Lew Rockwell Institute

The old gripe “is nothing sacred” looked worn out by 1987. That was when the National Endowment for the Arts finished handing Andres Serrano 20 grand for “Piss Christ.” He got the materials for his masterpiece from the gift department of a drug store then drank a 40 for the pissspiration. But that doesn’t prove life imitates art—Janet Cooke won the Pulitzer for fake news six years before that.

The NEA was launched by Lyndon Johnson—a chief executive well known for public displays of emission himself. If he had lived, LBJ probably would have ranked Serrano as an unequaled genius until Cardi-B came along. Federally funded artistes surely rate that prez, known for waving “jumbo” around, as a highly refined aesthete.

But if you thought the last vestiges of sanctimony swirled in the bowl a generation ago you’d be mistaken. A glance at the huffing and puffing in the January 15, Huffington Post is a good example. “Tucker Carlson Slammed for ‘Vile and Vicious” Attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” reads the headline. Carlson was having some chuckles at AOC for claiming she narrowly escaped death when the Capitol got stormed on the 6th. A rapidly spreading cult demands that all of its prophets’ words be taken as gospel—unbelievers will taste their wrath:

“Wednesday was an extremely traumatizing event and it is not an exaggeration to say that many many members of the House were nearly assassinated. It’s just not an exaggeration to say that at all,” she said.”

We can’t get the full details due to supposed security concerns—but we do know that ordinary Americans in the clutches of raging mobs are expected to take it for the greater good. AOC tweeted on December 2: “To folks who complain protest demands make others uncomfortable… that’s the point.” That these events left some of them homeless, jobless, maimed or dead didn’t count. It was a price she was willing to let others pay. Earlier in the year we heard: “once someone doesn’t have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot.” The media, somehow, forgot to report water shortages in any of the 48 cities that got torched.

When you write off half the country as “Nazis”—without any basis—who can’t be randomly attacked for the advancement of equity, diversity and ecology? The ungrateful working stiff remains fair game. It’s snorting at self-serving drama that’s the crime against humanity. That proscription is upheld by the faithful. Tweets and comments on the HuffPost article reveal a congregation that is seething. Wise guys are warned that poking fun at Democrats amounts to death threats.

Actual death threats, sent to others by AOC fans, leave media eyes rolling. Defending yourself from the random blows of the oppressed became unjustifiable aggression years ago. Now, laughing at a narcissistic performance is grounds for appearance before a Social justice Tribunal.

How long do we have before Twitter, Facebook, Google, Amazon and the rest of the Inquisition ration out the yuks in accordance with the new saintly order? Or are we already living it?

What unpretentious people actually find funny lays as low as the undead in daylight during our pious era. Woke vigilantes lurk everywhere, stalking humor with a stake for its heart. On top of that, in an epidemic of mass brain damage, audiences pretend that Hannah Gadsby, Samantha Bee and Chelsea Handler shows are not grating ordeals. Al Bundy is no longer around to critique them–possibly the greatest cultural loss of our times. Readership at HuffPost, Slate and Salon would place the shoe salesman in a noose next to Julius Streicher. If you’re not spending your days agonizing over what’s allowed to amuse you—or forcing yourself to enjoy entertainment from oppressed demographics—non-personhood may be your future.

When an unelected 16-year-old gets to rain fire and brimstone at a rapt UN audience—we sinners are expected bow in grievous awe—and never think of corporal punishment. Children who read the riot act to billions of adults are too young to be questioned or ridiculed—it’s the latest in generational privilege. So, Greta Thunberg becomes the equal of Joan of Arc, immolated for taking a sailboat ride. It’d be hilarious if we were allowed to laugh.

Getting tickled by Whoopi Goldberg recommending Jill Biden for Surgeon General puts the accused in double jeopardy. Not a shred of evidence exists that anyone on The View is capable of discussing a serious subject. But to remain un-excommunicated you must maintain the opposite opinion out loud. And then call the First Lady “Doc” for an advanced teaching degree secured with a thesis as original as a Joe speech. In Jill’s defense, assembly line mass production in the education industry doesn’t leave her playing doctor alone. If the equality movement isn’t careful we’ll end up with more castes and lowly serfs than feudal Europe and India combined. The very book Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson, is frequently a complaint about underlings that don’t recognize the author’s high caste.

Suppose Jussie Smollett had been slick enough not to get caught? Only the saps would be safe—anyone shaking their head gets relegated to the KKK. Just trying to pin down the hokey details would amount to a second lynching. Nipping sensible questions in the bud is the most precious stratagem of rule by the intersectionalists. They’d have the ex-Empire actor in the martyr books with Blandina if the Osundairo brothers could have lived with the dishonor.

Taking people too big for their britches down a notch is among the top five reasons for staying alive. Some of the greatest at dishing it out have taken the axe, the noose and the flame for the sake of it. In the name of those martyrs we can never let the woker-than-thou off the hook. If they come for us at least we’ll die laughing.

The post Don’t Have a Holy Cow, Man! appeared first on LewRockwell.

“Liberal institutions straightway cease being liberal the moment they are soundly established: Once this is attained, no more grievous and more thorough enemies of freedom exist than liberal institutions.”

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2007). “Twilight of the Idols with the Antichrist and Ecce Homo”, p.71, Wordsworth Editions

What we face today, and what is coming in the near future is pure, unadulterated, totalitarian madness, and so long as the people of this country remain indifferent to this tyranny, it will worsen and escalate every single day until nothing of value remains.

