"This Species is Amusing Itself to Death. The Addictive Contaminated Media Reality"

"This Species is Amusing Itself to Death.

The Addictive Contaminated Media Reality"

By Dr. Gary G. Kohls

“And when they found our shadows (grouped ‘round the TV sets), they ran down every lead; they repeated every test; they checked out all the data in their lists. And then the alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed, but on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise they logged the only explanation left: This species has amused itself to death.” – Roger Waters

“Apathy and indifference are nurtured in the modern age as most peoples’ free time is frittered away with worthless trivia like ball games, computer games, movies and soaps, and fiddling with their mobile phones. These distractions might be fun, but after most of them you’ve learnt nothing of any value, and remain ignorant, malleable and suggestible, which is just how the elites want you.” – Clive Maund

“A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed… When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” – Dresden James

“A lie gets halfway around the world before 

the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

 – Winston Churchill

"30 years ago (1985) Neil Postman (a professor of communications arts and sciences at New York University – until his death in 2003) wrote the best-selling book “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”. (Free download below.) The book exposed, among other things, the subtle but profound dangers to the developing mind from the mesmerizing (and addictive) commercial television industry.

The lessons from that book have essentially been ignored by the amoral and corrupted sociopathic capitalist system that says “damn the torpedoes/full steam ahead” and blindly and greedily promotes unlimited growth no matter what the costs and who or what gets hurt long–term in the resource-extractive, exploitive and permanently polluting processes.

But Postman’s thesis applies even more strongly today to the current internet/computer/ age-inappropriate, pornographic sex and pornographic violence-saturated televangelist/political-contaminated media reality with which the prophetic Postman was properly alarmed.

SOMA, the Drug That Predicted Prozac by 50 Years: In the classic “Brave New World” (1932) Aldous Huxley wrote about the new form of totalitarianism that has now come to pass in the developed world, thanks to the privatized profit-driven, drug, medical and psychiatric corporations whose practitioners were once (naively or altruistically?) mainly concerned with relieving human suffering and trying to holistically and permanently cure their distressed patients’ ailments (rather than lucratively “managing” said “clients” as permanently paying consumers of unaffordable prescription drugs). Nearly 30 years after he wrote the book, Huxley said,

“And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.”

Neil Postman’s very last sentence of his book concerned the prescription drug-infested victims of the new form of totalitarianism that Huxley had described in “Brave New World”.

Of course, Huxley’s book was all about his imaginary psychotropic drug SOMA that Prozac’s makers and promoters in the late 1980s to falsely claim to make its swallowers “feel better than well”. One of the characters in Brave New World said: “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always Soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always Soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears; that’s what Soma is.”

Postman ended his book by writing: “what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.”

A couple of years after the publication of Postman’s book, Roger Waters (of “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” fame) released a “concept” album that was inspired by the book. He titled the album “Amused to Death”. The lyrics of the title track are as follows:

“Amused To Death”

by Roger Waters

"Doctor Doctor what’s wrong with me

This supermarket life is getting long

What is the heart life of a color TV?

What is the shelf life of a teenage

queen?

Ooh western woman

Ooh western girl

News hound sniffs the air

When Jessica Hahn goes down

He latches on to that symbol of

detachment

Attracted by the peeling away of

feeling

The celebrity of the abused shell

of the belle

Ooh western woman

Ooh western girl

And the children of Melrose strut

their stuff

Is absolute zero cold enough?

And out in the valley warm and clean

The little ones sit by their TV screens

No thoughts to think

No tears to cry

All sucked dry down to the very

last breath.

Bartender what is wrong with me

Why I am so out of breath

The captain said excuse me ma’am

This species has amused itself to death

We watched the tragedy unfold

We did as we were told

We bought and sold

It was the greatest show on earth

But then it was over

We oohed and aahed

We drove our racing cars

We ate our last few jars of caviar

And somewhere out there in the stars

A keen-eyed look-out

Spied a flickering light

Our last hurrah.

And when they found our shadows

Grouped ‘round the TV sets

They ran down every lead

They repeated every test

They checked out all the data in

their lists

And then the alien anthropologists

Admitted they were still perplexed.

