ecosophia | Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 66

Anyone have good tips (or links to containers/organizers) for storing all your medical supplies? As my collection of cell salts, first aid, vitamins, herbal extracts, and more grows, it's quickly becoming a disorganized mess. Right now I'm using recycled plastic containers (like the bigger Gladware lunch meat ones) as boxes to hold everything in my bathroom closet--but it's not working that well. Have you figured out a good storage system?

A large fishing tackle box with the trays that pop out is what we use.

Mine is nothing fancy, I got some "L-shaped things" and the cheapest wood I found, had it cut there at the shop and put some shelf's on the kitchen. I added a flat piece of wood, one inch wide, on it's side, towards the back of each shelf to act as a step so that I can put stuff on top and the jars in front won't cover them. I have one with two steps where I keep the small jars. I dry herbs upside down from a string, also on the kitchen, on another thing I screwed to the wall.

Fair warning, my organization methods always look like a mess to people. How could it not if I am using the things? I don't have much either: I have one unopened set of all twelve cell salts, more of the ones I use often and just a few jars with some herbs I use for tincturing.

I like the look of a functional kitchen.

When I see magazine kitchens, all I can think is "nobody ever cooks here!"

Needless to say, mine never looks like a magazine kitchen ;)

I also like the look, and the feeling. I've been to kitchens that feel like coffins.

Dang! We have such a small kitchen for the three of us that only one of us can use it at once, scheduling it to avoid getting in the way, and we have to make it look like a magazine kitchen again within the allotted time. But I'm going off-topic.
When we moved into this house, I took a tape measure and and bought the biggest tackle box that would fit in the wardrobe under my clothes. Atop extra supplies, it holds several trays with various items I might want immediate access to. I've got dried herbs in bottles or sealed plastic bags in various other places, and what I need to do is create an Excel file with notes on where everything is.

That reminds me that I need to stop being lazy and start stocking one for our house. Superglue for things that can get by without stitches. Suturing kits for things that do need them. Already have the iodine, but can never find it when I need it (because we have to hide it from the preschooler)... sigh. Husband likes to keep a tube of liquid N-Acetylcysteine around (hospitals use it in nebulizers for breathing treatments) because it's the thing to use for acetaminophen OD, and is very safe otherwise. Plus spare tweezers, the obligatory Oral Rehydration salts, etc.

One thing that's awfully handy but not everybody has around is a set of dental picks. They're fairly cheap and not just handy for pulling the odd embedded popcorn out of the gums. They(and some sterilized sewing needles) are also good for probing cuts to find and remove that last accursed sliver of completely invisible glass. I can't count the number of times I have had to do this (our household defaults to barefoot most of the year). For this, and related junk-stuck-in-feet problems, we also find a sterilized set of good toenail clippers (the ones with the flat cutter) is essential-- sometimes you have to clip away a bit of callus to get at the part you're working on.

BASIC STORAGE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES

In order to be able to see what I have and easily access individual items, it helps to have:

* separations of some sort (can be drawers in a wood cabinet, can be shelving made of planks with bricks, can be stackable plastic bins, peg board, whatever works)

* containers of some sort for small multiples

* labels of some sort on the containers

* overall, efforts to reduce visual clutter (for me this means containers of similar shape and color, and very neat, very easy to read labels)

Note: Efforts to reduce visual clutter can sometimes feel overly fussy, however, in my experience they really do make a difference towards the big goal: to be able to see what I have and easily access individual items.

I use ordinary Sterilite plastic stackable storage bins from Walmart.

The 7 quart size fits under most beds- under the bed is dark, cool, and dry, which is recommended for storage of medicine. The kitchen and bathroom are actually two of the worst places to keep meds- bright, hot, and humid. If they must be in those rooms, put them down in a bottom cabinet.

I use a Sharpie to mark the lid with a letter to identify what's in that bottle, so you can tell without having to lift up the bottle. For example, a big capital 'E' on the lid of echinacea.

Well. Went to the polls this morning, and cast my vote against Branch Covidianism. Wish I had any confidence that'd work. If things go the way I think they will, I may go back to being a conscientious non-voter. We'll see.

I hope everybody who feels so inclined will put a prayer out there that whoever wins and whatever happens, sanity will prevail.

Having seen this week's meme, I'd say Table Cat would make a great write-in candidate!

I'll keep that in mind for next time. I've already made Smudge and the Memelords a garage band in the novel I'm writing.

Thank you for participating. The symbolic act alone is important, even if it connects to nothing on the back end. Also, will definitely pray for sanity.

Miller (of 'died suddenly' substack fame) had an interesting post about the election:
https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/what-we-might-learn-about-this-next

I voted as well, although a few days ago (didn't expect to have free time today). Not the easiest vote I ever did (mainly because it wasn't my usual vote) but I was at peace in the end.

I will also put out a prayer for sanity; but something tells me to also pray for justice.

– Donald Hargraves

pray first and foremost for accountability, this is how healing begins.

sanity will perhaps come much later.

justice, only if we're lucky.

Justice will come in the end, for all of us. Maybe not in this life.

Never ask for it without mercy, though.

Many commenters noted that whoever wins, it will be contested and the other side will not accept the vote, if counting takes days or weeks, this will not help very much.

Yeah, my district doesn't have that problem, but I'm sure it'll be a right mess in plenty of other places. I hope the country as a whole can get its act together and hold reasonable elections again, soon.

I thought about not going, as most of the stuff being voted on here is a foregone conclusion, except the schoolboard race, which I don't care a lot about (though TBH the challenger seems off his rocker). But I just had three days of relentless deja-vu experiences, and it sort of imbued the current... whatever it is, with a weird sense of extra significance. So I went. And the deja vu seems to have stopped, so yay. It was unsettling.

I was so frustrated with the options on my town council ballot I wrote in "A yellow dog that opposed mandates."

Times have changed so that I don't even know if they'll get it but :shrug:

I tried several suggestions from last week's open post, one with a little twist:

Donald Trump
RFK Jr.
and
D. Neuntemaus (an attempt to evoke "the 9th mouse" using German but in a way that superficially looks like a real name )

Cheers for the yellow dog!

Thank you Methylethyl. If I may say something that I've been thinking about since this past Johnny Appleseed day, given the involvement with politics I see generally, one way or the other, which I find inspiring.

I grew up on one of the most contrasting and extreme countries on the planet: seeing famine, sickness, torture and merciful death happening around the corner and yet, nothing has caused me more revulsion than seeing first hand the soulless abuse, exclusion, ridicule and spite under which so many people are held.

I am a foreigner so I can't (and shouldn't be able to, despite some people insisting) write it in paper but I will most definitely keep praying for the well-being of the United States of America as if I could. Not exclusively because it will host The Lakeland Republic and I want to sing while I wait for a haircut and for politicians to be eager on installing new trolleys!

As someone that just read the Declaration of Independence for the first time this past Johnny Appleseed day I can say that the principles of this nation are very much worth standing for in whatever way it comes, specially, on a time where so many people seem to be mocking them...

"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

Edited 2022-11-09 08:48 (UTC)

keep your hand on the plow. hughes understood some things that, unfortunately, have mostly been forgotten. that needs to change.

In the past things would push to an extreme before an election and then the same bland moderation would return with a continual gradual push towards more war, more federal spending, and more progressive social policies. In the last five years or so there's been an unwillingness to moderate or even to just stop dehumanizing the opposition to war (I count covid as a war against everyday people), spending, or progressivism.

I didn't vote intentionally for the first time in my life because there wasn't anyone on the ballot who I see as returning my state to any sort of sane moderate position. Even if all R's got into office, there wasn't going to be any resolution or stoppage of any of the above. That's a fantasy that put out to keep people passive thinking that through voting they can cause the state to act in their interest. The state does what the state is going to do regardless of who you vote for.

Yeah, in my state at least we had some resistance to the madness, and I'm content to have those people continue to run things (pretty much everyone I voted for won-- no surprise-- but it won't make any difference to the rest of the country).

That sounds like a really good thing I can add to my prayer in the morning!

I have a Modest Proposal for avoiding profanity - use "boost" instead.

- that is so boosted, boosted beyond belief
- go boost yourself
- he really boosted them, right in the arm

We would be fighting against an old and generally positive meaning for the term.

My high school had a "booster club" that organized fundraisers for athletics.

I agree. To 'boost' is to 'increase' or to 'encourage'. Maybe I'm too literal, but it makes no sense to me as a cuss word.

If adult curse words are too offensive, maybe go back to kid cuss words. Or to curse words of a bygone era, there's a wealth of century-old ways to say such things.

Well, to be "gay" is to be happy and merry. Or does anybody even remember this?

But, words change their meanings all the time.

Edited (Still "screened"...) 2022-11-10 15:20 (UTC)

Absolutely!. Many of us are counting on it.

My grandfather would universally describe anything he found odd as "a bit queer". Not using it in the current sense of the word at all. I don't remember whether or not he used "gay" in the old-timey sense or not, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Yah? Well boost you too! :-)

Same. My kids are currently in the middle of their fundraiser called "boosterthon". I also think of the nutrient shakes my grandma used to drink called "Boost".

While it's annoying to have the connotation of the word "boost" marred...it's still a generally positive term!

I dunno. Maybe instead of simply replacing the one or two words that have edged out every other kind of swearing in the English language, we could try to revive the fine art of lengthy, creative, florid, swearing that still exists (I hear) in at least a few other major languages.

excrement's always popular of course, but it'd be better if more of our excrement phrases involved robot vacuum cleaners, half-digested balloons, the dung of exotic animals...

(shrugs)
I'm a novice at it myself, but I think with a bit of practice, it could be done! Every swear should leave an indelible mental image of unutterable horror ;)

There's a saying (which I'll probably garble) but something like:

"Irish diplomacy is telling someone to go to h*ll and having them look forward to the trip."

It's completely possible to insult someone with skill and elegance. Wish I had that skill!

we named our robot vacuum the "suck puck." johnny dangerously, farscape and battlestar galactica #2 have plenty of options when it comes to alternate profanities.

LoL

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You are boosting hilarious. Got any memes?

That works for me.

Ahem. On my blog and journal, "boost" and its derivatives are now officially recommended expletives.

I think it would work better as "booster" - "to booster" being the verb. I booster, you booster, he/she/it boosters... meaning the ruination of things that have evolved to work (like an immune system) by the over application of technology/graft/greed/etc.

"The education system is boostered"

Okay, if it's phrased as 'boosted', that would be 'lifted up'...

As in, 'hoist on your own petard'? I can chuckle at that one.

(modern English translation: blown up by your own bomb)

Gold star for that use; but I think there's a difference between ruination and the reality of where it's going.

Did the US remove the travel ban against those unwilling to take the medical experiment? I thought I heard it hear but as is always the case lately, there's next to no mention of it in the press.

I recently travelled to the US and was surprised that there was still a vaccine requirement. It did require some proof via an app. I think the US is the only country doing this still.

Ugh! I’m American and that appalls me. I’m disgusted with my government. As Moon Unit Zappa said, gag me with a spoon.

It was strange, but after I went through it, like another comment there seemed to be no enforcement or follow up whatsoever. Which begs the question as to why it's in place at all...

I heard this from a friend from New Zealand, too. They have ultra-strict rules on paper, but her husband's app wouldn't work, and they couldn't get back in unless he could provide the dates of his vaccines. So he got a paper version from the ticket agent, and wrote down his wife's info, and that was good enough.

I think there was just something subconscious going on in these countries - a vague paranoia about threats from outsiders that in reality never materialize.

Yep they're definitely out to get us and that's why we've agreed to let the US base 8 B52 nuclear armed bombers near Darwin and pay $100B+ for nuclear subs that we won't have control of. You can never be too safe, hence Canberra is the most jabbed place on the freakin' planet.

Australia follows these dictats:

1. Make annoying, yappy noises whenever the US tells us to.

2. Piss off the Chinese, our most important trading partner, at every opportunity.

3. Be a good little globalist poodle. E.g. The first thing our new PM did on entering office was go and genuflect in front of Zelensky, then bung him a few hundred million $, plus some armoured cars as target practice for the Russians.

The price of electricity and gas is shooting up here, even though we export huge amounts of gas, because we're too stupid to get the multinationals to pay a resource tax, or sell the gas to the local market at a reasonable price.

Yes, exactly, we have the same problems being the proxy war ground between the US and China.

Allow these two links to speak for themselves:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-lab-security-experts-1.6059097

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-china-election-interference-1.6644411 <-- well, actually that one you need to look closer at the photo caption to understand the game.

If it helps, I'll share the prayer I made at our Remembrance Day ceremony this morning, which got a good strong blow.

Since I saw that omen of the lawyer meant to uphold fairness and lack of bias in our Emergencies Act Inquiry collapse, I worried our judicial system was clearly under malicious magical attack - I mean, when Hillary Clinton collapsed, that's what had happened, right? People took credit for it on certain internet forums afterward, though I guess who knows whether they really had that power.

Anyway, so when they named each of the war dead - after the bible reading (quote linked below)- and rang the bell after each name, I prayed:

"To those who stood on guard for us before, please aid us again against attacks on our bodies, minds and souls.

Lend us your strength. Let each bell peal our gratitude and genuine committment to you that you did not die in vain, lest we forget."

It might work similarly in other Commonwealth countries.

Ohmygod, like, totally!

Ondreya? Is that you?

Many Asian nations are requiring vaccinations and boosters plus tests for entry or a tourist visa.

China wants all of the above, plus the PCR test and a Covid fecal test. The US does not require a fecal test or any test for entry.

Currently, Viet Nam does not require the shots for a visa.

Yes, but not for non citizens or those without legal standing.

Can a U.S. citizen (Un-V) who is a dual Canadian citizen enter the US after a period of quarantine? Or proof of no-C?

US citizens can enter the US without a vax or quarantine.

I am a non-foxed US citizen. I traveled overseas and came back in June this year. When I came back no one asked me once anywhere except the airline agent at check in. I simply said "medical exemption" when asked and that was it. I was prepared with copies of everything. Border/Customs didn't say a word. I had even tested and had my results with me. No one asked.

I even found an affidavit that one could print out from the US gov that allowed citizens a form to fill out which allowed for medical and religious exemptions. I printed that and had it ready. I didn't save it but I'm sure with some internet-ing you could find it. I originally went through all the state dept or CDC links so it must connect via there somehow. I was shocked at how easy it was despite all the scare tactics and that there was even a government form with an obvious loophole that no one seems to talk about.

If you're a US citizen, they can't legally keep you out.

Canadian citizens entering Canada have not been so lucky, from what I hear.

Well, not exactly. My husband, born here with a US passport and never so much as a speeding ticket, is detained and almost ejected every single time we've crossed back in to the US. His name and birth date match someone they want and they threaten him for an hour and ask questions then fortunately let him go. There's literally no recourse and I honestly never know if he'll be released.

The rules are whatever they make up at the time. Very 3rd world vibe.

I'm not a lawyer but it occurs to me that he might try legally changing his name-- not in a meaningful way, but by, for example, adding an unusual middle name. That just might do it. And getting Global Entry documents is another good way to avoid problems, that takes a small fee and some paperwork.

I agree, in my experience, the rules are whatever they make up at the time. I have some wildly annoying stories myself.

Since when? We don't have any travel restrictions related to covid anymore at all.

It was also never possible to legally keep out a Canadian citizen -- it was explicitly on the TravelCan website that citizens were always allowed back in. I knew a few people who travelled unvaccinated to other countries that hadn't had the travel vaccine mandate and came back; a lot of people didn't actually realise that there was a Canadian mandate, because so long as you weren't trying to go to the US, they still felt free.

