GOV/MIL Main "Great Reset" Thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment

JUST IN: Biden Tells Social Media Platforms to Crack Down on Free Speech

starnes10-336x189.jpg
Todd Starnes |
Jan 13, 2022

Video .38 min

President Biden called on social media companies to crack down on what he called China Virus misinformation.

“I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets — please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows. It has to stop,” the president told the nation.

In other words the president wants Big Tech and the Drive-by Media to censor any opinion that is contrary to the preaching of Anthony Fauci, the Patron Saint of Wuhan.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Great Reset Psychopaths Waging War on Us

by Seth Hancock
January 13, 2022

Great Reset, Robert Malone, Ron Paul, Sonia Sotomayor, World Economic Forum,

Charlotte, NC — “These people are the top threats to any given civilization. They are moderators of chaos and they actively conspire to supplant free society. They are what I would call primary organized psychopaths and they do indeed work together for mutual gain, much like a pack of wolves. They represent the 1% of the 1% (i.e. the globalists),” wrote Brandon Smith.

Indeed, the world is run by psychopaths who have wielded enormous powers for decades.

No group represents this more than the globalist puppet masters at the World Economic Forum (WEF). This is the group behind the Great Reset which in their own words view the authoritarian controls they’ve promoted on the public, pacified by fear of a virus, as “a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery.”

The WEF is there to “offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons.”

The arrogance seeps through from such a statement. They are open and obvious that they believe a small group of elites get to shape our futures. It’s disgusting and vile, but they really are that narcissistic.

Dr. Robert Malone has woken up to this reality. He recently said he thought it was “crazy talk” what he was hearing about the Great Reset and the WEF, but now he thinks these elites are waging all-out war on us because it’s all out in the open.

“This is full-on media warfare, information warfare, political warfare, 21st century, like we’ve never seen before, and coordinated globally,” Malone said in a recent interview. “The other thing for me has been the personal journey of coming to terms with what the World Economic Forum really represents, and I really resisted that.”

Malone added: “Here it is — they’re proud of it. They don’t hide it. This is the vision. It is a full-on globalist totalitarian vision with the money in control.”

The COVID Blog detailed some of the recent advances in the Great Reset. It points out the WEF vision that nobody will own anything by 2030, and they’ll be happy with it. Meat will only be an “occasional treat.” And the authoritarianism has given these already massively wealthy nutjobs even more wealth to force their vision on us.

Elon Musk saw an unconscionable rise in wealth from $27 billion in 2019 to $320 billion. Jeff Bezos’ wealth, during the same timeframe, has risen from $115 billion to $201 billion. Bill Gates has amassed the largest share of American farmland.

And all of that comes as you and I were called nonessential. We should just accept a government check and be happy, so says the elites.

Meanwhile, there’s a propaganda campaign to demonize red meat while promoting eating bugs.

“Supply chain issues and food shortages are worsening by the day,” The COVID Blog writes.

“Thus, it makes sense that mainstream media have launched their eat bugs and cancerous meat campaigns simultaneously.”

The United Kingdom is moving to end car ownership, something that’s been in the works for a long time here in America as Eric Peters detailed in 2019.

“The powers-that-be are not even pretending that government institutions, including mainstream media, are legitimate anymore,” The COVID Blog states. “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor led that clown show last week. She spewed flat-out lies and pro-pharma propaganda instead of weighing real evidence in the most important court case of the 21st century.”

How do we defeat this?

Dr. Ron Paul says “We Need a Revolution,” and he’s right. He notes that there’s a rise in acceptance among Americans for violence against the state. Americans have justifiable grievances with their government, but as Paul notes, the revolution needs to be one of ideas, not violence.

“A free and peaceful society cannot be brought about by a violent revolution,” Paul wrote. “Instead, it must occur via peaceful conversation of a critical mass of citizens. When that critical mass is reached, even many authoritarian politicians will endorse liberty and limited government out of fear of losing reelection if they do not. Therefore, the best thing those of us who know the truth can do to restore a free society is to convert as many people as possible to the movement for liberty, peace, and prosperity.”

And what that takes is just courage to speak the truth, unwavering and undeterred. When you see the truth, speak it unafraid of the consequences. That’s the only way to win this war that they started.

“Never relent, never keep quiet, and always speak against the state and its false narratives,” wrote Gary Barnett. “Never sit idle in the face of tyranny, and never allow apathy to invade your psyche. Do not quit writing, making podcasts and videos, and spreading all factual information so that others, even those with closed minds, have at least the opportunity to see the light. The truth is our salvation, so the more of us exposing the lies, the more of us with the courage to speak out, the more of us willing to disobey orders and mandates; the more chance that others may follow suit.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

China Reveals AI News Anchor, Almost Indistinguishable From Real Human

FRIDAY, JAN 14, 2022 - 09:00 PM
By Shawn Lin of The Epoch Times,

“Hello everyone, I am the artificial intelligence news anchor on National Business Daily. I am the virtual twin of the original host. I have been running—reporting the news—undetected for 70 days now,” the AI news anchor N Xiaohei revealed itself to its television viewers on Dec. 20, 2021, after 1700 hours of a continuous live news broadcast.

(
R) A screenshot image of the real-life news anchor on the “N Xiaohei Finance” program (L) N Xiaohei’s AI-rendered virtual twin in a blue background.


On the same day, the Chinese state-controlled media National Business Daily (NBD) and the AI company Xiaoice jointly announced the official launch of their collaborative live news broadcasting TV programs run entirely by AI—the first of its kind.

The TV program is named “AI Business Daily.” It will broadcast financial news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, hosted by two AI news anchors—named N Xiaohei and N Xiaobai—technically supported by Xiaoice.

N Xiaohei and N Xiaobai are virtual replicas of two real-life news anchors—a man and a woman. The Xiaoice Framework uses data collected from the two real-life anchors to train its AI models. Meanwhile, Xiaoice Neural Rendering (XNR) technology makes the virtual humans’ facial expressions and body movements look real and natural.

AI anchors have appeared in China’s TV programs in the past, but they could be identified immediately back then. Since the test launch of AI Business Daily on Oct. 11, 2021, N Xiaohei’s Douyin account—the Chinese version of TikTok—has accumulated over 3 million fans despite the real person not appearing on air for 70 days. Xiaoice, in collaboration with NBD, has demonstrated its ability to develop virtual replicas that are almost indistinguishable from real humans through advanced AI learning and rendering technologies, according to the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.

According to the report, Xiaoice Framework’s small-sample learning technology allowed the two virtual humans to complete their training cycle in one week. Chinese business commentator Zeng Xiangling said that long training cycles were needed to train AIs in the past, whereas short training cycles significantly reduce the high cost of developing AIs.

Not only that, the Xiaoice Framework’s technical driver makes the end-to-end automation on AI possible, enabling the AI to collect, edit, and broadcast financial news all by itself. From reading financial information, generating text and graphs, and synchronizing with the pre-trained virtual anchor, the AI could broadcast a complete live video on the network without any human assistance.

“The era of an unwearied, safe, and reliable AI Being has arrived,” Xiaoice CEO Li Di said. “It is going to provide a steady news output.”

According to an NBD report, AI news anchors are modeled using deep learning neural network technology, enabling them to broadcast in Mandarin, English, and other languages. The advanced AI technology is now being used to upgrade and transform the Chinese media industry as well as its film industry. Since the success of the AI Business Daily program, each NBD news channel will now also fully collaborate with Xiaoice to create AI TV programs.

Xiaoice, or “Microsoft Little Ice,” is an AI system developed by Microsoft Asia in 2014. The company was formerly known as the AI Xiaoice Team of Microsoft Software Technology Center Asia. It is Microsoft’s biggest independent AI R&D team. In July 2020, Microsoft spun off its Xiaoice business into a separate company, allowing it to operate as an independent entity in China and other Asian countries. The Xiaoice Framework is one of the world’s complete artificial intelligence frameworks with the largest AI interactions globally.

Xiaoice CEO Li Di said in October 2021 that a large number of AI subjects were created in the past two years, and the number will rapidly expand. Li expects AIs to eventually outnumber the human population while incorporating diversity and individual customization.

On Oct. 20, 2021, the ninth day after NBD’s AI TV test launch, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, released the section of the “14th Five-Year Plan” detailing its strategy for news broadcasting and audiovisual networks. The plan proposes to strengthen AI applications in its news production and broadcasting, such as promoting the widespread use of virtual anchors in TV programs and improving news production and broadcasting efficiency using AIs.

AI Risks
Artificial intelligence does not need to eat or sleep, nor does it get sick or need overtime pay, and now it can actively generate news content. However, many are also very concerned about the rapid development of AI.

Mr. Wang, a 20-year IT industry expert in Japan, told The Epoch Times that artificial intelligence has far surpassed humans in terms of calculation methods, performance, and learning ability.

But the biggest problem is that it has no ethics, morals, or personal values. If this AI technology is in the wrong person’s hands, it could be devastating to mankind.

The current robotics technology is also very advanced. Some robots can even surpass humans or animals in many physical activities. Once AIs are given the ability to act physically, humans may not have the power to resist, granting the people in control of the AIs the ability to do whatever they desire, Wang added.

Senior media professional Shi Shan told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime has no bottom line for fraud.

“[The CCP’s] AI technology can now produce a close-to-perfect virtual news anchor, but what is next? A fake politician? A party leader? Perhaps it has already been done,” Shi said. “The CCP is great at deceit. The international communities now have to pay close attention to the authenticity of China’s audiovisual programs and other media content.”

Big Data
Big data is the key to AI research and development: the more relevant data, the better the AI is trained. While rapidly developing its own artificial intelligence, the CCP deliberately limits the flow of Chinese data abroad.

China uses its massive population for gathering and developing its local AI technology. Tang Bohua, a patent examiner in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, told the Chinese publication of The Epoch Times that the CCP’s lack of regard for human rights and privacy opens up a huge data set for them, while the United States’ respect for these rights keeps data sets incomplete.

On Jan. 4, the CCP introduced a new version of its “Cybersecurity Review Measures.” The newly updated rules will require all Chinese network platform companies with data on more than 1 million users to undergo a security review before listing abroad.

A law professor at Taiwan’s National Taipei University of Technology, Christy Jiang, told Radio Free Asia on Jan. 4 that she believes the one-million user threshold most likely included all Chinese tech companies that may be seeking listings overseas.

A Strategic Priority
The CCP has prioritized AI development in recent years, making it a “key national development strategy.” It has mandated AI into many aspects of ordinary life, not only to surveil and control its people but also to use its massive population to spur development.

To bolster the rapid development of AI, the CCP has issued a number of supporting policies and regulations, including its “Made in China 2025” and “13th Five-Year Plan.”

In 2017, China’s State Council issued the “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” emphasizing the significance of AI in helping the government understand and control society.

“Artificial intelligence technology can accurately perceive, predict, and early-warn the major trends of society. [It can] grasp people’s cognition and psychological changes and proactively decide the responses. [This technology] will significantly improve the ability and level of social governance. It is irreplaceable for effectively maintaining social stability,” according to the plan.
“It will have a profound impact on government management, economic security, social stability, and global governance.”

Hong Kong finance and economics columnist Alexander Liao said the CCP believes the emerging technology revolution—artificial intelligence—can bring new life to the authoritarian system, which was on the verge of collapse.

In 2013, the CCP proposed the “Modernization of National Governance System and Governance Capacity” plan and adopted it five years later in its 2019 plenary. According to Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese state-run media, the project is “a series of institutional arrangements aimed to make China’s governance system increasingly complete, scientifically standardized, and operate more effectively.”

In 2014, the CCP launched the “Social Credit System,” which linked the social behavior of all ordinary citizens with the large-scale monitoring system in mainland China. It adopted facial recognition and big data analysis technology to carry out large-scale social control with AI.

By 2020, the system has been integrated into almost all public service fields, including employment, education, loan services, travel ticket purchases, and more. This control method has been fully popularized in the form of “health codes” during the CCP virus pandemic.

“All measures of ‘modernization of governance’ are the basis for strengthening the CCP’s authoritarian rule to ultimately achieving totalitarian control, and everything is rooted in artificial intelligence,” Liao added.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Apple's Mixed Reality AR/VR Headset Faces Delays Due To Overheating, Cameras And Software

FRIDAY, JAN 14, 2022 - 08:00 PM

We regret to inform you that the transformation of your daily life into The Matrix has been delayed by several months, at least. The next big widely anticipated AR/VR release - a headset launch from Apple - appears to have run "head first" into a reality check.

The company's planned mixed-reality headset product has been delayed by "at least a few months," according to a new Bloomberg report. The device had been planned for an unveiling at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

But Apple is now battling "development challenges related to overheating, cameras and software" that may have pushed the timeline for the product's release back from its late year 2022 expected date.

The headset, which hasn't been discussed publicly by the company, has been "years in the making", the report says, indicating it has been in development since as early as 2015.


Apple's hope for the product is to produce a product more aesthetically pleasing than current AR goggles - most of which have flopped as commercial releases. VR headsets, however, have been slightly more successful. Numerous Apple Insider websites have referred to the project by the name "Apple Glass".

The company expects its product will be an "expensive niche item", but will combine the functions of AR and VR headsets.

Apple's 2023 developers conference will focus on virtual reality and augmented reality, the report says. This includes support for those features in iOS 16, slated to be unveiled in June.

Apple is also working on a set of AR-only glasses that it hopes to debut "later this decade". The company is still working on solving problems related to temperature fluctuations due to the two processors that will be included in the device.

The company reportedly has over 2,000 employees working on its AR and VR hardware.
Meta is also working on a mixed-reality headset which will serve as competition for Apple.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Why Democrats Make Energy Expensive (And Dirty)

FRIDAY, JAN 14, 2022 - 06:20 PM
Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,

Progressives say they care more about working people and climate change than Republicans and moderate Democrats. Why, then, do they advocate policies that make energy expensive and dirty?



Progressive Democrats including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the head of the House progressive caucus, have sent a letter demanding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) investigate whether “market manipulation” is causing natural gas prices to rise 30 percent on average for consumers over last winter, an astonishing $746 per household.

But the main reason natural gas prices are rising is because progressives have been so successful in restricting natural gas production. Sanders, Jayapal, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), as individuals and as part of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have successful fought to restrict natural gas production through fracking and to block natural gas pipelines, including the Atlantic Coast pipeline.