But on eliminating every other reason

For our sad demise

They logged the only explanation left

This species has amused itself to death

No tears to cry

No feelings left

This species has amused itself to death…"

- https://www.globalresearch.ca/

○

Freely download “Amusing Ourselves to Death:

 Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, by Neil Postman, here:

- https://interesi.files.wordpress.com/

○

Freely download “Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley here:

- https://docs.google.com/file/

"Regret..."

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;

it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

~ Sydney J. Harris

Free Download: Charles Mackay, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."

 - Carl Sagan

"'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" is an early study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841. The book chronicles its subjects in three parts: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions". MacKay was an accomplished teller of stories, though he wrote in a journalistic and somewhat sensational style.

The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetizers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics. Present-day writers on economics, such as Michael Lewis and Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles. Scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan mentioned the book in his own discussion about pseudoscience, popular delusions, and hoaxes.

In later editions, Mackay added a footnote referencing the Railway Mania of the 1840s as another "popular delusion" which was at least as important as the South Sea Bubble. Mathematician Andrew Odlyzko has pointed out, in a published lecture, that Mackay himself played a role in this economic bubble; as leader writer in the Glasgow Argus, Mackay wrote on 2 October 1845: "There is no reason whatever to fear a crash."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/

Freely download "Extraordinary Popular Delusions 

and the Madness of Crowds", by Charles Mackay, here:

- https://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/pdf/

"First Of All..."

"First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?"

- Thomas Merton

"Retail Nightmare Before Christmas - A Worldwide Horror Story"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, 12/21/21:

"Retail Nightmare Before Christmas - 

A Worldwide Horror Story"

"Retail Sales are off worldwide. It is an absolute Retail Nightmare. It doesn’t matter what country you are in. There is a massive problem with consumer buying on the retail level. Yes, Amazon is shipping, but people are not walking in the stores and buying anything."

"How It Really Is"

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue, 12/20/21"

Full screen recommended.

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue, 12/20/21"

by kimgary

"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.

Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids2 and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."

○

Full screen recommended.

Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 12 /21/21""

 

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/21/21:

"Dystopian C.O.N.T.R.O.L To An Extreme Is Coming, 

Prepare Yourselves"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/21/21:

"Critical Updates: 

Another Major Bank Warns, Markets And More"

 - https://traderschoice.net/

"Frightened?"

 

"This Is Going To Be A REALLY “Dark Winter” For Both America And The Entire Planet"

"This Is Going To Be A REALLY “Dark Winter”

 For Both America And The Entire Planet"

by Michael Snyder

"Enjoy the times that you are able to spend with family and friends now, because things are starting to get really crazy out there. The official beginning of winter is upon us, and just in time there is a frightening new COVID variant that is scaring the living daylights out of politicians all over the planet. Of course those deeply frightened politicians are going to respond to this new threat just like they have responded to every other chapter of this crisis so far. They are going to spend even more money, they are going to relentlessly promote the injections that the big pharmaceutical companies are pushing, and they are going to impose more absurd authoritarian measures. Needless to say, that means that this is going to be a really bad winter for the entire globe.

On Monday, the Biden administration stunned people all over the country when it promised a “winter of severe illness and death” for those that have declined to get vaccinated. The following comes from the official White House website…"For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm. So, our message to every American is clear: There is action you can take to protect yourself and your family. Wear a mask in public indoor settings. Get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated, and get a booster shot when you’re eligible."

Have we ever seen such a bizarre statement come out of the White House? Those words are seething with contempt for those that have refused to do what Biden wants them to do.

Shortly after this statement was released, critics of Biden started firing back. For example, this is what Tim Murtaugh had to say on Twitter…"Going into the year of the midterm elections, the Biden White House has settled on its slogan: “A winter of severe illness and death.” Sounds like a winner.

Actually, it is quite likely that we will see a tremendous amount of illness and death this winter, but it won’t be in the places that Biden is expecting. Just look at what is happening in New York City. Even though the vast majority of the city is “fully vaccinated”, New York has broken its single day case record for four days in a row…"New York state’s vaccinated health commissioner tested positive for COVID-19 via a rapid test, marking yet another breakthrough case as the Big Apple battles a record-breaking viral surge, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday as she acknowledged the open seat next to her. Dr. Mary T. Bassett has also gotten her booster, she added.