Since when? What, two weeks ago? Who felt free? Canadians felt free? How odd, I seem to recall a truckers convoy about freedom as opposed. to not freedom.I seem to recall many Canadians using the word Free-Dumb in their idiot Facebook posts mocking the ones who didn't 'feel free.'

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/proof-of-vaccination.html

Requirement for Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination for Air Passengers
Required for non-U.S. citizen, nonimmigrant passengers arriving from a foreign country to the United States by air

Previously a certificate of testing within 24 hours of departure was required of everyone, including US citizens. That was dropped. Now only non-citizens require proof of vaccination.

One if flying. If you walk across the border you will be fine, apparently.

One if flying. If you walk across the border you will be fine, apparently.

This policy akes sense, of course, to bureaucrats. The CDC does say cooties19 is an airborne disease.

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

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I am an unvaxxed US citizen and have traveled between the US and Europe 3 x this year, no docs other than my passport, no problem.

The first time I flew from the US to Europe where I did not need any test or vaxx certificate the check-in agent was insistent that I needed a vaxx certificate, but I was insistent that I did not (because I had checked and for where I was flying, the requirements had been removed). In a big huff, clearly disgusted with me, she went to check with her supervisor and, after quite a long while, returned, now very, very subdued. It was as if some grey veil had come over her. She didn't say anything more about requirements, but tersely checked me in as if nothing had happened.

I cannot say what exactly was going on in her mind but I do know that many people who did not want to get vaxxed went and got vaxxed because they believed they had to if they ever wanted to work and/or travel again. Somehow, from the beginning, my intuition alarms told me this was not true, and that I would just need to be a little bit patient.

So here's my guess-- just guess: it was sort of like maybe she had paid a big price, but neener-neener, here's someone who got by for free-- so the game wasn't what she thought it was!

But speaking of the game not being what she thought it was, I think that's how it is for all of us, actually. There is something so deeply weird about all of it.

What you described is a not-uncommon psychological reaction.

*I* was made to (get a jab, wear a mask, pee in a cup, whatever) in order to get/keep my job, so it's NOT FAIR is you aren't ALSO made to suffer the way *I* was!!

A lot of people who SHOULD be opposed to mandates and other forms of government over-reach are going to support them, because it's more important to them that everyone else have to suffer the way they did than that the suffering stop.

I guess it's psychologically easier to want to impose the same rules/suffering on other people than it is to face the fact that you were some combination of abused, tricked, manipulated, or victimized, while other people escaped.

This is how our entire public school system is still going. "My kids must suffer as I suffered..."

I'm pretty sure the ban only applies to non-US-citizens. If you're a US citizen (dual or not), you shouldn't be affected?

The horror of it, is that it *does* affect people who are non-citizen legal residents, even those who are married to US citizens. I have heard a number of stories about such people having to move their families outside the US in order to be together.

I am in the same situation and never had been asked about the injection history after presenting my US passport on land & air arrival

There never was a travel ban for U.S citizens to my understanding, only foreigners and that rule is still in effect, though they expanded the exceptions list.

Papers weren't asked this time though, it was usually asked at the check in desk and since I did that online nobody asked me. I did have to sign some paper that made me promise I would quarantine if I got infected or something.

What is the situation in Europe right now regarding this for American travelers?

Thanks

The US State Department keeps an up-to-date list as do the embassy's in each country. It's very thorough you can even email them questions directly.

As far as I know, as a US citizen, I can enter the US without the vax, but my Japanese husband, who took the first two jabs and fared badly enough to refuse a third, cannot. Also, if they require an "app" from either of us, we cannot enter. Returning to Japan, we wouldn't need the vax, but once again, the "app" seems to be a problem.

First a thank you to those who replied to my prayer request post on magic monday, and also to those who prayed anyway, without replying. Thank you to Milkyway, Miow, Violet Cabra, Fra Lupo, St CathAlexandria, and, of course JMG.

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/205767.html?thread=36225735#cmt36225735

Secondly an update. The Oil Lady is now at home, and it turns out that she refused the "blood patch procedure", and this for an interesting reason. She had a visit yesterday morning from a new anaesthesiologist, who she had not met before. This doctor confessed that the same thing (cerebrospinal fluid leak following a botched epidural) had happened to her. When the Oil Lady asked whether the doctor had accepted the blood patch procedure, the doctor said, "no, I took the conservative treatment route, and rested at home. It took three weeks, but the leak eventually sealed up." Armed with this advice, my friend decided to go home. She is now on bedrest, with good help (she has three older children, too). But still with the headache, and the leak has not resolved yet.

So, the prayer request still stands, but the situation has altered. In many ways for the better, as she is in her own home. Even though sticking to the task of resting may be more challenging there.

Anyway, all prayers are welcome. As she has herself confirmed to me.

More positive energy en route. Her choice seems very sensible to me.

Thank you, JMG, for this, and also for the general hosting and moderating of these gatherings. :)

Prayers for a swift and complete recovery for Oil Lady.

Ron M

Thank you so much!

When we did Bradley birthing classes for our first one, we were giving a business size card with questions to ask medical professionals when they recommend a treatment/intervention -

1. What would you do if you were in my situation?
2. If I do X treatment, what additional outcomes should I be aware of?
3. Would you recommend this intervention for your wife/husband/sister brother?

It sounds like she got the doctor to give her #1. I've never had to ask all three of a doctor to get the full story, but any one of them gets the conversation rolling in a productive direction if asked in a friendly, open way.

More prayers incoming for her and her family!

Yes, that sounds a useful way to bring a person's "life knowledge" into the conversation, along with their "book knowledge".

Personally, I think the fact that doctors are human, complete with a unique lived personal history, is such a bonus. I cannot but wonder at those who fancy that an AI could do the job better (or at least more "evidence-based"). ;)

Thank you for your prayers.

RE. the Oil Lady: I've had two patients who had the blood patch (to treat CSF leak caused by spinal surgery), and both enjoyed dramatic relief from severe headaches without complications. Full disclosure: I've never performed/ordered/advised blood patches, so I haven't acquainted myself with their risks.

If I had a headache from a CSF leak, I would get clarity from the surgeon as to the risks arising from the blood patch versus the risks of complications, or failure to close, from not getting it, and if/when there might be a decision point to throw in the towel and get the procedure. Headaches from CSF leaks are disabling.

BTW, there are even risks (grave ones!) from bed-rest: A former patient of mine was deathly afraid of getting surgery to correct, among other things, a critically narrow spinal canal in her neck, itself secondary to a condition causing her disabling pain. Her pain became so exquisitely sensitive to activity and even movement, that she lay in bed immobile for days. This dense immobility lead to the development of blood clots in her legs (DVT or deep venous thrombosis), which broke off and entered circulation going to her lungs (pulmonary embolism), very nearly killing her. She decided to go for the surgery after all, but had to wait months for the clots to clear up on blood thinners.

--Lunar Apprentice

Thank you Lunar Apprentice,
I will be passing on all responses, including yours, which contains much useful information. As the situation develops, one way or another, there will be decisions for her to continue to make. My best, as always!

Scotlyn, here's a suggestion for Oil Lady that helped me in a similar situation. The advice was given by a Nurse Practitioner. I had intrathecal chemo treatments which are given by injections into the spine so that the drug circulates in the CSF. The first round left me much like your friend and there was mention of a blood patch. It was suggested that I go home and find some way to keep pressure on the injection site as much as possible. The site was in my lower spine and I was spending a lot of time on the couch; I stuck a pillow in the small of my back so that I could feel pressure against the area. I also kept a pillow under my back while in bed. I recovered in about a week. It made sense to me, much like applying pressure to a wound.

A bit of serendipity: found a way relieve the headaches, as pain killers had no effect. Sitting on the couch with my pillow in place, I'd lay over to on my left side keeping my feet and legs in front of me as if sitting upright. Kind of like a sitting side bend. Generally blessed sleep would ensue for at least and hour or three. Bending to the right helped but was less effective. My thoughts and empathy are with her.

Thank you. I will pass on this, and all comments on this thread, to her, and I'm sure she will appreciate the information different people are sending to her in here!

I will sing some prayers to the gods for her.

Thank you, Kimberly. Your lovely voice will travel far, I'm certain of it!

Good juju en route!

Murmuration

Thank you Murmuration!

Edited (Still "screened"... with approved replies after...) 2022-11-10 15:20 (UTC)

Scotlyn, thanks for the edit. That's a workable way to flag a comment that ended up rescreened, and until Dreamwidth fixes its software, something like that's helpful.

No worries, and thank you. I realise it may have been a timing thing, too. I may have come and refreshed my screen just as you were mid-screening a new bunch. Still, I know it's just a thing, and will do the same if I see it happen again. :)

Scotlyin, I'll add the Oil Lady to my morning prayers. Congratulations to her on a so-far successful birth!

On the Peak Permian from last open thread, make what you want of it, but I followed up with Mike (60 years experience with drilling) on his blog about the Permian issue, and got a prompt response:

https://www.oilystuffblog.com/single-post/seven-sisters-1994-1

Q:This is a geopolitical question related to Permian so feel free to not answer it.

Do you think Russia and China both buy time because they know that in the near term, this winter or 2023 Permian will plateau?
[svayambhu108 a day ago]

A: 100%, yes. I also believe that OPEC is well aware of Permian limitations and has been very accommodating to the US tight oil phenomena over the past years because it knows it will exhaust its drilling locations and end up being deeply in debt. Its been quite good keeping world prices just high enough for the US to export 4 MM BOPD of tight oil, while it idles its production back for the future.
[Oily Stuff a day ago]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-US-Shale-Production-Peaking.html

- U.S. shale production is peaking due to declining inventory quality and the inability of the industry to substantially increase drilling.
- Oil companies are beginning to consume Tier I[my note: best spots as opposed to Tier 5] acreage at a greater rate to slow production declines that are bending the curve down.

The following links contains the archives (.epub and html, and for Vol. 2 text too)

Volume 1 (everything before 1st March 2022)
Volume 1 - .html archive
https://mega.nz/file/8dBxzC4B#AkuddhK1eMAHK8xtCquBd7Es_19uU0UVAuO26PJ61ow

Volume 1 - .epub archive
https://mega.nz/file/8JYV3QBT#ydwISn-_JZGsa3KCfNlMPZSmCKWEFgTYMJJnsvN0D9c

Volume 2 (everything after 1st of March)

Volume 2 - .html archive
https://mega.nz/file/INBEUapS#hp4rZVkoJCZ4yKEfz-gr48iMpOfLcSVqFWHeoGWq5a4

Volume 2 - .txt archive
https://mega.nz/file/lQ5mEDiR#hrMVcUi03aJLuODjvTrFQbrmq4IRfqJMdO-Osd4c8Rc

Volume 2 - .epub archive
https://mega.nz/file/xFomBI4K#qXMkKUAW2TErbruBb9i7pp30QNmQ8I-0isT7Yj1gfbo

Volume 3 - .html archive
https://mega.nz/file/hRwjFDyT#P9qXYVZnHjW6ZVWZ6WCMPxi8h6phkEPJvCK-eF8-6Ok

Volume 3 - .txt archive
https://mega.nz/file/8F4FFaCB#XEiRbGy1AX-VuINlLLCoqe9D1udUZo5i3YoH_yWFa88

Volume 3 - .epub archive
https://mega.nz/file/EN5TiZxS#7XvAW7wdB_oy-MafKuM_2HJt3MgAXZjZrfDZo8it-Lg

Thank you

you're welcom

Just in passing, I've been wondering if there is a date cut off between volume 2 and volume 3?

As always, many many thanks for doing this.

It should be one post in common, I'll check

Just checked Volume 2 ends with Open Post On bovid 59
Volume 3 starts with Open Post On bovid 59

Thank you! :)

You're welcome, all the best and which good health

Was reading the Analytical Scientist magazine in my lunchroom today, and this heading was the actual heading of the editorial by James Strachan.

Excerpt:

"There's a debate in philosophy about whether science produces real knowledge--perhaps to the surprise of many scientists! The predictive power of scientific theories would seem to suggest that they are offering accurate descriptions of the world. Yet theories do change over time- scientists used to be confident about the existence of "ether". Will the unobservable entities and best-explanations we posit today stand the test of time?

What about the amyloid hypothesis? In 2006 [a researcher] discovered an unknown polymer AB*56,which when isolated and injected into the brains of mice, caused Alzheimer's-like symptoms...And since then, many millions--perhaps billions--of dollars have been spent developing anti-AB therapies, with little to no success. Now, a 6-month investigation led by Science magazine has found that the 2006 study may contain fabricated results.

If true, the findings would cast doubt on 16 years of research- consider that more than 2300 papers cite the original study.
...
Do scientists, on the whole, put too much stock in the findings of individual papers and the peer review process?
...Regardless of any fabrication, other researchers have struggled to reproduce [the] results, so should the paper have been ctied 2300 times? What proportion of researchers cast a truly skeptical eye over the findings?"

Page 9 is their regular contributor Victoria Samanidou's article "Academic Integrity Volume 3: An Indecent Proposal" -- a great series overall -- taking aim at pay-to-publish journal editors. She suggests to revisit the Committee of Publication Ethics [COPE] guidelines, and speak out (send her a letter) about the new schemes you see.

An anonymous letter writer to her last column says he sees "abusive" reviewers:

"Abusive reviewers may become aware (by early citation, arXiv, word of mouth) that a "target" paper or researcher is under review, and then write to the journal's editor demanding to be made a reviewer.
...
When decision letters for contributed papers are sent, it's common practice to send all reviews to all reviewers...
Scathing anonymous reviews will damage the paper's authors in the eyes of the other unnamed reviewers...
Reviewers in the first round are often asked to review the revision...a reviewer may [then] stridently attack another reviewer's first review, and...damn the work of third parties by name.

I've also seen reviewers attacking papers of students of professors with whom they've had a disagreement, even if these students are publishing independently.
...
Abusive reviewers are also authors, and such authors have been known to add a few sentences to the typesetters proof of accepted papers."

I thought all that was very topical.

The Replication crisis is already churning, and the failures of research for a wide number of usual suspect sort of reasons undermines trust and confidence in what we used to know as science.

The estimate is that 70% of published research findings cannot be replicated. In other words, crap.

Twust teh Science.

The questions about reality and how much we can actually know are valid and eternal.

I would not confuse the scientific method with whatever gets taught at universities, propagated by the media and used by politicians as a sort of blunt instrument. Call it scientism or "The Science" but it's far removed from what's it supposed to be.

It is.
- Parmenides

(All else said since has been a fun way of killing time ;)

Murmuration

Temporaryreality, if you're around, here's another IM Doc post. He's posted several before this one, but they didn't talk about covid at all. This one does.

