enough away from us already? The deeply oppressive lockdowns that were instituted earlier this year plunged us into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, caused the cancellation of thousands upon thousands of important events, and sent the suicide rate absolutely skyrocketing. Once those lockdowns were lifted the American people were greatly relieved, but now our COVID police state is back for more. As I have been documenting over the last several days, new lockdowns are being instituted all over the country right now, and even our most cherished holidays are being targeted.
Let me start by discussing an interview that CNN’s Jake Tapper just conducted with Anthony Fauci. Most Americans had assumed that once a vaccine was widely distributed that we wouldn’t need masks or social distancing anymore. Well, according to Fauci that is not the case at all:
Jake Tapper said, “Once somebody has been immunized, once the process is complete, does that mean they can take off their mask, don’t have to social distance, and go about their lives as before?”
Fauci said, “I would recommend that is not the case. I would recommend you have an added area of protection. Obviously, with 90 plus percent effective vaccine, you could feel much more confident, but I would recommend to people to not abandon all public health measures just because you’ve been vaccinated.”
As I have repeatedly warned my readers, they intend to change the way that we live permanently.
During that same interview, they were discussing a timeline for vaccine distribution, and Tapper blurted this out: “Christmas is probably not gonna be possible.” In other words, Americans should not plan to have a normal Christmas this year because we are going to be expected to stay home, wear masks and keep members of our extended family away.
Of course Thanksgiving is a lot closer than Christmas, and our COVID overlords are telling us that we can’t have a normal Thanksgiving either. For example, this is what the head of the CDC is saying: "U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield held a call with the nation’s governors on Tuesday. CNN obtained audio of the chat, in which Redfield said: “What we’re seeing as the increasing threat right now is actually acquisition of infection through small household gatherings. Particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it’s really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.”
Needless to say, many of our top politicians are going to fall right in line with the directives that our “health authorities” have issued. For example, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has issued new restrictions for the city of Chicago which begin on Monday: "The order, which begins Monday, extends through Thanksgiving festivities. Residents are “strongly advised” to not have guests in their homes outside of essential workers - even family and close friends.
“Chicago has reached a critical point in the second surge of COVID-19, demanding that we undertake this multi-faceted and comprehensive effort to stop the virus in its tracks,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the release.
At least Lightfoot’s order is not as draconian as the mandate that California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered all Californians to follow this Thanksgiving. If you can believe it, Newsom has decided to limit Thanksgiving to a two hour “outdoor event”: "Celebrities have taken to social media to slam California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘ridiculously unenforceable’ Thanksgiving crackdown that bans singing and shouting and limits the holiday to a two-hour outdoor event. ‘If my Aunt comes over, can I throw her a slice of turkey from the window?’ mocked actor Rob Schneider as he blasted the ‘Emperor Newsom’.
The good news is that the American people are sick and tired of having their rights taken away and are starting to push back against absurd restrictions such as these. The bad news is that the new lockdowns that are being instituted all over the U.S. will inevitably crash our economy again.
If they last long enough, some industries may be almost entirely destroyed. For example, even before these new lockdowns we were being told that it would be a miracle if half of the hotels in New York City survive this pandemic: "According to Vijay Dandapani, chief executive of the Hotel Association of New York City, if half the city’s 640 hotels survive it will be a “great” outcome. While occupancy rates have recovered from their worst point in April where occupancy was down more than 60% year on year, they remain 20% lower than for the same month in 2019, a level which means much of the debt backing the properties will be impaired (i.e., default). Should New York impose a new round of draconian lockdowns, it will only get worse."
But of course there are some businesses that are booming during this time. For instance, psychologists and therapists are extremely busy treating those that are “feeling lonely and depressed”: "Business is booming for Maria Mir. Under normal circumstances, she takes little time off in November and December; the holidays are her busy season. But this is 2020. Nothing is normal. And everyone seems to need her at once. Mir is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She’s used to patients feeling lonely and depressed as Thanksgiving and Christmas near. But “this particular time is different,” she says. “Even people who haven’t felt lonely in the past are now feeling that isolation.”
This is yet another example that shows that elections really matter. For years, the American people have been voting for psychotic control freaks all over the nation, and so now we shouldn’t be surprised that they are actually acting like psychotic control freaks during a major crisis.