News of the positive test for the state’s leading health official came the same day the Empire State broke its own single-day pandemic case record for a fourth straight day, with Hochul reporting nearly 23,400 new cases overnight. The lion’s share of those infections come from New York City, where over 15,000 people tested positive, up nearly 50% since Friday."

As Omicron spreads very rapidly in New York and elsewhere, spooked investors are starting to dump their stocks. On Monday, the Dow was down another 433 points…"U.S. stocks slid Monday, continuing last week’s losses, as the rapid spread of the omicron variant continues to worry investors who fear the new surge could hamper economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 433 points, or 1.23%, while the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite index declined 1.14% and 1.24%, respectively. At session lows, the Dow was down 699.94 points, or 1.98%." If fear of Omicron continues to grow, that will be very bad news for the financial markets.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is warning that Omicron could make the worst supply chain crisis in U.S. history even worse…"Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is concerned the Omicron coronavirus variant will exacerbate pressure on the already stressed-out global supply chain. “It’s way too soon to tell. But I do worry, because we know people are afraid to go to work,” Raimondo told CNN during an interview at her Washington office."

And it appears that a fresh wave of inflation is now upon us. Lumber prices were on the cutting edge of the last wave, and they are starting to go absolutely nuts once again…"Futures for January delivery ended Friday at $1,089.10 per thousand board feet, twice the price for a prompt delivery in mid-November. Cash prices are way up as well. Pricing service Random Lengths said that its framing composite index, which tracks on-the-spot sales, has jumped 65% since October, to $915. A $129 gain this week was the biggest on record, eclipsing a $124 jump in May, when lumber prices crested at all-time highs."

In the midst of such a highly inflationary environment, the Democrats wanted to pass the “Build Back Better bill” and spend another gigantic mountain of money. Thankfully, Senator Joe Manchin has chosen to vote against this ridiculous bill, and that is going to prevent it from getting through Congress. When asked about his vote, this is how he responded…

Manchin said, “I’ve done everything possible. And you know my concerns I had, and I still have these concerns and where I’m at right now, the inflation but I was concerned about, it’s not transitory, it’s real, it’s harming every West Virginian, making it difficult for them to continue to go to their jobs. The cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of utility bills, all of these things are hitting in every aspect of their life.” He added, “If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything possible. I can’t get there.”

I never thought that I would be thankful for Joe Manchin, and I hope that he continues to maintain his courageous stand. But of course other governments all over the globe continue to recklessly borrow and spend money, and that is likely to accelerate in 2022.

We really are on the verge of a historic global economic nightmare, and I really like how Egon von Greyerz recently summarized what is about to hit us…"The moral message is that when chaos hits, the destruction will affect everyone, rich and poor, young and old. No one will escape by power or devotion. The financial, economic and moral devastation which is about to hit the world will for more than 99.5% of the people will come out of the blue like a flash from a clear sky. For most people the coming events will thus be like the definition of the word CHAOS: “A state of total confusion and disorder”…"

Most people blindly trusted that our leaders knew what they were doing. But they didn’t, and now we are heading into a time of extreme bitterness for the entire planet. If we would have made much different choices, things could have turned out much differently. Unfortunately, now we will have to live with the consequences of our decisions, and they will be very painful indeed."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Ben Garrison Exposes The Elephant In The Room"

"Ben Garrison Exposes The Elephant In The Room"

by Ben Garrison

"In America we are all entitled to an opinion. The First Amendment guarantees our free speech. Unfortunately, many are now censored for having an opinion that does not align with the ‘official’ one pushed by the globalist ‘authorities.’ In particular, any opinion that contradicts the current and ongoing medical tyranny is banned. We at GrrrGraphics recently endured a one-week suspension on Twitter merely because one of our cartoons questioned the abuse of vaccines. It’s my opinion, based on copious evidence, that the so-called vaccines for COVID-19 aren’t working. That said, we at GrrrGraphics are not dispensing medical advice. If you insist on getting jabbed with experimental gene therapy drugs, then that’s your decision.

