lewrockwell--2020-04-20--The Great UnReason of 2020: Thoughts for Corona Walkers and OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT

Whenever you read of the effects of “ the Coronavirus Pandemic ” or anything along these lines , know that it is not COVID-19 , but the reaction to it , the rise of the Flat-Curve Society and the Corona Walkers ( or , as my friend calls them , the “ Coronaites ” ) , that has left , within the span of about a month , has fundamentally transformed everyday life in America for the worst .
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 , not The Virus ( as COVID-19 is now known ) , that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their jobs and divested thousands of American small business owners of their livelihoods .
It is the Great UnReason of 2020—spearheaded by the Flat-Curvers in Big Government and Big Media—that , under “ Shelter-in-Place ” orders , has isolated people from their families , friends , and communities .
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has devastated with one fell swoop a 22 trillion dollar economy while transforming all other “ essential businesses ” into something like prison cafeterias where food servers operate from behind cages and , at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , armed security officers watch to make sure that everyone is observing “ Social Distancing ” protocols .
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has led to the indefinite revocation of the United States Constitution .
The Culture Of Fear : W ... Glassner , Barry Best Price : $ 1.92 Buy New $ 25.00 It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that brought about the shutting down of churches and other houses of worship .
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has resulted in the indefinite collapsing of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UnReason of 2020 , in other words , that has birthed OPERATION : COSMIC CONFINEMENT .
That “ the Great UnReason of 2020 ” is an apt moniker for this surreal phenomenon will be seen by the following considerations .
As David Crowe , in his painstakingly researched , meticulously argued paper , “ Flaws in Coronavirus Pandemic Theory , ” notes , despite what Big Media and Big Government would have the rest of us believe , “ There is very little science happening ” vis-à-vis The Virus .
“ If the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ then it should be possible to purify viral particles.
” He elaborates : “ From these particles RNA can be extracted and should match the RNA used in this test .
Until this is done it is possible that the RNA comes from another source , which could be the cells of the patient , bacteria , fungi etc .
There might be an association with elevated levels of this RNA and illness , but that is not proof that the RNA is from a virus .
Without purification and characterization of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accepted that an RNA test is proof that a virus is present .
In order to know that a virus is causing disease or illness , we first need to be able to isolate the viral particles from everything else that is transpiring around it and extract RNA from those particles .
Only then , upon matching it with the RNA in the test , would it be possible to determine whether the RNA found is actually that belonging to a virus .
This has not been done .
Another problem is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said to be the cause is constituted by symptoms that are loose and scarcely unique , or even particularly distinctive .
“ Definitions of important diseases are surprisingly loose , ” Crowe continues , “ perhaps embarrassingly so.
” He observes that while the definition of SARS was “ self-limiting , ” that of “ COVID-19…is open-ended ” ( emphasis added ) [ . ]
“ This strange new disease , officially named COVID-19 , has none of its own symptoms .
Fever and cough , previously blamed on uncountable viruses and bacteria @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are most common , as well as abnormal lung images , despite those being found in healthy people.
” Brilliantly , Crowe delivers the coup de grace of his argument through a piece of logic that is unanswerable : “ Yet , despite the fact that only a minority of people tested will test positive ( often less than 5 % ) , it is assumed that this disease is easily recognized .
If that was truly the case , the majority of people selected for testing by doctors should be positive ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Work From ... Henderson , Michael Buy New $ 9.00 Investigative journalist Jon Rappoport expands upon the unreliability of the diagnostic test for The Virus .
Before the PCR ( the standard COVID-19 test ) “ was ever permitted to make claims about THE QUANTITY OF VIRUS that is replicating in a patient ’ s body , ” Rappoport remarks , an experiment should have been undertaken that would have determined whether the PCR “ can actually predict illness in the real world , in humans , not in the lab ” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This experiment has never been performed .
Rappoport explains why this renders the PCR virtually worthless or , at the very least , scientifically disreputable : “ Quantity is vital , because , in order to even begin talking about whether a virus can cause disease , millions and millions of virus must be actively replicating in a patient ’ s body.
” If the reporting of confirmed cases of The Virus was truly science-based , the following experiment , or something very much like it , would have been performed at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Here is the experiment .
Assemble a group of 500 volunteers , some sick , some healthy .
Take tissue samples from them , and give the samples to PCR technicians .
The technicians will never see or know who the 500 volunteers are .
“ The techs run these samples through the PCR .
For each sample , they report which virus they found , and how much of it they found .
“ In patients 34 , 57 , 83 , 165 , and 433 , we found a great deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Now we un-blind those specific patients .
By the test results , they should all be sick .
Are they ?
Aren ’ t they ?
Then we would know .
We would know how accurate and relevant the test is in the real world.
” Well , we would be significantly closer to knowing than we are at the present moment , for this experiment would have to be repeated numerous times with new groups of 500 or so patients per group and new sets of PCR technicians before we could claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illness with which it ’ s being identified .
The subsequent rounds of testing are necessary in order to confirm or refute the initial findings .
As Rappoport says , “ This is the way the scientific method is supposed to work ” ( emphasis added ) .
His verdict is to the point : Until such time as this experiment occurs , “ all case numbers [ of COVID-19 ] derived from the PCR should be thrown out.
” There is still another reason why the case numbers can not be trusted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absence of a “ second vital experiment.
” Since it is impossible to look into the human body in real time to discern whether millions of virus are actively replicating , the only alternative in the real world consists of electron microscopy .
Rappoport tells us how this would pan out : The BIGGER Book of App ... Ziesenis , Beth Best Price : $ 23.32 Buy New $ 24.00 “ Suspecting the existence of a new disease-causing virus , researchers should line up , at the very least , several hundred people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Tissue samples should be taken from them .
Using correct steps of centrifuging these samples , specimens of the results should be examined and photographed under the electron microscope.
” Then researchers must ask : “ In every one of the several hundred photos , do the researchers see many identical particles of a virus they ’ ve never seen before ; and do the researchers see that these many particles are the same from photo to photo ?
” Rappoport informs us that if the answer to this inquiry is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than one group of researchers independently carrying out this procedure on the patients ’ tissue sampled achieves the same result…then , this is as close as you can come to saying you ’ ve discovered a new disease-causing virus ” ( italics added ) .
Yet even this is not the end of the story , for other “ researchers with other patients should attempt to replicate the above findings.
” “ This vital experiment has never been done in the case of COVID-19 .
Not even close .
Therefore , researchers can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have discovered a new disease-causing virus.
” These skeptics belong to the ranks of numerous distinguished doctors from around the world who have been busy challenging the official narrative from day one—but whose voices , tellingly , have not received any attention by either Big Government or Big Media .
Dr. John Ioannidis , Professor of Medicine , Health Research and Policy and of Biomedical Data Science , and Professor of Statistics at Stanford University , conducted a study with two of his colleagues .
Their objective , basically , was to determine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in people under 65 years of age and those without underlying conditions .
They proceeded to accumulate data from COVID-19 “ hotspots ” in both Europe and America .
In the former , Belgium , Italy , Germany , Netherlands , Portugal , Spain , Sweden , and Switzerland are the places on which the study focuses , and , in America , Louisiana , Michigan , Washington state , and New York City .
Europeans under 65 years old with COVID-19 account for 5 % -9 % of all deaths ( in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans under 65 years of age with COVID-19 account for 30 % of all deaths in three hotbed locations .
This means that Europeans with The Virus in this demographic have a 34-73-fold lower risk of dying from it than those 65 or older , and Americans under 65 with The Virus have a 13-15-fold lower risk of dying than those 65 or older in New York City , and the states of Louisiana , and Michigan .
To put this in perspective : “ Based on the data until April 4 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( starting with the date the first death was documented in each [ hotspot ] location ) the risk of dying from coronavirus for a person < 65 years old is equivalent to the risk of dying driving a distance of 9 to 415 miles by car per day during COVID-19 fatality season.
” bonmedico Lumbar Suppo ... Best Price : $ 13.38 Buy New $ 19.90 In other words , even in those places where the pandemic is most keenly felt , for the vast majority of people under 65 years of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in the same level roughly as dying from a car accident during daily commute.
” In New York City , the highest risk for those under 65 “ corresponds to the risk of dying in a traffic accident while traveling daily from Manhattan to Baltimore round trip [ close to 400 miles a day ] for…25 days.
” As for people who are 40 years old or younger , they “ have almost no risk at all of dying [ . ]
” And remember , this pertains to those who have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The conclusion ?
“ Therefore , for the vast majority of countries around the world and for the vast majority of states and cities in the USA…the risk of death from COVID-19 this season for people < 65 years old may be even smaller than the risk of dying from a car accident during daily commute.
” Last month , Ioannidis reminded us that “ patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 [ The Virus ] are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes.
” This being the case , “ as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , selection bias may even worsen in the near future.
” The Diamond Princess Cruise ship and its quarantine passengers constitute the one situation in which an entire , closed population was tested .
