Perception-Managed,
We can much better comprehend our relationship with our masters through our smartphone "familiars" if we read this short interview with Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han: Thanks for this deep insight, Charles. I am including little snippets.
The smartphone today is either a digital workplace or a digital confessional. Every device, and every technique of domination, generates totems that are used for subjugation. This is how domination is strengthened. The smartphone is the cult object of digital domination. As a subjugation device, it acts like a rosary and its beads; this is how we keep a smartphone constantly at hand. The ‘like’ is a digital “amen.” We keep going to confession. We undress by choice. But we don’t ask for forgiveness: instead, we call out for attention... When we are depressed we lose our relationship with the world, with the other. We sink into a scattered ego. I think digitalization, and the smartphone, make us depressed. There are stories of dentists who say that their patients cling to their phones when a treatment is painful. Why do they do that? Thanks to the smartphone, I am aware of myself. It helps me to be certain that I am alive, that I exist. That’s why we cling to our cellphones in situations like dental treatment. As a child, I remember holding my mother’s hand at the dentist’s office. Today the mother will not offer the child her hand, but a cellphone.
Support does not come from others, but from oneself. That makes us sick. We have to recover the other person...
Only a repressive regime provokes resistance. On the contrary, the neoliberal regime, which does not oppress freedom, but exploits it, does not face any resistance. It is not repressive, but seductive. Domination becomes complete the moment it presents itself as freedom. ("Is perceived as freedom", I'd say) Think very carefully about what would happen in America, or your country, with only 15% less oil. Covid may have dropped consumption less than 5% (Correct me if I am wrong.) Make as many accomodations for the future as you can, now, please.
Despite the pitfalls to prices and supply, the IEA said current low oil and gas spending was one of the few areas aligned with its most ambitious Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) scenario in which no new fossil fuel projects should go forward.
In its most conservative status quo, or stated policies scenario (STEPS), however, average annual spending on oil to meet demand would need to rise sharply to above $500 billion - more than at any time in the last five years.
Energy consultancy FGE said in a note the problem was not an immediate one, but could come to a crescendo in coming years.
In its most conservative status quo, or stated policies scenario (STEPS), however, average annual spending on oil to meet demand would need to rise sharply to above $500 billion - more than at any time in the last five years.
Energy consultancy FGE said in a note the problem was not an immediate one, but could come to a crescendo in coming years.
On The Limits To Transition:
At the level of theory, there’s nothing much wrong with the idea of outdated notions (or humans) undergoing a mass extinction event.
Our understanding, and our ability to plan ahead, can only benefit from the discovery that the economy isn’t, after all, ‘a wholly monetary system, capable of infinite growth’, but is in fact an energy system, limited by the laws of physics as they apply to the Earth’s energy resources.
It is, after all, hard to plan effectively when your base predicates are false.
In practical terms, though, we’re faced with something that moves beyond an inconvenient truth into what is for most people an almost inconceivable one. This is the proposition that there may be no wholly sufficient replacement for the fossil fuel energy on which the economy of today is based.
Put another way, the desirable – indeed, imperative – de-carbonization of the economy is likely to involve shrinking it as well.
If you held any leadership position, you’d have to think long and hard before going public on any of this. Your wiser course of action might be to talk up the positives in the current situation whilst preparing, with the greatest urgency, for the new one...
Our understanding, and our ability to plan ahead, can only benefit from the discovery that the economy isn’t, after all, ‘a wholly monetary system, capable of infinite growth’, but is in fact an energy system, limited by the laws of physics as they apply to the Earth’s energy resources.
It is, after all, hard to plan effectively when your base predicates are false.
In practical terms, though, we’re faced with something that moves beyond an inconvenient truth into what is for most people an almost inconceivable one. This is the proposition that there may be no wholly sufficient replacement for the fossil fuel energy on which the economy of today is based.
Put another way, the desirable – indeed, imperative – de-carbonization of the economy is likely to involve shrinking it as well.
If you held any leadership position, you’d have to think long and hard before going public on any of this. Your wiser course of action might be to talk up the positives in the current situation whilst preparing, with the greatest urgency, for the new one...
This implies that what we need isn’t re-set, but re-design.
At a later stage we may revisit the taxonomy of de-growth but, for now, we can note that a contracting economy implies a process of de-complexification. The range of products and services available will narrow, and methods of supply will be simplified as producers try to work around the adverse effects of falling utilization rates and the loss of critical mass. The simplification process will involve substantial de-layering.
