Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 96

[ecosophia]

As we proceed through the second year of these open posts, it's pretty clear that the official narrative is cracking as the toll of deaths and injuries from the Covid vaccines rises steadily and the vaccines themselves demonstrate their total uselessness at preventing Covid infection or transmission. It's still important to keep watch over the mis-, mal- and nonfeasance of our self-proclaimed health gruppenfuehrers, and the disastrous results of the Covid mania, but I think it's also time to begin thinking about what might be possible as the existing medical industry reels under the impact of its own self-inflicted injuries. 

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Back in the original hypothesis, you outlined an endgame, stage 11, where the deaths became impossible to ignore, triage became the order of the day, governments proclaim the arrival of the predicted hyper-lethal variant and new rounds of shutdowns and the like come. Given the death rates are rising, to the point where it's getting hard to ignore, do you still think that's plausible?

I'm trying to figure out what happens now, but it's increasingly looking to me like your hypothesis was right in broad outline, just off with timing and (maybe) the cause of the deaths....

[(Anonymous)]

"CDC Warns That Pride Events Could Spawn Massive Monkeypox Outbreak"
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cdc-warns-pride-events-could-spawn-massive-monkeypox-outbreak

[coyote_girl]

So we had to lock down, leaving old people to die alone, isolate children and steal critical years of their lives they will NEVER get back to stop the sniffles, but promiscuous disease vector events are okay.

These agencies and their policies only make sense if the objective is to maximize harm and suffering with a big helping of corruption.

Sounds like devils to me. People would do well to keep far, far away from them. The endgame does not look like it will be pretty.

Quote from the article:
Adding to the potential crisis, the CDC also acknowledged that it was exploring a theory that the monkeypox virus “may have evolved mutations to evade the two-dose Jynneos vaccines that were rolled out last year to protect against it,” CBS News reported.

Gee, another vaccine failure. Who could have imagined?

[weilong]

It's not just the CDC. It's every institution.

Without getting into details, I was fuming this morning about a new law that introduces yet another minor irritation into my life, ostensibly in the name of "safety." Anybody with two brain cells to rub together can see that it is completely pointless. Once again, I am left to conclude that the people making these policies are either incredibly stupid, or operating on some malicious motive (or, more likely, some combination of these).

Anyway, it seems to me like the way forward is for individual people to ignore the government and the corporations and go their own way. We'll be over here rebuilding society while that hot mess falls apart. Maybe we can salvage something useful from the ruins later on.

[p_coyle]

be ungovernable, or, as scotlyn put it so well many weeks ago, be a weed. now is the time for sand in the gears, sugar in the gas tank, &c.

the other day a pitcher in mlb who was given some consideration for the cy young award last season (the highest honor for a pitcher in any given year for the legions of non-baseball fans here) tried to blow a ball into foul territory. not the first time this tactic has been tried in history, and it ultimately failed. he had no help from his teammates, which may have produced a different outcome.

there are ways to operate within the system, yet askance of the rules, that just might work in the right situation.

[scotlyn]

since you invoked me, here I am... :)

I have had a few more thoughts on the matter, partly in response to stuff I'm reading... https://samzdat.com/the-uruk-series/

One of the things he points out (in several places in this series), is how "we" (meaning, generally, western peoples) have come to trade in our actual power for the appearance/image of power, or failing that, for a story about how all power lies ELSEWHERE and is being misused...

As I riffed on this thought, I realised that to accept a power is to also accept responsibility for the use of that power, and for the consequences. Whereas to accept the image of power, or to accept a story of power lying elsewhere, does not.

Each of us is powerful, as in we possess abilities, and capabilities, often unregarded, unused, untested, but real. These powers may be small* - we can change things that are within our reach - the state of our houses and gardens, the happiness of a few people, etc - BUT they are real. If we choose to use one of our powers, this directs us to the domain of ACTION, not of APPEARANCE. And, of course, in the domain of action we risk failing. To act, is to accept risk. And to accept the power of action, is to accept the responsibility of action.

And, actually, I think this is the move most likely to restore each of us to our place in the dance... :)

*obviously none of us is ALL-powerful, and the world remains chock full of things we cannot change or influence. However, the real, if small powers we do have, should not be discounted, or disregarded, nor left to rust unused... nor should we be too quick to succumb to the multiple temptations to cede them to outside forces - whether narratives, or experts, or rules, or conventions, fear of failing, fear of judgment, or the weightiness of personal responsibility, or anything else.

[weilong]

That looks like something interesting to read. Thanks for the link.