It cannot be stressed enough that the end of America is just around the corner. The controlling scum in power seeks the end of this economy, the end of all freedom, the end of joy, the end of travel, the end of independent thought, the end of any realistic intellect, and the end of sanity. This is where we are headed, and only the masses that are in most respects to blame for this takeover, can stop it. That does not bode well for those of us willing to fight for our freedom, as we are now in the extreme minority. The risk to the actual freedom fighters is absolute, but without those willing to risk all for their freedom, little hope of a return to liberty is possible. All of us that will actively dissent, disobey all state orders, and call out the criminal government, are now targets of this heinous governing system, and every tactic necessary to eliminate resistance will be used against us. This is already beginning, as Biden declares “war” on domestic “terrorism.” Ex-CIA Director, John Brennan, said “Biden’s intel community are moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about the pro-Trump insurgency that harbors religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.”  All of these are according to Brennan, insurgents, and he and the so-called “intelligence community” seem to be salivating at the prospect of war against the American people. This is a dire threat to anyone that disagrees with or stands against the state.

Criminalizing opposition to the political class is so insanely dangerous to the people that it can only be described as a policy contrived by psychopathic and evil dictatorial monsters as a way to gain total control over society through force. This is not an exaggeration; as what is called “domestic terrorism” is being openly discussed, and new legislation is not only being considered, but is already being implemented in some states. Biden and some members of Congress are calling for new domestic terrorism legislation that would vastly expand the powers of the police state. This is atrocious, as it will of course be misused to stifle all forms of dissent, while labeling any that disagree with government as terrorists. This could of course lead to a complete censorship of all protest activity, as well as most all speech. The ramifications of such draconian policies are beyond reason, and could literally destroy our ability to peacefully fight back against extreme tyranny.  The danger of this could easily lead to more violence by not only the justified victims of state tyranny, but also massive violent abuse of the citizenry by government enforcement goons in the police and military. Lunacy does not begin to describe the treacherous nature of such authoritarian measures.

We are now on the verge of becoming a police state the likes of which have never before been seen or imagined by any American. ‘Secret police’ operating as agents for the state will be commissioned to quell any discontent, any disobedience, and any non-compliance as described by the political class in power.  The people themselves will be expected to monitor their friends, family, and neighbors, and report what will be labeled as any seditious behavior. This reality is nearly upon us. Attempts to control all thought and action are desired, so we will be told to carry state approved identification papers, we will be told when and where we may go, and we will be told what we are allowed to say or write. Additional severe mandates will be forthcoming, and more fines, force, and incarceration will be threatened and will be implemented as deemed necessary by the controlling few. As scary as it sounds, this country could easily look more like Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia in the near future than the United States of old. This is not some wild or fantastic ‘conspiracy theory;’ just look around at all the signs in front of you.

Most of you are already masked; many of you have been forced to abandon your businesses and jobs, you have been told to desert your loved ones, and many have been driven into poverty. Now you will be told you may not travel or get the necessities of life unless you obey orders to get injected with a poisonous, gene-altering, and deadly concoction mislabeled as a vaccine. Once injected, you will have an operating system inside your body that can allow outside control over you. The evil Fauci is even saying now that this bogus ‘vaccine’ may become mandatory. Most are already complying with every order given; orders that are restrictive, extremely harmful, and life-changing, so how much additional effort by this heinous government is necessary in order to turn this population into slaves of a fascist and communistic oligarchy?

How many are willing to resist instead of acting like sheep? How many will gain the courage to say no? How many will take the required risk that is essential in order to reclaim freedom? How many of you will stand up to those attempting to control you? How many will wait until there is absolutely nothing left before you question this corruption? How many of you will continue to do as you are told, regardless of the consequences to yourself, your families, and your friends?

We are living a nightmare. The only escape from this horror is to wake up. If the many continue to sleep and continue to practice mass obedience, those of us willing to fight back will be targeted by this horrific state. If the people willing to stand up against this tyranny are silenced, incarcerated, or exterminated, all hope will be lost, and this American society will no longer exist in its present form. But if large numbers refuse to comply, refuse to take orders, and refuse to allow this totalitarian takeover, then we all win. Division will destroy us, but solidarity will defeat the enemy that is the state. It is time to put great fear in the hearts and minds of any ruler, politician, or enforcer that would attempt to control or enslave us!

Source links:

https://www.technocracy.news/greenwald-warns-a-new-domestic-war-on-terror-is-coming/

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/after-capitol-riot-biden-backs-domestic-terror-law-it-s-ncna1254330

https://djhjmedia.com/kari/john-brennan-ids-the-enemy-trump-supporters-and-useful-idiots-who-helped-the-left/

https://medicalkidnap.com/2021/01/05/the-new-mrna-covid-vaccines-inject-an-operating-system-into-your-body-not-a-conspiracy-theory-moderna-admits-it/

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/01/joseph-mercola/fauci-now-says-covid-19-vaccine-may-become-mandatory/

The post Prepare for Extreme Tyranny appeared first on LewRockwell.

Shop all books by Pat Buchanan

“We have met the enemy and he is us,” said Walt Kelly’s cartoon character Pogo, half a century ago, about what we Americans were doing to our environment.

Rereading President Joe Biden’s inaugural address, Pogo’s remark comes to mind.

Biden began on a lofty, hopeful and familiar note:

“This is a great nation. We are a good people.”

He ended in the same vein: “So, with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasks of our time. Sustained by faith. Driven by conviction. And, devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts.”

Within the address itself, however, Biden recited what he believes to be the historic crimes of the nation and the sins of the soul that torment a considerable portion of our population.

Among the afflictions from which America suffers, said Biden, are “political extremism, white supremacy” and “domestic terrorism.”

How do we overcome these evils?

Said Biden, “Unity is the path.”

But how can good Americans unite with white supremacists and domestic terrorists? Ought we not separate ourselves and do battle with them? And who exactly are they?

Surely, among the enemy is the mob that invaded and trashed the Capitol on Jan. 6. But what of the hundreds of thousands who came out for Trump rallies? What of the 75 million who voted for Donald Trump?

Are all the deplorables outside the company of the saved? Are they, as Hillary Clinton once said of them, “irredeemable”?

“Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause,” said Biden, “the cause of democracy.”

The clear implication here is that a victory for Trump on Nov. 3, would have been a defeat for democracy. How unifying is that?

“Today, on this January day,” said Biden, “my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation. I ask every American to join me in this cause.”

He then enumerated the characteristics of our enemy: “Anger, resentment and hatred. Extremism, violence and lawlessness.”

Yet, on inauguration night, antifa mobs attacked the Democratic Party headquarters in Portland and torched American flags in Seattle, the same kind of left-wing mobs that gave us a long hot summer of rioting, looting and arson after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd.

Has Biden ever condemned by name these mobs the way he did the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6?

Biden went on to describe U.S. history as he sees it, as a long Manichaean struggle for the soul of America.

“The forces that divide us are deep and they are real. … Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the other harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart.”

But if our history has been an endless struggle against racism, nativism and demagoguery, and today’s struggle is against rampant anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, violence and lawlessness, as well as “white supremacists and domestic terrorists,” how can we credibly call ourselves a “great nation” and “good people”?

While Biden identifies the demonic character of the enemy, he does not name them. Who are they? How can we defeat them if the president will not identify them? And if they are evil and we are good, then why should we unite with them rather than ostracize and crush them?

In Joe’s depiction: “We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace only bitterness and fury.”

But is “fury” not a legitimate attribute of those fighting the hateful enemies Biden describes?

“Today in this time and place, let’s start afresh. All of us. Let’s begin to listen to one another again. Hear one another. See one another. Show respect for one another.”

This call to unity is followed by another call, to “reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

After this, Biden went off on a tear against mendacity.

“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit.”

All our leaders have a duty and responsibility “to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”

But who are the liars? And if we are to do battle against the liars, why did Biden declare a minute later: “We must end this uncivil war.”

It was said of Warren Harding’s inaugural address that it was “an army of pompous phrases marching across the landscape in search of an idea.”

Joe Biden’s inaugural was the most confusing, contradictory and incoherent ever delivered from the steps of the Capitol, reflective of the mind of its author and the state of the Union he now leads.

Good luck, Mr. President. You will need it, and so will we.

The post Biden’s America: Us Versus Them? appeared first on LewRockwell.

It’s over everyone, you can sleep easy again— the party of peace, tolerance, and reconciliation is back in power. Amen. And Awomen.

They claim they want to heal and unify the nation. But clearly the only way to do so is to create enemies lists and silence anyone with dissenting opinions.

For example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked, “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?”

Robert Reich, Labor Secretary under Clinton, and adviser to Obama, Tweeted, “When this nightmare is over, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission [to] name every official, politician, executive and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”

Chris Hayes, an MSNBC host agreed saying, “The most humane and reasonable way to deal with all these people, if we survive this, is some kind of truth and reconciliation commission.”

And Dick Costolo, the former CEO of Twitter, said, “Me-first capitalists … are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution. I’ll happily provide video commentary.”

Clearly social media companies like Twitter are a big part of the efforts to unify the nation.

Twitter deleted 70,000 accounts using the trespassing of the Capitol as an excuse.

Amazon Web Services removed the alternative social media site Parler from its servers, while Apple and Google deleted Parler from their app stores.

Facebook and Reddit joined the purge, feverishly removing content that they don’t want their users to see.

Stripe, PayPal, and Visa announced they would stop processing payments to certain politicians and non-profits guilty of thought crimes.

Yesterday I read in the completely fair and objective media that simply acknowleding this tech purge makes one a conspiracy theorist.

Axios news wrote a segment titled, Right wing’s new conspiracy: “The silencing”.

They went on to say that only crazy conspiracy theorists believe that there are efforts to silence conservative voices.

In other words, if you believe what you can see with your own eyes, you’re a conspiracy theorist.

Most recently, for example, Harvard has purged Congresswoman Elise Stefanik from its advisory board.

Stefanik’s crime? She publicly questioned voting irregularities in the 2020 election.

Now, some people may think that she’s a terrible person because of her beliefs. And in fairness it’s Harvard’s right to choose whoever they want for their board.

But now there’s a petition from the woke Harvard mob to revoke her degree, effectively erasing her existence from the institution.

They want to cancel her. Yet even merely acknolwedging that this is happening now makes you a conspiracy theorist according to the media.

The left’s cries of “de-fund the police” have turned to “fund the secret police,” as lawmakers reintroduce “domestic terror” bills to create new units under the

Department of Homeland Security to monitor American “extremism”.

But the #assassinatetrump and #killtrump hashtags that Twitter has allowed since 2016— that’s totally fine free speech!

During the summer BLM riots, looting Target stores and burning down police stations were acts of courage.

They even literally declared an independent autonomous zone and took over government buildings. Yet no one in the media ever used the words insurrection, sedition, or treason.

AOC praised these mostly peaceful protests and said the entire point of them is “to make people feel uncomfortable.”

But if you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable that 25,000 troops are in the nation’s capital, along with tanks and attack helicopters, then you’re a (you guessed it!) conspiracy theorist.

Remember, though, ignorance is strength, so we should probably just obey the experts.

Trust in Social Security to provide retirement. Trust the Federal Reserve to improve the economy. Trust the media to tell the truth. Trust that the tech companies will continue to allow your free speech.

Reprinted with permission from Sovereign Man.

The post Build Back Bitter appeared first on LewRockwell.

Now that the Democrats are in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, expect a more statist and authoritarian approach to most policy issues. Coronavirus response is a case in point. Under the Biden administration, all options are “on the table.”

That’s the message from Trump and Biden administration chief health scold Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Now the chief medical advisor to the president, Fauci told Newsweek: “Everything will be on the table for discussion” when the magazine asked him about the prospect of vaccination passports and mandatory vaccine administration.