In 2020, Sanders celebrated efforts by progressives to cancel the Atlantic Coast pipeline. Today, New England is facing rolling blackouts. “Getting [natural] gas to [progressive Senators Ed] Markey and [Elizabeth] Warren’s Massachusetts is so difficult,” reports The Wall Street Journal, “that sometimes it comes into Boston Harbor on a tanker from Russia.”

Democrats aren’t the only reason the United States isn’t producing enough natural gas to keep prices at the same low levels they’ve been at for the past decade. There is higher demand as the economy emerges from covid. There is greater demand for natural gas internationally due to a bad year for wind energy in Europe. And President Joe Biden, for his part, has resisted many progressive demands to restrict oil and gas production.

But the main reason there isn’t enough natural gas production is because of successful progressive Democratic efforts to restrict natural gas production in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world in the name of fighting climate change, as I was one of the first to report last fall. Sanders and Jayapal talk about “market manipulation” and “profiteering” but to the extent there is any of either it’s because of inadequate supplies of natural gas and the pipelines to transport it.

Successful shareholder activism, known in the industry as “ESG” for environmental, social, and governance issues, resulted in less investment in oil and gas production, and more weather-dependent renewables, which result in higher prices everywhere they are deployed at scale.

Even ESG champions including Financial Times, Goldman Sachs, and Bloomberg all now acknowledge that it was climate activist shareholder efforts that restricted oil and gas investment.

Such efforts also directly led to increasing carbon emissions. Last year saw a whopping 17 percent increase in coal-fired electricity, which resulted in a six percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions. It was the first annual increase in coal use since 2014. The reason for it was because of the scarcity and higher price of natural gas, coal’s direct replacement, not just in the U.S. but globally, since the US exports a significant quantity of natural gas.



The other reason the U.S. used more coal in 2021 is because progressive Democrats are shutting down nuclear plants. “When a nuclear plant is closed, it’s closed forever,” noted Mark Nelson of Radiant Energy Group, an energy analytics firm, “whereas coal plants can afford to operate at relatively low levels of capacity, like just 30 to 50 percent operation, and thus wait for natural gas prices, and thus demand for coal power, to rise.”

Progressives like Sanders, Jayapal, and AOC claim to care more about poor people, working people, and climate change than either Republicans or moderate Democrats, who they defeat in Democratic primary elections. Why, then, do they advocate policies that make energy expensive and dirty?

Strategic Ignorance
A big part of the reason progressives make energy expensive appears to be that they just don’t know very much about energy. The fact that they are demanding that FERC investigate higher prices suggests they want to keep energy prices low. But it could also mean that their letter is just public relations cover so they are not blamed for raising energy prices.



Indeed, it would be naive to think that Sanders and other progressives didn’t realize that blocking pipelines, opposing fracking, and subsidizing renewables would make energy expensive, given that making energy expensive has been the highest goal of their main climate advisor, Bill McKibben, who subscribes to the Malthusian view that there are too many humans and we must restrict energy and development.

If renewables were cheaper than the status quo then the policies they advocate — no permitting of pipelines, restrictions on fracking, and subsidies for renewables — would not be necessary. Besides, mainstream energy experts and journalists today admit that weather-dependent renewables make electricity expensive.

Read more here...
* * *
Michael Shellenberger is a Time Magazine "Hero of the Environment,"Green Book Award winner, and the founder and president of Environmental Progress. He is author of just launched book San Fransicko (Harper Collins) and the best-selling book, Apocalypse Never (Harper Collins June 30, 2020). Subscribe To Michael's substack here
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Behavioral Modification: What You Need to Know

by Tessa Lena
January 14, 2022
  • Neuroscientists have been working on a number of advanced techniques with military applications
  • Magnetogenetics is a technique of using magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity
  • In human experiments, scientist experimented with reducing religious feelings
  • In animal experiments, researchers were able to induce specific behaviors in mice using genetically modified viruses and magnetic fields
  • Another area of behavioral modification is “digital vaccines,” which is special software for behavioral change
This story is about behavioral modification, both as a philosophical ambition and as a military application. This topic is vast — so I’ll focus on a few relatively recent developments, especially in the area of magnetogenetics. But first, morality pills!

Morality Pills
In August 2020, Forbes published an article titled, “Could A ‘Morality Pill’ Help Stop The Covid-19 Pandemic?” It was based on the opinion of a bioethicist Parker Crutchfield who stated the following:
“Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.”
The problem that Crutchfield was trying to solve with his theoretical ‘morality pills’ was the pesky COVID contrarians, the proverbial grandma killers who refused to comply with masking and social distancing.
“The problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior.”
The author seemed to think very highly of his own ability to make perfect decisions about things — including about the best pandemic response — and therefore he had no qualms about imposing his opinions on others in the form of pills or, perhaps, morality injections. He went as far as to say that “a solution would be to make moral enhancement compulsory or administer it secretly, perhaps via the water supply.”

Crutchfield further referred to his work, in which he explored the concept of enhancing democracy by secretly medicating the citizens. He stated the following:
“Some theorists argue that moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory. I take this argument one step further, arguing that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration ought to be covert rather than overt. This is to say that it is morally preferable for compulsory moral bioenhancement to be administered without the recipients knowing that they are receiving the enhancement.
My argument for this is that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration is a matter of public health, and for this reason should be governed by public health ethics.
I argue that the covert administration of a compulsory moral bioenhancement program better conforms to public health ethics than does an overt compulsory program. In particular, a covert compulsory program promotes values such as liberty, utility, equality, and autonomy better than an overt program does. [emphasis mine].”
Bravissimo! Does this combo of freedom and covertly administered forced medication come with DeBlasio fries?

View: https://youtu.be/gl5Ca3XKRGM
.49 min

The good thing about morality pills is that they are seemingly theoretical … hopefully. How about creating fake memories? That, now, is actual science! In 2014, Smithsonian Magazine published an article titled, “Meet the Two Scientists Who Implanted a False Memory Into a Mouse,” which described a series of rather sadistic experiments showing that implanting false memories was achievable. (Should we mandate morality pills for the scientists? Just wondering.)

Implanting a False Memory in a Mouse
The scientists did a number of manipulations that I will describe in great technical detail in just a second — but the gist of it is that they placed a mouse in a particular box and gave the mouse a foot shock while simultaneously triggering a memory of being in a different, “safe,” box from an earlier experiment when the mouse was is that other box without receiving the shock.

They then placed the mouse in the “safe” box again, and the mouse acted terrified, as if it associated that first box with being given a shock, while in reality the shock was given in the second box, not in the first box. The conclusion that the scientists drew was that in the mouse’s mind, it “remembered” being given a shock in the box in which it had never been given a shock.

Great technical detail: Working with genetically engineered lab mice, the scientists injected their brains with a biochemical cocktail that included a gene for a light-sensitive protein (channelrhodopsin-2). The cells participating in memory formation would then produce the protein and become light-sensitive themselves.

Namely, they “surgically implanted thin filaments from the laser through the skulls of the mice and into the dentate gyrus. Reactivating the memory — and its associated fear response — was the only way to prove they had actually identified and labeled an engram [a unit of cognitive information imprinted in a physical substance].

The researchers sacrificed the animals after the experiment and examined the brain tissues under a microscope to confirm the existence of the engrams; cells involved in a specific memory glowed green after treatment with chemicals that reacted with channelrhodopsin-2.”

In order to manipulate a specific engram to create a false memory, they “prepared the mouse, injecting the biochemical cocktail into the dentate gyrus. Next, they put the mouse in a box without shocking it. As the animal spent 12 minutes exploring, a memory of this benign experience was encoded as an engram.

The following day, the mouse was placed in a different box, where its memory of the first (safe) box was triggered by shooting the laser into the dentate gyrus. At that exact moment, the mouse received a foot shock. On the third day, the mouse was returned to the safe box — and immediately froze in fear. It had never received a foot shock there, but its false memory, created by the researchers in another box, caused it to behave as if it had.”

Here you have it. The scientists were allegedly able to create a false memory in a mouse by torturing it and its fellows. False memories, check. How about manipulating religious feelings in people? Did the scientists try? Sure they did.

Experiments To Manipulate Religious Beliefs With Magnetism
In 2015, an article called, “Neuromodulation of group prejudice and religious belief” was published in “Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.”

The authors of the study “presented participants with a reminder of death and a critique of their in-group ostensibly written by a member of an out-group, then experimentally decreased both avowed belief in God and out-group derogation by downregulating pMFC activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results provide the first evidence that group prejudice and religious belief are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation.”

Magnetogenetics
Speaking of magnetic stimulation, let’s talk about magnetogenetics. Magnetogenetics is a biological technique that involves the use of magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity.

According to the behavioral research company Noldus, “magnetogenetics, or the use of electromagnetic control, involves activating cells using magnetic fields. With magnetogenetics researchers have found a way to control neurons with electromagnets.”

For context, magnetogenetics is adjacent to two other methods, optogenetics and chemogenetics. Optogenetics is based on switching populations of related neurons on or off on a millisecond-by-millisecond timescale with pulses of laser light. Optogenetics is an invasive method that requires insertion of optical fibers that deliver the light pulses into the brain.

Chemogenetics uses engineered proteins that are activated by designer drugs and can be targeted to specific cell types.

The “Magneto” Experiment
In 2016, two University of Virginia scientists demonstrated that neurons in the brain that have been supplemented with a synthetic gene can be remotely manipulated by a magnetic field. In their own words, they “may have discovered a major step toward developing a ‘dream tool’ for remotely controlling neural circuits.”

At the time, Güler, a biology professor at UVA, and UVA neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Michael Wheeler “engineered a gene that can make a cell sense the presence of a magnetic field. They coupled a gene that senses cellular stretch with another gene that functions as a nanomagnet.

This synthetic combination turns on only when in the presence of a magnetic field, allowing them to control neuronal activity in the brain.”
“In a series of tests on mice that had the Magneto gene used to express comfort or pleasure, the mice voluntarily went to a chamber of their cage where the magnetic field was present, similar to going there as if food was present.
Likewise, when the magnetic field was turned off, the mice did not display any particular preference for that area of the cage. But when the magnetic field was turned back on, they again moved to that area of the cage. Mice without the Magneto gene did not display any behavioral changes in the presence of magnets.”
According to the Guardian, the premise of the experiment was that nerve cell proteins activated by heat and mechanical pressure “can be genetically engineered so that they become sensitive to radio waves and magnetic fields, by attaching them to an iron-storing protein called ferritin, or to inorganic paramagnetic particles.”

The technique used the protein TRPV4, which is sensitive to both temperature and stretching forces that “open its central pore, allowing electrical current to flow through the cell membrane; this evokes nervous impulses that travel into the spinal cord and then up to the brain.”
The scientists “used genetic engineering to fuse the protein to the paramagnetic region of ferritin, together with short DNA sequences that signal cells to transport proteins to the nerve cell membrane and insert them into it …
When they introduced this genetic construct into human embryonic kidney cells growing in Petri dishes, the cells synthesized the ‘Magneto’ protein and inserted it into their membrane. Application of a magnetic field activated the engineered protein, as evidenced by transient increases in calcium ion concentration within the cells.”
“Next, the researchers inserted the Magneto DNA sequence into the genome of a virus, together with the gene encoding green fluorescent protein, and regulatory DNA sequences that cause the construct to be expressed only in specified types of neurons.
They then injected the virus into the brains of mice, targeting the entorhinal cortex, and dissected the animals’ brains to identify the cells that emitted green fluorescence. Using microelectrodes, they then showed that applying a magnetic field to the brain slices activated Magneto so that the cells produce nervous impulses.”
When the scientists placed the animals into an apparatus split into magnetised a non-magnetised sections, “mice expressing Magneto spent far more time in the magnetised areas than mice that did not, because activation of the protein caused the striatal neurons expressing it to release dopamine, so that the mice found being in those areas rewarding. This shows that Magneto can remotely control the firing of neurons deep within the brain, and also control complex behaviours.”

Let me just say that as a citizen, I don’t feel particularly relaxed knowing that this research exists — especially under today’s circumstances. Usually, whenever there is a technology that is suitable for behavioral modification and crowd control, somebody tries to use it. Politicians and greedy corporate leaders are funny this way! When there’s a hammer …

Dr. James Giordano’s Talk on Military Neuroscience
Speaking of hammers, I highly recommend you watch this mind-twisting, sci-fi-sounding, and frankly creepy presentation on military applications of neuroscience by Dr. James Giordano, Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center who has served as a Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment group of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon.

In his presentation, Dr. Giordano talks about neuroweapons and how new developments in brain science can be used in the military (and beyond). Some of the applications and scenarios he describes will make you scratch your head very hard!

View: https://youtu.be/aUtQbriWt64
1:11:08 min

“Digital Vaccines”
Another area of behavioral modification is the so called “digital vaccines,” or behavioral modification software. According to the Center for Digital Health at Brown’s Alpert Medical School, digital vaccines are “a solution to the problem of creating sustained behavioral change” and “a subtype of digital therapeutics, which use neurocognitive training to promote positive human behavior using technologies like smartphone apps.”

They are called “vaccines” because they create resistance to disease through a different mechanism. (I would posit that they are called “vaccines” because it’s a trendy, investor-friendly word that might also potentially come with a lack of legal liability — but that’s just my cynical guess.)

Carnegie Mellon University hosts Digital Vaccine Project, an initiative that focuses on the development and evaluation of “digital vaccine” candidates. Among other candidates, they are talking about a “digital vaccine” for COVID-19, which looks suspiciously like a gamified, nudging bot designed to train people to practice good “health-hygiene habits,” as defined by the owners of the algorithm.

This sounds to me like a good ol’ missionary in a shiny digital form: an unsolicited and unwanted “boss” with a superiority complex and no sense of tact!

Sooner or later, the scientists will figure out that their “patients” become annoyed by the bot out of their wits — at which point the hopeful priests of behavioral modification will come up with a “fix” on top of a “fix” — and money will be made by investors every step of the way — as it usually goes, at the price of the people.

digital-vaccine-project.jpg


Let me end by saying that technological behavioral modification is a rotten idea, driven by maniacs. The fact that hunger for total control is so painfully prevalent in our world doesn’t change the pathological nature of that hunger.