We are being told that this is going to be a very “dark winter”, and just like we witnessed earlier this year many Americans are feverishly stocking up on food and other basic goods: "Concerns that rising cases will encourage people to buy in bulk and stock up on basic goods has prompted major grocery chains to take pre-emptive action and limit purchases. Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the U.S., has imposed purchase limits on essential goods like bath tissue, paper towels, disinfecting wipes and hand soap, according to Fox Business."
If you have not done so already, I would very much encourage you to get stocked up as well. These are such uncertain times, and I have a feeling that things are going to get even crazier in the weeks ahead. If the case numbers keep rising, the restrictions placed upon us are just going to become even more cumbersome, and it definitely appears that we are in for a very rough start in 2021."
"Prepare for Winter"
"Prepare for Winter"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"
It's time to prepare materially and psychologically for a winter unlike any other in our lifetimes.
Here's the view from 30,000 feet:
1. The stock market and the general zeitgeist of optimism have soared based on expectations that the real-world economy and efforts to suppress Covid would also track a V-shaped recovery.
While GDP did make a V-shaped recovery, GDP (gross domestic product) is a measure of flows and consumption, not a measure of the socio-economic "balance sheet." GDP measures the money flowing through accounts but not the "assets" of a functioning society: functional institutions and infrastructure and the well-being and security of the citizenry.
Thus GDP soars while the real-world economy and society are hollowed out by economic inequality, declining health, financial insecurity, rising prices for essentials, dysfunctional institutions and decaying infrastructure.
Simply put,
GDP doesn't measure what's important; it creates destructive incentives to squander resources and borrow staggering sums to support more consumption. This systemic flaw in what we measure has long been recognized by mainstream economists such as Joseph Stiglitz. "Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being" (Joseph E. Stiglitz et al.)
So the recovery of GDP doesn't mean the real-world economy has been restored to pre-Covid settings. GDP is a deceptive metric that's masking a free-fall in our well-being, security and social cohesion.
2. Just as GDP is a deceptive measure of the economy, counting Covid fatalities is equally deceptive: a declining death count is good news, of course, but that ignores the other effects of Covid, particularly organ damage and "Long-Covid" debilitation, not just in people with pre-existing conditions and the elderly but in healthy middle-aged and even some young people.
As this article from the University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) - one of the world's top healthcare research centers - explains, this is the result of Covid being a hybrid virus. Initially it was thought to be a respiratory virus like influenza, but it is now clear that Covid infects and disrupts many other systems in the body - endothelial, digestive, the heart and other organs. "We Thought It Was Just a Respiratory Virus: We Were Wrong."
"Risk for In-Hospital Complications Associated with COVID-19 and Influenza" (CDC). "Patients with COVID-19 had almost 19 times the risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) than did patients with influenza. The percentage of COVID-19 patients who died while hospitalized (21.0%) was more than five times that of influenza patients (3.8%), and the duration of hospitalization was almost three times longer for COVID-19 patients.
"
The precise pathways and mechanisms of these long-term consequences are under intense study. Initial estimates are that about 1 in 20 people who came down with Covid are suffering some long-term consequences. These consequences - for example, damage to the heart - are typically only identifiable by exams and tests: superficially, the damage is not visible.
What is known is that Long-Covid affects females more than males, it affects otherwise healthy people who were previously fit and active, and tens of thousands of people have reported long-term symptoms of extreme fatigue, brain fog, etc.
There are no treatments yet and the prognosis is cloudy. There is no clarity yet on how long these problems may last or if damage to organs is permanent.
So the percentage of people dying from complications of Covid may not be the number that most accurately reflects the disease's toll: the number of people with Long-Covid might be the more accurate reflection of the toll and the seriousness of the challenges ahead.
3. Many see herd immunity as the eventual solution to Covid. History suggests this isn't as neat and tidy as many expect. The first wave of a novel pathogen may appear to reach herd immunity, only to re-emerge a few years later with renewed contagious vigor.
While it's far too early to reach any definitive conclusions, preliminary evidence suggests natural immunity might decay within 6 months. This is supported by documented cases of re-infection, and in some cases the second infection is much worse than the initial infection. "What Reinfections Mean for COVID-19" (The Lancet)
This evidence suggests herd immunity might not be the solution many expect.
Herd immunity is reached around 60% or higher, which suggests 200 million Americans would need to be infected to reach herd immunity.
4. The death rate for Covid is low for the entire populace, but it rises sharply for those with pre-existing conditions such as metabolic disorders (diabetes, pre-diabetes, etc.) and age (over 65).