Something that has been bothering me more and more in the last few years (not that it's a new phenomenon, just my focus has changed) is that so many people are willing to say "rules is rules" and go along with whatever stupid diktat comes down the pike. What is especially disturbing is that people do that despite privately thinking that the diktat is nonsense. Actually, I've come to believe that the whole point of school is to train people to follow nonsensical instructions without grumbling or asking questions.

When you have a company or a government or a country full of these people, everybody does whatever stupid thing "the system" tells them to do. And nowhere is anybody responsible for it. From the top to the bottom and back, the buck just gets passed round and round.

The only way to stop this whole mess is for individual people - each of us - to take responsibility for our own actions. We have to do what we think is right, and refuse to do what we think is wrong. We have to accept responsibility for, and the consequences of, our actions. It can be small things, and one at a time. Responsible action will be the building blocks of our new society. That might look like the dark ages, but at some point it might look better than what we've got.

On the subject of rules

[(Anonymous)]

There are more and more nonsensical rules, that is for sure, but here is another thing going on: they make rules and then don't tell us about them until we have broken them. Was in a work situation this week where to attend a certain remote meeting, you had to connect with a laptop. Except, no one told attendees they were forbidden from joining the meeting with a phone or tablet. When folks did join with a phone or tablet, they immediately got a very public and humiliating scolding, i.e., this was not a polite request to please connect with their laptop, it was a virtual pointy finger shaking, you are a bad person, dressing down. One person being scolded stood up, virtually, and said, show me where it says I have to connect with a laptop. He was emailed an obscure policy document that no one had ever seen before. The lesson from the experience for me was, when you get called on something, the first thing to do is say, show me where it says I have to do that. They will most likely have a document or edict they can cite, but at least then you have a solid target you can fight. I started my campaign right after the meeting, asking why the policy exists and how we change it. If the idiots making up this bullcrap are busy fighting to keep the existing moronic policy, they won't have time to make up new ones. And if I am fighting moronic policy instead of working and they are not making new policy because they are fighting to keep the old one, well hey, that is sand in the gears of the machine.

Re: On the subject of rules

[scotlyn]

Ha, ha, thanks for this. A nice bit of bureaucracy-fu!

[(Anonymous)]

"When you have a company or a government or a country full of these people, everybody does whatever stupid thing "the system" tells them to do. And nowhere is anybody responsible for it. From the top to the bottom and back, the buck just gets passed round and round."

Indeed..."You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about." Many fine insights here...thanks.

[scotlyn]

"When you have a company or a government or a country full of these people, everybody does whatever stupid thing "the system" tells them to do. And nowhere is anybody responsible for it. From the top to the bottom and back, the buck just gets passed round and round."

Ok, this is a statement of the problem that the series above considers (at some length, but then, I like that kind of thing).

But in the last essay - https://samzdat.com/2017/08/28/the-thresher/ - he makes a handy distinction between different kinds of power.
Agency - which is personal power
Command - which is power OVER others

I found that this distinction beautifully explains what *exactly* is going on in the scenario you describe. (And it is almost equally true of mobs, as it is of bureaucracies).

When no one has agency, it is harder for them to fend off structures or entities that command them, even when it works against their interests.

However, not having (or not accepting) agency powers does not mean one does not have or exercise power, because certain group entities - eg. a mob, eg. a bureaucracy - can wield, and even weaponise, effective command powers without any participating individual ever being responsible (ie - accepting the responsibility that their *agency powers* would entail).

Of course people always have MORE agency than we believe, if we choose to act on it, but a) everything in our economy, culture, politics, etc, has an interest in helping us ignore this, and b) there are risks, since accepting power entails accepting responsibility, and it is all too human to be risk averse.

[scotlyn]

And, ok, sudden "lightbulb" just switched on for me when I looked back at your post and the word "system" jumped out at me.

We are always complaining about "the system" and yet are never (except by butchering a lot of facts) able to precisely locate who is running it.

And this is because *no one* is running it (ie - with their own self-appointed agent powers), and yet, it HAS the command powers that effectively DO push people around, because people in groups can DO that - relinquish individual agency powers in exchange for an invisible stake in a group structure with command powers.

And this is why the "system" can certainly goose us in the rear end, but is never ever to be seen when we turn around.

[(Anonymous)]

When I first heard about Monkeypox, one of the first things I thought about was the late, great, Australian, Frank Fenner, who's credited with overseeing the program that exterminated smallpox - which is another orthopox virus.

Do you think Fenner, who was convinced (at least in his later years) that overpopulation would lead to extinction of the human race, perhaps within as little as a hundred years, ever regretted his role in eliminating that particular scourge?

And what are the origins of this 'Monkeypox' again? Another lab 'leak' perhaps? I wouldn't put it past the eggheads after what's happened recently. In fact, given recent events, I can't help but wonder if the egghead's masters haven't also considered Fenner's grave warning.