He couched his response just a bit, noting that typically the federal government doesn’t do the dirty work of forcing health policies on people uniformly across all the states. “We almost never mandate things federally [with regards to health],” Fauci said, according to Newsweek.

Regarding vaccine passports, Newsweek noted that Israel has announced plans to issue a “green passport” based on vaccination against COVID that would enable a holder to skip quarantines and travel more freely.

Taking the form of a smartphone app, the Jerusalem Post described the friendly interface the “green passport” will offer.

“It looks like many other apps, with a colorful design and pictures,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “The home screen, in the demo version released on Monday, includes options for Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and Amharic. There will be a separate travel document in English for those traveling abroad and a chart released along with the demo says the app will be available in English as well, although the demo is not.”

It is not uncommon for state propaganda to feature and/or target children and family ties to children. That’s a strategy adopted by the app as well.

“The colorful design features a drawing of a child holding what looks like a container of popcorn facing two adults on a couch, presumably his parents. The message on the home screen says that the app will tell you if there is any risk to you nearby,” said the Jerusalem Post

It’s a friendly app, not one that represents a government claiming that it owns the rights to regulate minutely the fundamental aspects of your very life.

The reality, though, is that the friendly front the app presents to “users” hides the sharp teeth of government just behind the LCD curtain.

Read the Whole Article

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Interview with Martin A. Armstrong, founder AE Global Solutions Inc.

As we stand at the beginning of the new year, there’s a lot of hope by investors, business owners, citizens, all of us, that 2021 will be better than its predecessor. We all wish for an end to the pandemic, a return to normalcy, to social interactions and to productive life. However, as we all know, “wishing doesn’t make it so”, and being prepared for the risks and challenges ahead is a far more effective strategy than being willfully blind to them and hoping they’ll just magically go away.

In my efforts to identify those risks and figure out what a responsible investor can do about them, I asked Martin Armstrong, one of the most famous economic forecasters alive, to share his own views and outlook. It’s hard to overstate the quality and value of his insights. His record speaks for itself, as his analyses and forecasts have been proven accurate again and again.

With over 40 years of experience in monitoring and forecasting market behavior and a deep understanding of monetary history, Martin has developed numerous proprietary models that identify market patterns, the most famous of which is his Economic Confidence Model. He predicted the 1987 Black Monday crash to the day, the 1989 Japanese stock market collapse, as well as the Russian financial crash in 1998.

His latest book, “The Cycle of War & the Coronavirus”, is a comprehensive, global review of the cycle of war and civil unrest throughout history that is especially relevant today.

——-

Claudio Grass (CG): 2020 was a year that will likely find a special place in future history books, as we saw a lot of things happen for the first time, at least in our lifetimes. Do you see all these gigantic shifts and this entire COVID crisis as being indeed unprecedented, or can you identify parallels or similar crises from the past that we might perhaps learn from?

Martin Armstrong (MA): This is the beginning of political unrest similar to 1912, when the progressive movement resulted in the Republican Party splitting. Never before has government deliberately used a disease for political gain. Historically, you quarantined only those who were sick, not the entire nation. Evidence is abundant that the lockdowns have not reduced infections. New York suffered nearly 20% more deaths than Florida, which was not locked down in a draconian manner.

CG: When we look at the extent and the depth of the damage caused the lockdowns and the shutdowns, it’s really hard to see the bold recovery in 2021 that world leaders and institutions seem to be already celebrating. Unemployment levels, productivity metrics, bankruptcies, all paint the opposite picture. What is your outlook for the coming months and years? Can we really recover all this lost ground so swiftly? 

MA: No, this has been the peak in the Western economy, which is deliberately being crashed for the sake of what they are calling “build back better”, to support the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset,” which is their agenda for 2030. They believe that they can retrain people to adapt to a “green economy”. This took place during the Great Depression, as the economy moved from 40% agrarian to manufacturing. That resulted in 25% unemployment that was only reduced by going to WWII. I don’t believe that we will be able to recover fully until after 2037. You cannot rebuild an economy by changing the entire system in less than 26 years. Additionally, the elimination of fossil fuels is unrealistic. We lack the power grids, and even military jets could not be converted to electricity.

CG: One of the most striking measures that most governments took during this crisis was the extraordinary fiscal firepower they deployed to “support the economy”. From checks to citizens to “gift loans” to businesses, it was a kind of blind and indiscriminate spending that we haven’t seen before. Do you see an inflationary risk on the horizon and are there also other dangers that might result from these policies, politically or socially?

MA: The first impact is deflation. Increasing the money supply will not by itself create inflation unless the people spend the money. Because people fear the future, they are in a savings mode. This will shift and create inflation when the confidence in government collapses. That is when the shift to tangible assets historically takes place. Politically, we have moved from a democracy to socialism, which is now beginning to collapse because excessively low interest rates undermined pension funds and social programs.

The result of this returns to authoritarianism, as we are witnessing, with lockdowns designed more to prevent civil unrest. Socially, this increases the risk of war just as the excessive reparation payments upon Germany following WWI which harmed the German individual led to political change in 1933. Therefore, the social risk of civil unrest increases with economic declines. It is the economy which produces peace as long as everyone benefits, it is not nuclear arsenals. China, Japan, and Germany all benefitted from producing goods to sell to the American consumer that produced jobs in their homelands and the prosperity reduced the risk of war.

CG: Before this crisis, many conservative investors and observers were criticizing and often ridiculing the tenets of Modern Monetary Theory. We all saw the idea that “deficits don’t matter” as childish and simply untenable, and yet today it would appear to be the mainstream policy direction. For how long can this “print, borrow, spend, repeat” strategy hold?