------------------------------

IM Doc
November 2, 2022 at 2:47 pm
Regarding the article above about questioning the tactics of the current Dem effort in the midterms.
I would point you to this article as well –
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-suburban-women-swing-toward-backing-republicans-for-congress
White suburban women, in the blue areas – have apparently been polled recently as going from a D+18 group just weeks ago – to a R+15 group now – a 33 point difference. There are articles all over the place today in the MSM stating that this is simply impossible. The denial is breathless – bordering on frantic.
I would venture that those denial articles are being written by reporters who are looking at shining screens all day and not out on the beat with the voters. It is very difficult to tell what is going on in the world from a screen. This is one of the major faults of our society.
They should be out talking to ministers, Chamber of Commerce people and primary care providers like me. They may have a more clear picture than what is had by lampooning these articles amongst their friends on Twitter.
These articles are all blaming the economy. I am certain that is playing some role. But I have also noticed something unique starting in mid-October.
I live in a very blue area. I have many young mothers and grandmas, Rachel MSNBC viewers all, in my practice. And something started to happen a few weeks ago then that has only been accelerating – 3 times already this AM.
This is a composite sketch of the interaction…….
Patient – IM Doc, are you having your kids vaccinated with the COVID shots?
IM Doc – No Ma’am – not even remotely enough evidence for a risk/benefit ratio to even consider doing so.
Patient – I agree. My children/grandchildren will not be vaccinated…..Do you agree with the CDC vote to put them on the vaccine schedule for kids? So and so politician on the news the other night stated if the CDC put them on the schedule they will have to be taken to go to school. I do not think they are that helpful for my kid. They certainly did not stop all of us adults from having Omicron twice this year already.
IM Doc – I most certainly do not agree – again – there is nowhere near enough evidence to do so. Many of us are concerned that experimental vaccines do not belong on that list at all. Polio, MMR, all the others absolutely. But the COVID vaccines have not near enough evidence for that placement.
Patient – I agree. And thank you for being honest. Do you think that “public official 1″ is going to now mandate this for my kids/grandkids to go to school” – I will assume they are – they have mindlessly done every other stupid thing the CDC has recommended the past 2 years…..If they do so – I will not vote for the Dems at all. I am sick and tired of this.
This is happening over and over and over again. And I mean over and over.
Add that to the large number of working class and minority families in my practice that have historically been Dem voters who themselves or friends or families were absolutely screwed by the vaccine mandates – again, I remind everyone a mandate for a product that was non-sterilizing and does not stop transmission – and we are starting to have some real problems for the Dems.
When you are a physician in a small town – sometimes you hear things from patients that they tell you out of their stress or frustration. Like the local official just yesterday tasked with counting the early votes who told me – “this is going to be a shocker.”
Who knew that the October Surprise this year was the 15-0 CDC vote, Dem donors all, to place these vaccines on the kiddy schedule and get the mandate ball rolling all over the country? They say that is not the case – but after people watching their local officials bend to the will of the CDC over the past 3 years, I do not blame the people for thinking this way at all. There is also clearly a gnawing realization among my patients that games are being played. With their kid’s lives. Patterns matter. And unless a forceful hard no is coming from the governor, the lingering doubt will continue.
Suburban moms and grandmas put up with a lot of stuff – but you start screwing with their kids health and lives without coherent reasoning – and there will be hell to pay.
The vaccine mandates from last year, I continue to firmly believe, are going to be one of the greatest political self-owns in American history. This kid vaccine schedule thing and, more importantly, the profound and completely unanswered confusion it is causing, may be right up there as well.
Dem politicians – if you are reading this you may do yourselves a lot of favor by speaking out now. This is really and truly happening. It appears to be dramatically affecting one of your core constituencies in blue America.
And Dem politicians of the future – before you get into bed with one of the worst corporations in American history, that has been found guilty of fraud and charged billions of dollars in the past, you should keep the shellacking you are about to undergo in mind. Blind following of these kind of entities usually does not end well.
And my own professional leaders better start paying attention as well. The wrath is now pointed at the politicians. That will soon be pointed right at this profession. The first and most important thing is to be honest at all times.

Thanks for the heads up! I've not kept up over there for some months and ought to add this and a few that came through recently to my archive.

Do you have a link to this comment's location?

Sorry for the late reply.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/11/200pm-water-cooler-11-2-2022.html

Search for IM Doc in the comments.

"Suburban moms and grandmas put up with a lot of stuff – but you start screwing with their kids health and lives without coherent reasoning – and there will be hell to pay."

Hello, hello, time to wake up.

They've been screwing with their kids health for decades. Currently 72 shots in the childhood schedule, which are of course "safe and effective" apart for the explosion in childhood ailments, allergies, autism etc.

RFK Jr in his Fauci book: "Some 80 autoimmune diseases, including juvenile diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, Graves’ disease, and Crohn’s disease, which were practically unknown prior to 1984, suddenly became epidemic. Autism, which many scientists now consider an autoimmune disease, exploded from between 2/10,000 and 4/10,000 Americans when Tony Fauci joined NIAID, to one in thirty-four today. Neurological diseases like ADD/ADHD, speech and sleep disorders, narcolepsy, facial tics, and Tourette’s syndrome have become commonplace in American children."

Preach!

According to Fox News' voter analysis, published today based on interviews with over 100,000 registered voters in the preceding 9 days, suburban women were leaning D+7. Specifically *white* suburban women - and of course, many suburbanites these days are not white - were leaning R+7.

These women have more issues to worry about than just the vaccine (like, say, staving off no-exceptions abortion bans). No doubt the CDC eggheads hoped that all the blue states, at least, would obediently add covid to their lists of mandatory school vaccinations, but so far, I don't see that happening. A bunch of (red) states have rushed to say they will prohibit such a mandate, and so far, I've seen none rushing to say they will implement it. Even pro-vax politicians may know that it offers no significant benefit, and they certainly comprehend that it would be hugely unpopular. They likely will hesitate to go down that road.

-Translucent Jejune Octopus

it looks like they were only polling in florida...

Today's episode of 'MSN Bring out your dead!"

First, a warning: drinking Fizzy drinks, Low-quality fruit juices (added sugar, no pulp), Cordials, or Energy drinks may cause blood clots.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/blood-clots-warning-four-types-of-drinks-to-avoid-can-cause-hardening-of-arteries/ar-AA13kIQg

---

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/the-simpsons-and-rick-and-morty-producer-j-michael-mendel-dead-at-54/ar-AA13NWYw

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tiffany-tycoon-dies-after-falling-from-cruise-ship-while-on-holiday-with-boyfriend/ar-AA13QCQu

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/adam-zimmer-s-death-details-revealed-docs-say-coach-had-bruising-or-blood-pooling-around-his-eye/ar-AA13S3Hy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/former-kenzo-dior-executive-fran%C3%A7ois-baufum%C3%A9-dies-at-77/ar-AA13Qk0R

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/oscar-tony-nominated-writer-director-douglas-mcgrath-dies/ar-AA13QjQY

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/hurricane-g-dead-tributes-flood-in-for-nyc-rapper-gloria-rodriguez/ar-AA13OSOi

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/artifacts-rapper-tame-one-dead-at-52/ar-AA13QcN9

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/mimi-parker-drummer-and-vocalist-of-indie-rock-band-low-dies-at-55/ar-AA13OtHb

I gather that the stroke and myocarditis-inducing effects of fizzy drinks, gardening and climate change can be prevented or even reversed by regularly performing the following exercise: clap your hands excitedly while chanting with conviction, “I do believe in vaccines, I do, I do, I do!”

I think I see a meme poster captioned "I Want To Believe"...

that would be a great piece of public performance art.

Meh... I do believe in vaccines, but this thing (that I was forced to take to keep my job) is not a vaccine. It's a hot mess wrapped in utter baloney.
Whispers

Dorothy tapping her red shoes together.......

Marvel artist

https://comic-watch.com/news/comic-book-news/rest-in-power-legendary-artist-carlos-pacheco-1961-2022-passes-away-after-battle-with-als

https://twitter.com/theVoice123/status/1590348835683205120

IM Doc
November 8, 2022 at 3:33 pm
About the Dr. Leonardi article about T-cell dysfunction in COVID.

The article that Lambert has referenced is something I think we should all read and contemplate. The article is written for all to understand. It is not full of jargon and medicalese.

The basic hypothesis being put forth is that COVID is exhausting our immune systems, particularly the T-cells, which are the “ace in the hole” for any immune action against a virus.

I have heard this line of thinking debated in academic conferences for the past 2 years many times. I think it is becoming clear ( an in now way a consensus ) that this line of thinking is absolutely plausible.

Right up front, this type of situation is already found in other human viral infections, most notably dengue fever, the defining pattern of which is that the second and subsequent infections are much worse, often lethal, than the first. Years of research have realized that a large component of this problem has to do with an exhausted immune system.

Secondly, one could posit if this was really the case that eventually, the communal immune system would be so wiped out that fighting other infectious agents, both group and individually, may be a problem. Look around you. I have never seen so much RSV in my life. And now the flu is coming right up behind. Lots and lots of non-COVID illness. And especially the RSV – this has never been this pathogenic an infection in my career until the past few months.

I ask very tough questions in conferences. Someone has to.

If I were in a conference with Dr. Leonardi, I would have the following ready to go……

“It is crystal clear in my practice, and in the chatter I hear from docs all around me, that the vaccinated patients are mainly the ones we are seeing quite literally over and over again. I have many that are now on infection #4 or 5. Again, this is clearly much more common in the vaccinated. Indeed, we now have studies coming in from everywhere that the VE ( vaccine effectiveness) often goes negative in many age groups and demographics only after a few weeks/months….the most recent is the Qatari study from NEJM just days ago. IOW, the vaccinated are very quickly becoming much more likely to be vaccinated. This is certainly obvious to me looking at my practice. If this is so, Dr. Leonardi, are you aware of the vaccines mitigating this effect on frequent infections? If not, is this not putting the vaccinated in more damage given your model?”

That to me is the elephant in the room…..and I am hearing it being discussed nowhere. Unfortunately, I am starting to see in the multiply infected a significant propensity toward frequent other infections, shingles, severe fatigue, and lack of desire for exercise.

There is so much we need to know – now. We need those who are unafraid to ask hard questions. But as was pointed out to me just a few weeks ago by one of my elder professors – critical thinking has been quashed. We simply cannot tolerate misinformation. Those who engage in it are the evildoers – just look at the New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/opinion/fake-news-media-attention.html

There really will need to be a day of accountability for all of this. Meanwhile, there are those of us out on the fruited plain, who have practices literally full of these kinds of patients. With all kinds of questions.

Reply ↓
shinola
November 8, 2022 at 4:21 pm
“IOW, the vaccinated are very quickly becoming much more likely to be vaccinated.”

Huh…?

Reply ↓
IM Doc
November 8, 2022 at 4:30 pm
Sorry – it should read – IOW, the vaccinated are very quickly becoming more likely to be infected

I find this mildly amusing. Yesterday, I posted a comment to the 11/08 links, regarding the Leonardi article in The Tyree, that was there. I guess I too directly questioned Leonardi's motivations in his exclusive focus on repeated infections exhausting the immume system, ignoring repeated introduction of novel proteins. I saw my post in the comments later in the afternoon. Checking to see if there were replies, this morning, it was gone.

Here is what I wrote. I guess I was more pointed in my criticism than IM Doc:
-------
I am puzzled by Leonardi. I can't quite figure him out. He lists himself as a Kavli Fellow on his twitter bio, but not that he is pursuing MPH degree, as the linked article mentions. I can't find anything in his twitter feed on Kavli. Kavli appears to dabble in concern over 'Science and Society', but the science Kavli support are well outside his area of expertise. I would say he provides half-truths.

He goes on about repeated infection depleting T-cells, but avoids any consideration of what the multiple pharmaceutical interventions recommended per year might be doing, that keep reintroducing the original spike into the body. The press routinely ignores this as well. Given how novel all of this is, I think it is intellectually dishonest not to consider the rampant application of novel pharmaceuticals, which possesses some of same novel proteins as the infection, as potenially causing problems as well.

I often think of this piece from November, 2020, that while a Moderna puff piece, gave a reason why Moderna moved into vaccines:

"...In animal studies, the ideal dose of their leading mRNA therapy was triggering dangerous immune reactions — the kind for which Karikó had improvised a major workaround under some conditions — but a lower dose had proved too weak to show any benefits.

Moderna had to pivot. If repeated doses of mRNA were too toxic to test in human beings, the company would have to rely on something that takes only one or two injections to show an effect. Gradually, biotech’s self-proclaimed disruptor became a vaccines company, putting its experimental drugs on the back burner and talking up the potential of a field long considered a loss-leader by the drug industry."

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/

I saw my post in the comments later in the afternoon. Checking to see if there were replies, this morning, it was gone.

I’m guessing your comment was ok’d by whoever was moderating at the time, then deleted by Yves when she read it. Yves injected the Kool-Aid, and only tolerates vax criticisms from her pet regulars, including IM Doc. She also thinks masks work and there was no lab leak, so discussions of those topics are similarly censored. Worse, she allows her pets to make ad hominem attacks on critics, against the longstanding site rules.

After 15 years of reading Naked Capitalism almost every morning, I quit in disgust about 8 months ago. Now I only stop in to read the IM Doc posts, and while I’m at it see what Amfortas, Wukchumni, and Arizona Slim have to say (Howdy, Slim!).

From what I can tell, Yves and some of my seemingly intelligent friends who lost their boosted minds since March 2020 made poor choices in their “trusted experts”. It’s fashionable to think that the world is too complex to understand outside ones own area of expertise, so one should defer to what the experts in other subjects say. Having seen how often experts are wrong, I try to do a deep dive into a subject and gather information from a variety of sources so that I have enough understanding to evaluate the evidence on my own. And I reevaluate my decisions as new information comes to light. I suppose not everyone has the time or brainpower to bone up on a subject like immunology, but to me it seemed important. And I’m glad I did!

I've been reading for a long time. I used to give money. I stopped when NC was so hysterical about Sweden being a COVID Disaster. I skim the links every morning and water cooler. I let them read the news for me. Anytime I read news stuff on msn or yahoo, I'm shocked how awful and propoganda-like it all is.

IM Doc comments are worth reading, I agree.

Like the above commenter, I stop in to NC for IM Doc's comments. I also pay a little attention to stuff in Yves' wheelhouse, finance.

Yves, Lambert and the rest are, as has been said, vaxxed and boostered. This after years of "don't trust the government, don't trust big pharma, don't trust big finance." Now they can't admit even to themselves that they did the exact opposite of their mantra.

For such allegedly hard-headed people, they have blind spots the same as anyone else. It's still infuriating to me that they will say absolutely nothing about the shots. Nothing!

We had perfect viewing weather last night here and my wife and I stood in a local park to watch the eclipse through to fullness.

During the time I gradually cast an I Ching using coin method. Result: 30. Li / The Clinging, Fire, one of the double hexagrams. It seemed a very appropriate reading for the moment. Changing lines were 2 and 3 which give very contradictory indications:

Yellow light. Supreme good fortune.

and

In the light of the setting sun,
Men either beat the pot and sing
Or loudly bewail the approach of old age.
Misfortune.

The resulting hexagram is 38. K'uei / Opposition and I cite the notes from Wilhem's translation:

THE JUDGMENT

OPPOSITION. In small matters, good fortune.

When people live in opposition and estrangement they cannot carry out a great undertaking in common; their points of view diverge too widely. In such circumstances one should above all not proceed brusquely, for that would only increase the existing opposition; instead, one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters. Here success can still be expected, because the situation is such that the opposition does not preclude all agreement. In general, opposition appears as an obstruction, but when it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole, it has also its useful and important functions. The oppositions of heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman, when reconciled, bring about the creation and reproduction of life. In the world of visible things, the principle of opposites makes possible the differentiation by categories through which order is brought into the world.
---------------------------------------------------

Any other insights or observations from the eclipse as an indication of the time ahead?

Or is it bosh?

Sounds quite plausible to me, given what I’ve learned about the election’s mundane horoscope. It seems the best we can hope for this time around is to hold in check the worst features of the agenda of the Party of Chaos (thank you Mr. Kunstler) and maybe advance a little in the judicial arena, as has been happening here and there. I can be content with that, for the time being.

In ‘24 we need to win decisively and incontestably. Otherwise I seriously think we could be looking at a one party state featuring Stalinism 2.0, complete with holodomor. I don’t think we want that.

Now reviewing the election outcome, your comments are apt and the I Ching was certainly on target.

Considering the personal application as well.

Thanks for comments.

I'm not counting on this election moving us towards resolution, justice, or more freedom, but I still seek peaceful place to stand against the government.