Back in February Anthony Fauci pronounced the Covid injections to be “100 percent safe and effective” at preventing death by the Chinese bioweapon he helped fund. This was ridiculous if one considers that it usually takes a new vaccine nearly a decade of trials and testing before given to mass populations. In this case, billions around the world have been subjected to a giant lab experiment.

By April, Fauci downgraded his glowing scientific analysis and said no vaccine is 100 percent effective. No kidding. Everyone’s body chemistry is different. A one-size fits all inoculation is crazy. Some are allergic, some have already had vaccine damage and can’t take more. Due to the lack of testing, who knows what dangers lie ahead for the vaccinated.

Then we found out the vaccines did not stop the jabbed from transmitting the virus. Then we found out the vaccinated could still contract COVID-19, but Fauci said if that happened the symptoms would be less severe. Then we started hearing about people who were fully vaccinated yet still died from the virus, and along the way we read many stories of people dying from the vaccinations themselves.

Fauci has been promoted as the very embodiment of science, but he’s often wrong. He was wrong about the treatment of AIDS sufferers about three decades ago. Many died from him recommending the drug, AZT until it was pulled from the market. Israel recently awarded Fauci a one million dollar prize for ‘speaking truth to power’ amid the so-called pandemic. That was a howler. Fauci is the sadistic face of power that has corrupted science. Let’s not forget he funded the torture of beagles. A man who is cruel to animals has no problem being cruel to human beings.

Now we’re seeing increased Covid cases and deaths among the fully vaccinated. The lying corporate media won’t talk about it, but, you can find plenty of evidence presented by real journalists.

We will have continue to hear about one variant after another. Coronavirus tends to mutate. That’s why it’s tough to cure the common cold. I’m sure Fauci and Gates will recommend endless boosters and new vaccines. Gates, Fauci, and Big Pharma, will all continue to rake in even more taxpayer money. More people will die, but that’s the New World Order’s plan. Fear will continue to be fanned because it’s necessary for the globalists’ Great Reset plan. That plan includes far less humans on a planet owned by the oligarchs at the top of the pyramid."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

- https://grrrgraphics.com/

"Against All Odds..."

"There's a little animal in all of us and maybe that's something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other's keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there's a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve."

- "Grey's Anatomy"

Musical Interlude: Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn...”

- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"

Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"

"Retail Apocalypse Goes From Bad To Worse And Sparks Mass Store Closures And Business Bankruptcies"

Full screen recommended.

"Retail Apocalypse Goes From Bad To Worse 

And Sparks Mass Store Closures And Business Bankruptcies"

by Epic Economist

"Mass store closures have continued throughout the entire year of 2021 as the retail apocalypse accelerated the demise of several household brands that have failed the test of time. An equally horrifying fate is affecting U.S. malls, which are getting increasingly emptier and closer to bankruptcy as consumer patterns change. Roaring inflation and supply chain shortages are also compromising the performance of several businesses given that customers are being left with higher prices and fewer choices. Industry experts say that the collapse of brick-and-mortar retailers has become inevitable at this point. Mostly because in-store experiences are not as appealing as they used to be for consumers. Even brands that came up with creative ways to entice customers to visit their stores are filing for bankruptcy due to their inability to survive in such a competitive environment.

On top of that, the health crisis is undoubtedly contributing to people's fear of enclosed public spaces. Many Americans have been avoiding physical stores since mask mandates and movement restrictions started to be introduced in March 2020. As economic conditions started worsening again -- with inflation at a 40-year high while people's purchasing power steadily drops -- many of the stores that managed to stay afloat until this point are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. That's why, for thousands of U.S. stores, this holiday shopping season is going to be the last. With widespread shortages of supplies, a reduced labor force, and collapsing profits, several retailers are being forced to close doors for good.