While fatality rate was 1.0 % , Ioannidis reminds us that “ this was a largely elderly population , in which the death rate from Covid-19 is much higher.
” He also informs us—what few of us ever consider and which the fear-mongers in Big Government and Big Media would never dare mention now—is that “ even some so-called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8 % when they infect elderly people in nursing homes ” ( emphasis added ) .
“ Could the Covid-19 case fatality rate be that low ?
No , some say , pointing to the high rate in elderly people .
However , even some so-called mild or common-cold-type coronaviruses that have been known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8 % when they infect elderly people in nursing homes.
” Ioannidis adds that had we not known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we not checked patients with PCR tests , “ the number of total deaths due to ‘ influenza-like illness ’ would not seem unusual this year.
” No , “ we might have casually noted that flu this season seems to be a bit worse than average.
” Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi , a specialist in microbiology who was a professor at the Johannes Gutenburg University in Mainz and head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene , is also one of the most cited research scientists in Germany .
Last month , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the possibility that The Virus could infect “ 1 million ” people , causing “ 30 deaths ” per day over the next 100 days , “ we do not realize that 20 , 30 , 40 , or 100 patients [ who have tested ] positive for normal coronaviruses are already dying every day.
” Regarding the measures of OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT ( “ mitigation ” ) , he writes that they “ …are grotesque , absurd and very dangerous [ . ]
The life expectancy of millions is being shortened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economy threatens the existence of countless people .
The consequences on medical care are profound .
Already services to patients in need are reduced , operations cancelled , practices empty , hospital personnel dwindling .
All this will impact profoundly our whole society .
Mueller 64179 Adjustab ... Best Price : $ 25.36 Buy New $ 27.57 “ All these measures are leading to self-destruction and collective suicide based on nothing but a spook.
” Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg , a German physician specializing in Pulmonology , upon noting that coronaviruses constitute 7 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respiratory illnesses , proceeds to account for the mass hysteria generated by Big Government ( which includes the Scientific Establishment ) and Big Media : “ Politicians are being courted by scientists…scientists who want to be important to get money for their institutions .
Scientists who just swim along in the mainstream and want their part of it.
” Because of the self-interest of many individual scientists , “ what is missing right now is a rational way of looking at things.
” For example , we “ should be asking questions like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this virus was dangerous ?
’ , ‘ How was it before ?
’ , ‘ Didn ’ t we have the same thing last year ?
’ , ‘ Is it even something new ?
’ ” Joel Kettner is a professor of Community Health Sciences and Surgery at Manitoba University , former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases .
His comments are particularly instructive : “ I have never seen anything like this , anything anywhere near like this .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , because I ’ ve seen 30 of them , one every year .
It is called influenza .
And other respiratory illness viruses , we don ’ t always know what they are .
But I ’ ve never seen this reaction , and I ’ m trying to understand why .
“ I worry about the message to the public , about the fear of coming into contact with people , being in the same space as people , shaking their hands , having meetings with people .
I worry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that.
” Hendrik Streeck , a German HIV researcher , epidemiologist and clinical trialist , is also a professor of virology and the director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research at Bonn University .
He assures us that this “ new pathogen is not that dangerous ” and , in fact , “ is less dangerous than Sars-1 [ the Swine Flu ] .
” “ The special thing is that Sars-CoV-2 [ The Virus ] replicates in the upper throat area and is therefore much more infectious because the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to speak .
But that is also an advantage : Because Sars-1 replicates in the deep lungs , it is not so infectious , but it definitely gets on the lungs , which makes it more dangerous.
” The aforementioned constitute just a sampling of medical specialists whose voices have been conspicuously excluded by the self-appointed guardians in Big Government and Big Media of the official narrative on The Virus .
Just last month , the Experts informed us that in the absence of “ mitigation ” procedures ( i.e .
OPERATION COSMIC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would die and , by “ as early as the second week in April ” there would be “ an eventual peak in ICU or critical care bed demand that is over 30 times greater than the maximum supply ” available ?
Sofia + Sam Multi Task ... Buy New $ 52.05 Even with “ mitigation , ” the Imperial College of London forecasted that more than one million Americans would die .
This should sound to everyone as absurd a figure today as some of us knew it was then .
Nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Experts , any longer take seriously the prediction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) that the number of dead Americans would be anywhere between 200,000 and 1.7 million .
FiveThirtyEight ’ s April 2 summary of a survey of “ public health officials ” fares no better to anyone paying any attention just two weeks later .
It projected that there would be approximately 263,000 dead .
And not too long before that the model supplied by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ( IHME ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s course of action , determined that 240,000 Americans would drop dead from The Virus .
Yet shortly after the Surgeon General promised us that Holy Week would be the Week of Infamy , worse than Pearl Harbor and 9-11 combined , the Experts were forced to revise their apocalyptic predictions precipitously downward .
The most recent IHME model tells us that 60,000 or so Americans could die from The Virus .
Yet even this number is surely substantially higher than the real number , for as we now know , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CDC ) instructs physicians to identify as the cause of their patients ’ deaths COVID-19—even if they hadn ’ t been tested for it , and even if they were already in terminal condition due to the existence of other preexisting conditions .
“ COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease causes or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death .
Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case , medical records , laboratory testing , etc @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed , these conditions can be reported in Part II [ listed as “ secondary ” causes ] ” ( boldfaced type mine ) .
As Alex Berenson , former reporter for The New York Times , summarizes it : “ Confirmed lab tests are not required [ . ]
” Confirmed testing need not apply .
The governments of Italy , Germany , the UK , and Austria have as well been extraordinarily liberal in how they have determined cases and mortality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at one time during The Great UnReason , Italy was depicted as the “ epicenter ” of the “ pandemic , ” it is worth looking at it .
Were Italians suffering the ravages of a second bubonic plague , as Big Media had the world believe ?
Well , let ’ s look at it : For starters , of all of Italy ’ s reported deaths from The Virus , certificates for only 12 % of them actually list it as the cause of death .
Moreover , a whopping 99 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attributed to The Virus had at least one co-morbidity , and 80 % had two co-morbidities .
And let ’ s not forget that the average age of COVID-19 patients in Italy was between 79-81 years of age .
Walter Ricciardi , an adviser to Italy ’ s heath minister , conceded the following : “ The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in the hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the number of cases of Virus deaths in Italy was artificially inflated by a whopping 88 % !
Why , though , we may wonder , would anyone , like government actors , enact prescriptions that are designed to inflate the numbers of people who die from The Virus ?
Well , for starters , and as some brave whistleblowers within the medical community have confirmed , hospitals , via Medicare , are receiving significantly more money ( $ 4,000 ) for each patient diagnosed with The Virus , and that much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone who is placed on a ventilator .
As Dr. David Brownstein put it , the explanation for this blatantly unscientific manner of counting COVID-19 statistics , this apparent eagerness to inflate the numbers , boils down to one simple maxim : “ Follow the money.
” Brownstein observes that the CDC as well has a material interest invested in increasing the reported number of cases of The Virus , for the more out of control a problem it appears , the more money it can extract from Congress for future research .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason why there is a concerted effort to jack up the number of Virus cases .
“ The Government has a reason to increase the death numbers for COVID as the final numbers will be much lower than the original projections which were used to lock down our economy .
The Government has to justify the policies it has implemented .
If the numbers are too low , public outcry will begin.
” Dr. Brownstein maintains that COVID-19 is a serious matter , a “ pandemic.
” However , as a doctor who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putting the cause of death on a certificate , ” he has no patience for the CDC guidelines that now require that he and his colleagues dispense with this perennial professional standard when it comes to this single virus .
Rather than apologize to the American public for the paralyzing fear that they promoted over projections of infections , shortages in medical supplies , and fatalities that didn ’ t come even remotely close to materializing , the architects of OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT have patted themselves on the backs for the lower actual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unprecedented operation—what they euphemistically refer to as “ mitigation ” and/or “ social distancing ” —their projections , they now insist , would have come true : We were wrong because we were right .
This is the Orwellian line to which the position of the Experts reduces .
However , there is more than one problem with this stance .
First , Science 101 : Correlation does not equal causation .
The proposition that the draconian measures imposed upon Americans have actually succeeded in “ flattening the curve ” is a proposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite their repeated appeals to “ science , ” the verdict that OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT precluded the Apocalypse promised by the Experts has about as much science behind it as any of the other dogmas of the official narrative .
For starters , we know that there are countries and even American states that did not shut down their economies and jurisdictions but which are no worse and , in some instances , actually in better shape than those that did go this route .
Of course , there is also a ton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must be factored into account when attempting to derive an honest verdict on this question , for the places compared may not be all that comparable .
The basic point here , though , is that for as plausible as it may sound on its surface that OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT has succeeded in “ Stopping the Spread !
” plausibility is no substitution for science .
It is anything but a foregone conclusion that “ mitigation ” has been successful in preventing disaster .