MA: The Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) arose because of Quantitative Easing, which has prevailed since 2008, yet has failed to produce serious inflation or stimulate the economy. This was exacerbated by negative interest rates since 2014, causing people to invest in equities for returns unavailable in banks or bonds. People were unwilling to borrow and expand businesses while taxes were rising, and the future was uncertain. The capital formation that relied upon reasonable returns of interest was undermined and shifted into capital investment. The policies of central banks lowering rates were not passed on by the banks to the consumer.

Therefore, the illusion of MMT has only exposed the fallacy of Keynesian economics that government can manipulate the economy by affecting the demand of consumers. People will pay 20% interest if they think they will double their money next year. But they will not pay 1% interest if they do not believe they can make 1% next year. So it is a question of confidence, not the empirical rate of interest. This policy of MMT is coming to an end here in 2021.

CG: At the beginning of the COVID crisis, the ease with which the global economy, international trade and travel were shut down was shocking to many citizens and business owners, but it is arguably even more disturbing to see these policies prolonged, in an “on and off” mode for all these months. Can we expect to see a reversal of these restrictions and a full reinstatement of all these rights that have been curbed or suspended due to the pandemic, or have we simply entered a “new normal”?

MA: We have entered a “new normal”, because these lockdowns and restrictions are being imposed for economic reasons. The 1969 Hong Kong flu killed four times the number of people compared to COVID. Yet, there were no lockdowns, and the concert festival known as Woodstock took place in the middle of that pandemic. This is being driven to address what they call a climate crisis with the object of preventing people from commuting to work, travel for tourism, and to shift from fossil fuels to clean energy. This is why we are seeing the imposition of COVID vaccine certificates to be able even to travel. Those who resist the vaccine are deemed non-conformists and singled out much as the case was under Stalin in Russia.

CG: Looking at the US, this last year was exceptionally hard for the nation, with riots and widespread political frictions and unrest. The election was heated, contested and very bitter, but do you think the change of guard will serve to pacify those tensions, as mainstream analysts and pundits predicted? 

MA: No way. Many now see this as racism. During the Black Lives Movement, the police were told to stand down, whereas Trump supporters are discriminated against. This is being reported as a rise in white supremacy even in the military. There is a wrong assumption that impeaching Trump will simply lead to disbanding his supporters. What is not being looked at closely is that Trump was simply there at the right time. His supporters have been a long growing populist uprising against career politicians. This stretches back long before Trump, through Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Huey Long, William Jennings Bryan, and Andrew Jackson. So, it is unlikely that the removal of Trump will result in quieting this resentment. If anything, it will only confirm their convictions.

CG: During this whole ordeal, we’ve witnessed serious attempts by governments and international organizations to expand their reach and to further centralize power. But we also saw an opposing force, by private businesses and individuals who saw an opportunity for decentralization, with the most obvious example being the mass exodus from many urban centers and a significant increase of people deciding to try and start their own small business. Which force do you think is more likely to prevail? 

MA: Historically, the centralization of power always fails. When the Russian Revolution took place, they seized all private assets, including farms. The decisions of when to plant crops then became bureaucratic, which resulted in catastrophic crop failures. Stalin then stole the food from Ukraine, killing 7 million people in the process. Throughout history, centralized planning always fails. The movement to the suburbs took place in ancient Rome from which we derive even the term from “suburbium” as the population declined from 1 million to 15 thousand.

CG: For conservative investors that are focused on protecting and preserving their wealth, the current market conditions appear to be very challenging. How can one still invest soundly, with a long-term view, in an environment where markets are roaring to new highs just as the real economy crumbles to new lows? 

MA: The shift into equities has been the shift in confidence from government to private. From a long-term perspective, the tangible assets survive such transitions, from real estate, art, and collectibles to precious metals. They tend to make the transition in these shifts from public to private.

CG: On this topic of protection and “insurance” for investors, what is your outlook on real assets and on physical precious metals in the months and years to come?

MA: The problem with gold has been government regulation and their war against private assets. Before, one could travel with a briefcase full of gold, but that is no longer possible. So, the mobility of tangible assets has been largely circumvented. The mobility of other tangible assets, such as equities, will eventually be targeted in the transition toward digital currencies.

CG: Overall, what would be your advice to investors, savers and ordinary citizens in navigating these uncertain times? Is the worst behind us and we should focus on rebuilding and recovering? Or is it yet to come and we should brace for impact? 

MA: We should be bracing for impact, because the abuse of governments in this attempt to redesign the world economy with “Build Back Better” will lead to serious disruptions economically. We will see a decline in economic growth and a rise in civil unrest globally, which in some countries will lead to revolution and the increasing risk of a world war after 2024.

Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland

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There is a new, and particularly nefarious money-making scheme that is described below. It is based on the wide-spread – FALSE – assumption that the new, fast-tracked Covid-19 vaccines (or any vaccine, for that matter) are effective in both preventing 1) getting infected with the intended virus and also 2) becoming contagious after getting inoculated!! Neither outcome is true. All of the new vaccines are likely useless on both counts.

In fact, none of the Big Vaccine corporations that are making these potentially dangerous, synthetic genome-modifying vaccines have actually made the claim that their vaccines are effective in preventing infection or contagion, even after getting the required two inoculations – much less the initial shot!

The only claim these billionaire-owned pharmaceutical corporations (most of all of which are members of the World Economic Forum) make is that a certain percentage of vaccinated individuals are capable of developing some uncertain level of serological immunity (ie antibody production). But it is well-known that intramuscular injection of vaccines are incapable of stimulating cellular/mucosal immunity, which is the other, unmentioned by industry, but most important part of human immunity. Cellular immunity is only possible with sufficient exposure to a natural infectious agent via inhalation of a sizable number of viral- or bacterial-infected droplets,

It also must be emphasized that true “herd immunity” cannot be achieved by vaccinations. Herd immunity to infectious respiratory diseases can only be achieved by natural exposure to infectious bacterial or viral agents. Intramuscular vaccinations cannot produce both serological/antibody immunity and cellular/mucosal immunity. Claims by those corporate-controlled entities (such as the WHO, the CDC, the NIAID, the FDA, the AMA, the AAP, the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, the Mayo Clinic [a WEF partner], etc) that claim that vaccine-achievable herd immunity can be achieved through vaccination campaigns – are liars, dupes or vaccinology-illiterate – or all three.)