The need for mechanical control is born out of fear and anxiety, and that’s undeniable. And yes, today, the Machine still reigns and has the power to bully but without a doubt — whichever way we get there — we are moving toward a world where we are fully alive and free. The stronger and braver we are in the face of the darkness, the sooner we get free.

About the Author
To find more of Tessa Lena’s work, be sure to check out her bio, Tessa Fights Robots.
Image by Dr StClaire from Pixabay.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Headed for a Digital Concentration Camp – Catherine Austin Fitts
Headed for a Digital Concentration Camp – Catherine Austin Fitts

By Greg Hunter On January 15, 2022 In Political Analysis
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Saturday Night Post)

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says the central bankers want nothing short of “a complete digital control system.” CAF explains, “We have what we have been building for the last 20 or 30 years, and it’s getting much more obvious, but it’s been covert most of the time. They basically want digital control systems through the financial system, through the health system and government systems to implement control. That control is delivered one person at a time. You have extraordinary surveillance systems that have been built steadily for decades that are basically tracking everyone. . . . That’s why the ‘vaccine passports’ and ‘central bank digital currencies’ (CBDC) are so dangerous. It’s important to understand what they are trying to do.

They are trying to create complete transaction control. If they don’t want you going five miles from your home, your electric car will not work more than five miles from your home. . . . If they don’t want you to buy pizza, your credit card will not allow you to buy pizza. They are talking about putting in extraordinary digital control systems and literally turning your car and your home into a digital concentration camp.”

How do you fight back to this digital tyranny? CAF explains, “You fight back by saying No. Do not comply. What we are seeing around the world is that the places where people refuse to comply, it’s not working. The mandates are not working, and the passports are not working where people say no. You are not going to control me. You are not going to tell me where I can and cannot go. I am not going along. You have to massively not comply.”

One good way to not comply is to use good old fashion cash for every transaction you can.

CAF says, “You need to hold onto your cash because once the system goes all digital, that’s when you can convert to the digital concentration camps. If the system stays cash and more and more people use cash, the perfect system is part cash and part digital because cash can’t be controlled. . . . What we are looking for is decentralization, and decentralization comes with cash and it comes with coin.”

As far as the CV19 “plandemic,” CAF says, “I don’t think depopulation is the only goal, and that is certainly what has been happening. The proof that that is happening is when the data started coming in about how bad the deaths and injuries were–they didn’t stop it or change it.

They continued to double down on more and more effort on mandating when they knew the adverse events and deaths are very, very significant.”

CAF says there are many ways to fight back, and she talks about those strategies in the interview that is nearly 48 min. long.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Publisher of The Solari Report, Catherine Austin Fitts. (1.15.22)

Headed for a Digital Concentration Camp -Catherine Austin Fitts 47:54 min

Headed for a Digital Concentration Camp -Catherine Austin Fitts
Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com Published January 15, 2022
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment


shutterstock_39257119-800x469.jpg

The Antisocialization of Our Nation

BY MEGAN MANSELL JANUARY 14, 2022 MASKS, PHILOSOPHY, POLICY, SOCIETY

Though expected to distance and quarantine at the whim of local dictators, a few things gave us a clue that our pandemic response was not about health. Vices were deemed essential, as liquor stores and non-medical marijuana dispensaries remained open, while playgrounds were barricaded, beaches, and gyms, and houses of worship suddenly inaccessible.

There was no guidance on health-seeking behavior to bolster the first line of defense against the onset of ailments, just a band-aid for a bullet wound grade of national mitigation strategy that left many dying alone, surrounded by strangers. We willfully sacrificed our most fundamental duty of keeping grace in the handling of human disease humanely.

We antisocialized ourselves, fully withdrew from random commingling, and in a way filtered ourselves from society. Life lost its luster when expected to test or inoculate oneself with something with no longitudinal safety assessments in order to live a life anything close to what we once took for granted.

In order to work or attend school, our people began parking themselves quietly indoors for 8 hours per day in front of technology, the only access to the outside world for many. The places we visit for a taste of adventure or to engage in health-seeking behavior were banned, in a country with full prisons and an estimated 10-12 million undocumented immigrants, and a world with open borders and no absolutes. Did it begin to feel like house arrest felt like for a crime you didn’t commit?

Furthermore, we behave differently online, where anonymity impacts kindness and tact when engaging with others. The polarity of pro-mask versus anti, pro-mandated vaccine versus medical autonomy was palpable and daunting when entering public spaces.

Folks were conditioned to fear touch and proximity of others as grody, told to engage in bound, anonymized promiscuity while in the same enclosed spaces if using online dating apps.

Because when stressed and anxious, people turn to their vices as coping mechanisms, and the denial of access to these vices would have resulted in mutiny, looting, violence, and crime – more so than what already loomed on the horizon as the city du jour was set ablaze.

Another issue with this mass anti-socialization is the manifestation of Autism Spectrum Disorder-mimicking components; faces were blocked, with young children in critical developmental stages unable to mimic social and linguistic cues. Spectrum Disorders are largely identified through input on social and language development by the caregiver, so when an apparatus creates a great deal of interference with predictable child development, there will be no way to tell the difference between actual ASD diagnoses and those manifested solely out of linguistic and social interference.

We rely on social cue development from birth onward, and can tell so much about intent and truth from facial expressions. If we do not know how to read the faces of others, this will have a lasting impact on our quality of life and ability to be fully functioning members of society.

Humans and animals alike experience significant cognitive changes when in solitary confinement. We suffered group trauma, and healing takes different amounts of time for different people. But if you notice how everyone polarized into different camps, that is part of the scientific process refusing to be ignored: the necessary components of dissent and being able to ask questions spread through private channels and surfaced regardless of the rampant censorship pushed by those who deny the world an opportunity to engage in dissent.

We found unity with people who sided with us and stuck by us through thick and thin. It brought out truths about our perception toward our own health and wellness, and I’m not surprised that the truth in metabolic health reflected in the mirror led some to feel more comfortable placing the burden on the shoulders of complete strangers, all under the false pretense of source control, and eventually vaccination.

It’s far easier to expect someone else to magically protect you than to engage in health-seeking behaviors like dietary and behavioral changes, even for those fully capable of doing so, resulting in actual reduced susceptibility to the onset of disease.

Many people said things they later regretted or took things too far, as already polarized from the election, particle behavior got enmeshed with political affiliation, in an issue that impacts us equally regardless of birthplace, language of origin, or differing opinions on mammalian viability.

I believe many have soreness and shame in areas of their lives and don’t know how to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Perhaps they weren’t as normal as they gave themselves credit for.

There is a reason people expected those like the oft-criticized Dr. Jordan Peterson to be vocal during the pandemic. They forget that doctors usually fix you after something breaks, and are seldom alongside you for the journey resulting in medical intervention. They didn’t know who to turn to, so doctors seemed like the right person to turn to because people were getting sick.

Many also forgot that just as construction workers do not design and test their hardhats, surgeons do not design and test their own surgical kit.

People from both sides of each argument may have behaved badly, regrettably, and that is part of the trauma that I see us all recovering from. These past two years will mold how folks interact with others till gradual progress is made. Like those who have experienced extensive abuse, or those who are experiencing the vise-like grip of agoraphobia, being forced out into the open, each interaction feeling like being dragged from the comfort and safety of isolation, there are people who are not the same as when they went into this, and they don’t quite know the route to get back.

When they are ready, able to trust and work through whatever personal hell reduced them to a version of themselves no one ever wished for, perhaps they’ll join us on Team Reality, but till then, maybe try to find time to at a minimum be kind. It is this virtue of grace that we all struggle with when faced with the product of what has come of this age, and we will only be able to move forward once the shame of their coerced false mitigation strategy dies down.

We have spent two years treating a particulate filtration and personal protective equipment issue as a medical problem, yet it isn’t a medical issue till someone gets sick. Till then, this is about particulate behavior and human behavior, with a heavy-handed dose of environmental mitigation strategy for aerosols.

Anyone who has spent time studying abnormal psychology can tell you – early childhood interference with psychological, linguistic, and social development has lasting impacts on the people we eventually become. We are creating a generation of anti-socialized children and infants, without seeing the long-term danger in interfering with the fundamental elements of what sets humans apart from the rest of the mammalian species.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

https://tube.solari.com/wp-content/...urrency-bank-of-international-settlements.mp4 .56 min

https://tube.solari.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Idea-from-Catherine-Austin-Fitts.mp4 3:15 min

1642308302513.png
By the Solari Team

As the saying goes, “money makes the world go around,” but today’s battle of digital currencies, inflation, and paper currency has humanity at a tipping point between freedom and fascism.

The pandemic and accompanying lockdowns have been wildly successful, creating the right environment for total control of society, health, money, and food. Huge portions of the population, influenced by fear and mind control, are in complete submission. Every aspect of life and how it functions is now approaching Mr. Global’s grasp.

Why the need for total control? Who knows…. People like Catherine and Dr. Joseph Farrell have spent decades trying to figure it out; no doubt they are close. The reality is, however, that we have no more time to figure out why. Humanity is in the middle of the train tracks, and the train is coming through the tunnel and toward us at full force.

There is an overwhelming feeling of “what to do?” I can understand how a deer gets stuck when the headlights are coming at it. Fear can be paralyzing. But we all can do something and that something is pretty simple: use cash, especially on Fridays.

Some of us are Christians, some not. We don’t all know the purpose of eating only fish on Fridays, but it seems to many that Fridays are a day to prep for something bigger, such as Good Friday. In American culture, we have a lot of Friday events: summer Fridays, half-day Fridays, dress-down Fridays. When Mary Holland from Children’s Health Defense suggested Cash Fridays, it made perfect sense to Catherine.

Why cash? Because in order to have a full digital monetary system with complete central control, the circulation of paper currency has to end. (See the above video of Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustín Carstens in October 2020, telling you exactly where the central bankers intend to go.) We’ve already heard there are coin shortages. Some are saying that the Fed has stopped printing paper currency. That can’t be confirmed, but it doesn’t really matter. We know the game. To slow this train down, we can keep paper currencies and coins circulating. This is a very easy thing for all of us to do.

There are a lot of divide-and-conquer politics out there. People are fighting for the stupidest reasons. We bet a dollar, however, that the one thing we ALL can agree on is stopping our money from being stolen or controlled – keeping our money safe. It wouldn’t shock us if even the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) or Black Lives Matter (BLM) could agree on that. So it’s simple: We don’t need 100% of the population to do this; 10% of the population is enough.

Keep cash floating through the system.

ACTION PLAN

1. Use cash whenever you can, but on Fridays use cash ONLY.

2. Download the #cashfriday slogan and spread it on all your social media platforms. It’s especially important not to type out #cashfriday because of algorithms and censorship.

3. Keep it going for as long as it takes.

It’s as simple as 1, 2, and 3. But if you really want to take it further, we are including links on how to find a local bank and other reports on how to take big bank and corporate tyranny out of your life. We are making these reports available to the public to add strength to the momentum.

So, let’s make Cash Friday the preparation for something bigger – and that something bigger is sovereignty and freedom for all humanity.

Last week, as Catherine drove through the Alps with Swiss-Hungarian freedom fighter Orsolya Győrffy, they stopped for dinner at Ristorante CowBoy and, it being Friday, paid with cash. Here is Catherine’s #CashFriday Receipt #1:

CashFriday-receipt-678.jpg


We can do this.

Related Links:

View all the
#CashFriday images.

The Central Bank Game Plan In Under 3 Minutes – Richard Werner

How to Find a Local Bank
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Walmart Creates Its Own Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Enters Metaverse With Sales Of Virtual Goods

SUNDAY, JAN 16, 2022 - 09:00 PM
The last time Walmart was reportedly entering the crypto space, it turned out to be a giant Litecoin-promoting hack, that was quickly reversed, after it became clear that playful hackers had fabricated a press release. But there appears to be nothing fake about the latest news involving Walmart's desire to ride the latest wave of crypto/web 3.0/metaverse/NFT euphoria, and as a result the big box retailer is boldly venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

According to CNBC, Walmart filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods, including electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods and personal care products. In a separate filing, the company said it would offer users a virtual currency, as well as NFTs. In total, seven separate applications have been submitted.



The patent applications were among a flurry the company filed on Dec. 30, including three under “Walmart Connect” - the name of the company’s existing digital advertising venture - for a financial exchange for virtual currency and advertising. Applications also were filed for “Verse to Store,” “Verse to Curb” and “Verse to Home” for shopping services. It’s also seeking trademarks to apply the Walmart name and “fireworks” logo to heath-care services and education in virtual and augmented reality.

“They’re super intense,” said Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, quoted by CNBC. “There’s a lot of language in these, which shows that there’s a lot of planning going on behind the scenes about how they’re going to address cryptocurrency, how they’re going to address the metaverse and the virtual world that appears to be coming or that’s already here.”

Gerben said that ever since Facebook announced it was changing its company name to Meta, signaling its ambitions beyond social media, businesses have been rushing to figure out how they will fit into a virtual world.



The applications represent a significant step for the retail giant as it studies how to participate in the metaverse, a virtual world that blends aspects of digital technologies. Walmart dropped a hint to what was coming, after it advertised in August a position to develop “the digital currency strategy and product roadmap” while identifying “crypto-related investment and partnerships,” according to a job posting on the company’s website.

“Walmart is continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences,” the company responded in an emailed statement. “We don’t have anything further to share today, but it’s worth noting we routinely file trademark applications as part of the innovation process.”

Walmart’s cryptocurrency plans were the subject of a high-profile hoax in September, when a fake announcement caused a short-lived surge in Litecoin, a relatively obscure cryptocurrency.

According to the faked news release, Walmart would start letting its customers pay with Litecoin.

In October, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer started a pilot program in which shoppers can buy Bitcoin at Coinstar kiosks in some of its U.S. stores. The test with Coinstar, which is known for the machines that let customers exchange U.S. coins for paper bills or gift cards, includes 200 kiosks in Walmart stores.

In early December, Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said at an analyst conference that the company was open to allowing shoppers to pay in cryptocurrency if customers demand it, but the company didn’t see a need to rush out any capabilities.

Walmart is the latest brand to jump on the bandwagon of selling virtual goods and/or NFTs. In November, Nike filed a slew of trademark applications that previewed its plans to sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel. Later that month, it said it was teaming up with Roblox to create an online world called Nikeland. In December, it bought the virtual sneaker company RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) for an undisclosed amount.

“All of a sudden, everyone is like, ‘This is becoming super real and we need to make sure our IP is protected in the space,’” said Gerben.