Second , a recent study conducted by Yitzhak Ben @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University in Israel and a member of the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries , strongly puts into doubt the proposition that if not for OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT , the dire forecasts of the Experts would have come to pass .
The Virus has reached its peak and is declining—everywhere .
To repeat , irrespectively of whether the country participated in OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT or exempted itself from it , The Virus exhibits the same pattern : After about six weeks it peaks and then proceeds a precipitous decline by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Virus numbers are on a decline is a fact that even the CDC confirms .
And this has been the case for over three weeks .
Yet what data has been gathered implies that factors other than OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT , considerations like cold weather , herd immunity , and growing knowledge of how to treat patients , account for the downward trajectory of The Virus .
Josh Mitteldorf , for example , using data from OurWorldInData.org , notes that Russia , which has no COSMIC CONFINEMENT and cold weather , has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mexico and Brazil have had warm weather , no COSMIC CONFINEMENT , and a very low Virus death toll .
Japan has medium cold weather , no COSMIC CONFINEMENT , and a low death rate .
To provide perspective , Mitteldorf notes that , given the CDC ’ s own numbers , in recent years , the scale of deaths per million population of the seasonal flu has ranged from a low of 34 to a high of 175 .
In America , to date , the cumulative death rate per million population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summary , from the outset and all throughout , the so-called “ Coronavirus Pandemic ” has been the pretext for a new era .
We may call it “ the Age of UnReason.
” The Best of Jack Kerwick

Whenever you read of the effects of “the Coronavirus Pandemic” or anything along these lines, know that it is not COVID-19, but the reaction to it, the rise of the Flat-Curve Society and the Corona Walkers (or, as my friend calls them, the “Coronaites”), that has left, within the span of about a month, has fundamentally transformed everyday life in America for the worst.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020, not The Virus (as COVID-19 is now known), that has driven tens of millions of Americans out of their jobs and divested thousands of American small business owners of their livelihoods.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020—spearheaded by the Flat-Curvers in Big Government and Big Media—that, under “Shelter-in-Place” orders, has isolated people from their families, friends, and communities.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has devastated with one fell swoop a 22 trillion dollar economy while transforming all other “essential businesses” into something like prison cafeterias where food servers operate from behind cages and, at least in the case of some grocery stores, armed security officers watch to make sure that everyone is observing “Social Distancing” protocols.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has led to the indefinite revocation of the United States Constitution. The Culture Of Fear: W... Glassner, Barry Best Price: $1.92 Buy New $25.00 (as of 04:07 UTC - Details)
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that brought about the shutting down of churches and other houses of worship.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020 that has resulted in the indefinite collapsing of civil society.
It is the Great UnReason of 2020, in other words, that has birthed OPERATION: COSMIC CONFINEMENT.
That “the Great UnReason of 2020” is an apt moniker for this surreal phenomenon will be seen by the following considerations.
Numbers: Diagnosis
As David Crowe, in his painstakingly researched, meticulously argued paper, “Flaws in Coronavirus Pandemic Theory,” notes, despite what Big Media and Big Government would have the rest of us believe, “There is very little science happening” vis-à-vis The Virus.
“If the virus exists,” Crowe writes, “then it should be possible to purify viral particles.” He elaborates:
“From these particles RNA can be extracted and should match the RNA used in this test. Until this is done it is possible that the RNA comes from another source, which could be the cells of the patient, bacteria, fungi etc. There might be an association with elevated levels of this RNA and illness, but that is not proof that the RNA is from a virus. Without purification and characterization of virus particles, it cannot be accepted that an RNA test is proof that a virus is present.
In order to know that a virus is causing disease or illness, we first need to be able to isolate the viral particles from everything else that is transpiring around it and extract RNA from those particles. Only then, upon matching it with the RNA in the test, would it be possible to determine whether the RNA found is actually that belonging to a virus.
This has not been done.
Another problem is that the illness of which The Virus is said to be the cause is constituted by symptoms that are loose and scarcely unique, or even particularly distinctive. “Definitions of important diseases are surprisingly loose,” Crowe continues, “perhaps embarrassingly so.” He observes that while the definition of SARS was “self-limiting,” that of “COVID-19…is open-ended” (emphasis added) [.]
“This strange new disease, officially named COVID-19, has none of its own symptoms. Fever and cough, previously blamed on uncountable viruses and bacteria, as well as environmental contaminants, are most common, as well as abnormal lung images, despite those being found in healthy people.”
Brilliantly, Crowe delivers the coup de grace of his argument through a piece of logic that is unanswerable:
“Yet, despite the fact that only a minority of people tested will test positive (often less than 5%), it is assumed that this disease is easily recognized. If that was truly the case, the majority of people selected for testing by doctors should be positive” (emphases added). The Ultimate Work From... Henderson, Michael Buy New $9.00 (as of 03:00 UTC - Details)
Investigative journalist Jon Rappoport expands upon the unreliability of the diagnostic test for The Virus. Before the PCR (the standard COVID-19 test) “was ever permitted to make claims about THE QUANTITY OF VIRUS that is replicating in a patient’s body,” Rappoport remarks, an experiment should have been undertaken that would have determined whether the PCR “can actually predict illness in the real world, in humans, not in the lab” (boldface original, emphasis added).
This experiment has never been performed.
Rappoport explains why this renders the PCR virtually worthless or, at the very least, scientifically disreputable:
“Quantity is vital, because, in order to even begin talking about whether a virus can cause disease, millions and millions of virus must be actively replicating in a patient’s body.”
If the reporting of confirmed cases of The Virus was truly science-based, the following experiment, or something very much like it, would have been performed at the outset of the Great Pandemic:
“Here is the experiment. Assemble a group of 500 volunteers, some sick, some healthy. Take tissue samples from them, and give the samples to PCR technicians. The technicians will never see or know who the 500 volunteers are.
“The techs run these samples through the PCR. For each sample, they report which virus they found, and how much of it they found.
“In patients 34, 57, 83, 165, and 433, we found a great deal of the following disease-causing viruses.
“Now we un-blind those specific patients. By the test results, they should all be sick. Are they? Aren’t they? Then we would know. We would know how accurate and relevant the test is in the real world.”
Well, we would be significantly closer to knowing than we are at the present moment, for this experiment would have to be repeated numerous times with new groups of 500 or so patients per group and new sets of PCR technicians before we could claim to know that The Virus causes the illness with which it’s being identified. The subsequent rounds of testing are necessary in order to confirm or refute the initial findings.
As Rappoport says, “This is the way the scientific method is supposed to work” (emphasis added).
His verdict is to the point: Until such time as this experiment occurs, “all case numbers [of COVID-19] derived from the PCR should be thrown out.”
There is still another reason why the case numbers cannot be trusted and it has to do with the absence of a “second vital experiment.”
Since it is impossible to look into the human body in real time to discern whether millions of virus are actively replicating, the only alternative in the real world consists of electron microscopy. Rappoport tells us how this would pan out: The BIGGER Book of App... Ziesenis, Beth Best Price: $23.32 Buy New $24.00 (as of 04:07 UTC - Details)
“Suspecting the existence of a new disease-causing virus, researchers should line up, at the very least, several hundred people who seem to have the new disease. Tissue samples should be taken from them. Using correct steps of centrifuging these samples, specimens of the results should be examined and photographed under the electron microscope.”
Then researchers must ask:
“In every one of the several hundred photos, do the researchers see many identical particles of a virus they’ve never seen before; and do the researchers see that these many particles are the same from photo to photo?”
Rappoport informs us that if the answer to this inquiry is in the affirmative, “and if more than one group of researchers independently carrying out this procedure on the patients’ tissue sampled achieves the same result…then, this is as close as you can come to saying you’ve discovered a new disease-causing virus” (italics added).
Yet even this is not the end of the story, for other “researchers with other patients should attempt to replicate the above findings.”
Rappoport reveals the damning truth:
“This vital experiment has never been done in the case of COVID-19. Not even close. Therefore, researchers can’t make a true claim to have discovered a new disease-causing virus.”
These skeptics belong to the ranks of numerous distinguished doctors from around the world who have been busy challenging the official narrative from day one—but whose voices, tellingly, have not received any attention by either Big Government or Big Media.
Perspective
Dr. John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine, Health Research and Policy and of Biomedical Data Science, and Professor of Statistics at Stanford University, conducted a study with two of his colleagues. Their objective, basically, was to determine the risk of death by The Virus in people under 65 years of age and those without underlying conditions. They proceeded to accumulate data from COVID-19 “hotspots” in both Europe and America. In the former, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland are the places on which the study focuses, and, in America, Louisiana, Michigan, Washington state, and New York City.
Europeans under 65 years old with COVID-19 account for 5%-9% of all deaths (in the hotspots of eight countries). Americans under 65 years of age with COVID-19 account for 30% of all deaths in three hotbed locations. This means that Europeans with The Virus in this demographic have a 34-73-fold lower risk of dying from it than those 65 or older, and Americans under 65 with The Virus have a 13-15-fold lower risk of dying than those 65 or older in New York City, and the states of Louisiana, and Michigan.