Amongst them, Sears and Kmart, two brands that once proudly dominated the US retail landscape and actually emerged from bankruptcy three years ago, are hanging by a thread once again -- and industry executives are betting on the extinction of both brands. Today, there are only 21 full-line Sears stores left in the United States, according to the store locator on the Sears website. And if sales are proven to be good enough by the end of this quarter, there will be only six Sears stores left in the country. But if earnings disappoint, that will be the end. Of course, Sears and Kmart are not the only retailers struggling with the shift of consumer patterns towards e-commerce or big-box retailers, such as Walmart and Target. You've probably heard about the fatal collapse of JCPenney and Neiman Marcus, which filed for bankruptcy right after the onset of the health crisis, while Lord & Taylor went out of business, and other brands, such as GameStop, Gap, Disney have started to shut down thousands of stores to financially recover.

Many more are still in trouble as the retail apocalypse drags on. Considering that vendors are having major problems supplying much stronger retailers with the inventory they need due to the current supply chain crisis, it's getting exceedingly difficult for troubled retailers to get the products their customers want. And the ongoing labor shortage makes it even more difficult for the struggling chains to attract the workers they need. And at least 3000 more stores could be closed after this holiday season if the volume of sales isn't enough to compensate for the losses recorded over the course of the year. Experts say that the total could reach 10,000 stores or more by mid-2022, especially if the economy falls into recession again. Another issue these struggling brands are having to cope with is the rise of retail theft. In California alone, retail theft accounts for $15 billion in losses every year. Recent reports have been describing "smash and grab" incidents happening all over the state. Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Assn., said in a recent interview that in San Francisco and Oakland alone, businesses lose $3.6 billion to organized retail crime each year.

Meanwhile, American malls are dying a slow and painful death. These American cultural touchstones are also disintegrating as part of the retail apocalypse. Companies that stayed in the market for over a century are seeing their consolidated brands fade away as the apocalypse sweeps through the retail industry and leaves thousands of vacant stores and collapsing malls in its wake. Sadly, about 250 malls across the country are on the brink of bankruptcy and might be gone by the end of 2022. However, things are only going to get worse in the sector, because according to UBS, at least 80,000 retail stores are threatened by closure as e-commerce rises and the economy slides. Unfortunately, as consumers have to cope with sharp price hikes, rampant inflation, and an unstable economic and financial scenario, America's retail landscape will never be the same. Every apocalypse marks the end of an era. And our future lies in the unknown."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

"What Are You Made Of?"

RedFrost Motivation, "What Are You Made Of?"

Narrated by Chris Lines

"Fauci’s Finished"

"Fauci’s Finished"

by Jim Rickards

"Relax. They're not going to kill us. 

They're going to TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing." 

- Steve Voake

"Tomorrow, Joe Biden is expected to address the nation about the new Omicron variant of the virus. An aide claims the administration is "prepared for the rising case levels" and that Biden will explain how it "will respond to this challenge." The Omicron variant is highly contagious. Some models, along with data from Europe, suggest the number of cases could potentially double every two days. Of course, you can’t really trust models, but this variant is spreading rapidly.

The good news is that it doesn’t appear to be particularly dangerous. Symptoms are generally described as those of a mild cold. But you can expect Biden to dial up the fear tomorrow. He’s probably going to try to shame the unvaccinated and warn about a “dark winter” ahead because of their refusal to take the jabs. For the fully vaccinated, he’s going to tell them to get the booster. We’ll have to see what else he has in store, but you can be sure it won’t involve telling everyone to take hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin if they start showing symptoms.

Changing Goalposts: It’s all about vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate! And when you’re done vaccinating, get ready for another. The goalposts are constantly changing. It was always expected that the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID vaccines would be two-dose treatments. (That’s not true of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine, which was always a one-dose regimen. Janssen’s is the only vaccine that relies on a more traditional adenovirus rather than mRNA technology to instruct your cells to create the toxic spike protein.)

The vaccines were initially reported to be highly effective at reducing severe symptoms and deaths. This was despite some serious side effects that have not been fully reported and are still being evaluated. The likely number of vaccine-induced deaths exceeds 20,000, based on the VAERS reporting system. We don’t know the true number because there’s no definitive evidence that the vaccine caused the death, but the spike in reported deaths since the vaccines came out is off the charts. It’s not proof of a fire, but there’s lots of smoke.