Interestingly, the vaccine corporations or the government pharma-co-opted bureaucrats involved in pushing the BIG LIE about vaccine usefulness do not actually make any statements about whether or not these vaccines are capable of developing even partial immunity to any of the common coronavirus mutations that have been found (and then conveniently used as propaganda tools to keep the level of fear about Covid-19 at panic levels).

Shame on the Mayo Clinic for trusting the untrustworthy, profiteering establishment entities of Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Media, entities that are telling the Big Lie of “95% (ie, ‘relative’) effectiveness” rates for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines rather that scientifically looking at the only reliable measure of vaccine efficacy: the “actual” or “absolute” effectiveness rate, which is actually 0.8% for both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, neither one of which has yet been proven to be safe or effective long-term.

Sadly, the once medical science-based Mayo Clinic has seemingly joined forces with the Big Pharma-co-opted entities that are connected to the World Economic Forum’s virology-illiterate Bill Gates. The WEF-involvement of so many of America’s profit-oriented medical trade associations, clinics or hospitals – has revealed its blindness and/or ignorance about vaccinology. These revelations, if true, should provoke serious concern about Mayo’s ineptitude or its willingness to reject traditional medical ethical principles about fully informed consent or its commitment to the Hippocratic Oath.

Read the following article to decide for yourself if people who are vaccine-hesitant should concerned about the Covid Passport plan.

Microsoft, Big Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller-Funded COVID Passports

The post A Warning for the Vaccine-Hesitant appeared first on LewRockwell.

Simone Gold, M.D., J.D., founder of the advocacy group America’s Frontline Doctors, was arrested on Sunday for having entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed. The DOJ added that she was “released on conditions” and has a virtual hearing scheduled for Thursday.

America’s Frontline Doctors is a group of medical professionals who work to promote early COVID-19 therapies and to expose the influence of pharmaceutical companies on treatment protocol for the coronavirus.

Federal agents arrested Gold in California days after she publicly admitted that she had followed other protesters into the Capitol building two weeks ago, as Congress was scheduled to certify the 2020 presidential election. Officials also arrested John Strand, the communications director for America’s Frontline Doctors, who had joined Gold at the Capitol.

“I can certainly speak to the place that I was, and it most emphatically was not a riot,” Gold told the Washington Post in an interview on January 12.

She noted that she had traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak at a “Rally for Health Freedom” on the east side of the Capitol. “Where I was was incredibly peaceful,” Gold said, adding that she thought protesters were legally entering the Capitol building.

Widely viewed footage from the Capitol on January 6 shows police removing barricades for protesters and standing by as they wander through the building. The DOJ has stated that there is no direct evidence that protesters intended to kill or capture lawmakers.

Photos and video cited in the affidavit supporting Gold’s arrest warrant appear to show her walking through the doors of the Capitol building amid a crowd of protesters and giving a speech in Statutory Hall. While Gold was charged with “violent entry and disorderly conduct,” the affidavit never claims that Gold or Strand acted violently.

Read the Whole Article

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I wouldn’t trade tomorrow for today

–          Headlong Flight, Rush

Anyone familiar with the writing of Neil Peart, the lyricist for Rush, will understand the context of these words: Christians are so messed up, willing to sacrifice in this life for the promise of something more and better in the future – the promise of eternal life.  (In order to properly rhyme, he had to end with “today,” so the wording might seem a bit awkward.)

For Peart, this life was all there is.  I don’t know if he changed his views in his last years, knowing he would soon die of terminal cancer (which happened about one year ago).  I hope he is resting in peace.

This view tells us: There is no evidence of a future, eternal life; all there is we see around us.  Live each day to the full; eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die; he who dies with the most toys wins.  Don’t sacrifice today for some unknown tomorrow.

“Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life…”

–          Ludwig Feuerbach, Lectures on the Essence of Religion

Christians are mocked for (supposedly) trading for tomorrow (eternal life) in exchange for giving up today (pleasure as I desire it, here on earth).

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Is it living, or just existence?

–          The Enemy Within (Part I of Fear), Rush

We have spent the last ten months depriving ourselves of temporal life in exchange, not for eternal life, but for (maybe, or maybe not) adding some days to our future life.  In other words, society has accepted a cheap, bastardized version of Feuerbach’s caricature of Christian longing for heaven.

We have given up 300 days.  Will we get those days back in the future?  Who among us will live 300 days longer because of this?  What have we gained for this sacrifice?  Something close to 100% of the people under 70 years old will never get any of these days back, because virtually none of those under 70 were at risk of losing life solely due to this bug, this corona.

Don’t kill grandma, we are told.  What has she gained?  She is scared to death, shut in her home, not seeing children and grandchildren, not visiting friends, not going shopping, not going to church.  She is stuck watching the television, telling her to be scared to death; she is stuck listening to her children, telling her why her life will be better if she doesn’t see anyone – if she lives her last days alone.

Will grandma have 300 days added to her life because of this?  No one knows, no one can answer this question.  The only certainty is that 300 days of life are now gone – permanently, never to be returned.  Is this how we want grandma to live her last days, to hold as her last (or everlasting) memory?

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Jonathan Pageau just put out a video, The Blindness of “Following the Science.”  It’s not long, just thirteen minutes.  But if you are looking for him to counter the science with science (for example, science demonstrates that masks for the general population are ineffective and may even be harmful to health), you will not find satisfaction.