It looks like the only relief to be found was in two religions - the Amish and the Rosicrucians. I didn't hear what happened with those who asked for exemption as Druids. Am I missing any others?

If I wanted to create another option, what does it take to found a religion in the US? It looks like to keep the government off of me, I need to formally be a part of one that is against vaccination, digitally stamping me, and whatever other crazy scheme they come up with next from the book of Revelation.

Would love any history of starting a religion or advice or tips. Probably should have started on this earlier, but here we are.

I’ve been receiving a daily Rosicrucian newsletter from AMORC. Perhaps I would do well to join up and become active in the organization; I live within an hour’s drive from the headquarters in San Jose CA, which I’ve visited and found impressive. (Never mind that that’s where the odious Silicon Valley sprawls.)

For some years I participated in the activities of a group of neo-Hellenic pagans. But that movement is too fragmented and lacks the necessary clout to help with exemptions from despotic bureaucratic policies. Also, to my profound disappointment, the membership have all converted to Branch Covidianism.

As far as I know, AMORC hasn't taken a position on the jabs. The Rosicrucian order that's done so is the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis ( https://soul.org/ ), via their religious arm, the Church of Illumination; they have a longstanding opposition to vaccination. That said, I know plenty of AMORC Rosicrucians who seem to get a lot out of their membership.

The Rosicrucian order I belong to, the Societas Rosicruciana in America ( https://sria.org/ ), hasn't taken a stance on the jabs either, but then it's central to the SRIA approach that individuals get to make their own choices.

It's actually very easy to found a religion in the United States. Basically you just do it -- you don't need to incorporate or file with the government or anything. In order to get taken seriously, it helps if you have some organizational presence -- a website and regular services in at least one place is helpful -- and some kind of formal statement of beliefs, which can't just be opposition to jabs or what have you.

It's generally easier to get taken seriously if your church is at least nominally Christian, but that's not a firm requirement. On the other hand, it's best to avoid getting ordained by one of the standard online ordination mills, such as the Universal Life Church -- those are treated as fraudulent in many jurisdictions.

I'd say pray about it, see how serious you are about the project, and if you feel it's the right thing to do, proceed.

I'd like to point out that just being "in" a religion does not guarantee that the rights you deem to be religiously motivated will be guarded by the state.

I recommend a look at the volume edited by Donald Kraybill, The Amish and the State, which I just read for this very reason. The Amish have won some pertinent concessions from state and fed governments, but while those cases are often cited to support non-participation in certain state or socially required activities on religious grounds (or participation in other activities that challenge state/federal law), somewhere in Kraybill's volume, one author points out that the wording of an opinion of one of the justices from one landmark case (possibly Wisconsin v. Yoder) was very clear in marking the distinguishing factors of Amish religious precedent (it's longevity, namely) as being part of the reason their rights were upheld. His opinion is not law, but it suggests that the Supreme Court decided the way they did in large part because the Amish religion dates back to the 1600s and they have continuously upheld the same principles.

A newly-founded religion will likely not be so easily grandfathered in on Amish coattails without establishing ... not exactly a pedigree or lineage, but a very strongly-anchored faith-based set of beliefs and practices founded on something recognizably historical and not an obvious reaction to gov't overreach.

I see that this is something that's going to need deep and dedicated thought and conversation (akin to a religious version of a Second Continental Congress to hammer out religious, social, cultural, legal details that can stand in a court of law as well as nurture a religious community). A community of practitioners will carry weight that an individual with their own idiosyncratic religion can't.

I've read that book and own a copy and while your point is correct, that wasn't my take away from it. Mine was they've constructed a spiritual reality that is untouchable by the legal system in terms of application of force. The Amish win if the state forces them to do things (the state looks like bullies and loses legitimacy every time they go after them) and the Amish win when the state leaves them alone.

But it requires a distinct religious practice in order to win. It's not the legal system that gives the wins.

And your overall negative response now makes me what to start a religion out of spite. But doing so on that basis is so splinter Protestant and has been done a hundred times before. It bores me to think about that approach.

"Your overall negative response..."

I wasn't intending to posit something overall negative (nor trying to dissuade you from or persuade you to do anything), but I see I should've followed through on my second post, that I only thought about, so as to make clear that this is a dialogue..

I was going to say that the Amish have absolutely benefitted by having every aspect of their lives being somehow connected to religious conviction, that then plays well with constitutionally-protected freedom of religion. I don't know if they always win when the state forces them to do something - they have so far because outsiders have objected and defended them, or because they're a cohesive enough group that they're willing to accept punishment rather than budging (fines/jail time, etc.) if it goes against their group mores. They're not exactly untouchable... perhaps they are immovable, which is something (for me) worth reflecting on.

My biggest takeaways from this book (read in this context), then: 1) in order to achieve "being left alone" or "ungoverned-ness," reverse engineering something based extremely closely on the constitution will get us closer to success. Expect no quarter to be given by the state except what they HAVE to give; 2) the Amish, contrary to "English" conceptions of them, are not unchangingly or cultural-change rigid. They have integrated a practice of evaluating proposed influences into their socio-cultural-religious matrix and make changes on a community by community basis. Everyone thinks of them as unthinkingly archaic, when in fact they are deliberate. That they deliberate on what they will allow or disallow to influence them makes them fluid and flexible compared to the Whale, which I think is very Sun Tzu of them.

I probably picked up the book from a comment you left here? I wouldn't have heard of it otherwise. If so, thanks for giving me good food for thought.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. I interpreted something that wasn't there in what you posted before. All the takeaways you posted are key. Fwiw I think the likelihood is high of a Waco-type response to any separation of religious group these days. I was throwing something out there in an effort to think of something.

A somewhat amusing story to show that there is no winning with everyone - my neighbors went to Ohio and saw Amish on electric bikes and couldn't help but social media post about how wrong it was of them to use electric bikes. You see, Amish are supposed to use regular pedal bikes.

I'm beginning to understand why "gossiping" was a criminal offense in the colonial period.

One more thing -

I just learned that there are places in the UK who have local recorders of history at the village/parish level. People in each place are free to do it as they wish, capturing the present moment. It sounds so lovely!

I've been thinking of all that has occurred and feel like now with the election it could be the time to gather some our recollections from our local experiences, before they are lost to time. (Obviously keep our identity to our level of comfort.)

Looking to see if there is interest in submissions, and if there is enough for 60 pages or more, I'd be willing to put them together into a book we could have for ourselves.

Copied and pasted the local recorder info below in case you are interested.

---------------------------------------------

Local Recorders Scheme
The Suffolk Local History Council administers a Local Recorders Scheme throughout Suffolk. We maintain a network of people in the county to ensure the survival of valuable material for future local historians by:

Seeing that the present is adequately recorded at local level, and
Being on the look-out for items of historical interest which might be overlooked or lost for ever.

To do this Recorders are asked to note significant happenings in their area, especially the changes going on around them, and also to be on the look-out for older records and to record reminiscences of their area in the past.

Recorders are asked to send in a short report at the end of each calendar year, giving an account of activities in their community and the changes that have taken place. The reports are kept with the parish records in the nearest branch of the Suffolk Record Offices. When Recorders resign, the material they have collected is deposited for safe keeping with the Record Office in the name of the Suffolk Local History Council.

The SLHC provides new Recorders with a Recorders Pack containing guide-lines on various aspects of the job, and are encouraged to become members of the SLHC. Recorders also receive two Newsletters a year, and have the opportunity of attending an annual Recorders Day in April. The Honorary Recorders’ Secretary can be contacted by email (recorders@slhc.org.uk) and would be happy to hear from anyone requesting further information, or interested in becoming a Recorder or Assistant Recorder where a vacancy exists.

https://slhc.org.uk/recorders/

stcath, I'd absolutely encourage you to start recording local history yourself and get others involved too. It is enormously enriching for the community.

There is a long tradition of keeping records in Britain, probably going further back than the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People', finished around the year 731. Local history societies are very popular here I have several books of stories and anecdote collections from various periods and they all provide fascinating pictures of what was happening at the time. There is one in particular I return to - 'The Living Village, a picture of rural life drawn from village scrap books' by Paul Jennings. It was first published in 1968 and shows the sometimes dramatic change of country life at the end of the 1960s.

When it was demolished, another, much smaller, book of memories was made about the primary school where my grandfather was headmaster for many years. In that, we found lovely stories about him that he'd never told us, but now the family have a record of them. In one, because of his dislike of corporal punishment, if he found two boys fighting he'd bring them into the playground, put adult boxing gloves on them and then summon the school to watch them try and slug it out. Of course, being small boys, they couldn't and everyone ended up laughing, including the fighting boys.

Hello stcathalexandria,

Transcriber here.

This sounds like lovely, and truly important work. I will be thinking of something for you.

But towards a bigger picture! It has often occurred to me that there needs to be an oral history of 2020-present times, however, unless someone such as yourself takes it on, it may be many years until a balanced collection can come out. Who will be the Studs Terkel / George Plimpton / Jean Stein of the non-KA-drinking version of covid times, I wonder.... Why not you?

It's not going to be me because I have other irons in the literary bonfire (hmmm that's a funny metaphor, isn't it).

Towards a historical record of covid times, my own little self-assigned row to hoe is, with legal fair use in mind, transcribing selected shadow-banned video and audio from the Internet.

My very best wishes to you.

When you said recorders, I got a mental image of a recorder consort=group of recorders of the wind instrument variety.

IM Doc
November 8, 2022 at 5:44 pm
I believe your points are very well taken.

When we are talking about the USA, our entire data collection system is just a total mess. I am not sure it can be ever reliably used for anything about COVID.

For example, much has been made in the past few months about USA having some of the highest mortality rates there are in the world from COVID. That is true….but is that truly a COVID issue or an adjacent problem? The vast majority of my own patients who have had a very negative outcome have been folks who have been overweight, out of control diabetics, gravely ill in some other way, or immunocompromised. The first two by far and away the problems. Is COVID killing a higher percentage of Americans because of how we have handled it specifically, or is it killing more Americans because there are 10 fast food joints at every intersection? Or is it multifactorial in ways we have not even imagined?

The issue is this is very very difficult to tease out. As you say, there is a universe of confounding variables and issues.

And the death rate is just one of the issues.

But I was trained to see what is going on before my eyes, to process it with whatever data I had available and to immediately begin working with my patients on what I am seeing. This is ESPECIALLY SO in an emergency when little is known. Unfortunately, our federal health officials have done everything possible to squelch this approach. As anyone who has been reading my comments for the past 3 years can tell you – I have repeatedly stated – LOSE WEIGHT, EAT LESS SUGAR, GET THE A1C DOWN, EXERCISE, GET OUT IN THE SUN, HUG YOUR KIDS. For it is people who do those things who really seem to have better COVID outcomes before my very own eyes. And I have doubled down on this with my own cohort. And have had many many people listen and get much healthier.

Unfortunately, these things have not ever been a priority of our federal health officials – and for that I am profoundly disappointed.

And again, this is just one example.

Do not even get me started, for example, on the definition of “vaccinated” or “unvaccinated”. Talk about confounding and misdirection

Interesting that he sees overweight and out of control diabetes as the biggest problems.

My anec-data is similar. A nurse I spoke to in 2020 said that all of the people who died of covid in her hospital were obese and almost all diabetic. Another retired nurse said that the doctor she used to work with had reported something similar - very obese patients were having the worst outcomes.

All of the people I knew first- or second-hand who died "of covid" were elderly and co-morbid, not obese and diabetic, but then I don't know that many obese diabetics.

I remember a news article with the headline saying something like "Healthy Child Dies of COVID" - but then, if you actually read the article, it turned out that the child was obviously obese in the photo, and that the article acknowledged that he had undiagnosed diabetes and that they couldn't get his blood sugar under control.

I have yet to hear our fear-mongering public health experts(tm) say a word about this, though.

Dr. Paul Alexander: ‘Not One Healthy Child Has Of Died' In US Since Beginning Of Pandemic

https://rumble.com/v18ue4m-dr.-alexander-not-one-healthy-child-has-of-died-in-us-since-beginning-of-pa.html

June 17, 2022

TRANSCRIPTION

STEVE BANNON: How can we possibly have the FDA approving—and they seem like they're obsessed— to approve the vaccinations, the vaccines for the babies. Walk me through this. I don't understand how this could happen given all the information that's come out now, and I particularly don't understand the obsession, and it is an obsession they have, to get it into kids under five. Dr. Alexander.

DR. PAUL ALEXANDER: Hey Steve, once again, it's a real honor to be here. Look, let me get to the point. When we look at all of the data, we look at data out of Sweden, out of Germany, out of the UK, we look at data by Martin Makary Johns Hopkins, we look at all of the Nordic nations, we see that the risk of death in healthy children, young children, young infants even, is basically zero. In fact Sweden, Germany, and these places record no deaths in healthy children in this age group. Martin Makary's group Johns Hopkins showed us that, I want to be clear how I make this statement, in United States of America since the beginning of this pandemic, not one healthy child has gotten infected with covid and died.

[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: see <https://palexander.substack.com/p/makary-the-flimsy-evidence-behind>
which references this research]

I want to say it again so the public can hear it.

In the United States of America, during covid, from day one to today, that's almost two and a half years, not one healthy child has gotten infected with covid and passed away. Period.

There is no data that Fauci, Francis Collins, Rochelle Walensky, anyone in the Biden administration, or anyone even in the prior Trump administration, has shown us. There weren't any child. This is reckless, this is dangerous what the FDA and CDC has done.

They have no data, Steve. And what they have done is, they are relying on trials and studies that are very suboptimal and methodologically flawed. They are deliberately undersize, in terms of the sample size being small, and they deliberately shorten the duration of followup. So you, the reader, don't realize that they cannot detect safety signals because the duration of followup is so short, the safety effects can't emerge. So what they are doing is deceiving and misleading the public. And they are using crazy procedures like immunobridging. They are not looking at the patient important outcomes that you as a parent, you as grandparents, need to know.

Does this vaccine, let me be clear, does the Pfizer Moderna vaccine cut the risk of hospitalization or death or ICU? Patient important hard outcomes. There is no study that Pfizer Moderna has done, none, as of this moment, to show that these vaccines are effective in reducing hospitalizations or death. What they have done is they've run studies on antibodies, which means nothing to us because antibodies are not a proxy for immunity. So right now we are being misguided and misled with this flawed, and I actually say fraudulent, studies.

What the FDA has done here and the CDC is wrong. And I want to go on record Steve by saying, this is the hill that parents must battle on. This is the hill that parents must be prepared, must prepared to wage their largest battle. No child should be given these vaccines. Absolutely none. There's no basis. Your child is at zero risk, statistical zero risk, of severe illness or death from covid. You stand up and you say no.

*** *** ***
*** *** ***
*** *** ***

More info about Dr Paul Alexander at
https://www.drpaulalexander.com/

Dr. Alexander's Substack:
https://palexander.substack.com/

My $.02:

There's probably something to that. But at the same time, it's not a death sentence. My own mother is both overweight (not morbidly) and insulin-dependent T2, and over seventy. Had COVID, got over it. Doing fine.

I'd bet that even among that unhealthy subgroup, death rates are not particularly high. Just a lot higher than other groups.

Covid + REMDESIVIR = blown out organs that are already struggling.

Murmuration

And many of the patients left in covid isolation were not only neglected, but they developed bacterial pneumonia, for which they received no treatment!!

Covid aside-- if you take your average elderly pneumonia patient, abandon them alone in their bed with no antibiotics and no one checking to see that they are moving, never mind adequately hydrated or getting enough nutrition for several days... et voilà, big $$$ for a "covid" death for the hospital.

Remdevisir made it all the more remunerative.

