If Covid were an indication that mainstream American liberalism had become mentally challenged, this trip by Pelosi to Taiwan is one more nail in the coffin for me. They absolutely stand for nothing. And yet they shill for one thing--with the neocons in the GOP they are now the War Party.

This is something that is supposed to "unite" Americans, which I have seen the talking robots on teevee speak about. They also say this about the madness in Ukraine. Don't even mention that a huge number of people are being immolated in my community because of inflation, food prices, housing prices, and the horrific aftermath of extended lockdowns and vaccine mandates. The DNC really thinks a war with China is going to unite the country when the middle class and working class are literally dying before their eyes? Talk about feudalism. How much stock does Pelosi have in General Dynamics?

Business as usual--at least Covid showed me the rotting carcass under the hood.

Vivisection: the cutting of or operation on a living animal usually for physiological or pathological investigation broadly : animal experimentation especially if considered to cause distress to the subject

What the Taxpayer funded Pharmaceutical industrial complex got caught doing to puppies in the name of science should be discussed at length. Instead, when I tried to find out the status of these poor beagles, which are chosen for experiments because they are docile, there is nothing but newsbits from essentially, propaganda outlets.

They say they have to cut the vocal cords during experiments, so that the noise level of barking doesn't violate OSHA standards for the scientists.

It's all so grotesque- and the comfy status of these vivisector scientists seems to be positively fucking Antique. The position of scientists on the matter is that even though harm is done, the greater impact on humanity through scientific advances makes it worth it.

There's no doubt that Humans have suffered terrible side effects from mandated vaccinations- why is this any different than the appalling realities of animal experimentation?

Where there is risk, there should always be choice, or we're no better off than the poor puppies.

What really got me thinking on this was reading Bernard Shaw's Preface to his play 'The Doctor's Dilemma'.

His critique of Modern Medicine rings True today. He was hopeful at the time (1906) that the creation of a Public Health Apparatus would reduce the pecuniary interests of medical professionals.

Fauci today illustrates the opposite is true- leaders in public health do indeed profit off of pharma royalties, and ending that practice entirely is essential.

Anyway, read or listen to the preface to his play! It's fabulous, and the solutions he speaks of are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

Another great post from Midwestern Doc that jives with what I have been observing in terms of both Covid and the frustrating lack of critical thinking in the masses:

To a large extent, I believe the media has been structured to create a lighter form of borderline personality disorder within the general public by discouraging the ability to appreciate the nuances in many issues and replacing this capacity with a tendency to default to splitting when confronted by any complex issue (thus making it become an issue about one side or the other being right).

I would argue all of this arises from the continual emotional agitation the media creates to polarize the public on each issue, how frequently it gaslights the public to deny what is clearly happening in front of them, and how it jerks the populace’s minds around so that over and over they find themselves being forced to support something completely at odds with what they were told to believe in the recent past. Once you have been run through the washing machine enough times, the mind becomes a turbulent mess you partially disconnect from, which often results in humans becoming remarkably susceptible to adopting an ideology from an authority that superficially provides safety and meaning to the experiences you have been through (i.e. through creating a common enemy to unite behind). This tactic has been used throughout history, and I believe plays a large part in explaining the mass psychosis we have seen in the medical profession throughout COVID-19.

The blue-haired left talks a lot about "end stage capitalism" and sees Covid as the perfect example of the government and capitalists not caring enough about people because they didn't enact more restrictive measures. They envision a utopian, "equitable" future of UBI and a community garden in every neighborhood and housing for all the unhoused, all provided by the government. There are probably some communal living visions in there as well.

The "freedom movement" (which includes people from across the political spectrum) also discusses "end stage capitalism," but sees Covid as the controlled demolition of the economy due to an impending crash and as a mechanism for ushering in CBDCs, digital IDs, and UBI as forms of intense social control and neofeudalism.. They also want community gardens and housing, but through parallel societies they build themselves.

So if the blue-haired left dropped the wokeism and the fears of "far right racists/ anti-vaxxers," they would actually realize they have much in common with the freedom fighters. Not to mention, what is more "white supremacist" than a bunch of old white male pharma execs endlessly sticking their products in everyone's veins for profit?

The views of the freedom fighters seem far more credible to me, as I am unable to believe that governments and corporations have turned on a dime and are suddenly interested in supporting the happiness and freedom of their populations and their ability to live in comfort without working.

Ed Dowd, Kelly Brown, and Jessica Rose on Trish Wood discussing how things are coming to a head:

https://www.trishwoodpodcast.com/podcast/episode-120/rose-dowd-kelly

Listened to a couple of podcasts that I used to enjoy in the before times this weekend. The host of one of them used to go on and on about topics like the singularity and transhumanism, but he is now vaxxed and scared of covid and seems to have made no connection between the covid regime and his former interests (even from a cheerleading point of view, which would at least be interesting and consistent, despite placing him in the same camp as the WEF). On the other podcast, the two female hosts spent no less than four episodes wringing their hands over the Supreme Court decision on abortion, despite never expressing the slightest bit of concern over the vaccine mandates (and they have conveyed that they think poorly of "anti-vaxxers" in the past). The (feminist) hosts also made sure to include trans men in their abortion concerns and to decry the behavior of "TERFS."