We cannot just “follow the science.”  Science is always geared toward some end, but it cannot tell us the end toward which we should aim.  If we want to create weapons to destroy the world, that would have us follow the science toward that end.  If we want to make energy use more efficient, that would have us follow science toward that end.  You get the idea.

What “end” is the science of corona geared toward.  For every scientific “fact” one side presents about the need for lockdowns, the other side has scientific “facts” as to why this strategy is futile.  Well, it may be futile, it may not be, because this still doesn’t answer the question: toward what ends?

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With an iron fist in a velvet glove

We are sheltered under the gun

–          The Weapon (Part II of Fear), Rush

The “science” we are told to follow is, at minimum, geared toward throwing away days of life today for the possibility of gaining more days in the future.  We can speculate about many other things: controlling the serfs, the depopulation of the planet, trillions of dollars to the financial system (well, this last one isn’t really speculative; it happened, and it was likely the initial purpose).

Reasoned as these might be, it is speculation.  The one thing we know with certainty is that the science of corona is geared toward trading today for tomorrow; it is geared toward trading current temporal life – not for eternal life, but for a possible (but far from certain) future temporal life.  Give up a certain number of days now, and you may or may not get some unknown number of days in the future.  Is this a worthwhile trade?

When Christians offer their eternal version of this trade (yes, I know it is a caricature), it is labeled as nonsensical.  But when “follow the science” offers us this temporal trade, it is deemed righteous.

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Science cannot tell us of ends.  Philosophers can.  Christian theologians can.  The vast majority of both are failing at this today.  Most have accepted this trade: give up your life today (300 days and counting), and an almost insignificant number of us might get a few of these days back in the future.

Of course, those of us most likely to delay death by avoiding the corona (the elderly) are most vulnerable to the cost of being left alone.  The reality is, by scaring grandma into giving up those days today, we are also making it far more likely that we are reducing, not increasing, the number of days in her future.

If the only meaning of life is to avoid death, well… Dying from loneliness, from not seeing family and friends, from not seeing the doctor…is just the same as dying from the corona.  It’s just dying.

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We have come full circle, but ended up in a much worse place.  We used to believe that there was a future after death, and this future was something worth striving for, something for which we would sacrifice.  This future was eternal.

No longer.  We sacrifice our days today, but for something far less valuable – and for most of us, something that is non-existent: the possibility of getting these days back later.

We have given up meaning in life by throwing away the ends for which we are designed.  We have given up meaning for the sake of the materialism (or physicalism) of science that we have lived under for the last few centuries.  No longer do we aim for happiness (better understood as fulfillment through other-regarding action, or beatitudo).

The last 300 days have shown us where this materialist path leads: the only meaning in life is to avoid death.  It is the road where the materialism of science (and Marx and Darwin) leads…inevitably.  There is no meaning in life other than to avoid death.  But we all die.  Hence, there is no meaning in life.

Is it any wonder that western man suffers a meaning crisis?

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Mostly I think about grandma.  I sure hope that if we are ever faced with such choices again in the future, my children don’t treat me this way.

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Modifying the quote from Feuerbach, above:

The science (or Fauci, Gates, Marx, Darwin, whatever) set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man he can avoid death, it deprived him of life…

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The righteous rise

With burning eyes

Of hatred and ill-will

Madmen fed on fear and lies

To beat, and burn, and kill

–          Witch Hunt (Part III of Fear), Rush

Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.

The post Trading Today for (Maybe) Tomorrow appeared first on LewRockwell.

As my readers know, I’ve spent the last year refuting every so-called COVID fact promoted by public health officials—including the false notion that SARS-CoV-2 has been proven to exist.

In this article, I’m simply showing that devotees of the Cult of COVID are contradicting their own assumptions. For purposes of argument only, we’ll assume the virus exists, spreads rapidly, and causes illness.

If so, lockdowns don’t work.

This is shown by reports from almost every nation in the world. The longer the lockdowns, the greater the number of COVID cases.

The virus is unstoppable. It travels to all corners of the globe at lightning speed.

Conclusion? The only way to achieve herd immunity is to have the whole population of the planet live and work out in the open, fight through the pandemic, and eventually win.

That’s the inference to draw, once you accept the mainstream view of the virus and the pandemic.

But of course, opening up the world is not the conclusion of the experts or the political leaders. They take the opposite view: more lockdowns.

They’re acting against their own “science.”

Why?

Obviously, because they want to imprison populations, destroy lives and economies. Or, at the very least, they’re going along with the people who want to.

What about the vaccine as a method of inducing herd immunity? We’re already hearing about a second mutated strain of the COVID virus. If there are two strains, there will certainly be more. Many more. This sets up an analog to the flu vaccine: a new version every year, with the hope of predicting the latest mutation.

How is that working for the flu? Is it producing anything faintly resembling herd immunity? Far from it. Public health agencies report a BILLION cases of the flu each and every year, worldwide. Could the protective effects of the vaccine be any weaker?

Note: Has anyone recommended locking down the planet because of the flu? Of course not. A billion cases a year are just “what we have to live with.”

Why not adopt the same strategy for COVID?

Public officials should be demanding an end to lockdowns.

Dr. Scott Atlas, former White House coronavirus advisor: “We know the lockdowns don’t work, they do not eliminate the virus, we see it all over the world. We have 80% of people in the US wearing masks, we have all these various levels of restrictions on businesses, on in-person schools, and the virus is not eliminated by that.”

Researchers Sunetra Gupta (Oxford University), Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford University), Martin Kildorff (Harvard): “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.”

Dr. John Ioannidis, professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Population Health, and of Biomedical Data Science, and Statistics at Stanford University, responding to a question about laying on lockdowns in Greece: “It would be a devastating mistake to do so and it will run the risk of severely damaging and crippling the country.”