A recent study on at-risk patients (ages 60 to 72) in 38 hospitals found about 30% had died within 60 days.
"Sixty-Day Outcomes Among Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19" (Annals of Internal Medicine)
The problem is these at-risk populations are not small. There are 34 million people with diabetes, and an estimated 88 million Americans are pre-diabetic. 53 million Americans are 65 or older, and roughly 7 million are 80 and over.
There is obvious overlap in these categories--people may be diabetic at age 70 - but even with the overlap, these at-risk populations are roughly half the entire population (165 million people).
As this article from Nature.com explains, the infection fatality ratio (IFR) rises from near-zero for young people to 3.1% for 65-74 year olds and 11.6% for those 75 and older. "The coronavirus is most deadly if you are older and male, new data reveal the risks" (Nature.com)
According to this report from the American Diabetes Association, the data from early reporting indicates the death rate for those with diabetes was 7.3%.
As a thought experiment, let's apply these death rates to at-risk populations at the "herd immunity" minimum of 60% of the populace:
A. 34 million diabetics X 60% = 20 million X 7% = 1.4 million deaths
B. 65-74 age group (28.6 million) X 60% = 17 million X 3.1% = 553,000 deaths
C. 75-84 group (14.2 million) + 85+ group (6.4 million) = 20.6 million X 60% = 12.4 million X 11.6% = 1.4 million deaths
This adds up to 3.3 million deaths without even counting any deaths in the populace younger than 65 or among the 88 million people with metabolic disorders.
The data suggests that 200 million infected people (60% of the U.S. population) would lead to about 3 million deaths and 10 million cases of Long-Covid.
Let's say better treatments and self-isolation will cut the deaths to 2.5 million. That would be extremely positive, but what about the Long-Covid cases? The system has yet to even start collecting comprehensive data. Thus many of the eventual consequences and costs will remain unknown.
5. Hospitalizations and treatments are rising rapidly. Hospitalizations and deaths are trending upward.
Yet experts warn that the variability may simply end with the virus resurging to high levels across the entire country. "I don't see any location in the United States that's going to be free of a major increase in cases," he said. "And I think we're just getting started."
When high case counts emerge in communities, the spillover to surrounding populations is rapid, Dr. Osterholm said. The situation, he noted, can be likened to a "coronavirus forest fire."
"A forest fire never burns evenly everywhere," he said. "But if the embers are still around, they ignite again and then that area does burn eventually. And I think that that's what we're seeing here."
"We're going to see much less evidence of regionalization of this virus over the course of the next several weeks," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota. "I think this is going to ultimately end up being an entire country on fire."
6. If you look at the chart of hospitalizations, the healthcare system in many locales was experiencing extreme stress at 60,000 hospitalizations, and so the rise above this level could trigger second-order effects which could cascade into a breakdown.
As this report from the CDC explains, a significant number of healthcare workers have been infected and hospitalized, and many died. Should the number of healthcare workers who contract the disease or burn out due to extended shifts and exhaustion rise beyond a certain point, the ability to provide care from everyone who is seriously ill may become severely impaired.
So there are two limiting factors on care as the number of hospitalizations soars: the number of beds available in Covid-secure wards and the number of healthcare workers available to provide care.
If either of these limits are reached, death rates may rise as patients are unable to get all the care they would have received had cases and hospitalizations not exceeded the capacity of the system.
7. There are lag times in effects and reporting:
• 3 weeks: infection-to-death
.
• 4 weeks: deaths reporting.
• 4 weeks: propagation to older age groups.
• 8 weeks: infection, partial recovery/discharged from ICU, death.
Note the almost exponential rise in cases being reported. We can anticipate a surge in hospitalizations, deaths and spread to older populations in the weeks and months ahead.
8. Vaccines: I provided an analysis and numerous links on the many uncertainties surrounding vaccines in "Everything You Don't Want to Know About Covid Vaccines (Because You Can't Be Bullish Anymore)" (November 11, 2020).
"Covid-19 Vaccine Protocols Reveal That Trials Are Designed To Succeed" (Forbes.com) by William A. Haseltine
9. The virus remains highly contagious. "Wedding and Birthday Party Infect 56, Leaving Nearly 300 in Quarantine" (New York Times)
. The projections presented here are basic math, yet few seem to have done the simple math, perhaps because the results are sobering and don't fit the desired "optimism."
Realism must precede optimism or the optimism will collapse as the tsunami of reality comes ashore.