Meanwhile, all of the vaccines were falsely presented to the public as preventing infection. But that was untrue. The vaccines do not prevent infection or spread of the virus. Still, public health officials went on a full-court press to achieve 100% vaccination rates regardless of side effects, religious objections, medical objections based on asthma and other conditions and regardless of the natural immunity already acquired by over 50 million Americans who have had the disease and recovered. Besides, the vaccines do not appear to be effective at preventing infections from the Omicron variant. The fully vaccinated and the boosted can still get sick.

Lepers: Vaccine mandates were enforced through a large number of drastic outcomes for the unvaccinated. You could lose your job; lose a government contract; be denied international travel; be discharged from the military; and be denied access to restaurants, sports venues and concerts among other activities if you did not get vaccinated.

The unvaccinated were treated like lepers with the result that many got vaccinated against their better judgment solely to avoid the harsh treatment otherwise reserved for them. The only consolation was that once you were vaccinated and had your paperwork in order (and ready to present to the vax enforcers), you could go about your business when it came to work, travel or leisure.

But wait, not so fast. The petty government dictators who invented these rules in the first place are now moving the goalposts. Not only do the vaccines not stop infection, but they don’t even do their job of reducing symptoms after about six months. Naturally, Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying that it’s just a matter of time before the definition of “fully vaccinated” is changed to require three shots instead of two (or two for Janssen instead of one).

Boosters Forever: The implications of this are enormous. It means that those who thought they had put the vaccination issue behind them will have to get in line for another shot if they want to go about their business without discrimination. The supposedly vaccinated will find themselves back in the leper colony with the unvaccinated if they don’t get the new booster. Of course, the booster will wear off after six months also. (It’s called a “booster” but it’s the same vaccine as the first shot.) And that means you will have to get boosters for the rest of your life to comply with Dr. Fauci’s dictatorship.

Vaccines should be allowed as a matter of choice but vaccine mandates are mostly illegal (per recent court rulings) and counterproductive in the sense that they encourage resistance, not compliance. Though it’s not proven, mass vaccination could also be causing new variants because it forces the virus to evolve. A better strategy would likely involve targeted vaccination for the most vulnerable, with therapeutics for everyone else. That would reduce the pressure on the virus to mutate while giving natural immunity to the people who were treated early and recovered. And studies indicate natural immunity is up to 27 times more powerful than vaccine-induced immunity.

Back to the Same Failed Playbook: In the meantime, expect more damage to the economy as resources are wasted in a vain attempt to achieve Zero COVID. Politicians and the bureaucrats who guide them keep reaching for the same playbook, even though the plays didn’t work the first time. Mask mandates, lockdowns, school closings, vaccine mandates and other dictates did nothing to help.

The evidence is clear that masks don’t work. Lockdowns turned homes into COVID incubators. The better approach was to encourage people to be outside without masks, getting exercise and fresh air. School closures deprived children of a year of education and the socialization skills that come with it. Will this end anytime soon? In some free states like Florida and New Hampshire (where I live), most of the madness has ended already. But in neo-fascist states like Michigan, Oregon and Washington, the madness continues.

“Permanent… Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Permanent”: For example, the state of Oregon already had a mask mandate. However, it was issued under rules that make it temporary. This means that the deadline had to be extended from time to time, which requires public notice and possibly hearings. In order to avoid these requirements, Oregon began a process to make the mask mandate permanent. When asked to explain the new policy, the medical director for communicable diseases of the Oregon Health Authority, Dr. Paul Cieslak, defended the decision by saying, “Permanent … doesn’t necessarily mean permanent.” George Orwell must be smiling somewhere at that perfect illustration of Newspeak. It’s amazing how supposedly temporary measures can become permanent.

Meanwhile, Fauci was asked on a weekend talk show if we’re ever going to reach a point where we won’t need to wear masks on airplanes. Fauci replied, “I don’t think so.” So you’re always going to need to wear a mask on a plane regardless of the circumstances if Fauci has his way. Here’s another bit of madness: Three months ago an FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly, 16–2, against booster shots for the general public. But three months later, colleges are actually mandating boosters for the upcoming spring semester. What happened to “the science”?