The Ninth Mouse

[(Anonymous)]

My first thought was that monkeypox might be cover for a smallpox leak. My second thought was that if it wasn't, then it may not be obvious if there is a smallpox leak....

[(Anonymous)]

In her book, 'Dark Winter', another Australian Professor, Raina McIntyre, also voices a concern about Monkeypox being able to mask the start of a smallpox outbreak, because the symptoms are so similar in some ways.

Watch this space.

The Ninth Mouse

[(Anonymous)]

Wow. They're actually talking about it as a disease spread among gay people? This could get extremely interesting indeed....

[(Anonymous)]

"CDC Warns That Pride Events Could Spawn Massive Monkeypox Outbreak"

I think is not an exclusive Christian thing that pride comes before fall, is also the meaning behind the word hubris.

[(Anonymous)]

I think we're seeing the early stages of it in the employment/jobs/disability numbers.

Tons of jobs. Not enough people who can/will fill them. Disability numbers soaring.

At least part of that is people simply leaving formal employment for greener pastures: informal work, shadetree businesses. But a big chunk of it may be a lot of people, at all levels, who are no longer able to hold down a job. In "nice" professions, this looks like a bunch of people taking early retirement. In gruntwork, this just looks like businesses cutting their hours, closing lobbies, or automating their checkouts because they can't get enough humans to fill the jobs. Maybe some of that is not offering enough $$ to make it worthwhile. I don't think that's the whole picture.

[(Anonymous)]

"Maybe some of that is not offering enough $$ to make it worthwhile. I don't think that's the whole picture."

Well, I'm in the midst of a round of job hunting, and will say I've never seen so many good jobs open to hiring and offering to pay as much as I do right now. They may suck, and likely some of them will, but right now it looks like the absolute best job market I've ever seen for employees. So, unless these jobs have some sort of hidden evil, I simply can't imagine that this is even much of a factor at all.

The degree of flexibility on display is also unprecedented, so the only explanation that makes sense to me is that there are a ton of people out there who are simply unable to work.

[(Anonymous)]

If this is the case, I'd *kind of* expect to see it more in physically demanding jobs-- the sort where you have to be on your feet all day (warehouse runners, food service, nurses), or where the job description says you have to be able to lift 50 or 100 pounds. BUT it might also be happening in cognitively demanding fields, given what we're hearing about neurological effects. It's just... I'm not sure it'd be as clear-cut there, because those workplaces are also more likely to have a lot of BS jobs that don't demand much at all, and that might mask the problem a bit.

If it's not too nosy, what sorts of jobs are you seeing this in?

[(Anonymous)]

Warehouses, construction, service work, restaurants, across the board. The one which really caught my eye though was that there are a number of jobs which used to require expensive training in advance, connections, or prior training that are now willing to train. Jobs such as some cushy bank jobs, jobs in the local hospital, or government jobs now.

I'm fairly open to see where my job hunting goes, so I'm looking at a little bit of everything. Given I can survive a few months unemployed (or even longer if need be by moving in with family), I'm willing to take chances and look at things I know I'm not qualified for; but a good number of these are calling me back too now....

This may not match your experiences in the US; I'm not sure how high your vaccination rates are, but I'd bet a fair sum of money that they're substantially lower than ours here. Not just do I live in Canada, but I live in Ottawa, which is about as Middle Class a city as you'll ever find; so it's entirely possible what's happening is way, way, way worse here than most other places.

Job Openings

[(Anonymous)]

Hello fellow Ottawan. Nice to know at least a few other sane people are here in town! Ron M who posts here is in Ontario, not sure if also an Ottawan. I think the high vax uptake here is having stronger effects than a lot of places. Also I think a fair number of people skipped town when peole were being very bonkers (like the Mom at the kids playground in Jan 2022 who was screaming about killing the unvaccinated). God Bless the truckers.

Stuart Cram

[(Anonymous)]

I'm delighted to hear OTJ is making a comeback somewhere!

After reading this thread, I went and trawled the local job listings (have been out of the market a while) to see what people were asking for... and it seems like it's still flooded with the usual BS where they only want someone with 3yrs experience operating this very particular equipment, specialized training and licensing, etc. Though I did see a higher-than-expected number of listings for high-school education, willing-to-help-you-get-the-licensing positions, so perhaps things are starting to bend after all.

[(Anonymous)]

Depends on whose figures you believe, the US could be missing up to 2-3M workers due to vax injury.

[(Anonymous)]

Three people in positions that I could get promoted to are C19 vaxx sick - constant colds, allergies, over reactions to C19. I may have a promotion in my future at this rate. They are going to have to hire white men because we are quickly getting to an all hands on deck kind of situation.