To put this in perspective:
“Based on the data until April 4, for the whole COVID-19 fatality season to-date (starting with the date the first death was documented in each [hotspot] location) the risk of dying from coronavirus for a person <65 years old is equivalent to the risk of dying driving a distance of 9 to 415 miles by car per day during COVID-19 fatality season.”
bonmedico Lumbar Suppo... Best Price: $13.38 Buy New $19.90 (as of 02:49 UTC - Details) In other words, even in those places where the pandemic is most keenly felt, for the vast majority of people under 65 years of age, “the risk of death is in the same level roughly as dying from a car accident during daily commute.”
In New York City, the highest risk for those under 65 “corresponds to the risk of dying in a traffic accident while traveling daily from Manhattan to Baltimore round trip [close to 400 miles a day] for…25 days.”
As for people who are 40 years old or younger, they “have almost no risk at all of dying [.]”
And remember, this pertains to those who have contracted The Virus in its hotspots. The conclusion?
“Therefore, for the vast majority of countries around the world and for the vast majority of states and cities in the USA…the risk of death from COVID-19 this season for people <65 years old may be even smaller than the risk of dying from a car accident during daily commute.”
Last month, Ioannidis reminded us that “patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 [The Virus] are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes.”
This being the case, “as most health systems have limited testing capacity, selection bias may even worsen in the near future.”
The Diamond Princess Cruise ship and its quarantine passengers constitute the one situation in which an entire, closed population was tested. While fatality rate was 1.0%, Ioannidis reminds us that “this was a largely elderly population, in which the death rate from Covid-19 is much higher.”
He also informs us—what few of us ever consider and which the fear-mongers in Big Government and Big Media would never dare mention now—is that “even some so-called mild or common-cold-type coronaviruses that have been known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8% when they infect elderly people in nursing homes” (emphasis added).
“Could the Covid-19 case fatality rate be that low? No, some say, pointing to the high rate in elderly people. However, even some so-called mild or common-cold-type coronaviruses that have been known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8% when they infect elderly people in nursing homes.”
Ioannidis adds that had we not known about a new virus, and had we not checked patients with PCR tests, “the number of total deaths due to ‘influenza-like illness’ would not seem unusual this year.”
No, “we might have casually noted that flu this season seems to be a bit worse than average.”
Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, a specialist in microbiology who was a professor at the Johannes Gutenburg University in Mainz and head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, is also one of the most cited research scientists in Germany. Last month, he said that while fear was growing over the possibility that The Virus could infect “1 million” people, causing “30 deaths” per day over the next 100 days, “we do not realize that 20, 30, 40, or 100 patients [who have tested] positive for normal coronaviruses are already dying every day.”
Regarding the measures of OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (“mitigation”), he writes that they
“…are grotesque, absurd and very dangerous [.] The life expectancy of millions is being shortened. The horrifying impact on the world economy threatens the existence of countless people. The consequences on medical care are profound. Already services to patients in need are reduced, operations cancelled, practices empty, hospital personnel dwindling. All this will impact profoundly our whole society. Mueller 64179 Adjustab... Best Price: $25.36 Buy New $27.57 (as of 03:14 UTC - Details)
“All these measures are leading to self-destruction and collective suicide based on nothing but a spook.”
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician specializing in Pulmonology, upon noting that coronaviruses constitute 7%-15% of viruses found in all respiratory illnesses, proceeds to account for the mass hysteria generated by Big Government (which includes the Scientific Establishment) and Big Media: “Politicians are being courted by scientists…scientists who want to be important to get money for their institutions. Scientists who just swim along in the mainstream and want their part of it.”
Because of the self-interest of many individual scientists, “what is missing right now is a rational way of looking at things.”
For example, we “should be asking questions like, ‘How did you find out this virus was dangerous?’, ‘How was it before?’, ‘Didn’t we have the same thing last year?’, ‘Is it even something new?’”
Joel Kettner is a professor of Community Health Sciences and Surgery at Manitoba University, former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases. His comments are particularly instructive:
“I have never seen anything like this, anything anywhere near like this. I’m not talking about the pandemic, because I’ve seen 30 of them, one every year. It is called influenza. And other respiratory illness viruses, we don’t always know what they are. But I’ve never seen this reaction, and I’m trying to understand why.
“I worry about the message to the public, about the fear of coming into contact with people, being in the same space as people, shaking their hands, having meetings with people. I worry about many, many consequences related to that.”
Hendrik Streeck, a German HIV researcher, epidemiologist and clinical trialist, is also a professor of virology and the director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research at Bonn University. He assures us that this “new pathogen is not that dangerous” and, in fact, “is less dangerous than Sars-1 [the Swine Flu].”
Streeck explains:
“The special thing is that Sars-CoV-2 [The Virus] replicates in the upper throat area and is therefore much more infectious because the virus jumps from throat to throat, so to speak. But that is also an advantage: Because Sars-1 replicates in the deep lungs, it is not so infectious, but it definitely gets on the lungs, which makes it more dangerous.”
The aforementioned constitute just a sampling of medical specialists whose voices have been conspicuously excluded by the self-appointed guardians in Big Government and Big Media of the official narrative on The Virus.
The Predictions
Just last month, the Experts informed us that in the absence of “mitigation” procedures (i.e. OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT) up to 2.2 million Americans would die and, by “as early as the second week in April” there would be “an eventual peak in ICU or critical care bed demand that is over 30 times greater than the maximum supply” available? Sofia + Sam Multi Task... Buy New $52.05 (as of 02:49 UTC - Details)
Even with “mitigation,” the Imperial College of London forecasted that more than one million Americans would die.
This should sound to everyone as absurd a figure today as some of us knew it was then.
Nor can anyone, including any of the Experts, any longer take seriously the prediction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the number of dead Americans would be anywhere between 200,000 and 1.7 million.
FiveThirtyEight’s April 2 summary of a survey of “public health officials” fares no better to anyone paying any attention just two weeks later. It projected that there would be approximately 263,000 dead.
And not too long before that the model supplied by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the model that informs the Trump administration’s course of action, determined that 240,000 Americans would drop dead from The Virus.
Yet shortly after the Surgeon General promised us that Holy Week would be the Week of Infamy, worse than Pearl Harbor and 9-11 combined, the Experts were forced to revise their apocalyptic predictions precipitously downward.
The most recent IHME model tells us that 60,000 or so Americans could die from The Virus.
Yet even this number is surely substantially higher than the real number, for as we now know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructs physicians to identify as the cause of their patients’ deaths COVID-19—even if they hadn’t been tested for it, and even if they were already in terminal condition due to the existence of other preexisting conditions.
From the CDC:
“COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease causes or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death. Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc. If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II [listed as “secondary” causes]” (boldfaced type mine).
As Alex Berenson, former reporter for The New York Times, summarizes it: “Confirmed lab tests are not required [.]” Confirmed testing need not apply.
The governments of Italy, Germany, the UK, and Austria have as well been extraordinarily liberal in how they have determined cases and mortality rates for The Virus. Because, at one time during The Great UnReason, Italy was depicted as the “epicenter” of the “pandemic,” it is worth looking at it. Were Italians suffering the ravages of a second bubonic plague, as Big Media had the world believe? Well, let’s look at it:
For starters, of all of Italy’s reported deaths from The Virus, certificates for only 12% of them actually list it as the cause of death.
Moreover, a whopping 99% of all those whose deaths were attributed to The Virus had at least one co-morbidity, and 80% had two co-morbidities.
And let’s not forget that the average age of COVID-19 patients in Italy was between 79-81 years of age.
Walter Ricciardi, an adviser to Italy’s heath minister, conceded the following:
“The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in the hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus” (italics added).
In summary, the number of cases of Virus deaths in Italy was artificially inflated by a whopping 88%!
Why, though, we may wonder, would anyone, like government actors, enact prescriptions that are designed to inflate the numbers of people who die from The Virus?
Well, for starters, and as some brave whistleblowers within the medical community have confirmed, hospitals, via Medicare, are receiving significantly more money ($4,000) for each patient diagnosed with The Virus, and that much more money ($39,000)for everyone who is placed on a ventilator.
As Dr. David Brownstein put it, the explanation for this blatantly unscientific manner of counting COVID-19 statistics, this apparent eagerness to inflate the numbers, boils down to one simple maxim: “Follow the money.”
Brownstein observes that the CDC as well has a material interest invested in increasing the reported number of cases of The Virus, for the more out of control a problem it appears, the more money it can extract from Congress for future research.
There is, still, a third reason why there is a concerted effort to jack up the number of Virus cases.
“The Government has a reason to increase the death numbers for COVID as the final numbers will be much lower than the original projections which were used to lock down our economy. The Government has to justify the policies it has implemented. If the numbers are too low, public outcry will begin.”