The brunt of contraction in the private sector will be borne by sectors providing discretionary (non-essential) goods and services...
At a later stage we may revisit the taxonomy of de-growth but, for now, we can note that a contracting economy implies a process of de-complexification. The range of products and services available will narrow, and methods of supply will be simplified as producers try to work around the adverse effects of falling utilization rates and the loss of critical mass. The simplification process will involve substantial de-layering.
The brunt of contraction in the private sector will be borne by sectors providing discretionary (non-essential) goods and services...
The critical question for policymakers now might be that of how we ensure that the essentials are available and affordable for everyone.
(Demand destruction? It's what they do everywhere else...)
The End of Super Imperialism, by Alex Gladstein is actually the best summary of the book "Super Imperialism" and it's 2 subsequent follow-up editions since release in 1972, which I have seen.
It is in Bitcoin Magazine, so it has to put in a blurb for Bitcoin at the end, the thesis that Bitcoin can replace the petro-dollar as global reserve currency. There are a lot of weaknesses to that thesis, which are not brought up at all. I think it was added to an excellent essay to get published and paid.
With every prior empire, the empire still had to finance debt for wars. With the debt-based-dollar replacing gold, and countries [like Saudi Arabia] having to recycle excess dollars into lending to the Federal Government [for wars] there was a perfect trap for the rest of the world.
The trap was set when the USA was the largest creditor nation by far, and held 70% of non-Soviet gold stores, at the end of WW-2.
Once the rest of the world was using $US for global trade, and the US could print and spend all it needed for war, and they increasingly lent it back by buying T-bills, as American manufacturing got offshored, and real interest rates were usually negative, the support for Super Imperialism was in place.
The threat to this system is any global trade/reserve currency which does not extract wealth.
Yes, (energy expensive) Bitcoin could sort of fill this role between central banks, but a gold-backed central bank currency could do it better, and they are in beta testing. Every country would again be subject to balance-of-payments-in-gold discipline.
It was the Vietnam War that decisively drained US gold, though it really began in Korea.
...The report contains many significant revelations, including that the US military has been grossly undercounting the numbers of civilians killed in its airstrikes and lying about it to Congress, that special ops forces in Syria have been consistently ordering airstrikes which kill noncombatants with no accountability by exploiting loopholes to get around rules meant to protect civilians, that units which call in such airstrikes are allowed to do their own assessments grading whether the strikes were justified, that the US war machine attempted to obstruct scrutiny of the massacre “at nearly every step” of the way, and that the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations only investigates such incidents when there is “potential for high media attention, concern with outcry from local community/government, concern sensitive images may get out.”
“But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike,” The New York Times reports. “The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. United States-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified.”
Journalist Aaron Maté has called the incident “one of the US military’s worst massacres and cover-up scandals since My Lai in Vietnam.”...
“But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike,” The New York Times reports. “The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. United States-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified.”
Journalist Aaron Maté has called the incident “one of the US military’s worst massacres and cover-up scandals since My Lai in Vietnam.”...
Julian Assange currently sits in Belmarsh Prison waiting to find out if British judges will overturn a lower court’s ruling against his extradition to the United States to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for journalistic activity which exposed US war crimes. War crimes not unlike those that were just exposed by The New York Times in its reporting on the Baghuz massacre.
The precedent the US government is trying to set with its persecution of Julian Assange will, if successful, cast a chilling effect over journalism which scrutinizes the US war machine, not just in the United States but around the world. If it can succeed in legally establishing that it can extradite an Australian journalist for publishing information in the public interest about US war crimes, it will have succeeded in legally establishing that it can do that to any journalist anywhere. And you can kiss investigative reporting like this goodbye.
Land Grab for "Climate"? Land Confiscated from Midwestern Farmers , Tessa (fights robots) Lena
This story is about an event that is extremely important and historically deep. According to Ice Age Farmer, a large amount of land is currently being confiscated from American farmers in the Midwest, using eminent domain. The farmers are given an option to accept a modest compensation and go away “voluntarily”—but if not, they are threatened with the prospect of losing their land anyway under eminent domain.
This is done to give way to a massive carbon sequestration pipeline (actually, two of them) and processing facilities going through the heart of the Corn Belt. (You guessed it, this is done in the name of “saving the planet.”)