Americans Are Fighting Back: The American people are increasingly fed up with these contradictory, destructive and non-scientific mandates from the neo-fascist bureaucrats who are mainly pursuing their own agendas. The real solution to the pandemic consists of mutations that attenuate the virus, herd immunity, better treatments, fresh air and exercise. Fauci’s dream of making everyone a vax slave will not last. His failure will require resistance by the general population.

That resistance is already taking place. Fauci is conflicted, incompetent and insecure. Moving the goalposts on vaccination is making that clear to the public. He will be deposed and vaccination will be made voluntary, but not yet. In the meantime, expect the madness to continue."

- dailyreckoning.com

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Related, essential reading:

"Unthinkable Thoughts"

"Perhaps..."

 

"The Sandcastle"

"The Sandcastle"

by Jeff Thomas

"The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one. That’s not a pleasant thought to have to consider, but it’s a fact, nonetheless. In every case, a democracy will deteriorate as the result of the electorate accepting the loss of freedom in trade for largesse from their government. This process may be fascism, socialism, communism, or a basket of "isms," but tyranny is the inevitable endgame of democracy. Like the destruction of a sandcastle by the incoming tide, it requires time to transpire, but in time, the democracy, like the sandcastle, will be washed away in its entirety.

Why should this be so? Well, as I commented some years ago, "The concept of government is that the people grant to a small group of individuals the ability to establish and maintain controls over them. The inherent flaw in such a concept is that any government will invariably and continually expand upon its controls, resulting in the ever-diminishing freedom of those who granted them the power."

Unfortunately, there will always be those who wish to rule, and there will always be a majority of voters who are complacent enough and naïve enough to allow their freedoms to be slowly removed. This adverb "slowly" is the key by which the removal of freedoms is achieved. The old adage of "boiling a frog" is that the frog will jump out of the pot if it’s filled with hot water, but if the water is lukewarm and the temperature is slowly raised, he’ll grow accustomed to the temperature change and will inadvertently allow himself to be boiled.

Let’s have a look at Thomas Jefferson’s assessment of this technique: "Even under the best forms of Government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Mister Jefferson was a true visionary. He knew, even as he was penning the Declaration of Independence and portions of the Constitution, that his proclamations, even if they were accepted by his fellow founding fathers, would not last. He recommended repeated revolutions to counter the inevitable tendency by political leaders to continually vie for the removal of the freedoms from their constituents.

Around the same time that Mister Jefferson made the above comment, Alexander Tytler, a Scottish economist and historian, commented on the new American experiment in democracy. He’s credited as saying, "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

So, was each of the above gentlemen throwing a dart at a board, or did they each have some kind of crystal ball? Well, actually, neither. Each was a keen student of history. Each knew that the pattern, by the end of the 18th century, had already repeated itself time and time again. In fact, as early as the fourth century BC, Plato had quoted Socrates as having stated to Adeimantus, "Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery comes out of the most extreme form of liberty."

Today, much of what was called the "free world" only half a century ago has deteriorated into a combination of residual capitalism, which has been largely and increasingly buried by socialism and fascism. (It should be mentioned that the oft-misinterpreted definition of "fascism" is the joint rule by corporate and state - a condition that’s now manifestly in place in much of the former "free" world.)

Today, many people perceive fascism as a tyrannical condition that’s suddenly imposed by a dictator, but this is rarely the case. Fascism is in fact a logical step. Just as voters succumb over time to the promises of socialism, so a parallel decline occurs as fascism slowly replaces capitalism. Fascism may appear to be capitalism, but it’s the antithesis of a free market. As Vladimir Lenin rightly stated, "Fascism is capitalism in decline."

Comrade Lenin understood the value of fascism for political leaders. Whilst he retained a close relationship with New York and London bankers, and a healthy capitalist market was tapped into for Soviet-era imports, he was aware that his power base depended largely on denying capitalism to his minions.