No one knows the future, but current trends suggest all the euphoric expectations of a fast, painless recovery were tragically misplaced.
Here is the chart I prepared a week after Covid-19 hit the news in late January. Reality has been tracking my first-out-of-the-gate projection with remarkable coherence.
Gregory Mannarino, "AM 11/16/20: Important Updates"
Gregory Mannarino, "AM 11/16/20: Important Updates"
"Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell: 'We're Getting Ready To Overturn Election Results In Multiple States'"
"Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell:
'We're Getting Ready To Overturn Election Results In Multiple States'"
by Jack Phillips
"Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, a Trump campaign lawyer, suggested in a Sunday interview that there is still more evidence coming out in President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud and irregularities.
“We’re getting ready to overturn election results in multiple states,” Powell said, saying that she has enough evidence of election fraud to launch a widespread criminal investigation. “I don’t make comments without having the evidence to back it up,” she added, saying that elections software switched “millions of votes” from Trump to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Powell notably provided legal counsel to Gen. Michael Flynn in 2019. She was named to Trump’s legal team in the past several days.
Powell said a whistleblower came forward and said the elections software was designed to “rig elections,” saying that “he saw it happen in other countries,” referring to voting systems Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, or perhaps other software and machines.
“We have so much evidence, I feel like it’s coming in through a fire hose,” Powell said, while noting that she won’t reveal the evidence that she has. “They can stick a thumb drive in the [voting] machine, they can upload software to it even from the Internet… from Germany or Venezuela even,” she said, adding that operations “can watch votes in real-time” and “can shift votes in real-time,” or alleged bad actors can “remote access anything.”
“We’ve identified mathematically the exact algorithm they’ve used - and planned to use from the beginning” that allegedly switched votes to Biden, Powell remarked.
Powell also made reference to a 2019 investigation from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as well as other Democratic lawmakers into Dominion Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software, and Hart InterCivic. The senators had expressed concerns about the security of the voting systems. “We have concerns about the spread and effect of private equity investment in many sectors of the economy, including the election technology industry - an integral part of our nation’s democratic process,” wrote the lawmakers in their letters to the firms about a year ago.
“These problems threaten the integrity of our elections and demonstrate the importance of election systems that are strong, durable, and not vulnerable to attack.” Later in the Sunday morning interview, Powell said that her team has “detected voting irregularities that are inexplicable” in states where officials believe they have valid systems.
During the election, Republicans in the House were able to flip at least 11 seats while the GOP is poised to maintain control of the Senate. Some conservatives have questioned how such a voting pattern is possible for Biden to win the presidential election, let alone receive more votes than any other presidential candidate in American history, including President Barack Obama’s victory in 2008.
Companies Respond: The Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency issued a statement on Thursday calling the 2020 general election the “most secure in American history,” despite multiple legal challenges alleging a variety of alleged voting irregularities across a number of battleground states.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result,” read the statement released by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Smartmatic, in a statement on Saturday, said that it has no ties with Dominion Voting Systems. Powell suggested that Smartmatic is operated by Dominion in the interview. Dominion, over the past several weeks, has repeatedly denied its systems were compromised in some way. “In the aftermath of the 2020 general election, there has been a great deal of misinformation being circulated about Smartmatic and other companies that provide election technology to voting jurisdictions in the US. We would like to dispel these incorrect statements with facts,” the firm wrote, adding that it “has never owned any shares or had any financial stake in Dominion Voting Systems.”
Dominion also refuted allegations that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden on Election Day and beyond. “Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to The Denver Post. “Our systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process.”
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Must Watch! “Ominous FED Message; Financial Crisis Imminent; Get Survival Skills Now; Living Standards Fall”
Jeremiah Babe,
“Ominous FED Message; Financial Crisis Imminent;
Get Survival Skills Now; Living Standards Fall”
"Time To Go All-In The Big Short 3.0? 80% Of New York Hotels On Verge Of Default"
"Time To Go All-In The Big Short 3.0?
80% Of New York Hotels On Verge Of Default"
by Epic Economist
"New York’s hotel sector has been particularly hard hit by the health crisis, now 80% of all hotels in the city are at risk of defaulting their commercial mortgage bonds, worrying shareholders whether hoteliers will be able to meet their loans or if further debt and stress will be added to the industry. In face of lowering receipts, decreasing profits, mounting debt, and the lack of stimulus relief, hotel owners' ability to pay their mortgage has been severely compromised.