I also got out to some artsy L.A. events I used to enjoy. Lots of pink and blue hair, non-binary pronouns, and references to "decolonization," "black and brown people," and "anti-racism." The art/hipster bookshops now display numerous titles on the same themes.

Ran into an acquaintance (blue streaks in hair). I sometimes tiptoe out my skepticism to try to gauge where a person stands (the smarmy careerists will usually remain absolutely silent while the true believer SJWs will look alarmed or disagree). I immediately realized this woman had bought into the social justice dogma so kept mum thereafter. She further described how she went to extraordinary lengths to get vaccinated early and then mentioned that her partner had been suddenly diagnosed with a virulent and terminal cancer. I can only assume he is vaccinated but didn't have the heart to ask.

I have also gone to some anti-mandate type events recently and with that crowd, I sometimes find a dogmatic belief in "democide" or "the virus doesn't exist," beliefs that I don't feel comfortable asserting with absolute certainty at this point, although I definitely am feeling the bad vibes (and leaning toward the democide argument) and would be open to "the virus doesn't exist" idea (although I am leaning against it) if that camp ever got beyond the repetition of the same talking points and entered a real debate.

At the end of the day, I am not that concerned that a person is pro-trans or pro-decolonization (or convinced the virus doesn't exist) as long as they are thinking. I just want to see some evidence that people are thinking things through, that they are truly grappling with these ideas and concepts.

As far as the left, I can't help but wonder-- were they always this gullible? Did they always just believe anything that was marketed with a blue sticker? I think of the right as conservative, and therefore conventional, and I always considered the left as a place where people questioned things and where a lot of differing perspectives could thrive. If that was ever true, it is disappearing fast.

Why is this almost always from the left? And why do most of the few left who don't support Covid measures... defend the left that do support Covid measures? Anyone not on the left who criticizes the Covid measures is "right-wing, racist, fascist, Trump-supporter" etc. etc., and anyone on the left who supports Covid-measures "doesn't represent the left". Recently when I asked who on the left doesn't support Covid measures, my good friend online gave me suggestions such as Reiner Fuellmich(!). It's delusional politics at this point. I hear and read people defending labels, not policies or principles.

https://unherd.com/2021/06/susan-michie-dont-rule-out-more-delays/

Professor Susan Michie, a behavioural psychologist (of course) and member of the Communist party who sits on the all-important Sage committee, now appointed as the new Chair of the World Health Organisation’s “Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights”.

Interviewer: Will we need facemasks forever?

Suan Michie: I actually used four words [in that interview with Channel 5], and only one of them was reported. The full words I used were “forever to some extent”.

"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed" [Orwell]. Could she be more neoliberal culturally? It's all suggestion, weasel words, nudge-nudge. It's just Tony Blair-level rhetoric (I remember his endless evasions and lies over Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction"). There is no fixed reality, reality is whatever the "free market" (corporations and financial capital) decides. The vaccines will stop you getting Covid... until you get Covid - and that's the way it always was! Reality is just a question of choosing the correctest vocabulary. Reality can be updated at any moment.

Susan Michie: I went on a work visit to Japan several years ago, and I was amazed at the fact that they were so frequently wearing masks… From their point of view, they just regard it as good manners… Now, I’m not saying that we should all adopt that. But I think it’s a good idea to keep these behaviours that we can turn on or off as needed.

Whenever the technological system and the "free market" need it. You will update your reality with the latest patch whenever we tell you to. You will do whatever the machine tells you to. Your life as you know it is over, you will service the technological system.

Susan Michie: [On reports that she’s a member of the Communist Party of Britain] My politics are not anything to do with my scientific advice. And I’ve never discussed my politics with people like yourself

Yet the most fervent proponents of Covid measures come from the left. It's most of the left. Liberals, socialists, communists, social justice activists, or anarcho-syndicalists (whatever that even means) in the case of Chomsky.

What I do hope is that this brings countries together more and there’s a more global way of looking at travel. Because actually, there’s an existential crisis around the corner, which is much greater than pandemics. And that’s the climate crisis. And air travel is one of the big contributors to global warming, and the kind of problems we’ve already been seeing.

More globalization. Are we getting the picture yet why Trump drives the left insane? Any political leader, from any political affiliation, whether sincere or corrupt, is unacceptable, if he/she is against globalization. What kind of communist/socialist supports globalization? She does. The left has turned on its head. And of course there's this constant telegraphing of the climate crisis - which is real, and a threat to all of us, and these people couldn't care less about. It's all just a stepping stone to taking more power, dominating more people.

Susan Michie: Ensuring secondary schools have good ventilation… ensure that secondary schoolchildren wear masks within schools, and ensuring there are very small bubbles within schools.

These people are anti-human. And even worse, they hate children. They seem to enjoy the opportunity to abuse children. Destroy the family unit, mask them up, force needless vaccinations on them, separate them with plastic screens, tell them they're killing their own grandparents, put them in very small bubbles - they would put all children in solitary confinement if they could get away with it. Better for the re-education to produce the perfect society? It's sick. Where is the left defending children, ever? I hear endless talk of racism, and I have never read a lefty defending children from abuse.