It might also be related to how well-controlled the diabetes is. People with well-managed blood sugar may do okay, but there are enough people with poorly-managed blood sugar (like the un-diagnosed diabetic kid in that article) that it might be a factor. One of my parents lived for decades with well-managed diabetes, but I've known people who died very young from diabetic complications.

Exactly so. I didn't dig into the CDC data myself, but I was greatly hearted by a Chris Martenson vid earlier this year, I think. One of the explicit conclusions he drew from a big CDC data dump: it's not diabetes itself that's associated a higher risk of Covid death or complications. It's **poorly managed** diabetes.

I've had type1 diabetes for over 50 years. I never got Covid at all, knock wood.

This one liner...

"But I was trained to see what is going on before my eyes, to process it with whatever data I had available and to immediately begin working with my patients on what I am seeing. This is ESPECIALLY SO in an emergency when little is known. Unfortunately, our federal health officials have done everything possible to squelch this approach."

...bears witness to the conflicts shaking the position and effectiveness of every single doctor in today's healthcare systems. They are trained to be clinicians, and hired to be bureaucrats, and the cognitive dissonance, on its own, must be crazy-making. And, on top of that the whole regime of punitive actions against anyone trying to stay true to their clinical training, which makes them bad bureaucrats...

How many of these employers had vax mandates?

Layoffs This Month (% of Workers):

1. Twitter: 50%

2. Cameo: 25%

3. Robinhood: 23%

4. Intel: 20%

5. Snapchat: 20%

6. Coinbase: 18%

7. Opendoor: 18%

8. Stripe: 14%

9. Lyft: 13%

10. Shopify: 10%

11. Meta: “Thousands”

12. Apple: Hiring Freeze

13. Amazon: Hiring Freeze

I work in IT. It's a bloodbath at the moment. I'd say it's got everything to do with the increase in interest rates and the drying up of speculative capital. How much of the IT industry was pure speculation? We may be about to find out.

The economy died about 10 years ago, IMHO. It has been kept animated by undead, er, below-market interest rates. What you are seeing isn't anything dying - that already happened. What you are seeing is the magic and the trickery used to keep it moving, all of that is coming apart.

Part of it may be that they wanted to pull the plug on it too. It's hard to say whether it's malice or stupidity with the bureaucrats. But just like Moscow ran the soviet economy, the Murican economy is run from DC.

BINGO!!!!!!

The economy that produced actual, useful things and employed actual, useful people died years ago in North America and throughout the West. To be sure, in the US especially, there is still a huge manufacturing sector. However, it is all high-tech and robotic and, as such, does not contribute much to the creation of a middle-class that is vital for a consumer society. The robotic society overwhelmingly benefits the World Economic Forum and Klaus Schwab and his evil minions and that's about it. Ditto for Facebook, Twitter and all the other, frankly useless "services". I'd add the financial sector to this list.

An economy that produces only discord, financial chicanery and smoke and mirrors is of benefit only to the grifters and thieves and con men that run the West for their own benefit.

Let it die.

Liam in Toronto

Yep
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mark-zuckerberg-fire-11000-meta-employees

Most of it. But, the real problem is that even a lot of the few things about the internet and computer world where it's possible to make money (ex: a lot of the hardware companies are in better shape than the software companies) depends on the demand for their products being driven by the massive amounts of speculation elsewhere in the IT world.

It seems disturbingly plausible to me that we may see some massive disruptions to the internet in the next few years as the process of figuring out what parts of it are economically viable works itself out, and a lot of what currently seems viable may not survive the collapse of the speculative end of the internet.

I second that, I think the first casualty will be big cloud and big platforms, server farms will remain only in Russia and China and other parts of the world, server farms are not suite for 3rd world countries

Not sure that's related to the vaccines in any way...

The point is that people got the vaccine due to employer mandates, and now they don't have a job.

First thing that comes to my mind: Imagine how you would feel right now if you were laid off-- and you'd taken the jabs against your better judgement just because it was mandated. Good deal, that, huh.

One of my prediction using my own PKD based divination from the Roman year AD 217 was kind of right, I expect next months, years, these companies to have serious technical malfunctions or setbacks, Intel had a serious setback after 2016 layoffs.

My prediction: 3 months ago

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/187282.html?thread=31413394#cmt31413394

Something happens to a big chunk of the Internet, I established that Colloseum is the Internet, the upper levels were for the plebe. I expect in the next 3-4 months that the cloud + big platforms Facebook + Twitter + Google etc to go down

Since we are here prediction for The Roman year 218, which means next (3-4) months for the US:

Roman Empire
May 16 – Julia Maesa, an aunt of the assassinated Emperor Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus, and declares her grandson Elagabalus, age 14, emperor of Rome.

Global American Empire
Kamala Harris, a transsexual or someone who is openly sexually promiscuous become president

June 8 – Battle of Antioch: Elagabalus defeats, with the support of the Syrian legions, the forces of Macrinus. Macrinus flees, but is captured near Chalcedon and later executed in Cappadocia.

Global American Empire
next president is capable to revive a bit the Democratic fight, and people like Elon Musk and other liberal dissident are reigned in or economically exile one way or another.

Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus, escapes to the Parthian court, but is captured at Zeugma and also put to death.

Global American Empire
Starlink company won't survive the next 3-4 months

The silver content of the Roman denarius falls to 43 percent under the reign of Elagabalus, down from 50 percent under Septimius Severus, as he empties the treasury.

Global American Empire
Major economic decline akin to 2008 in next 3-4 months US production might decline serious percents up to 7%, Permian will peak and decline. Serious economic turmoil. Increased inflation almost to hyperinflation limits, shortages $8 to $10 a gallon for Diesel, in cases even $12,

Elagabalus starts his reign in AD 218 and this might mean the following for the Global American Empire:
A president more oriented on the WEF trans agenda, increased discontent among the population.
A president more vocal to the WEF "secular" religion.

"Kamala Harris, a transsexual or someone who is openly sexually promiscuous become president".

Oh boy, that would be a comedian's dream, assuming comedy would still be permitted. Is there no limit to the crazy?

Can Dementia Joe pass the scepter onto his son, monarchy-style? Hunter would rock the White House (what an appropriately named place for Hunter) and he's promiscuous enough. Party time!!!

That would be beyond crazy will break everything in US, it would be crazy, another mechanism would be to put a trans for the house speaker, and for Kamala to die or resign, remember these were pro waxxine shot individuals, and it no news that many politicians didn't go for the saline

These companies enacted vaccine mandates in the late summer to fall of 2021, and 12-15 months later the employees who vaccinated to keep their job ended up losing it anyway.

So if they had walked away last year and kept themselves vaccine free, they would have kept their morals and pride and be able to look for work without competing with tens of thousands of other similarly skilled people.

Now they are vaccinated, losing their health insurance at some point, and are now scrambling to figure out employment.

Feels like karmic blowback a bit.

I think companies will get it too, now they expect probably to hire in Eastern Europe and Ukraine but that place is a mess right now in the IT Market

Ahhh the old lay off the expensive American worker and hire a foreigner to do the same work for 1/10 the price.

Mark, it's me, Erika. i've been ruminating on all you said and i felt like we moved on from you, or you kinda' facilitated that, and i'm not gonna let you go just yet:

i wasn't being defensive about my emotionalism, i just didn't want to be the ...what's the word?... the designated "Emotional One." designated. transactional analysis worked for me most when i was confused and overtaken by emotions, and one of the things i remembered was that i was the designated train wreck. that was my role, my shtick.

so i didn't want that to me MY area, and implied in that is that all others are the RATIONAL or yes---blocked or disconnected people. rational. ha!

and while we're re-evaluating our assumptions, beliefs, and habits, i'm saying we're ALL a little bit country and we're ALL a little bit rock n' roll, ya dig?

from there, i - we all- see how EMOTIONAL you actually are-- full of LOVE and connection you are. maybe it wanted to be leaky messy frizzy, but we're all products of this society at this time. we're all cheated by the unfettered soul myth or fantasy.

someone insinuated that you'd re-channeled re-directed all that emotion into other areas. yes! exactly.

and as far as men being repressed or whatever you said, i'm confused and will seem unclear here because i thought that about men too, along with a ton of other things, that turned out to be wrong. especially now in the era of Sheridan's and Violet Cabra's "Devouring Mother."

you're not ALLOWED your deepest romantic (in all ways) expressions. so y'all tend to tip really way and take a lot of things on the chin, but are comfortable doing the sweetest things on the low, while us women (and men who act like us) are publicly yelling about how GREAT and GOOD and LOVING we are. (liberals now)

when you tilt your head a certain way, you see just how DEEP and profoundly expansive men's love can be. i'm not gonna do the habitual "balancing out" by trashing men after that statement. notice it's expected, though. no free compliments to men. they might start feeling themselves.

good!

anyhow, that's what i see of men and of YOU here. i don't have to KNOW you any further.

that said:

i HEAR you that YOU FEEL DISCONNECTED EMOTIONALLY.

good. that's something you can mess with just like Murmuration is, in order to get over that feeling.

and like St. Catherine Alexandria, you're opening yourself up to new possibilities for expression or reactions within YOURSELF, and i find this all exciting and inevitable.

i hope i'm making sense. i've been "writing" a response for a couple of days. like with St. Catherine Alexandria, i have nothing to "tell" you, only PROMPT YOU.

i'm saying you come from sensitives (your ma) and ARE one. you love the birds you can scale the tedious data and bring it to us who don't understand or find it all so tedious.

now that the world as it was is ending, you can push into new ways of no longer being disconnected now that you notice it and find it uncomfortable. i stammer because i'm still re-arranging my old assumptions about myself in this world. they sneak up on me, you know?

but the world is different now, and in the upside downness of everything, i'm the rational one compared to these emotional freakouts of the so-called rational normals.

i'm not really saying anything here. i'm stammering in type. but i don't want you to defend yourself or shake off this conversation. i wanna pick up on you feeling disconnected emotionally because you are important here to all this and men always take it on the chin. no more!

so cut yourself slack for being emotionally disconnected. even as "emotional" as i seem, it's self-indulgent because IT'S HERE. this is all performance even as it's real.

it fits with what you also said about trying to have an eco meet up that devolved into wanting to talk about more IDEAS and how to get them out there.

that's like WRITING and talking about WRITING for me. where's the DOING???

so little DOING. that's why i wanna do a craft fair or some REASON to meet up instead of just blabbing about "what to DO?"

I was talking about this with James. same here in SF. we used to meet up locally and grow relationships.

we're all socially retarded... ANXIOUS. that's the bedrock of all THIS and WHY THIS: we're all anxious.

i'm almost done re-reading Mattias Desmet's book, and am now more confused than EVER. because i didn't realize how much the world had changed and so many were on anxiety meds. i had NO IDEA.

i remember going to costco awhile back and the woman at the register suddenly looked like she'd been punctured and the air had been let out. i gasped and asked, "ARE YOU OKAY???"

she smiled through half lidded eyes and said, "my meds just kicked in."

how can anyone NOT be emotionally detached in this world? you've done amazingly well to have stayed as connected as you HAVE. see what i mean about coming out ahead of where you thought you were?

i've no answers. i'm new here, too.

i just see things a little differently than most people and hope that there's something you can use in this to cut yourself some slack as you do struggle to find creative ways to be more emotionally connected.

see, you might be surprised to find that you're waaaay more able to be connected than most of these folks walking the earth right now because you're also alive in your writings here.

maybe this is all mashed potato nothing but i just didn't want you to be blown off. you men tend to blow your own needs off. i've said before that men now remind me of timid women in the '70s before all those feminist consciousness raising groups. back when feminism was about MEN being emancipated from the shtick, too.

you all came out short in all this. so i just didn't want you to excuse yourself so fast after all you've given here.

thank you for YOUR service!

xxxxx

erika

Quick note to Erika: A segue about emotions. I had this idea: The reason the punk rockers who rolled in a flaming ball of rage against the system can turn into Jello Hillary Teletubby Biafra Paris Hilton Jr. and wear masks at the dollar store is because their anger came out of infantile self-centredness and was a stand-in for righteous anger coming out of UNFROZEN & EXPLORED feelings.

PS: forgot to sign my thought.

Fuchsia Exasperating Griffin

Good point. I agree.

I had this idea: The reason the punk rockers who rolled in a flaming ball of rage against the system can turn into Jello Hillary Teletubby Biafra Paris Hilton Jr. and wear masks at the dollar store is because their anger came out of infantile self-centredness and was a stand-in for righteous anger coming out of UNFROZEN & EXPLORED feelings.

Fuchsia Exasperating Griffin,
YES. this is the infantile tantrum i'm talking about in the west. hip hop wasn't a tantrum as much as NOT ASKING FOR PERMISSION. punk seemed to be disgruntled disillusioned suburbanite kids, whereas hip hop was po' city kids just doing their own thang.

(i've got both in me and respond to both)

it's all different now, of course. it's all childish tantrums and GIVE ME/YOU OWE ME.

erika

Dear Erika,

Thanks for the pep talk-counseling session-stream of consciousness reflections :-).

It had not occurred to me to question the story of male emotional repression. As in - what if the painful transition from sensitive crying little boy to comparatively stoic and detached man (amidst some serious bullying and family separation) doesn't represent trauma in need of healing but just a stage of growth? Maybe the current fad of "identity validation" and victimhood and focus on "microaggression" offenses and emotionality is childish in a sense, and it would be better if more people could cultivate a sense of detachment?

Anyway, I am certainly not emotionally "dead" like many of the people on meds of all types. I can be big-picture detached but when it comes to meaningful interactions with individuals I am very much emotionally present. So much so that I simply can't imagine the polyamory and casual sex that seems so common these days - that would quickly overwhelm my emotional circuits.

If I'm struggling a bit at the moment, I'm searching for a new identity of sorts. My work the last few years has been all solitary craftsmanship - not so different from art - but after sending over 100 of my designs out into the world I've grown weary of it and am ready to set it free: handing it off to a manufacturer who will continue to build them. It feels like transitioning from being a writer who also makes the paper from scratch and prints the pages and binds the books to being more of an author with a publisher, so it should be a positive transition but it means I will see a smaller share of the dollars and also will need to figure out what to do with my time.

I'm not sure yet what is next for me - I want it to be DOING but also more as part of a team or community.

I think that in creating community I need to let go of a particular fragile and comparative identity I have constructed for myself that tends to shape my social interactions and to give me a particular role/status that is valued but also "apart from" in a way (https://dendroica.substack.com/p/stories-of-being) - and I think if you read my reflections you will see that I have brought that identity HERE as well.

My father was a preacher and a lifelong truth-seeker, and it seemed like he could only form solid connections with people that shared his evolving philosophy - a number that trended from hundreds eventually toward zero as he moved from his Catholic roots toward more esoteric approaches guided by my mother's sensitivities.

I see a similar thing happening here with my waking up from the covid story and the blue team narrative matrix, but not feeling particularly in sync with the red team matrix either. It's why I push back against comments arguing against maintaining relationships with those who believed the "wrong" story. I think there is a need for reckoning and accountability especially at the higher levels, but I want to avoid falling into the trap of identifying people AS their mask-wearing or irrational covid beliefs or political ideas and instead seeing their passions and hobbies and love for their families and gardens and delicious meals and the spark of life inside each.

Love thy neighbor as thyself, Jesus once said. So even as I aspire to find more of a like-minded community I also want to let go of that part of my identity that wants to see my ideas and beliefs validated in order to feel connection to others - which then greatly expands the pool of people with whom I can feel meaningful connection. I think you, Erika, are very good at this in your daily interactions with people - at least as you describe them. It's not a "turning the other cheek" to allow people to hurt me but a refusing to categorize them as not-worthy-of-respect based on some action or belief of theirs.

Much to think about. Thank you for being here!