Therefore, market watchers have been pointing to the CMBX series 9 as the Big Short 3.0, since its BBB- tranche has the highest exposure to hotels, becoming the best way to capitalize on the devastation unleashed by the crisis. For that reason, in this video, we analyze how the apocalyptic collapse of the hotel industry will likely provide billions in profits for investors.
The NorthStar Meeting Group released a dossier specifying the increasing struggles of the hospitality industry, prompting a tailwind blast for the CMBX 9 shorts. The group reported that some of the leading brands of the sector recorded substantial losses, including Hilton, Hyatt, and MGM Resorts, which respectively lost $81 million, $161 million, and $535 million last quarter alone.
New York City hotels have suffered the most from the damages brought by the health crisis. According to the latest Manhattan Lodging Index from PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than half - nearly 58 percent - of Manhattan hotels remain closed, and from those, approximately 2,700 are expected to be shuttered permanently.
Correspondingly, an article from The Wall Street Journal indicated that 20 percent of the state's total hotel supply - or about 250,000 rooms - were on the verge of closing permanently. "At the beginning of the year, there were about 57,000 hotels across the U.S. Up to 38,000 of those could close in the next few weeks if Congress does not issue more aid soon," said the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Left without aid from Congress, 50 percent of all travel-supported jobs are on the hook and could be lost by the end of December. In September, the AHLA informed that 68 percent of hotels were already operating with less than half of their normal staff working full time. Additionally, more than two-thirds of hoteliers revealed they wouldn't be able to last six more months at the projected revenue and occupancy levels, and without federal assistance, 74 percent of hotels said they would be forced to lay off more employees
Currently, four out of five New York City's hotel properties underpinning commercial mortgage bonds are on the brink of default. The effects have resonated into financial markets and hit the almost $4 billion in hotel mortgages of New York that are bundled into commercial mortgage-backed securities exceptionally hard.
This week the state started imposing a new round of strict lockdowns, and even in a best-case scenario, in which a vaccine would be authorized, nothing would induce a sudden improvement of the sector this year, and possibly only by 2021, with the return of some tourism-related business the industry would regain traction.
Recent data pointed out that 37.7% of all New York hotels underpinning CMBS deals remain on a watchlist that warns investors when a mortgage is about to be reallocated to debt collectors known as special servicers. Loans are added to the watchlist considering many different reasons, such as if the borrower’s income has remarkably fallen on short notice or they have recently missed a payment on their mortgage.
However, an additional 44.7% of loans were already transferred to special servicers to either find a way to get borrowers paying their mortgage or to foreclose on the properties. That means over 80% of the city’s hotels backing CMBS deals, which account for nearly $3.1 billion, were deeply impacted by the outbreak's effects, surpassing the national average of 71%.
Meanwhile, the S&P downgraded the previously BBB- investment grade-rated tranche of the deal, which is also widely exposed to retail properties, to the junk rating of B plus. That's to say, the whole tranche will be in default as soon as the forbearance period expires. Market experts have been underlining the CMBS 9 shorting hotel-exposed as the Big Short 3.0 in credit and, in short, knowing the tables won’t turn anytime soon, loads of cash will keep being spilled into wealthy investors’ accounts while total chaos takes over our economy."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in the high and far-off constellation of Cepheus. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.
Click image for larger size.
NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the early 20th century at least nine supernovae, the death explosions of massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This remarkable portrait of NGC 6946 is a composite that includes image data from the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.”
"It Is Our Fate..."
"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person – one cannot exist in full consciousness – without having to have a showdown with one’s self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one’s mind what matters and what does not matter.”
- Dorothy Thompson
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "One"
"One"
"The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.
How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!
A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination."
~ Mary Oliver
Free Download: Albert Einstein, “The World As I See It”
"The World As I See It:
Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”
by Paul Ratner
“Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.
The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It” gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.
In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity. “What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.
Was Einstein himself religious? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," said Einstein in his 1954 essay on science and religion.
Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views as pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.
Himself a famous atheist, Richard Dawkins calls Einstein's pantheism a “sexed-up atheism,” but other scholars point to the fact that Einstein did seem to believe in a supernatural intelligence that’s beyond the physical world. He referred to it in his writings as “a superior spirit,” “a superior mind” and a “spirit vastly superior to men”. Einstein was possibly a deist, although he was quite familiar with various religious teachings, including a strong knowledge of Jewish religious texts.