The Lancet, July 21, 2020: “…government actions such as border closures, full lockdowns, and a high rate of COVID-19 testing were not associated with statistically significant reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality,”

2006 paper in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, “Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza” by Thomas V. Inglesby, Jennifer B. Nuzzo, Tara O’Toole, and D.A. Henderson. The authors conclude: “There are no historical observations or scientific studies that support the confinement by quarantine of groups of possibly infected people for extended periods in order to slow the spread of influenza.”

This is a just a sprinkling of mainstream references from a much larger trove, indicating that lockdowns are harmful and don’t work.

Well, they work when a police state is the goal.

The conventional mainstream scientific view of the virus and its ability to spread inevitably leads to the conclusion: stopping it through lockdowns is like trying to keep water out of a forest.

“Well, if we build a canopy above all the trees, if we wrap each tree in layers of plastic, if we install underground suction pumps every six feet, if we spray chemicals in the sky to disperse cloud formation, if we drain every brook and stream, if we build dams in the mountains to keep the melting snow contained…we’ll still fail.”

Reprinted with permission from Jon Rappoport’s blog.

The post Lockdown Extremism: An Obsession for the Insane and the Fascists appeared first on LewRockwell.

Although the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus in the UK are higher than they’ve ever been, in total, not many more people are dying than in any other cold season. Is the mainstream media finally waking up to this?

A recent article in the Telegraph is one of the first in a mainstream outlet to even suggest a challenge to the official coronavirus narrative. These days, that narrative claims that the ‘second wave’ is actually deadlier than the first. (Recently, some Branch Covidians have been claiming a ‘third wave’, but there is not yet a united front on that.)

The basic reasoning of the article is sound, even if it is long overdue. It laments how every day, the media solemnly reports the latest figures on Covid deaths. Presenting this figure in isolation results in graphs such as this one, which does indeed seem to show that we are at the height of a second, worse phase of a pandemic. But, like any statistics, daily death numbers are meaningless without context, which the media rarely provides.

They do not provide context because, if they did, the public might see a graph such as this one, from the Telegraph article. It quite clearly shows the spring spike in overall mortality, which was caused by Covid (plus lockdowns). After that ends in summer, we see… nothing. Overall mortality ever since, even through this winter, hovers at around the five-year average. And overall mortality, as I’ve repeatedly pointed out, is the only true way to know whether you are in a pandemic or not – all other figures can easily be fiddled.

Out of whack

So, why are the excess death data and the Covid deaths data so out of whack? And why isn’t Covid killing lots and lots of people this winter, as it did in spring? Even if you ascribe all excess deaths to Covid and none to lockdown, there really does not seem to be anything out of the normal variation in total deaths from year to year. And surely, by now, the toll of unnecessary deaths caused by untreated cancer, heart disease, depression and so on, has at least begun to register.

One reason coronavirus might not be slaying all around it this winter is because, well, this is not its first winter. Remember: it is called Covid-19, as in 2019. Of course, the official version of history states that the virus never reached Western civilisation until the spring of 2020, but evidence for this assertion is based on dodgy polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and a profound rejection of common sense. (By the way, how many people do you know who had a severe bout of pneumonia-like symptoms last winter?)

But the main reason for the disparity is obvious: mass PCR testing. Under the current regime (science is the wrong word), a ‘Covid death’ is someone who dies having tested positive for Covid within the previous 28 days. When you test all hospital patients, as the UK does, then some of them will turn out to be positive – how many depends largely on the way you do the tests. And the more tests you do, the more ‘Covid deaths’ you will generate. It is that simple. Dr Mike Yeadon has written extensively on this, which he calls the PCR false positive pseudo-epidemic.

Too little, too late

In another time, it might have been shocking that it took so long for the science editor of a broadsheet newspaper to wonder why, in the midst of a killer pandemic the world’s not seen for a century or so, the number of people dying in the country is ordinary. Better late than never I suppose, but do not take this as a sign that the reinforcements are coming. Even this article makes absolutely certain to pledge allegiance to Covid orthodoxy, stating without evidence that “severe restrictions were … clearly essential to control the growing pandemic’’.

Most people do not get their information by sifting through government-issued statistics on websites designed to hinder you. But there used to be a word for someone who got paid to do exactly that and then tell the public, in plain English, what they found. Oh, that’s right – we used to call those people ‘journalists’. There don’t seem to be many of them about these days, not even at the Telegraph.

Reprinted with permission from RT News.

The post Halfway Through This Winter of Covid, Overall Mortality Is Around Normal For This Time Of Year. Something Doesn’t Add Up appeared first on LewRockwell.

Why can’t liberals ever just let Trump hang himself? Isn’t what he’s actually done bad enough? No, the media always have to punch up the story, layering lie upon lie, until normal people are forced to say, I don’t want to defend the guy, but that didn’t happen.

This was the whole point of my book Resistance Is Futile, written at the outset of the Trump administration:

“[M]y advice to the Resistance is: Get Trump on the worst thing he’s actually done, and stop running off with Wouldn’t it be great if he raped and murdered a nun? You’re right: If Trump had done that, he would be finished, done, put a fork in him. Unfortunately, he hasn’t committed that particular crime.”

Even after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, the media felt the need to pile up the false accusations.

Their first order of business was to turn it into a story about race.

The Trump riot has as little to do with race as any story in 21st-century America. COVID, immigration, tax cuts, the stimulus — I could come up with a racial angle for any of those.

Your assignment: Make the siege at the Capitol a story primarily about race relations.

You, a normal person, one week later: I’m stumped.

But to our media, the main point to be made about the riot was: Can you imagine what would have happened if black people had done that?

An unarmed Trump supporter crawling through a window at the Capitol was shot dead. Please name the black protester killed by the police throughout 2020’s incessant BLM riots, lootings and arsons. He’d already be on a postage stamp.

During the 2015 BLM riots in Baltimore after a heroin dealer, Freddie Gray, died in the back of a police van, the mayor announced that she was giving “those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”

Read the Whole Article

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