Mark

Edited 2022-11-09 16:56 (UTC)

☕️🍰☕️🍰☕️🍰

Will the mask people - see Naked Capitalism, or my sister - ever accept that masks don't work?

These people still cling to the belief that if only everyone wore a mask everything would be fine. Is there some sort of magic effect of the masks that creates a hold over certain people to believe that masks will solve all the worlds problems?

This one to me is really the mark of a true believer. You can post so many resources at this stage which highlight that they are not effective.

I usually try to caveat, maybe in a perfect world where everyone is given N95s, was properly fitted, and changed them as needed. But nope, they just ignore any studies, our own outcomes, and repeat the lines "masks reduce spread".

Was just suspended from a subreddit today for trying to explain and was told to stop spreading misinformation...many comments said that in fact so lots of time to go until people let go of this one if ever.

Today I was walking outside on a nice trail in a creek near my home, a women walked by wearing a mask...it's so confusing.

The mask is virtue signaling. It makes me wonder, what if dogs could call each other good boys instead of having us hoomans do it for them? What kind of weird behavior do you think you'd see out of dogs?

As I see it, anyone wearing a surgical mask when and where it is not required by law is

#1 - very possibly sick
#2 - very possibly a hypochondriac
#3 - definitely, dangerously ignorant

About #3 --

Why ignorant? Because masks do not work, this has been established in multiple studies and, more to the point, as plainly stated by a licensed industrial hygienist in his testimony to a state legislature, viruses are smaller than asbestos particles, and for asbestos particles, masks do not work-- he would lose his license to even suggest such a thing!
See Stephen Petty:
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/181151.html?thread=29634975#cmt29634975
and continued, more about masks (see below)
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/181151.html?thread=29676959#cmt29676959

Why is this dangerous? Because if a person believes masks work, chances are they'll also believe a lot of other harmful nonsense, for example, that we need lockdowns, social distancing, vaxx requirements and mandates, and whatever else the nice people on TV and the whoring shills in the MSM tell them is "goodthink."

Grumbling Grumbledore

I'd add a 4th bucket, for people who just don't care about following what rules are needed to get on in their life.

I know some people who don't care either way who wore masks when it was required just to not be a hassle to the employees in those places who did not set the policies.

Fair enough. Where I'm seeing the mask wearing these days, however, those rules are no more.

Grumbling Grumbledore.

While I do not find that confusing, I certainly do find it sad.

And I pity the mask true believers. Not only are they not breathing very well in those nasty things, but anyone who gets angry at you for spreading "misinformation" about masks-- when there is a Himalaya of evidence that the masks do not work, for anyone who cares to look at it-- has probably already had 3- 4 mRNA NLP-laden shots already, plus the 8 mouse special.

It breaks my heart, but they've chosen their path.

The mask was never about science for the true believers. The marketing around it was always about showing how you care about people by wearing one. People who wear them do so to signal they are kind, thoughtful, and put others first.

That's what **they probably think** they are signalling, I'll grant you that. To me they are signalling that they are gullible goody two shoes all in with jabbing everyone including babies with poison.

My Dad used to say, back when turning your baseball cap backward, and then wearing low-waisted pants with high-waisted underwear, was the new dumb cool thing to do, (paraphrasing heavily) don't get annoyed or try to change people's behavior, when they're signaling their idiocy for you. It saves you so much time, knowing that up front. If they hide it, you'll have to waste time talking to them to find out...

So true!!

This thought is alchemical! A twinge of annoyance transmuted to a blip of gratitude!

Thank you.

You know that saying about when you point a finger, where the rest all point back, too?

As a teenager, I remember being grateful that my eyeliner and clothing was all it took to keep people like that from wasting my time, too.

It's the new AIDS ribbon.

I looked up the Seinfield episode/clip about that yesterday!

Our biological design and evolution didn't lead us to walk around with a face covering that blocks air flow and accumulates excreted substances around our mouth. Masks are useless and harmful, just like the jab of course.

They're a psychological weapon, plus a way for the compliant to signal their sheepyness. The reality is a significant proportion of people are 'gone'. Don't let them take you with them.

It’s Election Day in the USA and today’s WORDLE is “Spell”. It’s an interesting coincidence at the least. Or maybe a telling synchronicity? When the Roe v. Wade decision was leaked, the word was “fetus”, so there have been some strange coincidences before. Anyway, I voted against all the jab-istas.

Does not appear to be the much anticipated red wave ?

Sheridan, on the red ripple

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0fRl6UyVqg

I looked at Sheridan's video. He seems to think that the "jab-berwocky" has changed its recipients on some ontological level. He states that these people are no longer human.

I am not so sure about the cause and effect here. I have long believed that "A crisis does not change people - it reveals them!" In other words, we now know what the people we thought we knew are actually like.

Another point. I reject Sheridan's Gnostic/Manichean view that there are two species inhabiting human bodies. Many Gnostics theorize that most people are what they call "Pre-Adamics" or "Organic Portals" who only have the appearance of being human. Gnostics commonly divide people into "σαρχικοί" (fleshly), "ψυχικοί" (soulish) and "πνευματικοί " (spiritual), and further assert that these states are ontological and immutable (almost a proto-Calvinist position).

As an Orthodox Christian, I reject that. I think that the so-called "σαρχικοί" are simply souls that have not matured enough to receive spiritual influences. I do not think that this is immutable. There are many people who lived grossly fleshly lives, who later repented and became great saints.

As for whether the jabs are enough to turn ordinary people into zombies, I tend to think not. However, in fairness, I must point out that there are several holy elders on Mount Athos who do consider the vaccines to be a precursor to the "Mark of the Beast" and who do think that they can disrupt or destroy the possibility of a spiritual connection to God.

I personally have not seen people suddenly change their personalities after receiving a shot. Maybe my sample size is too small. .....

Michael Martin

I'd call the notion of immutable spiritual state Manichean rather than Gnostic -- yes, it appears in some Gnostic traditions, but it is explicitly rejected by a good many others: for example, the Naassenes in the ancient world and a certain Universal Gnostic Church nowadays. ;-) Mani and his followers were much more consistent about it. "Proto-Calvinist" is an even better term, since Calvin was strongly influenced by Augustine of Hippo, who was a Manichean before he became a Christian and never really shook off Manichean ideas.

Interesting that you should mention Augustine. As you doubtless already know, we Orthodox have a complicated "push me, pull you" relationship with him. On the one hand, his personal holiness is unquestionable, and generations of Orthodox Christians (including myself) can personally relate to his famous and much-beloved Confessions.

On the other hand, we reject the strict predestinarianism of some of his writings. We refer to him as "Blessed" Augustine (one step below full sainthood), because of his erroneous teachings. However, only a very few Orthodox regard him as outright heretical. For us, "heresy" involves a concerted effort to change Church teachings. You can be mistaken, without being a "heretic" in that sense.

So, he has an honored place among us, but we do not regard him as an authority on par with St. Basil the Great or St. John Chrysostom.

Michael Martin

...and a lot of us regard him as a sort of stress fracture, where the Western church started sliding off the other direction :/

I've just finishing watching Sheridan's full video.. and again, it's one of those times when my intuition goes ' ding ding ding' - aka it's right on the mark.

I've only become more familiar with Orthodox Christianity - based on Alexander Christofouri explaining it quickly in a recent interview with the Polish gal. As he puts it, the process matters a lot and you have to take a longer-term view and be more patient. That is what's taught culturally and spiritually, which ties in with Michael Martin's take.

However, there was a discussion last week about how folks are no longer enjoying the events which they used to go to, due to them having embraced vexing mandates. I have the same exact feelings - not just for the physical events, but during the early part of the global lockdowns, a lot of complete classical concerts were posted on Youtube by the main labels which own the copywrites, and one thing I noticed quickly and have commented in private with friends - is that a person would be playing a piece which sounded transcendal, euphoric or just full of joy. But the same person playing the same piece now in a new recording - would be note perfect technically speaking, playing with polished ease.... yet there's definitely something missing. In the older version, I may have wanted to play it in the background while reading some other stuff, but it becomes so arresting that I switch over and just simply enjoy watching and listening to the performance. Now? it's like muzak in the background and I can barely tolerate it. I had described it as the performer no longer having any soul in the music...

Orthodoxy: Understanding comes through praxis. Just do it ;)

Well it turns out that the jabs are not all what they purport to be, so a lot of the jabbed may have simply received salt water, or something very close to it. Alexandria Latypova gave an interview to Dr McCullough on that subject the other day (and some other interviews as well).

Has the jab changed people energetically/spiritually is something I keep asking myself.

Generally I can pick someone who isn't jabbed. I'm not sure if it's an energetic sensing, or something about their attitude and the way they talk.

What I do notice is that the jabbed are constrained in how they think. They seem locked into a limited worldview, unable to consider possibilities outside of a narrow range. Trying to discuss things outside of that leads to blocking, blank looks and anger if you push it.

Has it turned them into zombies (scene cuts to an episode of The Walking Dead)? No, any effect is subtle so far, apart from say sudden death, but death is preferable to being a zombie isn't it?

Does the jab have elements of the mark of the beast? You mean do they want to have a bar code and DNA record for all of us? That would only be so Amazon could drone over your meds, nothing sinister surely?

I'm not willing to say, at this point, that the shots are stunting people spiritually.

But I do think that for many people, the act of going along with something that you don't feel is completely right, that maybe you have some instinctive reservations about... that act, in and of itself, is spiritually stunting. You've accepted a leash and muzzle, in exchange for... your job, money, certain privileges you're used to.

That sort of stunting is reversible. But it's difficult.

I think maybe what we're seeing is a very large number of people who recently-- despite some misgivings-- bowed to the leash and muzzle. Getting out is going to cost them, but it's still possible. Maybe we can help.

That is a very inspiring perspective - thank you!

Milkyway

What if it is the reverse phenomena - that by refusing the vax completely, the unvaxxed became alive in a new way?

The vaxxed didn't change, we did who refused it.

A la Pinocchio?

I have, in fact, felt more myself and alive after having had to face whether I would fold or not.

I think there's something to that as well. Maybe it's both.

I can't say I was ever pressured to get the shots, so perhaps I have missed an opportunity for growth ;)

But I can say that the whole experience has been... illuminating. It revealed ugliness in places I never expected to see it, weakness in people and organizations I thought had more backbone, and like sticking a glowing genetic marker into an organism to trace the extent of a change... it highlighted just how far and fast is the reach of propaganda in the internet age.

We've all learned a lot, and learning does change us. For those who resisted, the exercise of will in the service of conscience also changes us. Radically.

Your comment gave me glimpses of planets, sort of up close and a 3/4 view.........

I don't know why....

Well, inspired by your comments, I watched the Sheridan clip.

Blaming the fizzing red wave on the transmogrification of the vaxxed into a new species made me chuckle, although I'm not convinced that the vax has made the vaxxed into a different species either. Sure, they may have taken on some new thinking/behaviours, but I tend to agree with you in that the events of the last few years have probably more revealed people for who they are, instead of changing what they really are.

On a personal level, I accept that whatever the cause, there's just something about my makeup that makes me fundamentally different to almost everyone else in my hometown. I mean, at one stage the local health authorities were claiming a 104% vax rate, whereas I have declined to accept even one injection! More seriously, despite the odd figures from time to time, the authorities have almost certainly injected almost everyone who was eligible for the sacrament in my town, and they all went along with the whole shebang.

These events have led me to the crazy realization that almost everyone in my town is genuinely incapable of grokking the way I think and behave. And that's not new - it's always been that way. It's just that it's taken these events to make me accept it. The vaccines haven't changed them - they were always like that, and in all likelihood, they always will be like that. If Sheridan isn't right about our differences being due to the vax, then perhaps the Gnostics were onto something after all :P

Whatever the case, it's liberating. I can stop worrying so much now about this or that difference. What'd be the point? Which brings me around to agreeing with Sheridan that there's no point in being Nationalistic when one has bugger all in common with their countrymen, and I respect that he feels connected to his international tribe.

I'd be interested to hear more about these Gnostic beliefs you've raised, and the views of the elders of Mount Athos. With respect to the latter, I googled "Mount Athos elders vaccine" and the first headlines/hits were about how "Greece's Mount Athos elders trust God and science to protect them from COVID" - ha, ha, methinks the search engine doth protest too much :) I think I'll have to put in a bit more effort to find their views on the vax and its relationship to the "Mark of the Beast".

Anyway, thanks all for a couple of interesting posts/links.

The Ninth Mouse

Here is a link to a podcast by a monk in Australia, who goes over this is a lot of detail (warning - LONG podcast!):

https://www.orthodoxtalks.com/talk-82-the-importance-of-reading-the-lives-of-saints-when-dealing-with-the-heresies-of-ecumenism-and-covidism-part-1/

Thanks, I'll watch it.

There's a Serbian Orthodox Church in my area, I looked them up out of curiosity earlier during covidworld and was happy to discover some sympathy for the unvaccinated from (what I presume) is their leadership:

https://soc.org.au/en/news/1542-where-to-australia-quo-vadis-australia

Even though I'm not a Serbian expat, or an Orthodox anything, it's still nice to know that there's at least one institution in my region that's sympathetic to the unvaccinated.

The Ninth Mouse

Still haven't watched the Sheridan clip, but your mention of grokking reminded me of a very worthwhile new post from Ugo Bardi: https://www.senecaeffect.com/2022/11/how-to-beat-propaganda-grokking-strategy.html

Interesting - another intellectual who comprehends that we are living on 'Spaceship Earth' who also appears to have rejected the official vax narrative. Funny how all of the thinkers that I respected before the events of the last few years for their ideas on ecological matters are on broadly the same page on this issue as well :)

If one doesn't try to 'grok' things and isn't at least a bit of an 'anarchist' by disposition (for whatever reason) then one will probably always comply slavishly with the 'authorities' no matter how stupid and flawed their knowledge claims and diktats happen to be on a given issue.

That sort of independence seems rare though - especially where I live. And I'm not even all that radical really, it's just that I'm not a total sub, so that tells you something.

Anyway, I'm sure most of the time unthinking obedience is adaptive in modern society, otherwise most people wouldn't do it. The price for it though is that every now and again the groupthink goes awry, and we get a Bay of Pigs, a Space Shuttle Challenger, a global EGT campaign, industrial-technological civilization. . . :P

The Ninth Mouse

This is great. For some reason I returned three times to find this link and finally got to it. Wonderfully put thoughts about independent thinking and led to a new word too.

Orthodox priest Twitter account

Not following 'the speed of science' down to the pharmacy it seems :-)

https://twitter.com/AnaniasFather

No, it would seem not :)

My local Orthodox Serbs have a groovy Byzantine style monastery in the country nearby.

If/when the vax passports come in, perhaps they'll let me work for food :P

The Ninth Mouse

I was thrilled to See Ol' Thomas sitting there in his car and getting ready to unwind a good one.
Thank you. Will listen to it a bit later.

It's an interesting proposition from Sheridan. I've noticed before that many people seem more flat in their character. I just don't know what it is. I wonder if there isn't a simpler explanation for it. It looks quite likely to me many are feeling ill but not telling it to random strangers. On the other hand, one psychic friend of mine stated that after the second shot his crown chacra was clogged end another I saw on youtube mentioned that after the second shot her etheric body collapsed and that it took her a lot of work to repair it.

It's a bit off topic, but I have a different reading about the election than Sheridan. The election was carried for the Democrats by single women: they voted Dem with a whopping 37% difference. Married man, married women and single men all voted Rep. I think the Republicans shot themselves in the foot with overturning Roe vs Wade. This article about it is excellent and makes much sense to me: https://unherd.com/2022/11/a-sex-war-is-coming/

That's true about the single women.

I also never underestimate 'shenanigans.'
People playing for 'all the marbles' (who don't see the giant marbles all around) will
use their lower nature to connive.