In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”
This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
In case you are wondering whether Einstein saw value in material pursuits, here’s him talking about accumulating wealth in 1934, as part of the “The World As I See It”: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”
◆
Freely download "The World As I See It", by Albert Einstein, here:
"All It Takes..."
“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter
"Vegas Oddsmaker Says, 'The Fix Was In, Trump Was Robbed, This Election Was Stolen'”
"Vegas Oddsmaker Says, 'The Fix Was In,
Trump Was Robbed, This Election Was Stolen'”
by Wayne Root
"I’ve been a Las Vegas oddsmaker and sports gaming expert for four decades- long before I became known as a nationally syndicated conservative talk show host. I understand odds and gambling in a way that no other conservative media personality, host, or politician in this country could. And I can tell you something is very wrong with this presidential election. It reminds me of a fixed football game. Remember the famous fixed 1978 game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants quarterback handed the ball off. The running back didn’t want it. It fell on the ground. Herm Edwards of the Eagles picked it up and ran it into the end zone with seconds left for a last second victory. Every bettor in the world knows that game was fixed. It doesn’t matter if you can prove it. We all know.
Gamblers feel the same way about this presidential election. This presidential election is rancid. It feels as fixed as that Giants-Eagles NFL football game. Let me give you the details of this election- from a gambler’s perspective.
Trump entered the night a 2 to 1 underdog. As soon as the polls started to close and the picture became clear, Trump’s odds quickly moved to even money. Then Trump became the slight favorite. Then a moderate favorite. Then a 2-to-1 favorite. Then 3 to 1. 4 to 1. 5 to 1. 6 to 1. 7 to 1. Finally, Trump moved to 8 to 1 favorite.
What does all this mean? Bettors putting their money on the line during Election Night have always proven to be deadly accurate. Smart bettors can clearly see what direction a race is taking. Bettors around the world clearly saw what I saw, when they stared at the electoral map- Trump was headed for an electoral landslide.
But something wasn’t quite right. Fox News wouldn’t call Florida for Trump- even though he was ahead by a mile. They wouldn’t call Ohio- even though Trump was ahead by a mile, They wouldn’t call Texas- even though Trump was ahead by a mile. I sat there screaming at my television. More strange calls. Fox News had called Virginia for Biden at the start of the night- with Trump well ahead in Virginia. Trump would remain ahead in Virginia for three long hours after Fox awarded the electoral votes to Biden. Why would they do that? What was the rush? It made no sense.
Biden was awarded Virginia with Trump ahead. But Trump was ahead by a mile in Florida, Ohio and Texas, yet Fox News refused to award him the electoral votes. I knew at that moment, something was wrong. Something smelled fishy. Something was rotten in the DC Swamp.
Bettors witnessed Trump dominating. He clearly won not only those key states of Florida, Ohio and Texas, but Trump also enjoyed large leads in the entire Midwest- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. It was all but over. Trump had an electoral landslide. Hence the massive 8 to 1 odds in favor of Trump.
And then it happened. It was the most bizarre call in Election Night history. Fox News called Arizona for Biden. Why? It wasn’t even close to over. There was no reason on earth to make that call. Arizona is STILL not over 8 days later. CNN still hasn’t awarded Arizona. ABC pulled it back from Biden only 24 hours ago. Why would Fox News be in such a rush to call Arizona for Biden? At that moment, Trump’s odds crashed almost instantly from 8 to 1, back down to 2 to 1. That drop set off alarm bells. My friend who is one of the biggest bookmakers in the country called me to say, “Wayne, something is wrong. I’ve never seen a drop like that, let alone a drop that fast. How can Trump go from 8 to 1, to 2 to 1. Someone knows something. We’ve got a problem.”
It was as if someone had decided in advance to give Arizona to Biden- whether he won it, or not. It was as if the secret code was known to only a few billionaire gamblers, “Fox News awards Arizona to Biden.” Six magic words. Someone was ready for that call. Someone waited until Trump was a prohibitive 8 to 1 favorite, then knew to bet millions of dollars on Biden at the longest odds of the night. Someone knew the fix was in. Someone made a fortune.
There’s more to the story. First, by awarding both Virginia and Arizona to Biden way too early in the evening and also going super slow awarding states to Trump where he led by a mile, Fox News made sure Biden had the electoral lead all night. That’s another big part of the story.