Others are also piling in: Gap has started selling NFTs of its iconic logo sweatshirts. The apparel maker said its NFTs will be priced in tiers ranging from roughly $8.30 to $415, and come with a physical hoodie. Meantime, both Under Armour’s and Adidas’ NFT debuts sold out last month.

They’re now fetching sky-high prices on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Gerben said that apparel retailers Urban Outfitters, Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch have also filed trademarks in recent weeks detailing their intent to open some sort of virtual store.

A report from CB Insights outlined some of the reasons why retailers and brands might want to make such ventures, which can potentially offer new revenue streams. Launching NFTs allows for businesses to tokenize physical products and services to help reduce online transaction costs, it said. And for luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, NFTs can serve as a form of authentication for tangible and more expensive goods, CB Insights noted.

As the following chart from JPM shows, the NFT space has been red hot in the past year, and the market cap of the NFT universe has never been higher even though crytpocurrencies have tumbled by more than 40% in the past 2 months as institutions dumped the best performing assets of 2021 ahead of widely telegraphed Fed tightening.



Launching NFTs allows for businesses to tokenize physical products and services to help reduce online transaction costs, it said. And for luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, NFTs can serve as a form of authentication for tangible and more expensive goods, CB Insights noted.

Gerben said that as more consumers familiarize themselves with the metaverse and items stored on the blockchain, more retailers will want to create their own ecosystem around it. And after all, while it is the view of the World Economic Forum that after the Great Reset "you will own nothing, and you will be happy", nobody said that one can't own virtual goods in the coming dystopian future.



Quoted by CNBC, Frank Chaparro, director at crypto information services firm The Block, said that many retailers are still reeling from being late to e-commerce, so they don’t want to miss out on any opportunities in the metaverse.

“I think it’s a win-win for any company in retail,” Chaparro said. “And even if it just turns out to be a fad there’s not a lot of reputation damage in just trying something weird out like giving some customers an NFT in a sweepstake, for instance.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Governors Using Federal Coronavirus Funds to Fight ‘Climate Change’

1
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Asian Health Services in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Newsom, who has been absent from public life in nearly two weeks after canceling his planned trip to Scotland for the United Nation's climate conference, is expected to appear at the the 2021 California Economic …
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
PENNY STARR16 Jan 20221,760

States across the country have budget surpluses, including federal coronavirus stimulus payments, and many governors are using the money for projects to fight so-called climate change.

The excess cash is also from tax collection and post-lockdown consumer spending, and governors of both red and blue states are directing funds to improve protection from extreme weather, which Democrats and the press blame on human activity and fossil fuels.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 22: Governor Jay Inslee speaks at the ceremonial ribbon cutting prior to tomorrow's opening night for the Seattle Kraken the NHL's newest hockey franchise at the Climate Pledge Arena on October 22, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Gov. Jay Inslee speaks at the ceremonial ribbon cutting prior to tomorrow’s opening night for the Seattle Kraken the NHL’s newest hockey franchise at the Climate Pledge Arena on October 22, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Associated Press reported on the development:
Democratic governors such as California’s Gavin Newsom and Washington’s Jay Inslee have been clear about their plans to boost spending on climate-related projects, including expanding access to electric vehicles and creating more storage for clean energies such as solar. Newsom deemed climate change one of five “existential threats” facing the nation’s most populous state when he rolled out his proposed state budget this past week.
In Republican-led states, governors want to protect communities from natural disasters and drought, even as many of them won’t link such spending to global warming. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey this past week pitched $1 billion for water infrastructure as drought grips the Western U.S., shriveling water supplies for cities and farms. Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who has acknowledged climate change’s role in worsening wildfires, proposed $150 million for five years’ worth of fire-fighting costs, plus more for new fire personnel. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster called on lawmakers to spend $300 million in federal money for, among other things, protecting the state’s coastline against flooding, erosion and storm damage.
Governors’ proposals are just the first step in budget negotiations, and they’ll have to work with state lawmakers on the final details. Many governors will issue their plans in the coming weeks, with some already telegraphing their priorities. New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, used her state of the state address to call for $500 million in spending on offshore wind projects.
“I can think of no more meritorious use of taxpayer funds than to protect these pristine properties for future generations of South Carolinians,” McMaster said as he presented the South Carolina state budget, which includes some $17 million to respond to weather-related damage.

The Associated Press
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster holds a model of a horseshoe crab, whose blood is a vital component in the contamination testing of injectable medicines – including the coronavirus vaccines – at Charles River Labs on Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

“The climate crisis is not an abstraction. It is something that I and every governor in the United States, almost on a weekly basis, have to deal with,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said last week.

“From extreme floods to megafires to seemingly never-ending ozone alerts, our state’s long-term health is on the line. … We have to do everything in our power to make sure this is not the new normal,” Democrat Colorado Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg said in the AP report.
Newsom wants $22 billion for various projects to take place over the next five years, with the most going to electrifying school buses and expanding vehicle charging stations in low-income communities. Newsom also wants another $2 billion for “clean energy” development and storage.

Newsom also wants to advance the “clean energy” political agenda by offering so-called “green” technologies tax credits.

Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has asked the state legislature to fund the creation of a “climate change bureau,” with a 15-member staff and an initial $2.5 million.

But these budgets don’t reflect the importance fossil fuels continue to play in particularly western states’ economies, including in New Mexico “where the output of oil and natural gas has surged to an all-time high under Lujan Grisham’s administration,” AP reported. “At least one-fourth of the state’s general fund budget can be traced to income from the oil and natural gas industries underwriting public education, health care and other services.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Tech Founder Born In USSR Warns About Facebook's Metaverse, Compares It To Soviet-Style Propaganda

Untitled-design-2022-01-15T115513.010-817x429.jpg

Tech Founder Born In USSR Warns About Facebook's Metaverse, Compares It To Soviet-Style Propaganda


By Jack Davis, The Western Journal January 16, 2022 at 4:34pm

A tech company founder has trashed the Facebook concept of the metaverse and said it represents the same type of thinking he heard as a child in the former Soviet Union.

“’Metaverse’ is a squishscammy word. If you include things like video games and, um, the Internet, it’s already a big success. AR has future potential. But I’m calling b——t on a persistent, decentralized, skeuomorphic, interconnected 3D world, experienced primarily through VR,” Phil Libin, founder of the app Evernote and the CEO of the video-conferencing company Mmhmm, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Libin, 49, also teed off on the metaverse during a podcast released Tuesday, according to Business Insider.

Libin said the same type of a sales pitch expressed by tech companies about the metaverse was a standard part of the pro-communism speeches he heard as a child in Soviet Leningrad, which has since reverted to its former name of St. Petersburg.

“I went to first grade in the Soviet Union,” Libin said. “I was subjected to a lot of Soviet propaganda, and I was told as a little kid repeatedly: ‘Communism doesn’t exist yet. We haven’t built communism yet. We’re building towards communism. But it’s not communism yet. What you see around you, this horrible, horrible place, isn’t communism. We’re building towards it. It’s going to be great when it gets here.'”

Libin said tech leaders talking about the metaverse strike the same chord with him.

“You know, you can smell a bad idea before it’s fully built. So I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh yeah, the metaverse doesn’t exist yet. No, no, no, all this stuff, all this stupid, useless, crappy stuff that exists right now, that’s not the metaverse. The metaverse is coming — it’s coming.'”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been known to wax eloquent on the glories of the metaverse, and he rebranded the Facebook corporate entity as Meta last October.

“Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life,” Zuckerberg told Facebook employees in July, according to The Verge.

“The metaverse is a vision that spans many companies — the whole industry. You can think about it as the successor to the mobile internet. And it’s certainly not something that any one company is going to build, but I think a big part of our next chapter is going to hopefully be contributing to building that, in partnership with a lot of other companies and creators and developers,” Zuckerberg said then.

“But you can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content — you are in it. And you feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn’t necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage, like dancing, for example, or different types of fitness.”

“I think a lot of people, when they think about the metaverse, they think about just virtual reality — which I think is going to be an important part of that. And that’s clearly a part that we’re very invested in, because it’s the technology that delivers the clearest form of presence.'

But the metaverse isn’t just virtual reality. It’s going to be accessible across all of our different computing platforms; VR and AR, but also PC, and also mobile devices and game consoles,” Zuckerberg said, according to The Verge.

Libin called the term “a gloss that uncreative people and companies put over fundamentally a lack of good ideas.”

“There’s a part of me that hates it and a part of me that fears it, but since I think it’s so spectacularly stupid, there’s actually not that much to fear,” Libin said, per Business Insider.

Related:

Despite the capability of technology to do much that fans of the metaverse say will be possible, Libin said he expects a fundamental disconnect between human nature and virtual reality headsets.

1642408116449.png

“VR is the thing that guarantees none of this will ever take off, because no one wants to spend any amount of time with a plastic thing strapped to their face,” he said.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

The Electric Vehicle Scam

by Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris | Jan 15, 2022 | Climate Change, Feature 1, Lifestyle, Politics
car-electric-push.jpeg


The utility companies have thus far had little to say about the alarming cost projections to operate electric vehicles (EVs) or the increased rates that they will be required to charge their customers. It is not just the total amount of electricity required⏤but the transmission lines and fast charging capacity that must be built at existing filling stations. Neither wind nor solar can support any of it. Electric vehicles will never become the mainstream of transportation!

In part 1 of our exposé on the problems with electric vehicles (EVs), we showed that they were too expensive, too unreliable, rely on materials mined in China and other unfriendly countries, and require more electricity than the nation can afford. In this second part, we address other factors that will make any sensible reader avoid EVs like the plague.

EV Charging Insanity
In order to match the 2,000 cars that a typical filling station can service in a busy 12 hours, an EV charging station would require 600, 50-watt chargers at an estimated cost of $24 million and a supply of 30 megawatts of power from the grid. That is enough to power 20,000 homes. No one likely thinks about the fact that it can take 30 minutes to 8 hours to recharge a vehicle between empty or just topping off. What are the drivers doing during that time?

ICSC-Canada board member New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland describes why installing electric car charging stations in a city is impractical:

“If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes.

If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say its 30 minutes. So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six. Where are you going to find the place to put them?”

The government of the United Kingdom is already starting to plan for power shortages caused by the charging of thousands of EVs. Starting in June 2022, the government will restrict the time of day you can charge your EV battery. To do this, they will employ smart meters that are programmed to automatically switch off EV charging in peak times to avoid potential blackouts.

In particular, the latest UK chargers will be pre-set to not function during 9-hours of peak loads, from 8 am to 11 am (3-hours), and 4 pm to 10 pm (6-hours). Unbelievably, the UK technology decides when and if an EV can be charged, and even allows EV batteries to be drained into the UK grid if required. Imagine charging your car all night only to discover in the morning that your battery is flat since the state took the power back. Better keep your gas-powered car as a reliable and immediately available backup! While EV charging will be an attractive source of revenue generation for the government, American citizens will be up in arms.

Used Car Market
The average used EV will need a new battery before an owner can sell it, pricing them well above used internal combustion cars. The average age of an American car on the road is 12 years. A 12-year-old EV will be on its third battery. A Tesla battery typically costs $10,000 so there will not be many 12-year-old EVs on the road. Good luck trying to sell your used green fairy tale electric car!

Tuomas Katainen, an enterprising Finish Tesla owner, had an imaginative solution to the battery replacement problem—he blew up his car! New York City-based Insider magazine reported (December 27, 2021):

“The shop told him the faulty battery needed to be replaced, at a cost of about $22,000. In addition to the hefty fee, the work would need to be authorized by Tesla…Rather than shell out half the cost of a new Tesla to fix an old one, Katainen decided to do something different… The demolition experts from the YouTube channel Pommijätkät (Bomb Dudes) strapped 66 pounds of high explosives to the car and surrounded the area with slow-motion cameras…the 14 hotdog-shaped charges erupt into a blinding ball of fire, sending a massive shockwave rippling out from the car…The videos of the explosion have a combined 5 million views.”

We understand that the standard Tesla warranty does not cover “damage resulting from intentional actions,” like blowing the car up for a YouTube video.

EVs Per Block In Your Neighborhood
A home charging system for a Tesla requires a 75-amp service. The average house is equipped with 100-amp service. On most suburban streets the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla. For half the homes on your block to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly overloaded.

Batteries
Although the modern lithium-ion battery is four times better than the old lead-acid battery, gasoline holds 80 times the energy density. The great lithium battery in your cell phone weighs less than an ounce while the Tesla battery weighs 1,000 pounds. And what do we get for this huge cost and weight? We get a car that is far less convenient and less useful than cars powered by internal combustion engines. Bryan Leyland explained why:

“When the Model T came out, it was a dramatic improvement on the horse and cart. The electric car is a step backward into the equivalence of an ordinary car with a tiny petrol tank that takes half an hour to fill. It offers nothing in the way of convenience or extra facilities.”

Our Conclusion
The electric automobile will always be around in a niche market likely never exceeding 10% of the cars on the road. All automobile manufacturers are investing in their output and all will be disappointed in their sales. Perhaps they know this and will manufacture just what they know they can sell. This is certainly not what President Biden or California Governor Newsom are planning for. However, for as long as the present government is in power, they will be pushing the electric car as another means to run our lives. We have a chance to tell them exactly what we think of their expensive and dangerous plans when we go to the polls in November of 2022.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

klaus-schwab.jpg


Brace for Impact: Elite Preparing ‘Great Collapse’ of Civilization

By Leo Hohmann 19 hours ago

Get ready for severe disruptions to your way of life.

You know time is running out on the false reality in which most Americans live when the corporate-owned mainstream media starts to report some of the things that we in the alternative media have been reporting for years.

I’ve been warning since 2018: America is heading toward civil war. For the last six months or so many of us have been warning about the creaky supply chain.

That chain is getting ready to buckle and break like a water pipe in the dead of winter, when frigid air sneaks in from the north.

It usually happens in the middle of the night, while everyone is sleeping in their warm beds. Under the stress of steadily dropping temperatures, the pipe starts to expand. Now compromised, the pipe starts to drip, then suddenly it pops. Water gushes out and into the house.

At that point, you have a big mess on your hands. If only you’d seen the cold weather coming, you would have wrapped your pipes and protected them from the damage.