Roe v Wade is a much more plausible explanation. Republicans also self-sabotaged on even considering attacking Medicare and Social Security.

yes there are good solid social reasons for females voting against the Roe vs Wade decision but
all the 'shenanigan' stuff is going full-tilt boogie non-stop.

John E Deaton

johnedeaton1
·
21h
Good job

cgasparino
.

garygensler
’s old boss at

mit
is the father of Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison. The GC of

ftx_official
used to be lead counsel to Gensler when he was

cftc
Chair.

sbf_ftx
’s mom was Hilary’s lawyer and a Democratic operative. SBF was #2 Democratic donor.

Basically, if you care about bodily autonomy, the red side does not look like a reliable champion.
Also, if you care about bodily autonomy, the blue side does not look like a reliable champion.

As has been said elsewhere in this thread... there are no reliable champions, which means, basically, that *we* are up!

Regarding the flatness of character, the obvious change that’s occurred. I’m open to the whole spectrum of suggestions, from pure science to far out woo woo. It might be very simple though. We might be seeing a collective thousand-yard-stare. That thing you see all the time in war photos.

My sense is that covid (and Ukraine) are a one two combo. Ukraine let’s people all over the world FEEL like a Great War is happening, and it sort of ticks all the boxes power gets by having a war. But it’s (so far), nice and contained. For everyone outside of Ukraine, it’s like a roller coaster ride. All the thrills and chills, none of the actual danger.

Covid is where the actual dying happens. Whatever the cause, if you buy the covid narrative or if you think it’s all lizard people killing everyone, it’s hard to deny lots of people are dying, or have died. It’s on the scale of a decent sized global war. People might just be psychologically wiped out, aware that danger is about, death is stalking the hospital halls. 3 years of semi-regular adrenaline dumps can take a toll. Add to that the likely reality that many people ARE injured, and what I think we are seeing all around, in those blank stares, is a sea of walking wounded, subconsciously pondering what battle weary soldiers ponder.

Plus there is probably some woo layered onto that as well ;)

Murmuration.

Yes, low-level battle fatigue will be in play too. Grief will add to it too. I just heard of a 54 year old friend of a friend who died suddenly from heart failure. The second one in my circle. Plus two cases of turbo cancer, one dead in two weeks, the other probabely terminal. And only the unvaxxed dare to ask the unmentionable questions (among each other only). It must be strenuous.

Edited 2022-11-11 21:39 (UTC)

Nicely put.

In terms of the war in Ukraine being a one-two punch with Covidmania
I wonder too why we haven't seen choreographed dance numbers from Ukrainian politicians or maybe even the 'Azov Brigade' in the halls of their parliament or the Azovstal steel plant basement where they were holed up.

Haven’t we? Didn’t Zelenski do the green screen dance?

The Green Screen Dance!!!!

'Dance the night away with your very own green screen! You too can be in Kiev on New Years Eve!'

I largely agree with this.

My vague sense, for what it's worth, is that what happened is a lot of people got caught up in the covid hysteria. They lived in fear, got mad at people who didn't live in fear, practiced bizarre irrational cootie rituals, didn't see friends and family, let their kids be cheated out of normal youth, wore damp disgusting rags on their faces for hours at a time, believed the people in charge, did as they were told, and...got covid anyway. And survived. As did all the crazy unjabbed people who also got covid and didn't die either. And now, lots of people are dying of unexplained causes.

It's almost like they were all lied to....

I think CJ Hopkins analogy of a hung-over morning-after applies. People are a kind of shell shocked. And may also realize on some level that they got tricked. And were complicit in the insanity. And that our institutions aren't as trustworthy as they would like to believe. And that their whole world view might be inaccurate.

But who wants to think about that??

I think a lot of people are shoving realizations down, to avoid having to think about what happened, what they believed, what they might have said or done, how the world doesn't work quite the way they thought it did, and - no. Never mind. Don't want to think about it.

Let's all act normal. Everything is fine. Let's call for amnesty, forgive all that was said and done, go back to normal, and forget all about this. Everything is FINE.

To me the weird affect is related to denial. People went through a bizarre and emotionally harrowing couple of years, and have had world views shaken, and now, a lot of them just don't want to think about it. It's too hard to face. This is simultaneously the affect of the abused spouse insisting that her black eye is the result of a fall, and the abuser insisting that he never hit nobody, and let's all just forget about this.

That's not everyone's reaction, of course, but I see a lot of people like that. That's where that 1,000 yard "it never happened let's not talk about it nice weather we're having" stare comes from.

Sheridan, again. In the car. On the chthonic forces underneath covid.

https://youtu.be/V6Y0popoz7U

'Sheridan, again. In the car....'

Could be an iconic/iconographic meme itself.....a touchstone - a reference point during all this.

Starting on the 7th the Wordle word is now curated, so someone explicitly chose SPELL for Election Day. No comment on deeper (possibly unintended) meanings behind that choice.

See https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/crosswords/wordle-editor.html for my source.

jabistas
LoL
my new favorite word

"jabistas"... those who tried but could not catch... the "jabby dodgers"... ;)

I watched about 7 minutes of network news last night, all I could take, to test which way the wind was blowing.
Notable for it's absence was any reference to The Plague, the response to it and the mandates. Equally notable was the repetitive instance the the American People are tired of investigations.
I expect that the chart intrepreted by JMG over at Subscribe Star will prove to be spot on, bad for those in power but improvements will be hindered if I recall. It seems most likely the denial and obfuscation will continue to increase with scant hope of any resolution soon.
I can only hope that the energy and resources required to maintain this illusion will leave open a window of escape allowing some to slink away from the cascade of consequences. Godspeed to all.
Gawain

I used to get group emails from a cultural curator who actually called it The Plague.
He seemed quite committed to alarmed consternation.
His wife, I assume after numerous shots, went blind.
Granted she was very old (officially old!) with previous medical conditions. And yet....
I mean, I don't know.

Transcriber here. For a while now I've been transcribing things that have been censored or shadow-banned, but it occurs to me that it would be worthwhile to transcribe a few items here and there that had plenty of play in the MSM back in the day, among them this catchy little public service tune. (Gosh, was this only a year ago? The comments there on YT are quite something, by the way.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNbmUYF_xNo

Kyle Sandilands, "Get Vaxxed Baby" 2021

TRANSCRIPT [PARTIAL]

Get vaxxed baby
oh oh oh oh oh!
Alright stop! Vaccinate and listen!
We are back with a brand new injection
Someone grabbed a hold of you tightly
Rolled up your sleeves whether daily or nightly
Will this ever stop? Yo, we don't know
But stuck in lockdown really blows
Too many people think vaxx is a scandal
Take two shots and covid's handled
Pfizer or AstraZeneca
Hmmm what rhymes with AstraZenca?
Oh yeah America
One of a hundred places you could travel to
So just relax
Lay down your tinfoil hats and just get vaxxed
So we can go back to the old ways
Shaking hands kissing strangers all day
Get vaxxed baby
That's right
Get vaxxed baby
What are you waiting for, it's there!
Get vaxxed baby
You want to sit at home your whole life unvaccinated, mmm mmm
Go get in the vaccination line today
Get vaxxed baby

1:00
[END OF SONG]

I'm a resident of Minnesota. The Democrats flipped the state senate so now Governor and both legislative bodies are both Democrat.

I have a two year-old. As of now, Minnesota has a philosophical exemption for all vaccines. Democrats introduced a bill last session to remove that (a a al California and New York). I fear Minnesota will follow the Big Pharma dictates and remove this exemption. My partner and I want to be careful and selective about how and if we vaccinate.

I fear for my child's health and for my autonomy/medical freedom as a parent. I would strongly prefer not to move or homeschool (for reasons I won't go into here), but may have to consider those things.

I am independent politically, but was hoping Dems would get a smackdown due to their Covid and other overreaches but it doesn't seem like that happened.

I am wondering if there's anything I can do to maintain this medical freedom/philosophical exemption in my state.

Here in Oregon the last time the Dems tried to ram vaccine mandate nonsense through the legislature (along with a carbon tax that would have decimated local industries), the Reps all went home and refused to return to pass anything (like state budgets) until some of their demands were met, including removal of the vaccine mandates.

I'm not sure if MN has a quorum requirement that would make that effective, but it could work.

I'm a bit surprised by the lack of a red wave. I do think that the red team *could have* had their wave if they had a) universally accepted the outcome of the 2020 election, b) distanced themselves from Trump, and c) not chosen an election year to reverse Roe v. Wade. But...what can I say - both parties tend to shoot themselves in the foot when they are ahead.

I spent the first 23 years of my life in Minnesota and most of my family is there - here's hoping it doesn't join the more extreme blue team insanity.

>I do think that the red team *could have* had their wave if they had a) universally accepted the outcome of the 2020 election, b) distanced themselves from Trump, and c) not chosen an election year to reverse Roe v. Wade. But...what can I say - both parties tend to shoot themselves in the foot when they are ahead.

Hmm is that what they did in Florida?

a and b at least, can't do much about c.

Seriously though, all indications suggest team red has a winning 2024 candidate in DeSantis and a loser or at best a nail-biter in Trump. If we get a Trump vs. Biden "who do we hate more" redux in two years I will wonder how long the tragic farce of our governance can continue.

And here's me thinking DeSantis was extremely pro-Trump and Trump-supported! Well, maybe making you think that and me think this was their real campaign achievement!

Some self-proclaimed moderates I know said that overturning Roe made their decision easy this election. Haven't heard any mention of the other two issues. So where I am, at least, I think it was Roe.

For people whose opposition to mandates came mainly from concern for bodily autonomy, it made the red side seem not a consistent, reliable ally.

"For people whose opposition to mandates came mainly from concern for bodily autonomy, it made the red side seem not a consistent, reliable ally."

Very much so, to the point that while I will no longer vote blue, I also won't vote red.

As for DeSantis, this seemed to be a good assessment: https://unherd.com/thepost/ron-desantis-the-new-champion-of-trumpism/ He and Trump have had a bit of a falling out since the whole election-denial business.

Florida also used the end of Roe to pass a compromise 15-week abortion ban, bucking the trend of states moving to opposite extreme positions on the issue.

>Very much so, to the point that while I will no longer vote blue, I also won't vote red.

I understand. I voted some of each and some third party. (And I'm the one who wrote in "A yellow dog who opposed mandates" for town council.)

>[DeSantis] and Trump have had a bit of a falling out since the whole election-denial business.

Your linked article doesn't say so, but if that is true, it's a shame. I'm also not a fan of your question-begging way of referencing the situation, especially since AFAIK every related court case was dismissed on a technicality rather than being y'know actually heard. I understand that legal eagles felt insulted by the Trump crowd's failure to assimilate legal cultural forms, so felt happy to dismiss them on technicalities (striking a blow for professionalism!)...but, well, that's the problem.

Abraham Lincoln became a lawyer by reading the law on his own time and then taking the bar exam. You used to be able to do that. Now you can't. If you bring that up with a modern lawyer, they like to laugh at the idea of anyone ever trying such a thing. They like to emphasize the value of law school and the work lawyers put in to get through it and how lawyers are a profession and their professional knowledge is valuable.

Of course, the knowledge you can demonstrate on the bar exam always has been knowledge. In Lincoln's time too.

So it's not *that* kind of knowledge. Then what is it? It's cultural knowledge. It's knowledge of the counterintuitive cultural traditions that have grown up within legal professions since then.

Again, I understand why someone would want their investment of time and money into law school to be respected and valued. But I do not think the point of making laws was to create an arena that is counterintuitive to the point that the only way to succeed there is to pay big bucks to a professional. That it has evolved into such a situation is, again, actually the problem.

This accretion of complex unwritten rules which modern professional lawyers are (understandably, they're difficult) so proud of having mastered...strikes me as an example of the sort of added societal complexity that our host has said is unsustainable.

And thanks for the article! It does seem good.

>Florida also used the end of Roe to pass a compromise 15-week abortion ban, bucking the trend of states moving to opposite extreme positions on the issue.

Aha.

I noticed they also included an exception for fatal fetal abnormalities. Very important especially to the kind of purple-voting moms who might be at higher risk for such problems (starting later, having a caboose, etc).

Through loss support groups I know a lot of moms who have encountered prenatal diagnoses of problems. Some do choose to carry the baby to term and then watch him/her die, but many would rather spare the baby and themselves that pain.

BTW. You can diagnose increased risk for some such problems around 10 weeks (NIPT), but you can't be sure the diagnosis is correct without an amniocentesis at 15-20 weeks (and results take a while to come back). (CVS, which can be done at 10-15 weeks, is not as accurate as amnio.) So 15-week abortion bans have the risk that people will terminate healthy, wanted pregnancies because of "high-risk" NIPT results; an exception for fatal fetal abnormalities reduces that likelihood.

Do what home schoolers do. Get a network of like minded folks. Run a phone call campaign every time the subject comes up.

Make them hire temp staff to handle the calls.

You win when the staff starts answering "Bill # whatever, for or against?" That's the goal: hit the point where they're just tallying up numbers because nothing else can get thru the switchboard, they don't have time to take names or confirm district anymore.

Hold their feet to the fire.

And while you're at it, see what anti-fraud measures your county has. Do they have a ballot vault and count livecam so everyone can watch? Easy and cheap. Bug your county commissioners. They work for you. You should have them on speed dial.

BoysMom

You might have a look at what the Childrens Health Defemse Fund is doing in your area. They are very savvy about the law, and the legislative process.

Please note that Internet searches are gamed so you will easily get sites that look like Children's Health Defense Fund, but they are not.

This is the correct URL:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org

Here is their legal resources page:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/legal-justice/

Chapters:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/about-chapters/

I note that they do not have a chapter in your state, however the webpage states that
"Interested in starting a chapter? Please get in touch with our Chapter Coordinator, Karen McDonough, with any questions." The link goes to:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/about-us/contact/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From that contact page, a copy-paste:

We Need Your Help!

Let’s work together to educate the masses and spread the word about the Children’s Health Defense. Our mission is to end the epidemic of children’s chronic health conditions by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable and establish safeguards to prevent future harm.

If you think our mission is important, please sign up for free updates, paid membership or donate. Every penny of your support will help us fight for a world where all children are healthy and free from environmentally induced injuries (including vaccines).

Contact Information

Press inquiries: Members of the press who want to interview Mr. Kennedy and/or need more information on Children’s Health Defense are invited to contact us using the form below.

All other inquiries: Email is the best way to reach the staff at Children’s Health Defense. Please select a general area/topic from the dropdown menu below. We will answer your email as soon as possible. If you need to speak with someone, please text or call 404-941-6515‬.

Please note:

We can answer much more quickly with a text than a call.
If you are outside of the U.S. — use the form below to send us an email — please do not call or text.
Children’s Health Defense
852 Franklin Ave., Suite 511
Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: This one is a bit dated-- from December 2021-- but I found it very interesting (and perhaps you will also) because the speaker, Ivan Vilibor Sinćić is a relatively young Croatian Member of the European Parliament who has often stood by German MEP Christine Anderson in the press conferences against the mandates and the vaxx passports. His English-language videos are hard to find however, I wager we'll be hearing much more from him in the future.

IVAN VILIBOR SINĆIĆ
Member of European Parliament (Croatia)
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197935/IVAN%20VILIBOR_SINCIC/home

Complete press conference December 8, 2021
5 MEPS RESPOND TO URSULA VON DER LEYEN'S TOTALITARIAN MANDATORY VACCINATION
https://rumble.com/vqmvwr-5-meps-respond-to-ursula-von-der-leyens-totalitarian-mandatory-vaccination-.html

TRANSCRIPT - EXCERPT
16:41
IVAN VILIBOR SINĆIĆ: Thank you dear colleagues, thank you for attending this press conference. In the beginning I will reply to the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who called for a debate on mandatory vaccination. The answer is simple. No, you cannot mandate these medical products. And why you cannot mandate these medical products? Because data and science have shown us that these products are far, far, very far away from what was promised.