For sure.
Dr. Brownstein maintains that COVID-19 is a serious matter, a “pandemic.” However, as a doctor who “was taught to be meticulous when putting the cause of death on a certificate,” he has no patience for the CDC guidelines that now require that he and his colleagues dispense with this perennial professional standard when it comes to this single virus.
OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (“Social Distancing”)
Rather than apologize to the American public for the paralyzing fear that they promoted over projections of infections, shortages in medical supplies, and fatalities that didn’t come even remotely close to materializing, the architects of OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT have patted themselves on the backs for the lower actual numbers.
If not for their historically unprecedented operation—what they euphemistically refer to as “mitigation” and/or “social distancing”—their projections, they now insist, would have come true:
We were wrong because we were right.
This is the Orwellian line to which the position of the Experts reduces.
However, there is more than one problem with this stance.
First, Science 101: Correlation does not equal causation. The proposition that the draconian measures imposed upon Americans have actually succeeded in “flattening the curve” is a proposition that must be tested.
Second, despite their repeated appeals to “science,” the verdict that OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT precluded the Apocalypse promised by the Experts has about as much science behind it as any of the other dogmas of the official narrative.
For starters, we know that there are countries and even American states that did not shut down their economies and jurisdictions but which are no worse and, in some instances, actually in better shape than those that did go this route.
Of course, there is also a ton of other demographic and cultural considerations that must be factored into account when attempting to derive an honest verdict on this question, for the places compared may not be all that comparable.
The basic point here, though, is that for as plausible as it may sound on its surface that OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT has succeeded in “Stopping the Spread!” plausibility is no substitution for science. It is anything but a foregone conclusion that “mitigation” has been successful in preventing disaster.
Second, a recent study conducted by Yitzhak Ben Israel, a professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel and a member of the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, strongly puts into doubt the proposition that if not for OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT, the dire forecasts of the Experts would have come to pass.
The Virus has reached its peak and is declining—everywhere. To repeat, irrespectively of whether the country participated in OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT or exempted itself from it, The Virus exhibits the same pattern: After about six weeks it peaks and then proceeds a precipitous decline by the eighth week.
Third, that The Virus numbers are on a decline is a fact that even the CDC confirms. And this has been the case for over three weeks. Yet what data has been gathered implies that factors other than OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT, considerations like cold weather, herd immunity, and growing knowledge of how to treat patients, account for the downward trajectory of The Virus.
Josh Mitteldorf, for example, using data from OurWorldInData.org, notes that Russia, which has no COSMIC CONFINEMENT and cold weather, has a virtually non-existent COVID-19 death rate. Mexico and Brazil have had warm weather, no COSMIC CONFINEMENT, and a very low Virus death toll. Japan has medium cold weather, no COSMIC CONFINEMENT, and a low death rate.
To provide perspective, Mitteldorf notes that, given the CDC’s own numbers, in recent years, the scale of deaths per million population of the seasonal flu has ranged from a low of 34 to a high of 175. In America, to date, the cumulative death rate per million population of The Virus is 67.5.
Conclusion
In summary, from the outset and all throughout, the so-called “Coronavirus Pandemic” has been the pretext for a new era. We may call it “the Age of UnReason.”
The Best of Jack Kerwick


lewrockwell--2020-04-20--Rotating on Boredom’s Spit

Rotating on Boredom’s Spit

“ And all the news just repeats itself Like some forgotten dream we ’ ve both seen ” – John Prine , Hello in There Without the ability to forget , we become imprisoned within a collective mental habit that induces us to repeat things that are as hard to escape as is trying to unlearn how to ride a bicycle .
This results in the experience of boredom that John Prine captures in the above epigraph from his moving song , “ Hello In There , ” where the daily news reports seem so old to an elderly couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new and they realize that .
Now that not just old folks are “ in there ” and people of all ages are “ sheltering in place , ” the ability “ to forget what it is worse than useless to remember , ” as Thoreau put is , has become more important than ever if one wishes to not be driven crazy with boredom of the self- and socially-induced kinds .
“ Oh , every thought that ’ s strung a knot in my mind/I might go insane if it couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sang in “ Restless Farewell , ” echoing Thoreau .
Selected Essays John Berger Best Price : $ 6.21 Buy New $ 11.11 As a motivating force in human affairs , boredom is hard to beat .
Hatred , envy , lust , love , anger , jealousy : these are some of the alluring emotions that are often emphasized .
But boredom – it is so boring !
Why go there ?
It seems too simple an explanation for human behavior , yet nothing is more complex and powerful .
Boredom is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a taboo .
To admit one is bored is to confess to the modern equivalent of a mortal sin .
I think there is an unacknowledged agreement to deny the truth of boredom for what it can reveal about how we live and die .
For boredom is intimately tied to our experience and understanding of time and space , and time in its turn is the home from which the modern mind is exiled , as we wander nowhere in a transcendental homelessness , without leaving the places where we are while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contemplate our existential and social confusion terrorizes people .
Since it is hydra-headed , boredom ’ s truths are many .
It is often the flip side of the constant agitation and false excitation of modern life and the search for diversion .
Conversely , modern manic high-tech busyness , while aimed at repressing boredom , simultaneously serves the function of boring through intense repetition , numbing those who seek to use it to escape boredom .
It ’ s a rotating spit .
In the culture of the copy , everything is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , repeated , reproduced , replicated , over and over and over again .
Unlike our lives that pass in a flash one time only , we are living in a techno world where we have internalized the machine and unconsciously think we can digitally record our lives and play them again .
Going live tends to irritate and scare people .
So the solution to boredom becomes a problem equal to the boredom itself .
It becomes boring .
One is trapped , going round and round , even if one doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are those who keep themselves extremely busy , buzzing like an insect ’ s hum , and deny they are ever bored .
They are some of the most boring people you can find , because the sound of their busyness produces no echo since it sounds over a sea of nothingness , as Kierkegaard put it The current societal coronavirus shutdown that has people locked in their homes under house arrest offers a perfect example of agitated digital boredom at its finest .
The incarceration is a two-headed monster serving to drive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they go nowhere but around and around on the information superhighway , setting the stage for the day the authorities press the release button and people manically rush out into the streets , thanking their bosses for their freedom .
It is a common experience for people who are “ sheltering in place ” to say their sense of time is distorted and they aren ’ t sure what day it is .
A sense of temporal disorientation prevails , just as it does for those in prisons .
“ Every ruling minority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to kill the time-sense of those it exploits , ” wrote John Berger .
“ This is the authoritarian secret of all methods of imprisonment.
” A Daring Young Man : A ... Leggett , John Best Price : $ 2.00 Buy New $ 10.00 What was once felt but rarely said to be the boredom of “ normal ” life with its tedious rounds of the same old-same old will feel like liberation and a gift from the authorities when the go button is pressed .
The daily rounds of getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ joy .
The “ new ” normal , however , will quickly seem old as the daily grind , which is reality for most working people , resumes , even if at reduced wages and lost opportunities and carried out within a social spectacle that will produce “ exciting news ” that will be repeated repetitively to keep people aroused , “ engaged , ” and fearful of the next crisis erupting even as so many go bankrupt .
Angst will float in the bubble of hyper-reality as the economic screws are tightened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can keep yourself busy and preoccupied with trivia and shopping ; if you can consume news , entertainment , and social media 24/7 ; if you can embrace all the weapons of mass distraction offered , then you can deny that boredom is speaking to you , even when these methods of avoiding boredom are themselves monotonously boring .
Self-deception and social control are conjoined tricksters .
Boredom has many voices , but the most feared yet liberating message it utters may be : “ You are trapped on the merry-go-round of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repeating yourself .
You are being oppressed by an unjust social order and are being conned .
Why not start living.
” This is the experience of boredom that can give rise to revolt and the urge for freedom , something radically upsetting to both the trapped and their trappers .
Echo ’ s voice is liberated to speak when people are willing to listen .
The essential element of boredom is repetition and monotony ; knowing that day follows dusty day and you are going to read , hear , or experience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As Macbeth says : In a terrifying take on this idea , Nietzsche suggested , through his idea of eternal recurrence , that we best be very careful how we live each moment since they are eternal , and that after death we will have to live our lives over and over again down to the slightest detail , while remembering that we are doing so .
Eternal repetition sounds a bit boring , wouldn ’ t you say ?
Now that ’ s a thought to rouse one from lethargy and perhaps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ modernity has forced upon us the necessity for choice .
Constant choices are demanded of us , and the more choices we have in a high-tech capitalist consumer culture , the more boring repetitions we encounter .
One reason for this is the need of the corporations , government , and the media to offer us something “ new ” every hour of every day .
Pseudo-events and “ news ” are manufactured non-stop .
And the “ new ” is updated , with the “ new ” so often turning out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theme across all forms of media and the consuming life .