Just like the fake pollsters suppressed Trump voters for months in advance of the election with polls falsely showing Trump losing by a landslide, fake “news desk” employees sure appeared to be suppressing Trump votes on Election Night. And also creating an air of invincibility for Biden. If Biden led in every poll before the election, and led all night in electoral votes, then it wouldn’t look like a fix was in, when Biden suddenly wound up the winner the morning after. Right?
One more piece of the puzzle. From almost the moment that secret code “Fox News awards Arizona to Biden” was spoken, three key Midwest battleground states with Democrat Governors all decided to stop counting votes for the night, with Trump way ahead. Why? Why all three, at the same time? Like they were coordinated in advance. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania all mysteriously quit counting around midnight. To add to the idea of a fix, these states merely claimed they were stopping counting for the night. After TV cameras and Republican poll watchers were all sent home, these Democrat states all resumed counting, suddenly finding all the ballots they needed to overcome large Trump leads.
I actually took screen shots before I went to bed. Trump was winning Michigan by over 300,000 votes when they stopped counting. He was up in Wisconsin by over 100,000. In Pennsylvania he was up almost 700,000 votes. But in the wee hours of the morning I took a new screenshot. Suddenly Biden was up by 9,000 in Wisconsin and 30,000 in Michigan. How’d that happen? I thought they stopped counting?
It all started with that bizarre Arizona call by Fox News. Folks, someone knew. The fix was in. A few key people made millions betting on this election. They knew the exact minute to jump in. They knew exactly when a Trump landslide would turn to a Biden victory, with the help of a fake TV network call and fake ballots. They knew Arizona was going to be called way too early. They knew that fake Arizona call would trigger vote counting to stop and massive ballot fraud to begin.
I don’t know what the Supreme Court will decide. But bettors all over the world know in our guts exactly what happened. The fix was in, no different than that famous NY Giants-Philadelphia Eagle fix in 1978 at the Meadowlands. Trump was robbed. This election was stolen."
•
"Georgia Election Fraud: Evidence of Peach State
Chicanery During America’s 2020 Presidential Election"
"Regardless of where one falls politically, the sanctity of the vote is a bedrock of a functioning representative democracy. Voters have to believe their vote matters. And that the vote is free, fair, and accurate. Below we explore the details and the data of what happened in Georgia, nicknamed The Peach State, on Election Day. Elsewhere we explore similar efforts in the key swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania."
•
"He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA.
I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!"
"The Orwellian Pandemic"
"The Orwellian Pandemic"
by Joakim Book
"The phone conversation was just about finished. From the other end of the line the formalities started to trickle in: “Anything else I can do for you, Sir?”, “It was a pleasure to serve you,” “Have a great rest of your day,” etc. We all know these overly polite and superficial conversations, and we roll our eyes as the customer service script keeps rolling out platitudes. Yeah, yeah. But this time was slightly different. The lady at the other end of the line said something I couldn’t quite believe but considering the year we have had no amount of silliness can really surprise me anymore. Before we hung up, she said, “Stay safe.”
What now?! For context, this was not my mother worrying about my health, nor was it my doctor or a corona track-and-trace person inquiring about a suspected infection; it was a very regular arrand for a very standard delivery. Mundane. It had nothing to do with corona whatsoever, but she (or perhaps her bosses at this woke and caring company) felt an urge to wish me not happy birthday or happy holidays, but happy pandemic. Stay safe. It’s a dangerous world out there, and I just want you to know that our empty fake words are with you.
Gradually and surreptitiously this Orwellian transformation has begun. In June I wrote about the odd phrasings we had started to use about the pandemic: “People treat the virus like the magic populace of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter world treat the evil wizard Lord Voldemort: by refusing to invoke his name. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named caused unspeakable dread in Harry’s world, like the virus has caused panic in ours. So we don’t mention it. We say cumbersome things like ‘in these new times’ or ‘have you celebrated the holiday differently this year,’ with the subtle emphasis indicating that we’re really asking about the pandemic. Families, writes the New York Times, are ‘adapting to their new reality.’”
Still I find myself saying things like “Well, these days,” clearly invoking the virus and the routines we’ve lost, but refusing to speak its name or the horrors our political overlords unleashed in response. Here, then, is the next step in our catastrophic battle against the pandemic: empty words spoken to a stranger, wishing the virus away. May the force be with you.
Only a few years ago “Slacktivism” was the word people derogatorily used for keyboard warriors whose political activism reached all the way from the living room to their Facebook accounts. Angrily broadcasting their meaningless opinion on some current topic through the witless wonders of social media, they were satisfied with a job well done. Campaigners and protesters of ages past knew nothing about how to parade your opinions around.