That’s how I see the U.S. supply chain right now. The pressure is building while the façade of normalcy reigns in the lives of 90 percent of American families. As they sleepwalk through life, they have no idea what kind of pressure is building on those pipes that keep money flowing throughout the global economy.

But when the dishonest mainstream media starts to take notice and give gentle, half-hearted warnings, you know the breaking point is near.

Take, for example, the article that appeared in the Jan. 15 issue of the Detroit News. In a story headlined Michigan faces acute impact from Canada’s refusal to let in unvaccinated U.S. truckers, we are given a small glimpse of the truth – the engine that drives the American economy, truckers, are about to be dealt a devastating blow by the socialist government in charge of Canada.

One key word in that headline jumped out at me – “impact.”

I reported last week on the many dreams and visions being reported from spiritually discerning Christians in diverse areas. They don’t know each other, they’re from all different backgrounds, but they all talk of having similar dreams warning believers to “brace yourself for impact.”

Since hearing of these dreams, I’ve been noticing that word, impact, showing up all over the place. And in this Detroit News article we’re told of a looming “acute impact.”

If you just go by the headline, you might get the impression that it’s just Michigan that will suffer the impact of this vaccine mandate on truckers.

Don’t be fooled. Statistics show otherwise. More than 50 percent of truckers are unvaxxed and 37 percent in a survey by the American Trucking Associations said they will never get the injection and will quit their jobs if forced to do so by their employers.

You have to read more than halfway into the article before you get to this bombshell quote from Brian Hitchcock, chairman of the Michigan Trucking Association.
“It’s definitely going to have an impact [there’s that word again]. And it’s going to start as early as tomorrow, and it’s going to create a supply shortage of everything back and forth.”
Soon, “shipping will be disrupted in both directions,” the article explains.

If this were the only challenge to the U.S. supply chain, we might be able to deal with it.

But it’s not.

The other big force driving a wedge into the U.S. supply chain is China.

The Chinese are deliberately closing ports that send goods to the U.S., Canada and Europe.

As part of its “Covid-zero” policy, China is locking down its ports, meaning the many products that America has come to depend on China to supply will not be found on store shelves in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks to globalization, the U.S. is no longer a self-sustaining country. Many critically important products, such as life-saving antibiotics, are shipped into the U.S. from China. It would take months, perhaps years for the U.S. to gear up industries capable of churning out these items in bulk.

According to Bloomberg, another mainstream publisher, the effects of restrictions in China “are starting to hit supply chains in the region.” As a result of the slow movement of goods through some of the China’s busiest and most important ports, shippers are now diverting to Shanghai, causing the types of delays at the world’s biggest container port that led to massive congestion bottlenecks last summer. That eventually translated into a record number of container ships waiting off the coast of California, a glut that hasn’t been cleared to this day.

With sailing schedules already facing delays of about a week, freight forwarders warn of the impact on already backlogged gateways in Europe and the U.S. and that is also why economists are warning that the world economy could be headed for the “mother of all supply chain shocks” if China continues to lock down its ports.

Brace for impact. Acute impact.

We are about to experience severe deprivation like never before. And it won’t be just food stores. Auto parts from Canada will make car fixes more difficult. Pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel and just about everything we buy at Walmart comes from China. Imagine the impact if China makes its long awaited military move on Taiwan, where the vast majority of the world’s computer chips are manufactured.

The mainstream corporate news outlets can’t see the bigger picture, or maybe they do but are afraid if they report it the sleeping American populous might get even more rattled and restless than they already are. But when you see articles like the one Saturday in the Detroit News and Friday in Bloomberg, you know even they are getting nervous. They have to be wondering if maybe those “conspiracy theorists” were right all along. But their controllers in the corporate boardrooms won’t let them get to the bottom of the conspiracy, to report the whole truth to their readers.

If they could, they would know that what we’re looking at with these vaccine mandates and port shutdowns, all blamed on a virus that is 99 percent survivable, is part of a plan for the controlled demolition of America and the West. It’s all designed to happen by very powerful entities that operate at a level above our elected political leaders. The decisions that are leading to the collapse are being made by those buying into Klaus Schwab’s vision as put forth by the World Economic Forum and allied entities such as the United Nations, the Gates, Rockefeller, Soros and Ford foundations, and the corporate power elites on the interlocking boards of directors at Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity. Those four financial investment houses own a controlling share of almost every one of the world’s largest corporations, including the largest banks. And they have decided it’s time to blow up the system and start over with something new. Something very different. They call it the Great Reset. I call it technocracy.

They want to reset the global economy and the global social structure — the way we live, work, eat and move about in society. They have a plan for all of this and it won’t resemble anything we are used to, anymore than the New Normal under Covid resembled what we were used to.

They want an economy based on a new digital, programmable currency and a social structure based on their Luciferian values.

That means the present capitalist economic system, based on the U.S. dollar, must be trashed before they can “build back better” with the new money system and a new technocracy based on social credit and a new “more equitable” form of “inclusive capitalism,” which has nothing in common with actual capitalism.

This system involves decoupling the middle class from their property. Almost all private property in the new system, if it is successfully implemented, will be owned by the 1 percent of elites and we will rent from them.

Those who dissent from the prevailing government-media narrative will wake up one morning to find that access to their digital money has been shut off. There will be no cash back-up, either, because cash will have been phased out of existence.

By the year 2030, the World Economic Forum envisions there will be no more private property in the hands of we little people. We will “own nothing,” we will have no privacy and yet, somehow, we will be happy, they say.

Schwab introduced these concepts in his book, COVID 19: The Great Reset, which was released within six months of Covid’s appearance in China.

The system involves every individual and every nation, whether they like it or not.

Take a look at the amusing 2-minute video from the Netherlands, where that country’s puppet prime minister was recently called on the carpet for his allegiance to the World Economic Forum plan for the world.

https://ch-forum.backendcdn.com/us-...8fdf969/057b41f8-ff33-428c-9f70-4af797fda484d 2:12 min

The planned new world order does not stop with economic restructuring.

Just as they must decouple middle-class people from their property, using punitive taxation and environmental regulations, they must also decouple families from the traditional values that were handed down to them and originated from the traditional Christian faith—things like the desire to marry and have a family, to put in an honest day’s work and to honor one’s parents and grandparents. They’ve been active on this front for decades, but the fig tree is getting ripe, to the point where little boys and girls in elementary school are being taught to question their God-given gender.

Those parents who balk and confront their school boards are labeled backwoods bigots and potential terrorists by their own government.

What these parents are learning is that in the world of the Great Reset, only one voice is allowed to share the stage—that controlled by the ruling elites—and everyone else must be willing to participate in their carefully constructed echo chamber or just shut up. Any dissenting voices are brutally and efficiently silenced.

The Great Reset isn’t even here yet but we can already see a foreshadowing of the way this new global beast system works. There’s no tolerance for free speech.

Dr. Robert Malone, who invented the technology upon which mRNA vaccines are based, gets interviewed by podcaster Joe Rogan and uses that platform to send a warning to the world about the dangers of these deadly shots. And what happens? Malone gets canceled from all social media and a group of nearly 300 doctors sends an open letter to Spotify, urging Spotify to pull the plug on Rogan’s podcasts, claiming Rogan is spreading “anti-vax misinformation.”

Joe Biden, with his 33 percent approval rating, gets on TV this week and makes a special appeal to the Big Tech social media companies to clamp down on “misinformation” about vaccines, and what happens? Within hours we read that Direct TV has canceled One America News [OAN] from its channel lineup.

MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell has been using his wealth for the good of the people, creating an alternative to Fox News, which is nothing more than controlled opposition. Lindell’s new livestreaming network, Lindell TV, is accessed through Frankspeech.com and it has been doing some amazing work to expose the fraudulent government in Washington. What does Lindell get for his efforts to present the truth? His bank, Heartland Financial Minnesota Bank and Trust, proudly divulged this week it is canceling all of Lindell’s accounts.

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1482106370182856706
1:04 min

What could be more Luciferian than a system where everyone is monitored and controlled, punished and rewarded, based on their obedience to the almighty one-world state and its lapdog media? Everyone must have the same opinions, or keep them to themselves. A world of faceless, heartless, one-size-fits-all cogs in the wheel.

Watch, in the video below, how a man was treated simply for entering a Costco store in Canada without a face covering. Is this the kind of world we want our kids and grandkids to live in?

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1482374233414160384
1:39 min

Yet, this is exactly the type of world envisioned by Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci and their buddies at the World Economic Forum.

Let’s be aware of those pipes. The pressure is building. Water is already dripping. It’s a matter of time before it breaks.

Some will be buried in water before they even know what hit them.

That’s how the Great Reset will arrive. Those with power and wealth, the 1 percent, have triggered their end game to collapse the current world order and replace it with a new one-world order of technocratic authoritarianism. There will be no stopping it, but we can make wise use of the time God gives us to prepare for it.

Brace yourself for impact. And start wrapping those pipes.

What’s coming is not going to be easy and no one can fully prepare for it. Use this time to find your people, collaborate and work together, because no man will survive this storm on an island.

We need God and we need each other.

Now is the time to start our own “reset” and learn how to live outside of a system that is increasingly ruled by evil sharks circling in the water.
 

Cacheman

Ultra MAGA!


Crumbling Narratives Leave the Ruling Class with Everything to Fear

By J.B. Shurk

8-10 minutes


Here's what our COVID-1984 authoritarians want: they seek to use pandemics, wars, uncontrolled immigration, doomsday climate predictions, and "woke" cultural Marxism to keep people in a constant state of fear, divided among themselves, and willing to hand over their freedoms for evaporative promises of protection. "Protection" in this racket means survival but not life, equity but not fairness, financial handouts but not prosperity, and politically correct narratives but no truth.

This last point deserves emphasis. The powers that be — the central bankers, global financial elites, corporate propagandists, and political aristocrats — have given up on any notion of truth. They neither pursue it objectively nor desire to discover it for philosophical or spiritual elevation. Truth, to them, is too dangerous because it cannot be controlled by men with power. So they murdered it and molded a monster out of clay they affectionately call their narrative. Then, having no respect for the dead or remorse for their deed, they chose to disguise their monstrous narratives with masks made from truth's likeness.

Science is venerated as the apotheosis of objectivity, even as those with power dictate what official science can say, expunging dissenting scientific opinions from the public domain by either starving grant-dependent scientists into submission or outright censoring their work. Like a tribe of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers dancing around a fire and praying to the moon, the powers that be pretend to be obedient and humble disciples of science's objective purity by chanting together, "We must follow the science wherever it goes." In practice, however, they know exactly where the science will go because they are the ones paying for it to dance to the beat they alone provide. If science is controlled by a global oligarchy using it for personal wealth and power, then "trust the science" really means "trust the authoritarians." It really is that simple.

With neither truth nor the objective pursuit of science playing any part in their scheming, the political and financial 1% of the 1% are beholden to no one and nothing — not to God, reason, rationality, logic, or principle — leaving them to become their own highest powers entitled to create and destroy the world as they see fit. We do not have to wait for the rollout of augmented and virtual realities being created by technocrats to further enslave the masses to understand that the "elites" who have controlled our reality since WWII play deadly games all the time — against each other, among nation-states, among whole continents, but most importantly between themselves and everybody else on planet Earth.

Can Russia hawks start a war in Europe over Ukraine? Can the ruling Uniparty in America effectively flood the United States with so much unlawful immigration and unchecked voter fraud that the voices of individual Americans become drowned out? Can the "free-traders" continue three decades of middle-class wealth destruction and blue-collar job offshoring by further selling to the destitute the wondrous benefits of their snake oil made from cheap Chinese imports and middle-American poverty? What's at stake? Oh, only lives — those of soldiers who will be tasked to fight wars abroad triggered for the wrong reasons; those of innocent civilians who become collateral damage to an illegal U.S. policy that has aided and abetted the exponential rise of narco-terrorism, sex-trafficking, and other society-killing crimes flowing effortlessly across an unprotected southern border; and, of course, those of entire generations of lost Americans, whose happiness and stability were sacrificed for the swelling stock portfolios of globalist "free-traders," as well as the crumbling towns across America those generations still call home today. What are lives, though, to a ruling class that celebrates the narrative and wears truth as Buffalo Bill would a skin suit? For them, it's all just a game. For the people who have fallen victim to these über-1% games, however, it has all become quite personal.

7_124_9.gif

I think it is no exaggeration to say that a growing number of people in America, the West, and around the globe, generally, are looking around at what the "elite" have wrought these last seventy-five years and do not like what they see. The distinction between "free" and "controlled" countries is disappearing as governments expand their powers at the expense of individual rights and liberties. Regulation, central banking, and crony capitalism have worked together to concentrate wealth into the hands of ever fewer people and companies while preventing the unadulterated operation of truly free markets. National histories and cultures are being destroyed so globalists can reorder the world according to a "Great Reset" that gives them absolute power and total control. And political "leaders" are all parroting the same "build back better" nonsense when what they mean to build back is a planet where the 1% of the 1% can tighten its grip around everyone else. If any of their members espoused truth instead of narrative, they would admit that they are building a great machine, whereby all of humanity except for the "elite" can be treated as nothing more than 1s and 0s; inputs and outputs; expendable, exchangeable, nameless, and meaningless resources, widgets, or cogs.

This much is clear: government debt and central bank money-printing cannot continue much longer. System breakdown, triggered by runaway inflation, implosion of asset values, or the death knell for fiat currency, means that a political and social construct built by "elites" for their own wealth, power, and amusement will spiral wildly beyond their control. Revolutions begin this way. Entire epochs in human history begin this way. New ideas, paradigms, and civilizations arise as the old ones corrode, cavitate, and collapse. I have no sympathy for the 1% of the 1% or the numerous lies they tell daily in order to build back a totalitarian system that enfeebles us while deifying them, but I will say this: if you were part of such a small part of the world's population, and you understood that drastic social change lay just ahead, perhaps you, too, would do everything you could to shackle the 99.99% with the chains of division, economic subsistence, rolling pandemics of fear, and bio-digital enslavement before the many awaken to the reality that the few long ago swapped truth for nothing more than control.

I think Patrick Rothfuss got it right when he warned, "There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man." What happens as more and more people discover that all of the elites' dancing under the light of the moon these last few decades has really been about worshiping narratives for control and nothing more? What happens when that light, like all their other "noble lies," dies out? I think then we will experience what comes when all three great fears are unleashed at once — a monumental storm washing away "elite" corruption and power, the rage of long quiet and civilized men, and a period of unavoidable darkness that must exist before the next new moon can rise. Considering how afraid the ruling class seems to be of losing power over the world, somebody with a little wisdom has surely been whispering in their ears about the future.