Having to fill up the space and their pockets , these corporations are experts at repetition , and repetition is the key to effective propaganda .
The Storyteller : Tales ... Benjamin , Walter Best Price : $ 7.98 Buy New $ 15.99 Have you noticed that when you go to your favorite television station or website , you will encounter endless repetition ?
If you switch channels or websites – from liberal to conservative , etc .
– you will see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , flipped to one side or the other .
These days it ’ s coronavirus-coronavirus-coronavirus , Trump-Trump-Trump ; endless droning on today about what was droned on about yesterday .
Soon the subject will change , and be repeated until something else is manufactured to keep people occupied and bored .
You can easily fill in the blanks .
But why do people subject themselves to such boring repetition ?
Could the writer William Saroyan ’ s flippant remark shed some light on this phenomenon ?
Regarding the claim that smoking causes cancer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke , not from the smoking itself.
” Could wanting to flee existential and social boredom by embracing the culturally proffered means to do so , be the real problem ?
What is it about boredom that so frightens people ?
Does boredom scare people to death ?
Is getting as far away from death the goal ?
But is not the flight from death the flight from life and therefore the embrace of death ?
I think the quest to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem .
Walter Benjamin said it beautifully in “ The Storyteller ” : But such creative boredom demands a silent patience and a state of mental relaxation that is almost extinct .
It can only be experienced if one dwells and does not flee into action .
It means forgetting what an oppressive society wants us to always remember .
Maybe in a mediated world where direct experience is becoming more and more uncommon – as we live in a world of screens and filters and electronic gadgets that occupy our living space @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inspired boredom because it may force us to consider living .
And since living is change , and change is always new , it frightens us .
It means time goes by .
But without embracing change we can not make social change .
We may think we can , but we will be doing the same old boring thing and strengthening the existing system .
The Essential Kierkegaard Su00f8ren Kierkegaard Best Price : $ 14.99 Buy New $ 16.48 To rotate on boredom ’ s spit is to slowly die .
Only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bird fly .
The Best of Edward Curtin

“And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream we’ve both seen”
– John Prine, Hello in There
Without the ability to forget, we become imprisoned within a collective mental habit that induces us to repeat things that are as hard to escape as is trying to unlearn how to ride a bicycle. This results in the experience of boredom that John Prine captures in the above epigraph from his moving song, “Hello In There,” where the daily news reports seem so old to an elderly couple because they are so repetitive and not new and they realize that. Now that not just old folks are “in there” and people of all ages are “sheltering in place,” the ability “to forget what it is worse than useless to remember,” as Thoreau put is, has become more important than ever if one wishes to not be driven crazy with boredom of the self- and socially-induced kinds.
“Oh, every thought that’s strung a knot in my mind/I might go insane if it couldn’t be sprung,” Bob Dylan sang in “Restless Farewell,” echoing Thoreau. Selected Essays John Berger Best Price: $6.21 Buy New $11.11 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
As a motivating force in human affairs, boredom is hard to beat. Hatred, envy, lust, love, anger, jealousy: these are some of the alluring emotions that are often emphasized. But boredom – it is so boring! Why go there? It seems too simple an explanation for human behavior, yet nothing is more complex and powerful.
Boredom is like sex once was long ago – a taboo. To admit one is bored is to confess to the modern equivalent of a mortal sin. I think there is an unacknowledged agreement to deny the truth of boredom for what it can reveal about how we live and die. For boredom is intimately tied to our experience and understanding of time and space, and time in its turn is the home from which the modern mind is exiled, as we wander nowhere in a transcendental homelessness, without leaving the places where we are while already being no longer there. To contemplate our existential and social confusion terrorizes people.
Since it is hydra-headed, boredom’s truths are many. It is often the flip side of the constant agitation and false excitation of modern life and the search for diversion. Conversely, modern manic high-tech busyness, while aimed at repressing boredom, simultaneously serves the function of boring through intense repetition, numbing those who seek to use it to escape boredom. It’s a rotating spit.
In the culture of the copy, everything is replayed, rerun, recapitulated, reiterated, repeated, reproduced, replicated, over and over and over again. Unlike our lives that pass in a flash one time only, we are living in a techno world where we have internalized the machine and unconsciously think we can digitally record our lives and play them again.
Going live tends to irritate and scare people.
So the solution to boredom becomes a problem equal to the boredom itself. It becomes boring. One is trapped, going round and round, even if one doesn’t know it. Then there are those who keep themselves extremely busy, buzzing like an insect’s hum, and deny they are ever bored. They are some of the most boring people you can find, because the sound of their busyness produces no echo since it sounds over a sea of nothingness, as Kierkegaard put it
The current societal coronavirus shutdown that has people locked in their homes under house arrest offers a perfect example of agitated digital boredom at its finest. The incarceration is a two-headed monster serving to drive people quite mad and very anxious as they go nowhere but around and around on the information superhighway, setting the stage for the day the authorities press the release button and people manically rush out into the streets, thanking their bosses for their freedom.
It is a common experience for people who are “sheltering in place” to say their sense of time is distorted and they aren’t sure what day it is. A sense of temporal disorientation prevails, just as it does for those in prisons. “Every ruling minority needs to numb and, if possible, to kill the time-sense of those it exploits,” wrote John Berger. “This is the authoritarian secret of all methods of imprisonment.” A Daring Young Man: A ... Leggett, John Best Price: $2.00 Buy New $10.00 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
What was once felt but rarely said to be the boredom of “normal” life with its tedious rounds of the same old-same old will feel like liberation and a gift from the authorities when the go button is pressed. The daily rounds of getting and spending will commence with shouts of joy. The “new” normal, however, will quickly seem old as the daily grind, which is reality for most working people, resumes, even if at reduced wages and lost opportunities and carried out within a social spectacle that will produce “exciting news” that will be repeated repetitively to keep people aroused, “engaged,” and fearful of the next crisis erupting even as so many go bankrupt. Angst will float in the bubble of hyper-reality as the economic screws are tightened on working people everywhere.
If you can keep yourself busy and preoccupied with trivia and shopping; if you can consume news, entertainment, and social media 24/7; if you can embrace all the weapons of mass distraction offered, then you can deny that boredom is speaking to you, even when these methods of avoiding boredom are themselves monotonously boring. Self-deception and social control are conjoined tricksters.
Boredom has many voices, but the most feared yet liberating message it utters may be: “You are trapped on the merry-go-round of the living dead, bored to death, repeating yourself. You are being oppressed by an unjust social order and are being conned. Why not start living.” This is the experience of boredom that can give rise to revolt and the urge for freedom, something radically upsetting to both the trapped and their trappers. Echo’s voice is liberated to speak when people are willing to listen.
The essential element of boredom is repetition and monotony; knowing that day follows dusty day and you are going to read, hear, or experience the same thing again and again. As Macbeth says:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day….
In a terrifying take on this idea, Nietzsche suggested, through his idea of eternal recurrence, that we best be very careful how we live each moment since they are eternal, and that after death we will have to live our lives over and over again down to the slightest detail, while remembering that we are doing so. Eternal repetition sounds a bit boring, wouldn’t you say? Now that’s a thought to rouse one from lethargy and perhaps escape boredom for good.
Interestingly, modernity has forced upon us the necessity for choice. Constant choices are demanded of us, and the more choices we have in a high-tech capitalist consumer culture, the more boring repetitions we encounter. One reason for this is the need of the corporations, government, and the media to offer us something “new” every hour of every day. Pseudo-events and “news” are manufactured non-stop. And the “new” is updated, with the “new” so often turning out to be old, a variation on a theme across all forms of media and the consuming life. Having to fill up the space and their pockets, these corporations are experts at repetition, and repetition is the key to effective propaganda. The Storyteller: Tales... Benjamin, Walter Best Price: $7.98 Buy New $15.99 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
Have you noticed that when you go to your favorite television station or website, you will encounter endless repetition? If you switch channels or websites – from liberal to conservative, etc. – you will see that most are beating the same drum, flipped to one side or the other. These days it’s coronavirus-coronavirus-coronavirus, Trump-Trump-Trump; endless droning on today about what was droned on about yesterday. Soon the subject will change, and be repeated until something else is manufactured to keep people occupied and bored. You can easily fill in the blanks.
But why do people subject themselves to such boring repetition? Could the writer William Saroyan’s flippant remark shed some light on this phenomenon? Regarding the claim that smoking causes cancer, he said, “You may tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke, not from the smoking itself.”
Could wanting to flee existential and social boredom by embracing the culturally proffered means to do so, be the real problem? What is it about boredom that so frightens people? Does boredom scare people to death? Is getting as far away from death the goal? But is not the flight from death the flight from life and therefore the embrace of death?
I think the quest to seek a solution to boredom is the problem. Walter Benjamin said it beautifully in “The Storyteller”:
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
But such creative boredom demands a silent patience and a state of mental relaxation that is almost extinct. It can only be experienced if one dwells and does not flee into action. It means forgetting what an oppressive society wants us to always remember.