We’ve now gone one step further: slapping encouraging messages at the end of every conversation ‒ like a real-life email signature turned into real-world monsters. I say “stay safe” at the end of a standard customer service phone call, and magically both me and my customer service representative are going to feel better…? Do the words, like some spell from a magic fairy tale land, protect us from Scary Covid?
The power of nonsense words is pretty astonishing and is not at all limited to the pandemic. These days, thanks to hyper-intolerant wokeness and critical (race) theory, subjectivity has run amok. Everything is as I feel it; and everything is as you feel it, too ‒ at the same time, and nobody is to tell us differently. I say I’m a lady, and suddenly I am; I say the United States was founded in 1619, and suddenly it was; I say I’m a unicorn and suddenly unicorns exist.
Under the spell of these ideas, objective knowledge is a literal impossibility; all there is are power struggles, or at best an unconscious hierarchical play that harms those without power. Even as standard a thing as surveying how many Americans use masks when out in public is no longer constrained by reality. It is what you say it is, the prestigious scientific journal Nature appears to conclude.
The idea seems to be a reawakening of what linguists call a euphemism treadmill: If we just invent new words for bad things, the bad things will go away ‒ and if we think the bad things ought to be good, renaming them will make them so. On this Steven Pinker writes: “People invent new ‘polite’ words to refer to emotionally laden or distasteful things, but the euphemism becomes tainted by association and the new one that must be found acquires its own negative connotation.” ‘Water closets,’ ‘garbage collector’ and the myriad of terms for various ethnic distinctions are only particularly striking examples. Pinker writes that “the name becomes colored by the concept; the concept does not become freshened by the name.”
This strange power of language to change hearts and minds was always dubious at best but has, in our times of coronavirus need, gone completely berserk. We need to have “the Covid talk” with our prospective partners, even wiping them down with disinfectants on our first date. The New York Times and NPR run stories of how to talk to your dates about your preferred level of security (another brilliant euphemism), and how your routines impact my circle of friends. We’re all in this together, as The Guardian so distastefully put it, and we’ll get through it with words of encouragement. Stay strong. Stay woke. Stay safe.
If we tell a virus to back off, it will. If we ensure one another with empty religious phrases, we’ll all be protected from God’s wrath. George Orwell and his “Politics and the English Language” has never felt more relevant."
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Greg Hunter, "2020 Election Most Corrupt in American History"
"2020 Election Most Corrupt in American History"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong said his computers picked up massive fraud coming in the 2020 Election years ago. Armstrong explains, “The computer doesn’t ask my opinion, or anybody else’s, it just goes on the numbers from the economic data. It’s never been wrong. Besides 2016 (predicted Trump win) and for this one, it said it would be the most corrupt election in American history. I published this out at least two years ago. People have to understand, this isn’t my opinion. This has gone far beyond anything I would have anticipated. Every election you have had dead people voting. That’s pretty standard, and that’s not something new. This is just off the charts. This is the Left, and they are so desperate to take over the United States.”
If the cheating is “off the charts,” then how bad was it in terms of fraudulent votes, including votes taken from President Trump and votes given to Joe Biden? Armstrong contends, “The cheating is in the millions, definitely millions, and perhaps as much as 38 million. This is some of the information I am getting from behind the curtain.”
Martin Armstrong also warns, “They (Democrats/communists) want to eliminate the Supreme Court - period. This is outrageous what they are doing. That’s why I have said this is not a simple election between Republican and Democrat. This is something much more sinister. You will own nothing, and you will be happy. Their idea is to strip everybody of all property - period. That’s communism. Then you are going to give guaranteed basic income. If you don’t do what the government tells you to do, like get a vaccine or whatever, then, oh, your guaranteed basic income will be suspended. Then how are you going to eat? This is what they are doing. In communism, they take all assets away from everybody.” Armstrong also says, “They are using CV19 and climate change to set an agenda for control.”
In closing, Armstrong says, “We are getting into a situation where it is a war against us. I hope Trump wins because he’s our last defense against some of these people, and that’s why they have been trying to steal this election. They are promoting this great reset – and it’s communism. These people think this is good for the climate, but they are going to find out they are selling out, not just themselves, but their families and all posterity.”
Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One in this in-depth interview (40 mins. in length) with Martin Armstrong of ArmstrongEconomics.com.
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