I will repeat it over and over again. On 25th of February, here in Brussels, in European Parliament, there was a committee and seven directors, CEOs from major pharmaceutical companies from Moderna and AstraZeneca, to Pfizer and Novavax, were there, and we as MEPs had arrived to ask them questions about their medical products, and they said it had extreme efficiency, 90-95%, all those high percentages. And nine months later, what do we see in the data? What science and statistics shows us? It shows us that the efficiency is far, far less than it was promised. This is the benefit. The efficiency is the benefit. And there are also costs to the benefit. What are the costs? The costs are of course side effects. Every product has its side effects.

What does the science ell us about side effects? That there are more reported side effects, adverse reactions, to these covid vaccines than all the other vaccines combined in several decades.

We have products of questionable quality and this is why you cannot mandate them. You cannot mandate them.

And when it comes to freedom more and more I feel that our constitutional rights and our human rights have been kidnapped. And that we have to pay ransom every six months, one year, we have to pay ransom to get our freedoms back. This is simply unacceptable. Our rights are unalienable, that means that no kidnapper can take them from us. It's as simple as that. And we accept nothing else.

19:08
I will make short report on Croatia and Slovenia. As you know, as I said on the previous conference, at the beginning of November Croatian government decided that public sector must have digital
green certificates implemented. As soon as this measure was started, started to get implemented, huge resistance was offered on all levels and it still is there and it continues to rise.

So now, it will be tomorrow in Croatian Parliament there will be a debate on a law that will make fines for all those who do not implement the digi-c in their institution, in their organization. So the Croatian government goes further with this repression, with this unconstitutional situation. And of course if von der Leyen tells them, implement mandatory vaccination of course they will do it. They have always done whatever Brussels tell them, no matter how illogical it was.

So Ms. von der Leyen said that digi-c's were a huge success, while this huge success was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Slovenia just a few days ago.

The Constitutional Court of Slovenia, and I have to emphasize this because as my colleagues said, there's a lot of censorship, and information spread, informations like this spread very slowly, so I will make a special address on this here.

So the Constitutional Court of Slovenia made a decision, made a ruling, that the decision made by the government, which was by the way suspended a few days ago. The decision made by the government of Slovenia that only the vaccinated and people who have recovered can come to their job, to their workplace, that this decision by the government is unconstitutional.

So it's a huge victory for constitutional rights all over Europe. And this is one of the many court rulings on different levels, constitutional [?], supreme courts, etcetera. And we need much more rulings like this.

So this is a clear confirmation that the laws are still in power, human rights are still in power, but you have to fight, you have to submit a lawsuit, and you have to fight on this legal front, on activist front, on scientific front. And this what we are doing, we will continue to do. Thank you.
22:14

[END OF EXCERPT]

Has anyone else noticed some truly excessive astral gunk lately? I am in the Chicago area and it is HORRIBLE here -- it's like living in the back of a slimy, gray, moldy refrigerator land and trying to avoid stepping in a mushy black sandwich. From what I have discerned, it has much to do with how many quaxxed are dying right now, though of course that is not all of it.

Yes, very much. I had considered asking on MM but I have trouble discerning between personal and environmental/social gunk. It seemed to be more a type of testing or deceiving gunk to me. Not pleasant at all.
Gawain

Your comment about "testing or deceiving gunk" is interesting. I wouldn't describe the gunk itself (at least where I am) that way, but testing the ability to catch and overcome deception has been a major theme lately. There's been a lot of really weird static interfering with prayer, both Druid and Christian.

Miss Kimberly,

i am positively misanthropic and depressed right now over the election and living here in Mordor, so yeah... i'm doing the backstroke in a cesspool right today. tears streaming down my face as i type this because i'm lost.

James says i read too much news but it's how i wait for a sign that anything's changing and what to do as an artist.

i looked at the craft fair applications photos and websites and the colored people thing has been completely gamed and it's gross and i want no part of any of this. some woman was selling a white cake of soap. so instead of just a shot of white square soap, the blackest legs and arm were framing this white soap.

another girl under the disgusting BIPOC+ (WHAT's the PLUS for???) was white, had blonde hair, but a spanishy "z" at the end of her name.

today i'm struggling with hating people so i cannot write Mark back above. but i know you can handle my evil confessions.

the democrats KILLED people and took away wealth and stratified society and !EL GATO! is right when he said the Republicans need a new story... but REALLY? isn't: "don't kill me or take away my rights!" enough???

i'm struggling and not feeling the love right now. all that forgiveness crap is suiciding out the window as i type this, Kimberly.

so YEAH.... i feel you, sister.

if James wasn't home i'd try and telephone Temporary Reality and wipe this on HER like peanut butter so she's hella lucky.

x

erika

Keep your hand on the plow, my dear. Doesn't matter if you plow an inch or an acre.

To paraphrase the poet, don't follow the wrong god home.

Mental and spiritual hygiene are just as important as physical, and without them you pick up all kinds of cooties. That's how they get you down, those cooties-purveyors.

Find one thing you can do that uplifts you (your oxygen mask first while our society experiences its "wing separation event.")

You can do this.

Edited 2022-11-09 21:20 (UTC)

Could you please mention who the poet was who originally penned the phrase 'Don't follow the Wrong God Home?' I see several references to that phrase online. It's a rather amazing phrase.

That would be William Stafford, in "A Ritual to Read to Each Other"

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break,
sending with shouts the terrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders, the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruetly
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk;
though we could fool each other, we should consider -
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give - yes or no, or maybe -
should be clear; the darkness around us is deep.

Edited (needed a semicolon in the right spot) 2022-11-11 19:42 (UTC)

Erika!

Don't despair! I was flabbergasted watching results roll in last night too. How is 'murder, censorship, and tyranny' a winning campaign?! Even though I'm not a republican (or democrat), I was hoping the red wave story would have played out as fantasized. I can't tell you how many people, in this blue area, when talking quietly, say the vector we are on is insane. That made me think the wave would come crashing in. And then the investigations would start. But it didn't. I've been to this rodeo before. Lucy got me again anyway.

And then I realized, I had bought in to the damn story again, for a bit. They had hooked this fish. I was up and down with the red wave. And it occurred to me, faster this time than before, THEY won't be helpful in fixing this. THEY never were going to be. I had hoped they would lift some of this weight, get the ball rolling, crack the narrative. They still might, who knows. Then your words echoed for me...

This is on us. This is OUR job. This is our burden and privilege to shoulder. We get to be the pretty ones. You and me and everyone here. It will take longer. It will be harder. It will be all the more spectacular for it, when we look back and tell the story. We have a setup for an epic story for the ages. We just need to not quit.

The whale was never the answer. You are. We are.

Keep your hand on the plow. Hold on.

Murmuration.

Marie-Louise von Franz had something to say about that, as it turns out.

(p.s. Murder, censorship and tyranny has ALWAYS been a winning campaign provided it was genuinely a minority that it was done to. Is 3 million child deaths a year considered just normal for "non-tyrannical" times or "excess deaths caused by idiots"? Obviously, that depends a great deal on whether those were the children of anyone who mattered).

Thank you for seeing the bigger picture, Murmuration.

Do not quit. There is no cavalry coming. We are up.

Thank you.

Edited (still "screened" ) 2022-11-10 15:21 (UTC)

It's a good cop/ bad cop show.

Quite the production. 5% but I doubt higher of the new & old politicians in Washington of either party are sane, decent, empathetic, not on the take, not beyond blackmail, not warmongers.

It's hard to imagine 'rooting' for Mitch McConnell or the other root-beer float brains.
As for the 'progressives' my god what a collection of wax statuettes.

we fell for the same trick. remember when the "polls" said hillary had a 90%+ chance of winning? how'd that work out? and then we believed the the same pollsters.

to put this in animal house terms, we are flounder, who got his brother's car destroyed by the rest of the gang. the lesson to be learned?

otter: "you fxxxed up. you trusted us."

something something won't get fooled again.

it's going to get a bit more complicated than just sitting around and hoping people wake up to what's being done. indeed, it is now our (the people's) job. let's hope we are up to it.

it's time to encourage teamwork (and not of the red or blue variety, that's obviously failed) when it comes to the whole keeping your hand on the plow thing.

the hand seeks tools to cut the wood,
to till the soil, and harness the power of the waters.
then the hand seeks other hands to help, a community of hands to help-
thus the dream becomes not one man's dream alone, but a community dream.

you are correct. it is a burden. and a privelege.

belonging to all the hands who build.

even the booty seekers. :-)

Especially the booty seekers!

Follow the right poll.

https://2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com/p/another-stolen-election

I had the recent misfortune of spending time in Austin, TX. It's been excessive for a while but you are right that it does seem worse than before. I'm not sure vaccinated deaths are the cause though. At least in Austin, it doesn't feel anything like the aftermath of a mass casualty event.

The thing that really struck me though, was an intense sensation of horror combined with a sense of realization of just how badly western culture had screwed up. A phenomena which I regard as compelling evidence of the demonic hypothesis.

:D At least you have the vocal talents to make your SoP really sing! /|\

The thing that really struck me though, was an intense sensation of horror combined with a sense of realization of just how badly western culture had screwed up.

YUP.

erika

Oh yeah.

It's like rat pee.

My observations from Toronto coincide with yours, Kimberly. Last week we had a lot of physical 'fog' but astrally it seemed to be 'clear'; over the weekend it reversed and has remained so. Ghastly stuff!

At the same time, public fear is ramping up big time: various authorities are screaming "mask, mask, mask", schools have over a quarter of their students home sick, lots of adults are ill too. People are dreading the coming winter.

Ron M

I live in the Bay Area. It’s horrible. I’m not particularly attuned to the inner planes, but there are plenty of people still walking around with those stupid masks on their faces, and some shops are still demanding that you wear one in their premises. If you switched on an astral Geiger counter here, I have no doubt it would be shrieking.

The eclipse itself woke me up in the middle of the night out here in the pacific. I looked at my watch and it was like dead nuts exact. Very heavy black sun energy. There was a weight to it. Yesterday it was like they turned the misery machine back on yet as well, yet I seem to be getting less susceptible to the effects, the blasts are getting shorter, or it doesn’t have as much power as before. The daily banishing definitely help.

The eclipse itself woke me up in the middle of the night out here in the pacific

!!!!!! This really strikes me as a 'wow' moment!

Yes I’ve noticed the same. But for whatever reason, it’s passed for me today, of all days. After months. Good energy is flowing almost on the manic end of the manic/depressive scale. Getting lots done :)

I hope it passes for you soon too.

Murmuration

YES! I just had to go into DC today for a work lunch and it was so incredibly icky and draining. I mean, I'm in a blue city in a blue state, but the vibe around/in my house is much cleaner than in DC.

Actually, one of my coworkers was an hour late for the lunch because someone rear-ended her 1/4 mile from the restaurant. Her car was barely tapped, but it happened because the other driver had a stroke or heart attack or something, so my coworker had to call an ambulance, give a statement to the police, etc.

Late last week and all weekend, culminating in a sense of deep and very uncomfortable foreboding yesterday afternoon midday (on the east coast). The weather has been abnormally warm, adding to a sense of things being off.

That sounds to me like a pretty good description of Chicago, period.

-Translucent Jejune Octopus

I can't tell anymore. I'm acclimatized, for now. I'm all like, "Oh look the gates of Mordor opened and spewed forth darkness again, ah well at least potatoes are on sale."

We are one day into this week, dang it. Trying to get me to hand out trophies all willy nilly...

☕️🍰☕️🍰☕️🍰

(Got ketchup?)

It's been pretty bad here in Japan. It's as if I have a little sphere of light around my altar, but darkness reigns elsewhere.
I attended a meeting of my religious group last Saturday. We are losing people. A lot of them are older and we would be declining anyway, but I think not at such a rapid pace. I think many of our members were harmed by the vaxxes. The leader of our sect had very little spiritual to say this time, which is unlike him. He spoke of the need to prepare to demolish our main meeting house to avoid putting that burden of the joint owners of the property, who are no longer able to attend. Really depressing. I am rallying with the leader and one other motivated younger intellectual member to at least leave a legacy for when people come around and realize they need it.
Religions have come under fire everywhere except perhaps Russia (from what I can tell). They were blamed early on for spreading COVID. In Japan, most religious groups I know stopped holding public ceremonies, and some (including ours) even discouraged their members from coming together and performing them privately, for fear of incurring suspicions and fatal levels of criticism. None have resumed public ceremonies.
The Kompira Shrine has stopped holding training courses for its followers these past three years. This year they tried to organize an on-line course, but it appears to me that they are suffering financially enough (much revenue from tourism) that they've had to let go of priests, and those who remain just don't have the time to organize very much.
Meanwhile, the digitalization of Japan seems to be the only thing going forward. The tide is withdrawing even further from spirituality, and I will be driven further from society than I am already, but my little circle of light will not go out.

Strength to all of the holders of little lights in the current dark...

Its bad in another blue redoubt where I am. I forgot to do the sphere of protection for about four to six hours, (aka it was 30 hours between doing them rather than 24) and felt like I was dying from emotional pain and despair for no reason, could barely even move for a bit. Did the SOP, staggered to bed, emotions totally gone. Happened again two days later in the same basic way, so probably isnt just my imagination.

-Derpherder

I took my son to a sports medicine doctor today. I dreaded having to go to the appointment, but he approached me yesterday (he is a teenager, so this is a rare occurrence) and showed me a lump in his breast. He has a brilliant sports doc at a fancy hospital in North Atlanta. I dread going there because it is the land of fear and masks. As we walked in I saw the signs for masks. I ignored them. At the check-in desk I was asked if I had a mask-I said I did not because I was allergic to the toxic plastic materials in the mask. I was handed a mask and I held it in my hand. I made the ladies at that counter squirm with anxiety-the stress between needing to have good customer service and their fury at my unwillingness to follow rules was palpable. I asked why they are still wearing masks when the CDC no longer recommends it? Corporate policy. In the end I looped one part of the mask over my ear so that we could check in. The narrative is alive and well. The believer/fear zones are almost directly along political lines in this area.

Is your son ok?

Murmuration

Thanks for asking Murmuration. He has a 2 cm rupture in his pectoral muscle. He will be fine, but he has a slight deformation when he flexes his muscle. He is unhappy about it. I am greatly relieved that the solution to the problem involves a bit of rest. Lumps anywhere are concerning in our current medical climate. The appearance of the slight deformation upon flexing his amazingly strong muscles is a battle scar in my opinion-I am sure he will come to see it the same way.

Honestly, the most anxiety causing part of the whole experience is the insistence on masks and all the sing-songy signage about the protections they offer.

Okay, but what's going on with that lump in his breast?

The lump is the place where the rupture occurred. The tissue has moved around the rupture or something like that.

I would ask for good energy to be sent his way. He is a teenager and devastated by the appearance of this non-harmful lump. The doctor yesterday called it a deformity, which didn't help matters.

We are going to the PT today to see if that can help.

This is a second rupture in two years. He is tight and stressed and when he plays tennis and it is hard on his muscles. He does meditate and try to keep calm, but I feel like we are missing something here.

Well, maybe less tennis would be an idea.

Also, sounds like he needs a girlfriend?

He did recently break-up with a girlfriend. His charts suggest that a new and really good girlfriend is on the way!

There might be some essential oils or treatment available to reduce the visible markings? Yeah, I hear you - tough on a teenager re appearance.

Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 66

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