Maybe in a mediated world where direct experience is becoming more and more uncommon – as we live in a world of screens and filters and electronic gadgets that occupy our living space – we are afraid of fully experiencing inspired boredom because it may force us to consider living. And since living is change, and change is always new, it frightens us. It means time goes by. But without embracing change we cannot make social change. We may think we can, but we will be doing the same old boring thing and strengthening the existing system. The Essential Kierkegaard Su00f8ren Kierkegaard Best Price: $14.99 Buy New $16.48 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
To rotate on boredom’s spit is to slowly die.
Alan Watts once wisely said:
To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist, you kill yourself.
Only when it hatches, can the dream bird fly.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
The Best of Edward Curtin


lewrockwell--2020-04-20--The First Easter Morning in a Long Time, That the Sun Did Not Shine

A detail I ’ ve noted since childhood , likely with a little bit of superstition built into it , and probably a selective memory , is how often Easter Sunday was met with a bright sunrise , no matter where in the world I found myself on that day .
This past Easter morning , churches around the world kept their doors shut .
Pastors around the world voluntarily complied with Caesar ’ s requests .
Very little opposition was shown , very few lawsuits were even filed to see if Caesar ’ s right arm agreed with Caesar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discussions took place to identify what loopholes may exist .
The pastors charged with caring for the disciples of the courageous Christ exhibited so little courage , they didn ’ t even go to Caesar and say “ Let ’ s see how we can work this out , closing churches is pretty drastic.
” No they just went home and obediently complied .
I stood Easter morning on the steps of the church , at the time that would be “ sunrise , ” if the sky that morning were not so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Way : H ... Matsakis PhD , Aphrodit ... Best Price : $ 3.99 Buy New $ 45.00 Alone on Easter Sunday .
No jubilant bells .
No organ .
All forbidden , unless I wanted to pretend Zoom was as good as church .
Alone .
Not really alone , for a woman nearby was using the steps of the church that morning for exercise .
She paced up and down .
But there were not two or three gathered there with me for Easter , as far as I knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her in climbing those stairs .
He jogged up and down the dozens of steps that the trailblazers and religious fanatics of an earlier generation had built there as a glorious example atop a hill .
It was a building that the congregation could not today summon the will to erect .
It was a relic from a more courageous and honest people .
I Know That My Redeemer Lives .
In my lone service , in the appointed readings for the day : From the book of John , the lost Mary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not recognize her dead teacher resurrected , and then she did .
And she must have felt very confused , but she was no longer lost .
And in Psalm 118 , the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone .
These were bold readings about how a no one from nowhere , who no expert would acknowledge as an expert , no insider would deem an insider , 2000 years later is worshiped around the globe .
Only , all of a sudden , his followers were a lot more faint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nowhere to be found .
This Easter Sunday the sun did not shine .
The church did not open .
The bells did not even toll .
America did not come to its senses .
Many parts of the world did not come to their senses .
Next Sunday , the church of the east , the church that some would regard as the true church , using the Julian calendar , will celebrate Easter .
Perhaps America and the world will come to its senses by that day .
Perhaps more clergy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come out from hiding .
There on those church steps , my lone liturgy had come to an end .
I sang my final hymn .
I no longer wanted to be alone .
Alone with people around me .
A man walked by on his way home from his night shift .
It was now getting to be 8 a.m .
He looked up at the church as if it meant something to him different from other buildings .
He was the first person who I saw do that since I had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was not wearing his fear mask .
I said hello .
He didn ’ t run away .
I said “ Happy Easter.
” He said it back .
We started to talk about the closed church that he was looking at .
It was the very first thing he brought up , in fact , the shock of the churches closing .
Not even the USSR could close the churches I said .
This has been my broken record statement of shock to everyone I ’ ve met these last four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... Furedi , Frank Best Price : $ 10.04 Buy New $ 10.90 We had taken risks with each other .
We had bridged the wide gulf of honesty that so separates people in this land on which we now stood .
Without courage , there can be no honesty .
We took the courage and honesty a step further in the midst of the corona ban , where all people are mandated not to stop in public , and all must social distance at least six feet from each other .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and proceeded in disregard of the traffic signal .
We two strangers violated the diktats of that land merely by standing there .
We did something more daring , something counter-cultural , something human .
We shook hands .
I shook a stranger ’ s hand on Easter .
Imagine the horror an American would have had a year ago , at me announcing such a thing as if it were an act of courage , a source of pride .
And then we did another thing .
We prayed there together , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And suddenly there were two or three gathered in His name .
We talked for a long time there that morning .
And Geoff ’ s politics were different from mine , but his values were similar .
His love of reason was similar .
His want of courage was similar .
His understanding of right and wrong were similar .
And I knew something much better was ahead .
This is not where the American experiment ends .
This is not where the experiment of human freedom ends .
This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Best of Allan Stevo

A detail I’ve noted since childhood, likely with a little bit of superstition built into it, and probably a selective memory, is how often Easter Sunday was met with a bright sunrise, no matter where in the world I found myself on that day.
This past Easter morning, churches around the world kept their doors shut. Pastors around the world voluntarily complied with Caesar’s requests. Very little opposition was shown, very few lawsuits were even filed to see if Caesar’s right arm agreed with Caesar’s left arm. Very few discussions took place to identify what loopholes may exist.
The pastors charged with caring for the disciples of the courageous Christ exhibited so little courage, they didn’t even go to Caesar and say “Let’s see how we can work this out, closing churches is pretty drastic.” No they just went home and obediently complied.
I stood Easter morning on the steps of the church, at the time that would be “sunrise,” if the sky that morning were not so gray. Alone. In Harm’s Way: H... Matsakis PhD, Aphrodit... Best Price: $3.99 Buy New $45.00 (as of 05:19 UTC - Details)
Alone on Easter Sunday. No jubilant bells. No organ.
No congregational meal. No fellowship.
All forbidden, unless I wanted to pretend Zoom was as good as church. Alone.
Not really alone, for a woman nearby was using the steps of the church that morning for exercise. She paced up and down.
But there were not two or three gathered there with me for Easter, as far as I knew.
Soon after, a man joined her in climbing those stairs. He jogged up and down the dozens of steps that the trailblazers and religious fanatics of an earlier generation had built there as a glorious example atop a hill.
It was a building that the congregation could not today summon the will to erect. It was a relic from a more courageous and honest people.
I conducted a service for myself.
Amazing Grace was sung.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives.
Thine Is The Glory.
In my lone service, in the appointed readings for the day:
From the book of John, the lost Mary Magdalene, at the tomb, did not recognize her dead teacher resurrected, and then she did. And she must have felt very confused, but she was no longer lost.
And in Psalm 118, the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone.
These were bold readings about how a no one from nowhere, who no expert would acknowledge as an expert, no insider would deem an insider, 2000 years later is worshiped around the globe. Only, all of a sudden, his followers were a lot more faint. The bravery of Mary Magdalene was nowhere to be found.
This Easter Sunday the sun did not shine. The church did not open. The bells did not even toll. America did not come to its senses. Many parts of the world did not come to their senses.
Next Sunday, the church of the east, the church that some would regard as the true church, using the Julian calendar, will celebrate Easter.
Perhaps America and the world will come to its senses by that day.
Perhaps more clergy will feel a sense of need to come out from hiding.
There on those church steps, my lone liturgy had come to an end. I sang my final hymn. I no longer wanted to be alone. Alone with people around me.
A man walked by on his way home from his night shift. It was now getting to be 8 a.m. He looked up at the church as if it meant something to him different from other buildings. He was the first person who I saw do that since I had been standing there that Easter morning.
He was not wearing his fear mask.
I said hello. He didn’t run away.
I said “Happy Easter.” He said it back.
We started to talk about the closed church that he was looking at. It was the very first thing he brought up, in fact, the shock of the churches closing.
Not even the USSR could close the churches I said. This has been my broken record statement of shock to everyone I’ve met these last four weeks. How Fear Works: Cultur... Furedi, Frank Best Price: $10.04 Buy New $10.90 (as of 03:28 UTC - Details)
We had taken risks with each other. We had bridged the wide gulf of honesty that so separates people in this land on which we now stood. Without courage, there can be no honesty.
We took the courage and honesty a step further in the midst of the corona ban, where all people are mandated not to stop in public, and all must social distance at least six feet from each other. A police cruiser drove by, slowed, and proceeded in disregard of the traffic signal. We two strangers violated the diktats of that land merely by standing there.
We did something more daring, something counter-cultural, something human. We shook hands.
I shook a stranger’s hand on Easter. Imagine the horror an American would have had a year ago, at me announcing such a thing as if it were an act of courage, a source of pride.
And then we did another thing. We prayed there together, on that cold, dreary Easter morning.
And suddenly there were two or three gathered in His name.