One certainty is now irrefutable: far from being at the end of history, we are witnessing what can only be described as the beginning of history's next chapter.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzFosUOvhFY
14:21 min

These hateful leftists show NO EMPATHY for unvaccinated ‘ENEMIES’

Jan 17, 2022


Glenn Beck


If we cannot stop viewing other Americans as ‘the enemy,’ Glenn says, then we are DONE as a society. Our lack of empathy for one another will only worsen, as robotics, AI, and technology further impede our world. But as COVID rages on, many far-left media pundits seem to gravitate more and more toward hateful rhetoric. This must end, Glenn says, so that one day our kids can demonstrate and understand the value of empathy, too..
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Fauci Trashes US on World Stage at Klaus Schwab’s WEF Summit: ‘We Have Disinformation That is Destructive to a Comprehensive Public Health Endeavor’ (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published January 17, 2022 at 3:50pm
IMG_9207.jpg

Monday marked day one of The Davos Agenda 2022 where global leaders will discuss Covid-19, cooperation and the role technology has played in the pandemic.

Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab on Monday excitedly introduced Xi Jinping to open the Davos Agenda.

WATCH:
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1483146600335740932
.54 min

Dr. Fauci joined the opening day of The Davos Agenda where he trashed the First Amendment and whined about Covid ‘disinformation’ being spread in the US.

“Omicron is highly transmissible, but apparently not very pathogenic. While I hope that remains the case, but that would depend on what new variants emerge going forward,” Fauci said.

“One of the things the entire world is facing, but we certainly are facing it in a very, very disconcerting way in the United States is the amount of disinformation that is accompanying what should be a problem that everyone pulls together against a common enemy, which is the virus,” he said. “We have disinformation that is entirely destructive to a comprehensive public health endeavor"

Fauci fantasized about a future where people continue to obsess over the Covid pandemic and never stop thinking about it.

“It is very difficult to predict what the new normal would be like. I do not think the people would be walking around with masks on forever, but one new normal I would hope for is greater solidarity with each other. I also hope the new normal would include a strong memory about what a pandemic can do to us,” he said.

VIDEO:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1483051652114493442
.30 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

1642459684368.png

Video on website 47:34 min Panel

The emergence of the Omicron variant – and the reintroduction of national lockdowns, travel bans and quarantines – has reinforced the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join experts and leaders to find out the possible scenarios for COVID in 2022 and beyond.

View: https://youtu.be/Pr5Da-h5C_g
1:41 min Richard Hatchett
View: https://youtu.be/2V6HyllbGuk
.20 min Stephane Bancel
View: https://youtu.be/uqnRmEZIxKg
.49 min Fauci
View: https://youtu.be/CLJPLkBbWUk
1:13 min Annelies Wilder-Smith
View: https://youtu.be/1EnUpug_foE
.47 min Xi Jinping

^^^^
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1YpJkZjbWwAGj Global Risks Report 1:03:44 min

World Economic Foru
Global Risks Report 2022 Press Conference with @CarolinaKlint (@MarshMcLennan), Peter Giger (@Zurich), @zahidi, @borgebrende, @amonck #risks22

^^^^^^
Special Address by António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations
Video on website 34:22 min

^^^^^^^
International cooperation has been key in tackling COVID-19
International cooperation has played a significant role in tackling the pandemic so far, President Xi Jinping told The Davos Agenda.
"The international community has fought a tenacious battle," he said.
View: https://youtu.be/BdSpQBHGCkc
.49 min

Countries need to continue to work together, President Xi said. Closing the global immunization gap is part of this.
View: https://youtu.be/1EnUpug_foE
.47 min

^^^^^^
This global effort to immunize the world against COVID-19 was given a boost at the weekend, with the news that COVAX - the vaccine-sharing facility - has now delivered one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, which co-leads COVAX, alongside Gavi and the World Health Organization, said support will be vital in helping countries to build mass vaccination programmes and deliver vaccines at speed.

View: https://youtu.be/Pr5Da-h5C_g
1:40 min Richard Hatchett

*****
Further collaboration will remain vital, both in vaccine equity, but also their ongoing development. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, explained the ongoing efforts to find commonalities between variants. "It's a very, very important scientific goal," he explained.
View: https://youtu.be/uqnRmEZIxKg
.49 min

^^^^^
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that multilateral organizations must be capable of tackling today's challenges, though.

View: https://youtu.be/yGx0dKryVNE
.50 min

*****
But, more work is needed - whether in response to the pandemic or more widely. António Guterres told his special address that there's been a 'global inability to support developing countries in their hour of need.'

View: https://youtu.be/eqHYxUIG80A
.45 min

And he called for reform of the global financial system to ensure it works for all countries without being biased.

View: https://youtu.be/HRvkdEZuj0A
.53 min

**********
What 2022 could bring for the pandemic
Challenges remain in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, though.
Annelies Wilder-Smith, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, stressed that Omicron will not be the last variant. The questions are - where, when and will it be more or less dangerous, she explains.

View: https://youtu.be/CLJPLkBbWUk
1:12 min
******
There are lessons to take from the history of infectious diseases, added Anthony Fauci. We've only eradicated one infectious disease - smallpox - and that won't happen with this virus, he says.

View: https://youtu.be/obiA3kSHbN0
1:14 min

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

We have to anticipate that COVID will start to behave more like flu - and has the potential to, unpredictably, become pandemic at any time, Richard Hatchett added.

View: https://youtu.be/Ha9W8Nk8n_4
1:15 min

***********
So what of vaccines? Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel explained the work that's ongoing to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are effective against new variants.
Manufacturers are now working on COVID-19 vaccines for the Northern Hemisphere's autumn, he said. And Moderna hope to offer, in the future, a booster for both the flu and COVID-19 in a single dose.

Stéphane Bancel | Our Goal Is A Single Annual Booster ,20

^^^^^^^

We must ensure an equal recovery
The next stages of the pandemic mean confronting it with equity and fairness, António Guterres said. Vaccine inequity remains too high, he stressed.

António Guterres | Confronting The Pandemic With Equity And Fairness .59 min

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

And, if you leave anyone behind, in the end, you leave everyone behind, he said.
The process of global development is suffering severe disruption, with declines in the human development index for the first time in 30 years, President Xi Jinping explained.

Xi Jinping | The Process of Global Development 1:10 min

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

The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the inequalities that exist in tech access - but also why it's so important.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be key to tackling the world's biggest challenges, explained Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises. Coverage is an issue, but affordability is a major challenge too, he said.

Sunil Bharti Mittal | The Issue of Affordability 1:10 min

***********

It's not a 'good-to-have' to be connected, it's a human right, Hans Vestberg, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Verizon Communications, said.
That's why the EDISON Alliance launched the 1 Billion Lives Challenge last year, he explained.

Hans Vestberg | It's A Human Right To Be Connected 1:12 min

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

Governments across the world, including Rwanda's, are grappling with the common challenges of access and affordability, said Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information Communication Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Innovation of Rwanda.

Paula Ingabire | Recovery In The Years Ahead .29 min

^^^^^^^^^^^^

And it's on the agenda in India too, with an enormous amount of work underway to improve access, explained Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Narendra Modi | 600,000 Indian Villages Being Connected .48 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
More World Economic Forum Davos

Video on website Stakeholder Capitalism 19:37 min

Technology cooperation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
In this session, moderated by Samir Saran, President, Observer Research Foundation, EDISON Alliance champions explored how technology stakeholders can better work together to address global issues.

The context is an intensifying need for technology cooperation. We are more dependent on technology and digital platforms than ever before, and the pandemic has only accelerated this reliance.

Have you read?
It is a global imperative to make technology available to all at scale and speed in a way that fosters confidence among all stakeholders.

Speakers included: Hans Vestberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Verizon Communications & Chair of the EDISON Alliance; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; and Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information Communication Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Innovation of Rwanda.

They spoke about international cooperation and why this is critical when it comes to technology for societal progress.

'Connectivity is a human right'
Hans Vestberg highlighted that with 3.6 billion people still offline today, we need to use 21st century infrastructure (mobility, broadband and cloud services) to get accessible and affordable technology and digital services for everyone.

That's why the EDISON Alliance is working to enhance digital inclusion for 1 billion people across healthcare, education, financial services.

View: https://youtu.be/mV3eJKHLYLQ
1:13 min

*******

'Funding for digital infrastructure is a top priority'
Sunil Bharti Mittal stressed that many people have the coverage to be online, but not the affordability. If a country like India can provide high-quality data at a low monthly cost, the same can be done in marginalized parts of the world.

Key players in the digital ecosystem and governments need to come together to provide affordability to those who may otherwise never get connected.

View: https://youtu.be/Rd-mheGu3lw
1:10 min

^^^^^^^^^

'A policy and regulatory environment that nurtures innovation'
Minister Paula Ingabire noted the importance of technology cooperation for governments to address common challenges in the road for recovery post-pandemic. That's why the EDISON Alliance is creating a network of like-minded countries to galvanize the partnerships and commitments made to digital inclusion to drive digital transformation.

View: https://youtu.be/OR3ko_4SKYE
.29 Min

Digital inclusion as part of a sustainable business strategy
Accessibility, affordability, and application of technology will be reached not by one company or one government alone, it must be a cross-sector effort. Regulators and governments must work with digital players to deliver a universal approach to connectivity. Transparency is also key to build trust in the digital ecosystem.

The discussion highlighted the need for agile governance and regulatory frameworks, serving society and people. It also called for adequate financial architecture to ensure we can serve everyone in the planet, along with a multistakeholder engagement framework that builds sustainable responsibility into business models.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

WEF's Schwab Gives China's Xi Propaganda Platform Against "Hegemonic Bullying... Cold War Mentality"

MONDAY, JAN 17, 2022 - 07:00 PM

With Davos shut down by the latest incarnation of COVID variant, the world's great-est and good-est decided this year's get together to tell the world what they should think would be done virtually this year.

None other than the Dr.Evil-esque Klaus Schwab kicked things off in a brief introductory statement that had everything except a pinky-finger-in-the-corner-of-the-mouth:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1483023169678192644
.54 min

After urging his fellow elites to "narrow the gap between rich and poor," Schwab introduced Chinese President Xi Jinping who wasted not time in warning against the "fanning of ideological antagonism and the politicizing of economic, scientific and technological issues."

Diplomatically careful not to accuse any individual country - but blatantly obvious to anyone not completely red-pilled by Schwab's heroic introduction of the Chinese leader - Xi warned nations against protectionism, well as "hegemony and bullying," urging countries to work cooperatively on global challenges.
“We need to discard Cold War mentality and seek peaceful co-existence and win-win outcomes.”

Our world today is far from being tranquil. Rhetorics that stoke hatred and prejudice abound. Acts of containment, suppression or confrontation arising thereof do all harm, not the least good to world peace and security,” he added, according to a translation.

History has proved time and again that confrontation does not solve problems. It only invites catastrophic consequences."

"Protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one. They ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one’s own. Even worse are the practices of hegemony and bullying, which run counter to the tide of history.

Xi said the “right way forward for humanity is peaceful development and win-win cooperation.”
Read Xi's full statement here.

This is the same Xi who is peacefully militarizing islands in the Pacific, recently bullied any dissenters (or media) in Hong Kong, hegemonically pressuring Taiwan's democratically-elected leaders to accept his rule, and 'allegedly' is suppressing millions of Uyghur muslims.



However, amid all the blame-scaping for global unease, Xi's true fears emerged as he made it very clear that "economic globalization is the trend of the times" and that other nations tightening policies (as China eases) is a recipe for disaster (in the world according to Xi):
"The global low inflation environment has notably changed, and the risks of inflation driven by multiple factors are surfacing.

If major economies slam on the brakes or take a U-turn in their monetary policies, there would be serious negative spillovers.

They would present challenges to global economic and financial stability, and developing countries would bear the brunt of it."
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1483026555966271489
.23 min

As we have noted previously, this is likely to become THE global economy story of the first half of 2022 as China is forced to ease (with PPI in the double-digits and growth still above 8%) to forestall a housing crisis and social unrest while the rest of the world is tightening (especially The Fed) amid multi-decade high inflation and political pressures.

1642477921317.png

We have little doubt that the rhetoric from Beijing will crank up to '11' once The Fed starts hiking and China sees huge capital outflows - mostly via crypto.

The forward FX market still expected Yuan to weaken (against the USD) over the next 12 months...



BUT, simply put, one of these two 'markets' will be wrong - the market is anticipating dramatic rate-hikes this year by The Fed AND is expecting the Chinese Yuan to strengthen (or weaken less) over the same period...



And we suspect we know which as Rabobank noted earlier:
"Whichever way the Fed goes, it will be wrong. Back off, and watch inflation expectations become more entrenched. Press on, and watch things get ugly."
And finally, if you doubted Xi's support for one-world-government (presumably based in Beijing), this closing paragraph should clarify things:
"Major economies should see the world as one community, think in a more systematic way, increase policy transparency and information sharing, and coordinate the objectives, intensity and pace of fiscal and monetary policies, so as to prevent the world economy from plummeting again. Major developed countries should adopt responsible economic policies, manage policy spillovers, and avoid severe impacts on developing countries. International economic and financial institutions should play their constructive role to pool global consensus, enhance policy synergy and prevent systemic risks."
...
"We should follow the trend of history, work for a stable international order, advocate common values of humanity, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. We should choose dialogue over confrontation, inclusiveness over exclusion, and stand against all forms of unilateralism, protectionism, hegemony or power politics."
Translation: Can't we all just get along... in line behind Beijing.
 
Last edited:

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Freedom Is The Answer

MONDAY, JAN 17, 2022 - 03:30 PM
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

I’m now looking again at the polls of Biden’s popularity. They are shocking, even devastating.

We are looking at nearly a 12-point split between approval and disapproval. I’m assuming that the reality is much worse, given that everyone knows what one is supposed to tell the pollsters. They are not looking for disapproval. They are looking for compliance. That so many are willing just to say what they think is striking.

To me, these numbers represent far more than the unpopularity of one guy. They are but a sign — a slight one but one we can see — of something far more fundamental going on.