So, from the above quotations, we may see that there’s been a fairly erudite group of folks out there who have commented on this topic over the last 2,500 years. They agree that democracies, like sandcastles, never last. They generally begin promisingly, but, given enough time, any government will erode democracy as quickly as the political leaders can get away with it, and the progression always ends in tyranny.

We’re presently at a major historical juncture - a time in which much of the former free world is in the final stages of decay and approaching the tyranny stage. At this point, the process tends to speed up. We can observe this as we see an increase in the laws being passed to control the population - increased taxation, increased regulation, and increased promises of largesse from the government that they don’t have the funding to deliver.

When any government reaches this stage, it knows only too well that it will not deliver and that, when the lie is exposed, the populace will be hopping mad. Therefore, just before the endgame, any government can be expected to ramp up its police state. The demonstrations by governments that they’re doing so are now seen regularly - aids by SWAT teams in situations where just a small number of authorities could handle the situation just as well. Displays of armed forces in the street, including armored vehicles, in instances of disruption.

In London, Ferguson, Paris, Boston, etc., the authoritarian displays have become ever-more frequent. All that’s now necessary is a series of events (whether staged or real) to suggest domestic terrorism in several locations at roughly the same time. A state of national emergency may then be declared "for the safety of the people."

It’s this justification that will assure the success of tyranny. Historically, the majority of people in any county, in any era, choose the illusion of safety over freedom. As John Adams was fond of saying, "Those who would trade freedom for safety will have neither."

From this point on, it would be wise for anyone who lives in the EU, US, UK, etc. to watch events closely. If a rash of "domestic terrorism" appears suddenly, it could well be the harbinger that the government has reached the tipping point - when tyranny under the guise of "protecting the safety of the people" is inaugurated. The most essential takeaway here is that, although some may object (even violently), the majority of the people will trade their freedom for the promise of safety."

- internationalman.com

"Economy A Giant Mess; Economic Unknown; Disposable Income Craters; Stagflation; Retailers Empty"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/20/21:

"Economy A Giant Mess; Economic Unknown; 

Disposable Income Craters; Stagflation; Retailers Empty"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"To some, it may look like a beehive. In reality, the featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a cosmic pillar of dust, over two-light years long, inside of which is Herbig-Haro 666 - a young star emitting powerful jets. The structure lies within one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions, the Carina Nebula, shining in southern skies at a distance of about 7,500 light-years. 

The pillar's layered outline are shaped by the winds and radiation of Carina's young, hot, massive stars, some of which are still forming inside the nebula. A dust-penetrating view in infrared light better shows the two, narrow, energetic jets blasting outward from a still hidden infant star."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211214.html

"Feeling Fed Up with Humanity, In the World and in Ourselves"

"Feeling Fed Up with Humanity, In the World and in Ourselves"

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"We are all capable of the best and the worst that humanity has to offer and knowing this allows us to find compassion. From time to time, we may all feel fed up with humanity, whether it’s from learning about what’s going on around the world, or what’s going on next door. There are always situations that leave us feeling as if people are simply not capable of behaving in a way that is coming from a place of awareness. Often it seems as if people are actually geared to handle things in the worst possible way, repeatedly. At the same time, none of us wants to linger in a judgmental mood about our own species. As a result, we might tend to repress the feelings coming up as we take in the news from the world and the neighborhood.

It is natural to feel let down and disappointed when we see our fellow humans behaving in ways that are greedy, selfish, violent, or uncaring, but there are also ways to process that disappointment without sinking into despondency. As with any emotional response, we honor our feelings by feeling them fully, without judging or acting on them. Once we’ve done that— and we may need to do it every day, as part of our daily self-care — we can begin to consider ways that we might help the situation in which humanity finds itself.

As always, we start with ourselves, utilizing our awareness of the failings of others to renew our own commitment to be more conscious human beings. We are all capable of the best and the worst that humanity has to offer, and remembering this keeps us in check, as well as allowing us to find compassion for others. We may find ourselves feeling compelled to serve people who are suffering injustices at the hands of other people, or we may begin to speak out when we see something that we don’t think is right. Whatever the case, the only thing we can do is pledge to serve the best, rather than the worst, of what humanity has to offer, both in the world, and in ourselves."

- http://www.dailyom.com/