Notably, the project allegedly requires removing top soil (!!!) in an area spanning thousands of miles—an agriculturally important area—which is, of course, a great way to save the planet!
This is done to give way to a massive carbon sequestration pipeline (actually, two of them) and processing facilities going through the heart of the Corn Belt. (You guessed it, this is done in the name of “saving the planet.”)
Notably, the project allegedly requires removing top soil (!!!) in an area spanning thousands of miles—an agriculturally important area—which is, of course, a great way to save the planet!
On October 31st we revealed how an investigation of data found in the USA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has revealed that extremely high numbers of adverse reactions and deaths have been reported against specific lot numbers of the Covid-19 vaccines several times, meaning deadly batches of the experimental injections have now been identified...
...As of November 1, 2021, there have been more adverse events reported for the COVID vaccines than for all 70+ vaccines combined since they started tracking adverse events 30 years ago. Thanks Travis.
Games you can play with statistics and graphing to show things in a very obvious way, which happen to be counterfactual...
Is Vaccine Efficacy A Statistical Illusion?
No explanation. Peer reviewed paper about post vaccine myocarditis. Verified data. Well known and credentialed authors. Just retracted from medical journal.
COVID-19 vaccine-myocarditis paper to be permanently removed: Elsevier "A paper claiming that cases of myocarditis spiked after teenagers began receiving COVID-19 vaccines that earned a “temporary removal” earlier this month will be permanently removed, according to a publisher at Elsevier."
Huh, wuzzat in English, please?
SARS-COV-2 Delta variant displays moderate resistance to neutralizing antibodies and spike protein properties of higher soluble ACE2 sensitivity, enhanced cleavage and fusogenic activity
SARS-CoV-2 Delta (sub)variant is moderately resistant to neutralizing antibodies produced in response to vaccines targeting January 2020 spike protein, which is most of them, and all of the ones in the US and UK. (This says nothing about enhancement of viral pathogenicity by antibodies to spike protein antibodies or natural antibodies to COVID infection.)
Finally, the spike proteins of B.1.617 variants are more efficiently cleaved due to the P681R substitution, and the spike of Delta variants exhibited greater sensitivity to soluble ACE2 neutralization, as well as fusogenic activity, which may contribute to enhanced spread of Delta variants.
That means that the things the virus does to attach to and quickly enter a human cell, to begin reproducing, all seem to work better for this sub variant. Several of these things have been shown elsewhere to be enhanced by antibodies to January 2020 SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, such as the cleavage of spike protein after attachment to ACE-2 receptor on cell wall, and "fusogenic activity", which has to do with fusing into and crossing the host cell wall. These features were studied using "pseudovruses" not whole virus, so that each feature could be studied in isolation. That is good in one way, seeing what each mutated feature does alone, but it will completely miss the whole package effect of active virus in vaccinated, previously infected, and infection-naive humans. That would be far more complex of a study, and it is sort of going on around us.
Demyelinating neurological disease, like multiple sclerosis and transverse myelitis impairs the myelin sheath around nerves, without which they work very poorly or not at all. All types of COVID-19 vaccines can elicit this autoimmune response, more commonly in people who have autoimmune disease, and more commonly after the first vaccine dose. Most of these cases improved with high-dose steroids, the typical treatment.
Transverse Myelitis:
EU lists rare spinal condition as side-effect of J&J COVID-19 shot
Paresthesia can be numbness, tingling, burning, ants crawling, insect biting, glass cuts, painful pressure or other sensation, without an easily identifiable cause on physical examination. Hyperesthesia is feeling things way too much in an area. It is usually experienced as painful.
In the latest update on vaccine safety 6 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reported that among the adverse reactions to the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine there were also cases of parestesia. In particular, as written in the dossier, edited by the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), almost 22 thousand cases of parestesia and hypesthesia have been reported out of approximately 1 billion and 220 thousand Pfizer vaccine doses administered in the world.This is the excellent MATH+ protocol in-hospital. The MASK+ protocol for outpatients is similar, similar to what I have used, and both have been continuously updated, based on clinical results, sinc March of 2020. Dr Marik has been the leader in America of developing therapeutics that work for COVID. He is at University of Eastern Virginia.