What we see here is a deeply dangerous loss of trust not only in government, but in everything, including tech, media, experts in general, and a growing cultural perception that truth is no longer accessible to us.



We are living amidst the rising of information chaos, the late stages of what Robert Malone has called mass formation psychosis. Where it ends up cannot be known in advance, but that something is coming and will hit us very hard is no longer in doubt.

I’m still astonished that all of this happened in a mere two years. We went from the feel of peace, prosperity and contentment to absolutism and chaos so quickly. Every time it has seemed like it was ending, there has been another round of awful.

And as I’m writing now, the nation is awash in sickness, despite all the measures, the vaccinations, the obsessions, the mitigations with masks and you name it. It has all failed.

What’s Next?
The pandemic will end as they always do: with the arrival of herd immunity. That stage becomes the point at which the virus is a normal part of life, breeding with other viruses and becoming normal and seasonal like any sickness.

My experts tell me that we are about a month away from that point in the Northeast, but that it has yet to make the rounds in the South, which could be facing a tough spring and summer.

Regardless, it comes to an end, with or without vaccination. What does not end so easily is the statism, the monitoring, the despotism, the urge to control, the rules, the threat that it could all happen again.

Getting rid of the pandemic is something nature takes care of. Getting rid of the pandemic controls and the urge to bludgeon people into compliance is a much harder task. It will not likely be accomplished by any political movement.

The answer is likely to be bound up with noncompliance. Many people are already there. They are done obeying. Many people have quit their jobs. They have moved. They have upended their lives in shocking ways. They have completely rethought their relationships to civic institutions and leaders. And they are ready for something entirely new.

The psychologist who is the world’s leading scholar on mass formation psychosis said something interesting in a recent interview. He is Dr. Mattias Desmet of the University of Ghent.

He says that the answer is not merely to go back to the previous normal we used to enjoy. It was that old normal that set the stage for the upheaval. We cannot go back because then we risk repeating what we just lived through.

Instead, he says, the entire culture and all countries need to discover a new way of living and thinking, a new relationship with our civic leaders and a new relationship with each other. He declines to say precisely what that looks like.

I will say it, however.

Freedom Is the Answer
It must be rooted in the traditions of freedom. We need to learn to find happiness in human choice, tolerance and peace with our neighbors. We need to again find joy in work and fulfillment in prosperity and health.

That is a rebuilding exercise that will consume the dominant part of the rest of our lives.

It will likely have to take place in the midst of a growing economic crisis. Inflation might calm down a bit in the first quarter, but the money sloshing around the country and the world has to end up somewhere.

It will eventually convert to a much different price level that we have right now. All our savings are at risk. All the things we took for granted in the past could come into question as people look desperately for a way out.

What Can We Trust?
People masked up. They distanced. They curbed their social activities. They complied with the shots, one, then two, then the booster. They did everything right. And they got the virus anyway.

It is impossible to underestimate the implications of this for millions of people. They trusted the experts. The experts were wrong. Now people have to ask themselves what is next.

Above all else, this is going to be about regaining health. Eat right. Exercise. Get sun. Stop the junk food. Focus on fundamentals. Eat fresh things. Stay as stress-free as possible. Stop playing games with substances that are unhealthy. If we really do all intend to live past the age of 80, we are going to have to rethink many aspects of our lives.

In addition, some of the most astute cultural observers out there are predicting a widespread return to religious faith. Sadly, many of the religious institutions of our past acquiesced to the tyranny. They did not resist. They even preached compliance with practices pushed by Fauci and others, surrendering their leadership in the spiritual realm.

The ones that did not were the oddballs out there, the Amish, the Orthodox Jews and the independent evangelicals. They kept their integrity. They are likely to thrive in the future.

The Crypto Moment
Other institutions that sailed through this crisis will thrive as well. It is impossible not to notice that Bitcoin and associated cryptos paid almost no attention at all to the pandemic, to the shutdowns, to the crackdowns and controls. Blockchain applications continued to function beautifully, without a hitch.

Friends of mine are careful these days to put away as much as 20% of their paycheck into Bitcoin and other cryptos. They leave them there, not spending them unless absolutely necessary. They keep them in cold wallets, holding them and guarding them for the days ahead. This makes sense.

We once imagined that cryptocurrency would become the hand-to-hand currency that would replace fiat money. That day may be coming, but it is a very long way off.

The economic function of crypto has been in fact to serve as the safe haven in a world gone mad, an uncorrupted and incorruptible source of value that ignores the nation-state and the madness of political culture.

I never wanted to live in a world with mass loss of trust in everything that so many generations worked so hard for so long to build. But that is where we are. Now is the time for resilience and fortitude, and all the other virtues taught to us by the ancients.

Despite all our modern technologies and conveniences, in the end what will save us are not our gadgets, but our values.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(UK)


UK Government Hires Ad Agency to Convince the Public They Don’t Need Privacy
The government thinks all communications should be available for snooping.

by Didi Rankovic

January 17, 2022
UK Government Hires Ad Agency to Convince the Public They Don’t Need Privacy

The UK is stepping up its “war on encryption,” reports are saying, and like in any good old war, propaganda comes first to “prepare the ground.” And a new campaign is expected to launch as early as this month.

In this case, they call it publicity, with the Home Office being behind the effort whose goal is to sway public opinion in favor of undermining the privacy of the very members of that public – using their own money from public funds, to the tune of over half a million pounds.

Meanwhile the “hired gun” is ad agency M&C Saatchi. The Rolling Stone said it had a chance to review documents thanks to a Freedom of Information request, and that what it discovered were “some shockingly manipulative tactics.”

The main target seems to be Facebook’s Messenger app, specifically, the giant company’s move to better encrypt communications of its users. The government’s narrative is old – “think of the children” – the way many politicians try to push through policies of deeper and broader restrictions that eventually end up hurting everybody.

But the UK government appears to want to wrap that “classic” message in some new advertising glitz – as it launches what the Rolling Stone calls “a publicity blitz” to undermine privacy of people’s chats.

“We have engaged M&C Saatchi to bring together the many organizations who share our concerns about the impact end-to-end encryption would have on our ability to keep children safe,” said a statement from the Home Office.

The advertising agency has reportedly gone with visualizing end-to-end encryption – which safeguards people’s security and privacy online and keeps bad actors out – as something sinister and dark. The report says that this is done by putting two actors, an adult and a child, both appearing to be on their phones, in a glass box installed in a public space, which gradually becomes black.

The idea here is that allowing law enforcement near unfettered access to people’s communications would represent the clear glass, while encryption dims it until the goings on inside the box become invisible.

The documents, a presentation to get non-profits on side, also contains a slide saying that since “most of the public” is ignorant about end-to-end encryption they can be easily swayed, while the recommendation is not to allow the campaign to turn into “a privacy vs safety debate.”
But that’s exactly what it is, advocates suggest.

“The Home Office’s scaremongering campaign is as disingenuous as it is dangerous. Without strong encryption, children are more vulnerable online than ever. Encryption protects personal safety and national security… what the government is proposing puts everyone at risk,” said Robin Wilton, a director with the Internet Society.

Image by Stafford GREEN from Pixabay. Article cross-posted from Reclaim The Net.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

It’s Scary How Similar Western Countries’ Covid Responses Are To China’s

BY: HELEN RALEIGH
JANUARY 17, 2022

COVID tracking app

IMAGE CREDITMARCO VERCH PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER / FLICKR
It would be wrong to assume that casualties of ‘zero COVID’ rules only occur in authoritarian states such as Communist China.

Author Helen Raleigh profile

HELEN RALEIGH

Since the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China more than two years ago, the Chinese government has adopted “zero tolerance” Covid policies and frequently relied on harsh measures such as lockdowns and mandatory quarantines to try to stop the virus.

Most Chinese people chose to comply with the government’s orders and endure any negative consequences quietly. However, in recent days, even the Chinese people have reached a point of “enough is enough” upon learning that a pregnant woman lost her unborn child after a hospital refused to admit her due to its strict Covid-19 policy.

Lockdowns Deny Treatment to Pregnant Mothers
The tragedy took place in Xi’an, a city of 13 million residents. Xi’an has been under a strict lockdown since mid-December. Schools are closed, and most public services are suspended. No indoor dining or outdoor gatherings are permitted. Only one person from each household can go grocery shopping every two days.

So far, the city has reported just more than 2,000 Covid-19 cases (the city likely underreported its case numbers). Reportedly, most cases have been mild, and there is zero death. Still, many hospitals in the city have dedicated their capacity to Covid-19 patients and stopped admitting non-Covid patients, “especially those from at-risk areas.”

Last week, news broke of a hospital that rejected a woman who was eight months pregnant because her Covid test was a few hours too old. Despite her heavy bleeding, the hospital made her wait outside in the cold for two hours before it finally admitted her. She ended up losing her unborn child.

The story prompted a second pregnant woman to report on social media that two hospitals rejected her because of their Covid policies. By the time she got a third hospital to admit her, her baby had already died.

While many Chinese citizens expressed sympathy for her, they couldn’t contain their outrage for the hospitals and, ultimately, the Chinese government’s draconian “zero tolerance” Covid policies. “This is so infuriating,” someone wrote on one of China’s social media platforms. “The death rate of Covid-19 is dropping, while the costs of ‘zero tolerance’ are rising.”

It would be wrong to assume this kind of tragedy only occurs in an authoritarian state such as Communist China. Many western democracies have imposed similar “zero tolerance” Covid policies, which have caused considerable and sometimes irreversible harm. These policies also make democracies indistinguishable from authoritarian states by stamping on people’s freedom.

In Australia, Citizens Defecate in Cars Awaiting COVID Tests
Australia is a perfect example of how “zero tolerance” Covid-19 policies have turned a once-free nation into a tyrannical state. The federal government has closed Australia’s borders since spring 2020, so few people have been allowed to come and go. Australia’s state governments have also closed state borders, preventing most Australians from traveling across state lines.

In addition to strict border closures, Australian states have imposed vaccine mandates and multiple lockdowns, deployed police and even soldiers to enforce lockdown rules, and arrested anti-lockdown protesters. Some states rely on technologies such as facial recognition software to ensure residents comply with mandatory quarantine orders.

Regardless, Australia’s insane “zero tolerance” policies have been largely ineffective, especially against the highly infectious omicron variant.

newplot.png


Australia Daily Confirmed New Cases (7-Day Average), provided by Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg News reported last week that Australia’s case counts had dropped 100,000 for the first time.

1642484036797.png

The Australian government’s mandates and the rapid spread of omicron cases have caused long lines outside of testing centers nationwide. Since there are not enough toilets at these testing centers and the wait times have been so long, some people reportedly had to relieve themselves in public, in their cars, or consider wearing adult diapers. That free people in a developed nation allowed the state to humiliate them this way is both embarrassing and depressing.

Do not expect sanity to return to Australia anytime soon. Tennis star Novak Djokovic, probably one of the healthiest individuals on this planet, had his visa revoked by the Australian government and was confined in an immigration detention center in Melbourne for getting an exemption from the Covid vaccine.

Never mind that Djokovic has natural immunity because he recovered from Covid-19 recently. Djokovic was finally set free after a federal court ruled in his favor. But on Friday, Australia’s immigration minister announced the country was canceling Djokovic’s visa for a second time.

In America, Students Stunted and Critical Surgeries Canceled
Here in the United States, we have endured the consequences of our own “zero tolerance” Covid-19 policies. Since clinics and hospitals have restricted the number of visitors in the name of Covid, several of my girlfriends who got pregnant last year had to make all their prenatal visits alone. When one delivered a stillborn baby, the hospital would not allow the baby’s grandparents or any family member other than the woman’s husband to visit her and say their final goodbye to the baby.

Emergency rooms in some states are turning away patients and hospitals are postponing non-emergency surgeries due to staff shortages, partially caused by the firing of unvaccinated health-care workers. Frustrated patients have gone to the ER for non-emergency services and Covid testing, contributing to overcrowded emergency rooms and a long wait for patients who need urgent health care.

The most significant casualties of the “zero tolerance” policies are American children and young adults. Their mental health and quality of learning have suffered due to prolonged school closures and ineffective remote learning. Even The New York Times finally acknowledged that American youth have paid a hefty price, and they shouldn’t have to grow up this way. Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins University slammed elite universities for their extreme Covid-19 policies that “defy science and reason.”

These “zero-tolerance” Covid policies are cruel and harmful, and dangerous because they try to achieve an impossible goal — stopping Covid-19. Even the Centers for Disease Control admits that while Covid vaccines prevent us from getting seriously ill, they won’t stop the transmission of the virus either, and vaccinated people can still get and spread Covid-19. It’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay, and it is one of the many risks in life that we have to learn to live with.

There is little the Chinese people can do to change their authoritarian government’s “zero tolerance” policies. But here in the United States, we can demand an end to these indefensible policies with all the tools our democracy affords us, such as writing open letters, speaking up at school board meetings, or showing up at the ballot box. It is up to us to reject bad policies, protect our children, and get our lives and liberty back.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
[COMMENT: ESG (Environment, Social Justice/Governance) scoring of banks, corporations and individuals is a new scheme to force woke values on US finance, banking and business.]


In Texas, ESG Virtue-Signaling Is a Risky Investment

By RICHARD MORRISON
January 17, 2022 6:30 AM

Houston-Texas.jpg
Buildings in downtown Houston, Texas reflect the light of the sun setting, October 15, 2004. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

A lesson in the perils of politicized finance.

As the old saying goes, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

Large financial corporations are now being skewered in the Lone Star State as the anti-oil-and-gun virtue signaling they undertook to attract approval from liberals on Wall Street runs afoul of the pro-oil-and-gun commitments they made to gain access to state contracts in Texas. While the conflict might seem comical, the results will likely mean significant legal headaches for big players like Citigroup in the near future and greater skepticism of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing going forward.

Reuters reported recently that officials in the Fort Worth, Texas, field office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been sending inquiry letters to banks doing business in that state. The letters are part of their process of verifying that firms are living up to the ESG virtue tests that they have set up for themselves. Some of those firms have publicly announced that they will not engage in business ventures anywhere that promote fossil-fuel development or the sales of firearms — popular institutional orientations for the politically correct business crowd. The problem is that the state of Texas won’t let such firms do things like underwrite state and local bond issues unless they publicly promise not to boycott oil and firearm companies.