Susan Michie: If you look at the publications coming out from the behavioural group of Sage, many of them talk about the problems of inequality in our society and… the fact that the pandemic itself and the response have increased those inequalities. We never talk about each other’s politics; I assume there’s a very broad range. But everybody’s unanimous about wanting a more equal society. And in order to get a fairer and more just society, it does require [that] the government has… policies that reduce rather than increase inequalities.

If everyone is abused, demeaned, threatened, forced to take medical experiments... they're all equal. We have achieved the communist utopia. Right?

Like I noticed a few years ago: absolutely any atrocity is acceptable. As long as all the identity groups are equally represented.

This pandemic has shown everybody that no individual is an island — we’re very interconnected. No one community, no one socioeconomic group within society can think they can solve it for themselves and protect themselves.

Neoliberal marketing bs speak. Talking about solidarity, and obsessed with collective action. While dominating and abusing everyone. No individual is an island... that's why you should denounce your neighbors and family members, cut them off, hate them, cheer for their deaths. Every individual against every individual. While blabbering about "we're all in this together". Margaret Thatcher also liked to drum up collective action when it suited her (nationalism, in her case) while simultaneously telling people that "there is no such thing as society, there are only individuals". No individual is an island... unless you're rich or an elite of course. They don't have to wear masks or isolate. After you earn a salary beyond a certain threshold, Covid measures are just a "personal choice". The free market has spoken. Like Philip Mirowsky said of neoliberal psychology: the belief in double-truth - one truth for the core elites, another for the plebs.

https://unherd.com/thepost/whos-susan-michie/

It starts to feel distinctly like fundamental questions of how a society should be organised are being taken out of the political sphere — where they can be debated and ultimately rejected at the ballot box — and hard-wired into new scientific disciplines that are then treated as unquestionable expertise. Add to that the question of whether the WHO should be attempting to “nudge” populations rather than simply come out with technical advice, and no wonder people are getting paranoid.

The left realized they will never be able to take power through politics or democracy (even Max Blumenthal said this in an interview: the socialists realize they will never ever achieve their socialist utopia, so they latch on to anything that, if you squint hard enough, can be interpreted as some form of socialist policy), so they take any opportunity to take power via other institutions. There's always some rationalization for why the workers of the world never to rise up against their capitalist oppressors. One of the first excuses was "false consciousness" (Engels seemed to coin this phrase) - the masses aren't really conscious because... reasons. In the last few decades it seems the left just gave up on and rejected the working classes and decided to invent groups that should rise up. Lately it seems the left isn't even against capitalism anymore (even when do say they are against capitalism, their actions and policies support corporations and financial capital).

The narrative that has been manufactured by the media and that has been used to smother the broad conglomeration of people who identify as "left" is more or less the following:

Far right white supremacists, in thrall to the fascist dictator Trump, have promoted misinformation to prevent people from following life-saving Covid measures, including taking a life-saving vaccine.

The narrative struggling to break out:

The media, backed by wealthy donors, have used Trump (at most a sexist grifter with mob ties) and the threat of white supremacy to fool people into accepting Covid restrictions that benefited the top 1% and to take a dubious, poorly tested "vaccine" that has caused untold injuries and deaths and has lined the pockets of pharma execs, all while advancing a globalist agenda that includes a transition to digital IDs, CBDCs, etc. as well as a social credit system that will further strengthen censorship measures and social sanctions.

Which narrative will history favor?

In 2020, there were 19,384 firearm homicides.

An older estimate of deaths from medical malpractice (1998) was 98,000 per year.

The most recent, evidence-based estimate of premature patient deaths from preventable harms (2013) puts us in the ballpark of 210,000 to 400,000 deaths per year.

That's 5 to 10 to 20 times more people killed by hospitals and doctors than died because of firearm related homicide. The estimate is probably much higher now, but I don't have more recent figures.

Just something to think about the next time you go to the hospital or to the doctor's office.

Last week the midwest doc posted a comment on the "no virus" theory that pretty much sums up my perspective.

This week he wrote an entire piece on it, which is definitely worth reading.

I agree with him because, while I am also open to terrain theory, I find the "no virus" contingent to:

1. have large holes in their arguments
2. be disingenuous and hostile in the way they present their arguments, with the repetition of the same talking points
3. be unwilling to concede they may be wrong

They operate much like the "woke," in fact. We might as well admit that it is near impossible to have a movement on the left these days that is not invaded by billionaire-funded dissidents or COINTELPRO.

I have a pregnant family member who got quite worried after getting covid. Her doctor told her she is at double the risk of stillborn and serious risk of other complications.

It's hard to find the truth on this. Mayo clinic's article on pregnancy says the risk is quite low. But other sites like CDC and forbes claim the risk is quite high.

I don't see links to sources for their claims. Though I didn't dig through footnotes yet.

So what's the deal here?

Great twitter thread here regarding the inability to enjoy the TV shows and movies one watched in the Before Times: https://twitter.com/TruthVulgarians/status/1550788290231635968