Paul Marik, MD, one of the most highly published critical care physicians in the world and the Director of the ICU at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, was recently prohibited by Sentara Healthcare from administering a range of highly effective COVID-19 treatments to critically ill patients—the same treatments he has successfully used to reduce COVID deaths in the ICU by as much as 50%. The result of the prohibition has been a sharp increase in patient mortality. Because Dr. Marik can no longer stand by while patients needlessly die without proper treatment, he has filed a lawsuit to allow him and his colleagues to administer the combination of FDA-approved drugs and other therapies that has saved thousands of critically ill COVID-19 patients in the last 18 months.RFK Jr. In my latest book — “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health” — I take an in-depth look at the disastrous consequences of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s 50-year reign as America’s public health czar. The book, which will be released Nov. 16, is available now for pre-order.
"The J. Edgar Hoover of Public Health in America" for over 35 years, starting with AIDS.
As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion in annual taxpayer-provided funding for scientific research.The research I conducted for my new book exposes how Fauci’s gargantuan yearly disbursements allow him to dictate the subject, content and outcome of scientific health research across the globe.
These annual disbursements also allow Fauci to exercise dictatorial control over the army of “knowledge-and-innovation” leaders who populate the “independent” federal panels that approve and mandate drugs and vaccines — including the committees that allowed the Emergency Use Authorization of COVID-19 vaccines.
Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals and thousands of influential doctors and scientists — whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance or reward.
How did Pfizer come to rule the western world in the past year? Really, how?
Pfizer vaccine efficacy over time, a few months. "Negative efficacy" is not mentioned, but we have seen that after 6 months. Why no mention?
Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccination Against Risk of Symptomatic Infection, Hospitalization, and Death Up to 9 Months: A Swedish Total-Population Cohort Study Findings: Vaccine effectiveness of BNT162b2 against infection waned progressively from 92% (95% CI, 92-93, P<0·001) at day 15-30 to 47% (95% CI, 39-55, P<0·001) at day 121-180, and from day 211 and onwards no effectiveness could be detected...
Gibraltar is the most vaccinated and most boosted region on planet Earth. Get Your Booster Shot!
Gibraltar cancels Christmas celebrations amid Covid spike Steve Kirsch bets $1 million, offered to Gavin Newsome, Governor of California, if the governor will prove that he was not recently treated at his home for neurological injury from COVID booster shot, causing him to disappear from all view until half of his face was less paralyed, and wouldn't show, except to the trained eye (I saw it. Left side of face was less mobile.)
(Newsome's kids are not vaccinated against COVID, because his wife protects them. Her resolve is probably stronger than ever now.)
This makes me sick. I'm sorry we are all here as history unfolds.
Moderna totest COVID-19 vaccine on infants as young as 6 months oldNurturing Family
(Pictured with Jenny in hospital after her operation last week. She is improving well at home)
Good to see you two. Give Jenny our best.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a lot of legal challenges to the OSHA mandate, but not the CMS one. Keep your feelers out, if you will.
Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services COVID-19 vaccination mandate does not include exemption for natural immunity, and mandates full vaccination by early January 2022.
Deletehttps://www.aha.org/special-bulletin/2021-11-04-cms-issues-interim-final-rule-requiring-mandatory-covid-19-vaccinations
I would expect it to be addressed after the OSHA mandate is addressed by the courts. The lack of recognition of superior natural immunity makes it "against science"...
Go Jenny! You will do well, especially with John at your side.
ReplyDeleteBest to you both. Take good care of each other.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you saw Gail Tverberg's latest at Our Finite World, 'Our fossil fuel energy predicament, including why the correct story is rarely told'. She talks system energy as usual and ends with an interesting covid speculation.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/11/10/our-fossil-fuel-energy-predicament-including-why-the-correct-story-is-rarely-told/
Thanks Dennis. I'll read that.
DeleteBam!!! The lack of recognition of "Superior" natural immunity makes it " AGAINST SCIENCE"! well said!
ReplyDeleteSo happy for Jenny doing so well. We've been praying for her constantly.
Lack of recognition of superior natural-immunity makes the mandate arbitrary-and-capricious, when the science is examined.
DeletePresuming the federal courts will strike down the OSHA mandate, as a precedent, then the Medicare-Medicaid mandate will be on weaker legal ground, already.
Judges can be bought and threatened, of course...
COVID-19 OSHA Reports it ‘Has Sus
ReplyDeletethe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has suspended the implementation and enforcement of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private employers. The decision comes after a federal court blocked the measure.
The Medicare-Medicaid mandate is still in effect. That one will probably need to be challenged in the courts.
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