This obviously puts such firms in an awkward position. Less obviously, it also puts the SEC, now led by Biden appointee Gary Gensler, in new territory as well. Rather than merely cheerlead the adoption of ever more woke corporate policies (of which Commissioner Allison Herren Lee has been an especially enthusiastic supporter), they’re now policing — and potentially punishing —those firms that make the most strident ESG claims. That shifts the regulatory dynamic significantly.

Last year, for example, the SEC created a new task force within its enforcement division to “proactively identify ESG-related misconduct.” This includes policies and statements that are considered “greenwashing,” i.e., that mislead investors by making a firm appear more environmentally aligned than it really is. The agency even went so far as to solicit “tips, referrals, and whistleblower complaints” related to potential ESG chicanery. Many ESG claims, such as a company being “responsible” and “proactive” on climate change, are essentially non-falsifiable.

Public declarations like those required to do business in Texas, in contrast, are more specific and potentially actionable by the SEC, especially given how broadly the agency has been reimagining its enforcement powers over the last year.

I wrote about this dynamic for Fortune last May, making (what I assumed was) a rather obvious point: While the SEC’s enforcement task force was considered a “pro-ESG” policy move that took the policies seriously, it was likely to have a chilling effect on the adoption of such policies moving forward. Just as supply-side economists like to remind us that taxing something ends up producing less of it, so responding to bold corporate ESG claims with investigations and potential enforcement actions will likely result in fewer of those pledges. For years, advocates of politicized investing have claimed that the progressive approach was all about reducing and mitigating investment risk. But what we have now is a corporate counsel’s worst nightmare — a scenario in which the trendiest business practices of the day are directly amplifying a firm’s reputational and legal risk.

That the chance of this happening has substantially increased because of regulations originating in Texas is especially interesting. The home of the Alamo is such a large market that, like its evil twin California, it can set de facto rules for the rest of the country. Educational policy experts, for example, have complained for decades that state officials in Texas have unfairly skewed the market for public-school textbooks. The author of a 2020 article in the Washington Post went so far as to claim that “conservative activists in Texas have shaped the history all American children learn”. This may have been an exaggeration, but it was certainly not a compliment. Exaggeration or not, we can expect that state laws targeted at woke investing in places like Texas and Florida will likely have a much larger impact than those in, say, Mississippi and Wyoming, will all due respect to the patriotic legislators of Jackson and Cheyenne.

But while conservative political operatives may be licking their chops at the prospect of sticking it to left-wing financiers based in New York City (especially given the forecasts for the 2022 midterm elections), we would all be better off without having to engage in such a conflict in the first place. If large financial institutions would adopt a “back to neutral” stance on divisive and controversial political campaigns — such as attempting to starve U.S. energy and firearms companies of capital — defensive policies like those in Texas would never have been necessary.

Also, the SEC is not wrong to police ESG claims that are actually misleading and fraudulent, as even Republican commissioner Elad Roisman suggested in a 2020 speech. But we wouldn’t need to send politically motivated ESG claims through the clunky federal government fact-checking process if CEOs stopped acting like woke social-media influencers, eager to stake their firm’s reputation on the latest activist demand.

Not every firm is going to end up being caught between a rock and a Texas-style hard place. But over the coming year, it is almost certain that more companies are going to end up being subjected to “Were you lying then or are you lying now?”–type inquisitions. Progressive commitments, adopted in haste amid fawning news coverage, will be repented amid uncomfortable questions about whether the company has lived up to its lofty public rhetoric. If any of these firms had listened to the many free-market advocates who warned them about getting into this mess in the first place, I might even feel bad for them.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

The SEC’s Green Name Game

By JENNIFER J. SCHULP
January 14, 2022 6:30 AM
sec-seal-washington.jpg
Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

The agency is not — and should not be — in the business of deciding what is good for the environment and society.

When considering the prospect of “green” finance, I’m often tempted to burst into song: Green, green, bo-bean, bo-na-na fanna, fo-fean, fee fi mo-mean. Green! Perhaps this can be attributed to my children, who are entranced by the rhymes in Shirley Ellis’s iconic song, “The Name Game.” Yet rather fortuitously, that song can actually help us in thinking about how to name investment products.

While determining what “green” means — or what qualifies as such — is not a new endeavor, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently begun to wrestle with it for investment products. As funds advertising themselves as green or ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reap record inflows, there’s growing concern that investments may not be as environmentally or socially “responsible” as the products’ marketing implies. Some call this “greenwashing” — a term first coined more than 30 years ago by an environmentalist who was skeptical of the hotel industry’s encouragement of reusing towels to save the environment — but it’s easy to think of it as bending the term green beyond any meaning, just as Ellis’s song does.

Investment funds claiming to be ESG-focused or ESG-friendly may follow a myriad of different strategies — some of them genuine, others not. But what, if anything, should the SEC do about it? Everyone agrees that investors should not be deceived; that’s why the SEC already has plenty of tools at its disposal to ensure that funds live up to their promises to investors. Yet classifying investments as green or sustainable seems to be an entirely separate matter — far beyond the SEC’s remit and its capabilities.

Unfortunately, the SEC seems to be seriously considering requiring funds to meet standards in order to use ESG-related marketing terms.

It’s tempting to see that condition merely as a “truth in advertising” regulation, as SEC chairman Gary Gensler has attempted to couch it. But such regulations are easiest to enforce and least distortive when the “truth” is not subjective. Compare listing a food’s ingredients, for example, with determining whether that food can be called “organic.” The SEC has rules that speak to the former; the “Names Rule” generally requires that if a fund’s name suggests a particular type of investment, industry, or geographic focus, at least 80 percent of the fund’s assets must be invested consistently with the name. This rule, however, does not apply to the more-subjective terms describing a fund’s investment objective, strategy, or policies. For such terms as “growth” or “value,” an investor must dig deeper than the name to understand the fund’s investments.

The SEC sought comment on the Names Rule in 2020, and Gensler has recently suggested that the SEC staff take a “holistic” look at it. But the SEC should not define criteria that must be met before funds can use marketing terms related to strategies — specifically of the ESG variety.

Despite its own inappropriate marketing push for investors to try ESG funds, the SEC is not — and should not be — in the business of deciding what is good for the environment and society. Where there is little agreement about what is and what is not green — see, for example, the current debates in the European Union about how to classify natural gas and nuclear energy for sustainability purposes — any definition necessarily results in the SEC’s choosing winners and losers. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are trade-offs among the E, S, and G in ESG policy.

Letting the markets sort out different conceptions of sustainability based on what investors want is a far better course of action. This private ordering may not create a neat or clean solution, but that’s to be expected when there’s nothing neat or clean about defining what is environmentally friendly or socially desirable.

None of this is to suggest that investors should be misled about the strategy that their investment follows. The SEC can combat some greenwashing by enforcing rules already on its books that govern how investment advisers and investment funds communicate with their investors, including anti-fraud rules. Taking regulatory action to ensure that advisers and funds act consistently with their disclosed strategies and objectives is generally uncontroversial and can be particularly important where investors are paying higher management fees for ESG investments. The SEC has already been busy on this front: In the last year, the agency formed a task force, launched at least two reviews of asset-manager practices, and issued a risk alert.

Whether some sort of additional disclosure by fund managers about their strategies can help investors is highly dependent on the disclosure required, but it’s important to not view disclosure (which has its own costs) as a panacea.

Greenwashing is best combatted by the continued development of voluntary and private structures that help to define the term “green” for different investors and provide discipline that subjects funds to reputational harm when they advertise themselves as green without reason. In the end, it’s better to let “green” get twisted a bit by the Name Game if it means that it can be more responsive to diverse or changing ideas about what it means to be sustainable.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7zKEc5gT_I
13:55 min

Recognizing the rise of TYRANNY in America & how to STOP IT

Jan 17, 2022


Glenn Beck


The Great Reset is a story of tyranny, Glenn explains. In times of extreme chaos — like we’ve experienced recently — most will gravitate to the political party that promises answers, even when those solutions are destructive. But during that process, power escapes from the people and finds itself in the hands of the state. There IS good news, however: tyranny CAN be defeated…as long as there’s one, lone voice willing to disagree with the powerful majority. So, could that lone voice be yours?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
1642490482301.png

^^^^^^

Scenarios For The Future Of Technology and International Development, a 2010 Rockefeller Foundation Report that Holds its Ground in the Pandemic
By
Mina Aryal
-
May 22, 2020

The Future Of Technology

May 22, 2020, Kathmandu (Edited to remove comments pertaining primarily to Nepal )

Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development is a document that comes from the Rockefeller Foundation. It has existed since 1913 with the mission to promote the well-being of humanity. It seeks to identify and accelerate breakthrough solutions and ideas to solve global challenges – similar to what the world is facing right now with the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Technology has always shaped and revolutionized the globe. For Rockefeller, there was no doubt that it could address a wide range of development changes in the future.

The study by the Rockefeller Foundation involved choosing a timeframe of 15 to 20 years. Then comes the building of scenarios that could possibly determine the technology that could shape the capacity of individuals, society, and the world. Moreover, it was important to visualize technologies of the future that could uplift the lives of vulnerable populations in the world.

Future Of Technology and International Development

Driving Forces Affecting the Scenario of Future Technology and International Development
Based on interviews and secondary researches, the foundation chose two uncertainties that would define the four scenarios for future technology and international development. These uncertainties are rather divergent, challenging, internally consistent, and reasonable.

These are:

Driving Forces Affecting the Scenario of Future Technology

Political and Economic Alignment
The current scenario of the world pretty much defines this uncertainty. In fact, the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic has affected economic integration and political structures. The flow of goods, capital, movement of people, and their ideas have been affected.

Similarly, political structures play a vital role to determine how a nation faces a global challenge. It is not the same for all areas or nations.

On one end of this uncertainty axis, we would see stronger international relations and global collaborations to solve problems. Similarly, the global economy would be thriving with high trade volumes. At the other end of the axis, there lies the failure of collaboration and interconnected solutions to pressing global challenges. And, fragmentation of trade with downslide in the global economy.

Needless to say what end of the axis we are at currently. Most open-borders in the globe have been sealed and international flights are at hold. However, the demand for technology has crossed new levels with the need to stay connected while practicing ‘social distancing’.

Adaptive Capacity
Another uncertainty that affects the future of technology and international development is the capacity to cope with the change. Crisis demands adaptive capacity like managing existing systems or upgrade the systems and structures to meet the requirements.

It is extremely important to ensure resilience against external forces as well. For example, with the closure of educational institutes, how are the management, teachers, and students coping?

Obviously, some started providing online classes without any further delays – this is the proper use of resources that we have. However, to sustain it for years to come, we need to upgrade the infrastructures.

Present Scenarios for Technology Development
All nations may be experiencing different scenarios that the report from the Rockefeller Foundation presents. But one thing is for sure – the pandemic has opened doors for new opportunities in the field of technology.

With traveling prohibited and the majority of countries in lockdown, individuals and society are becoming more independent. The aftermath of the pandemic will also spark the need for limiting physical contact. So, most industries have already put their trust in the future of technology.

Tech companies are considering long-term remote work strategies while there are also a few that have crashed along with the economy. Every industry is realizing the importance of technology in tackling uncertain challenges and moving forward towards a sustainable future.

Meanwhile, cyberattacks are also emerging during the crisis. It’s majorly because of the lack of readiness to shift online and proper guidance.

Conclusion
Each scenario in the report leads to the adoption of different strategies. We can never be well-prepared for an unseen event but what matters is how fast we can adapt and fight the crisis.

While the scenarios are quite different, but the common factor is the need for innovation that shapes future technology. With the provision of technology and its features, another pressing issue that needs to be addressed is its availability.

So, what we need is a better understanding of the impact of technology on development so that each individual can benefit from it. When that becomes possible, we can see the world advancing in a positive direction.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
Glenn Beck harps on the great reset during his radio show, daily....daily!
Yes, his new book is about the Great Reset. Today's video is on New Hampshire trying to pass a law outlawing ESG scoring. (I suspect that is what happened to Mike Lindell when he was recently debanked)

West VA has taken their public pensions out of BlackRock because of China investment and anti-coal

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFai_2_Dhg
8:29 min
There’s ONE WAY to stop The Great Reset & THESE states have already begun

Jan 18, 2022


Glenn Beck


There’s only one way to stop The Great Reset, Glenn says, and thankfully some courageous Americans have already begun the process. Glenn details their efforts in this clip, including New Hampshire lawmakers banning ESG policies, a West Virginia treasurer taking a stand against BlackRock, and American Express shareholders pushing back against woke ideology within the company. ’This is SIGNIFICANT,’ Glenn says, and it demonstrates exactly how other states, politicians, and Americans can resist The Great Reset, too.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

1642563725358.png

Background
Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS) are techniques used by military and police forces to influence a target audience’s value systems, belief systems, emotions, motives, reasoning, and behavior. Target audiences can be governments, organizations, groups, and individuals, and are used in order to induce confessions, or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator’s objectives. These are sometimes combined with black operations or false flag tactics.

pdf.gif
Guide to Psychological Warfare Records in Departmental Records Branch, October 1951 [184 Pages, 10.42MB]

Document Archive
pdf.gif
The Creation and Dissemination of All Forms of Information in Support of Psychological Operations (PSYOP) in Time of Military Conflict [63 Pages]
pdf.gif
Doctrine for Joint Psychological Operations [66 Pages]
pdf.gif
“Final Draft, Executive Summary, Volume 3 – Psychological Operations – 75 , Special Warfare – 75 , Basic Derivative Study (BDS) [38 pages, 5.34mb]
pdf.gif
Joint Psychological Operations Task Force Headquarters Master Training Guide [330 Pages, 31.1MB] – This manual provides a descriptive, performance-oriented training guide to assist leaders in training their units and guiding the functions of the joint psychological operations task force (JP01F) headquarters (HQ) in actual operations.
pdf.gif
Overt Psychological Operations – DoD Directive S-3321.1 [8 Pages, 1.28mb]
pdf.gif
Psychological Effects of U.S. Air Operations in Four Wars, 1941-1991. Lessons for U.S. Commanders [243 Pages]
pdf.gif
PSYOP Operations in the 21st Century [38 Pages]
pdf.gif
United States Special Operations Command Security Classification Guide for the Psychological Operations Planning and Analysis System (POPAS) [28 Pages, 1.19MB]
pdf.gif
WAR.COM: The Internet and Psychological Operations [30 Pages]
facebook Share on Facebook
 
Top