We talked for a long time there that morning. And Geoff’s politics were different from mine, but his values were similar. His love of reason was similar. His want of courage was similar. His understanding of right and wrong were similar.
And I knew something much better was ahead.
This is not where the American experiment ends. This is not where the experiment of human freedom ends.
This is where the next battle begins.
The Best of Allan Stevo


lewrockwell--2020-04-20--Have Five Weeks of This Mad Lockdown Panic Actually Done Us Good?

I find it incredible that it is now five weeks since I wrote here : ‘ We have gone quite mad .
I know that many people are thinking this , but dare not say so .
I will be accused of all kinds of terrible things for taking this view – but that is another aspect of how crazy things are.
’ I said we had got our policy on Covid-19 out of proportion .
I said the worst effect of the Government ’ s behaviour was to savage the economy by scaring people away from normal activities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ realised that there was also a grave threat to personal liberty , and raised that alarm too .
I recall these words because you will all by now have noticed they stand up well to the test of time .
The Rage Against God : ... Hitchens , Peter Best Price : $ 5.44 Buy New $ 8.00 The report from the Office for Budget Responsibility has made clear that the damage done by crashing the economy is deep and dangerous .
It may last for many years .
And much of it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also acted with shocking arrogance , and appeared to enjoy it .
The harm done by this behaviour may never be repaired .
I suspect that many of you know this in detail .
The pain is spreading fast in the form of strangled business , often small enterprises built on brave risk-taking and mortgaged homes .
Many are now sinking into bankruptcy – not because they failed , but because the Government ’ s policy killed them .
Then there are the vanishing jobs , the wage cuts which many are already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every day that this shutdown continues .
It really is time that the Cabinet took responsibility for at least limiting this damage .
I for one will not jeer at them for doing so .
When you make a mistake , as we all do , the test is what you do to put it right .
The Abolition of Brita ... Hitchens , Peter Buy New $ 16.99 I was accused when I warned of this of not caring about deaths from Covid-19 .
This was false .
In fact it poisoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never doubted the good intentions of those who supported the Government ’ s policy , I just thought they were mistaken and counter-productive .
I pointed out that we also needed to care about the deaths which experts , such as Germany ’ s Professor Sucharit Bhakdi , repeatedly warned would come from closing down both social life and economic activity for any length of time .
It was not life versus money .
It was life versus life .
My warnings would have been fainter ( though not wrong ) if the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But has it been ?
I would say not so far .

I find it incredible that it is now five weeks since I wrote here: ‘We have gone quite mad. I know that many people are thinking this, but dare not say so. I will be accused of all kinds of terrible things for taking this view – but that is another aspect of how crazy things are.’
I said we had got our policy on Covid-19 out of proportion.
I said the worst effect of the Government’s behaviour was to savage the economy by scaring people away from normal activities.
Calm, reasoned responses are almost always better than frantic, panicking ones. A police officer is pictured above speaking to a man relaxing on Brighton beach amid the lockdown
It was only a week later I realised that there was also a grave threat to personal liberty, and raised that alarm too.
I recall these words because you will all by now have noticed they stand up well to the test of time.
The report from the Office for Budget Responsibility has made clear that the damage done by crashing the economy is deep and dangerous. It may last for many years. And much of it was avoidable.
Some police officers have also acted with shocking arrogance, and appeared to enjoy it. The harm done by this behaviour may never be repaired.
I suspect that many of you know this in detail.
The pain is spreading fast in the form of strangled business, often small enterprises built on brave risk-taking and mortgaged homes. Many are now sinking into bankruptcy – not because they failed, but because the Government’s policy killed them.
Then there are the vanishing jobs, the wage cuts which many are already experiencing, and which more face with every day that this shutdown continues.
The NHS has a huge number of empty beds for the time of year. The mortality figures show a confused picture, not least because it is not clear how the authorities decide who is and who is not recorded as a Covid-19 death. A mural is pictured above in Liverpool
It really is time that the Cabinet took responsibility for at least limiting this damage. I for one will not jeer at them for doing so. When you make a mistake, as we all do, the test is what you do to put it right.
I was accused when I warned of this of not caring about deaths from Covid-19.
This was false. In fact it poisoned the wells of debate.
I have never doubted the good intentions of those who supported the Government’s policy, I just thought they were mistaken and counter-productive.
I pointed out that we also needed to care about the deaths which experts, such as Germany’s Professor Sucharit Bhakdi, repeatedly warned would come from closing down both social life and economic activity for any length of time. It was not life versus money. It was life versus life.
My warnings would have been fainter (though not wrong) if the Government’s policy had been successful. But has it been? I would say not so far.
Yes, the virus has killed a significant number of people, but the expected mass onslaught of deaths has not arrived. The NHS has a huge number of empty beds for the time of year. The mortality figures show a confused picture, not least because it is not clear how the authorities decide who is and who is not recorded as a Covid-19 death.
The unprecedented, sweeping decision to put the healthy in quarantine has gravely affected society.
But did it lead to a laxness on detailed policy decisions, on the provision of personal protection equipment to doctors and nurses, and on the care homes whose treatment looks to me like a major scandal?
The evidence from Stockholm, which has so far pursued a rational, proportionate, limited policy, still suggests that Sweden will emerge from this less damaged by far than we will.
Calm, reasoned responses are almost always better than frantic, panicking ones. What we are doing isn’t working on any terms. It is time we tried something else.
A question of dodgy justice
I could never stand the quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
The questions were either insultingly easy or demanded a profound knowledge of soap operas or sport, which I don’t want to know about. And it was so slow.
So I paid little attention to the ‘Coughing Major’ case, and merely thought it funny.
Now, thanks to the dramatisation of the episode in the ITV series Quiz last week, I have totally changed my mind.
I don’t know if Major Charles Ingram and his wife Diana were guilty of cheating their way to a million-pound prize.
But if the drama was even vaguely true, I don’t believe the case against them was proved beyond reasonable doubt, which is what the law demands. I also have a nagging feeling that the police have better things to do than investigate quiz shows.
The questions were either insultingly easy or demanded a profound knowledge of soap operas or sport, which I don’t want to know about. And it was so slow. So I paid little attention to the ‘Coughing Major’ case, and merely thought it funny. Now, thanks to the dramatisation of the episode in the ITV series Quiz last week, above, I have totally changed my mind
It is odd how many times you find that what you thought was clear and beyond dispute is not, as soon as you know the details.
I discovered this when I read Josephine Tey’s marvellous novel The Daughter Of Time, in which a Scotland Yard detective, stuck in hospital with injuries suffered while pursuing a criminal, investigates the claim that Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower. And lo, it turns out that he didn’t.
The dangerous, greedy campaign to legalise marijuana now has powerful allies on all sides of politics.
In my view, it has never been closer to success here, and the pressing need to raise new taxes may bring that day even closer.
Well, before they fall into this trap, MPs and Ministers should listen to Professor Sir Robin Murray, one of this country’s most distinguished psychiatrists who had until recently favoured limited legalisation.
But now that he has seen how this has actually worked out in North America, he has absolutely changed his mind. Not only is he sure that the drug’s use is linked with mental illness, he now says: ‘I didn’t appreciate how big the cannabis industry was going to be.’
He compares Big Cannabis with the death-dealing Big Tobacco lobby which cynically used its wealth to defy health campaigners for many decades.
He now fears that this ultra-rich pressure group will seduce our cash-strapped Government into giving way.
At any other time, Prof Murray’s intervention would have been big news. Don’t let it be forgotten.
How dare they steal our flag
The awful Blair creature thought he was a British Bill Clinton – more President than Prime Minister. He marked his arrival in Downing Street in 1997 by staging a fake celebration with Labour Party workers waving Union Jacks, a flag they despised
The awful Blair creature thought he was a British Bill Clinton – more President than Prime Minister.
He marked his arrival in Downing Street in 1997 by staging a fake celebration with Labour Party workers waving Union Jacks, a flag they despised.
Even the Blairites became embarrassed about how much they were trespassing on Royal territory.
When I found out in 1998 that Blair’s wife, Cherie Booth, had used the Royal Train, his spin machine used all its wiles to bury the story, and nearly succeeded.
Blair also used to love posing with soldiers, during the many wars he dragged us into.
I suspect it was he who introduced the habit of holding Government press conferences in front of the national flag.
It is a bad idea, whoever does it. The government of the day does not stand for the whole nation.
The Queen stands for the nation. The government is temporary, party political and made up of ambitious careerists.
There’s nothing unpatriotic about not agreeing with the present Cabinet. So I object strongly to them appropriating the national flag as a backdrop during the daily Covid-19 briefings. It’s not theirs to use
There’s nothing unpatriotic about not agreeing with the present Cabinet.
So I object strongly to them appropriating the national flag as a backdrop during the daily Covid-19 briefings. It’s not theirs to use.
I don’t much like the 1984-style slogans, either, but I really do think this fake-American presidential posing is wrong and annoying. They should stop it.
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