Never curse your blindness when you learn to see. Be gracious, and just accept the gift.
Humankind, I feel, is the only force in our universe with an interest in punishment. Pain begets pain, and our natural inclination is to pleasure, to expansion, to challenge, to joy and to love.
Faith is really openness. The opposite of faith is not doubt, but rigidity. It is false certainty, bought at the price of losing one’s connection with life. It is a flimsy shelter, defended all the more violently for it.
Faith is not believing, really. It is putting all worries from your mind and living simply and honestly, forgetting tomorrow, forgetting yesterday, and rushing headlong in the experiences–good and bad–of each day.
The mustard seed does not need to believe to increase in size a hundred or thousandfold. It simply has to continue doing what is in its nature every day and, given the right climate and nutrients, everything else takes care of itself.
At the most basic level our task is to simply keep living. That is, I think, sufficient. Life is hard enough without compounding it endlessly with added weight.
“Sufficient unto the day are the evils therein.”
I have to say the New Testament seems to be opening up to me a bit.
It would not be hard to listen to all the nay-sayers now. We have Republicans–at least people who call themselves Republicans and who used our donations to get elected–saying there is no fraud. Joe Biden won. Nothing to see.
I would remind all of you, in the face of this gaslighting BY OUR OWN SIDE that the media has been claiming for four years that Donald Trump got elected because 12 Russians were on Facebook. Or something. It’s never been clear, and they have never really cared.
I see Moscow Mitch thrown around, which is, to throw in an Orwellianism, doubleplus stupid. One, Trump had nothing to do with Russia, and two McConnell had even less than nothing. It is literally careless, thoughtless, irresponsible fools babbling in their cribs until they chance on something they like the sound of.
I will remind you that the Clintons belong in jail for many reasons. Hillary belongs in jail for having that server, for destroying evidence after it was subpoenaed, and for handling classified data that would have put any career soldier in Leavenworth for decades.
All the Clintons belong in jail for graft and misappropriation of funds. I think even Chelsea belongs in jail for using money intended for starving and homeless Haitians for her opulent wedding.
Joe Biden belongs in jail for helping frame Michael Flynn. So too do Barack Obama and James Comey. Joe Biden also belongs in jail for taking on the order of billions in bribes. His son belongs in jail for being a pedophile creep, and for helping with all the corruption.
John Brennan belongs in jail for helping with the whole Russia dossier, which amounts to the CIA Director more or less openly–we KNOW pretty much what happened–trying to lead a coup against his own government, which is illegal in many ways.
And Jeffrey Epstein, who had sex tapes of nearly everyone, was murdered in a maximum security prison, where he was expected to be murdered, and the perpetrators got away with it. The FBI canned it.
You are not crazy. There WAS an absolutely mind boggling, staggering amount of voter fraud. The FBI no longer works for the American people. Our Justice Department no longer dispenses justice.
I have no idea what the future holds, but the present should always contain the truth–as much of it as we can see and deduce–to the extent possible.
I have three prayers I say daily. I pray for the ability to see, to know what to do, and for the courage to execute my duties with fidelity. My future may contain little or no mercy, but I cannot see any other way to live but with fidelity and courage. Everything else is a suicide, and I fear losing myself, my integrity, more than anything.
―
EVERYTHING that is needed to turn us from a free and prosperous nation into an oppressed and impoverished nation is in place. Many if not most of our “leaders” are crooks, idiots or cowards. Our court system is not working to evaluate evidence of wrongdoing. Our law enforcement is not investigating these crimes AT ALL, as far as I can tell, and self evidently the media is enacting Pravda levels of disinformation and censorship. Nearly all media outlets are complicit, and certainly those viewed by probably 90% of Americans.
This is Rudy Guiliani, and–surreally–implicitly our President, going directly to the American people with evidence which is being largely suppressed nearly everywhere.
From My Happy Days in Hell, page 63.
This is a continuation of the on-going dialogue between Faludy–who for all intents and purposes is a political Liberal as that term should be properly understood–and his companion Bandi, who is a somewhat self loathing but also proud Communist. The context is that Stalin has just allied with Hitler–which was a horrific and confusing moment for the world’s Communists–and Freud has just died. They are out at a dinner party paid for by a third companion, a brilliant but lazy man, who made good money writing an essay on Freud, who he knew personally (and who had also just predicted the fall of France, since the French had become so obviously decadent and incompetent; he had just refused to write a book singing the praises of the Maginot Line because he expected it to fail, fully and quickly, which of course is what happened).
Bandi, in familiar psychodynamic terms, has just spoken of the death of his “second mother”, Communism. Falludy, in effect, expects a resurrection.
Quite recently you formulated your attitude beautifully. You said that communist ideology was the prison of your mind but the horizon of your heart. Yet, I must contradict you. I should compare the Marxist-Leninist ideology not to a massive prison building but to a wobbly pillar left over from the past century. It could be brought down by a single kick but what would be the use? You are chained to it with the twenty-four carat gold chain of Freudism. There could be nothing stranger than the situation in which you involved yourself. You are bound to an exclusive, conspiratorial, underground brotherhood by the very fact that you belong to an even more exclusive one. It would be a vain effort to apply the Freudian outlook to communism and reject its vulgar and mechanical materialism. And it would also be in vain to look at Marx’s obsolete political economy through Freud’s eyes, because you would still remain chained to bolshevism by your mother-complex, your herd instinct, your frustrated sexuality and suppressed thirst for power–the very emotions communism so passionately denies and to which it owes its best followers [emphasis mine] Not even if you proved to yourself that the communist ideology is all wrong could you break with boshevism. You could break with it only if Freudism failed. But Uncle Sigmund died only last night and I am afraid a psychological theory like his might live for decades and may survive all of us.
Lot of content there. I may comment on it later. I may not. I share this, because this is a good example of the sort of thing honest intellectuals used to say, and the way they used to say it. Even our communists are mediocre, compared to how they used to be.
And to this I would add the POLITICAL cost of teaching so many people passive–and indeed AGGRESSIVE–compliance to patently nonsensical constrictions in their freedom in all aspects of their lives, including their freedom to speak their minds; to assemble; to work; to visit bars, restaurants and movie theaters; to enjoy live music and theater; and to be in public outright without being molested and attacked for refusing to comply with anti-scientific mask mandates.
It is a fact that implementing universal “quarantines” for healthy people has never been done. If it has been done, it has been on a small scale in places that are easily forgotten. This means there is no science behind it. Given that there is no science behind it, one would think “scientists” would be eager to find out if this idea works, with “works” defined as there being an obvious correlation between the policy chosen and the desired result, which is lower overall death across all time domains from all causes.
Logically, high lockdown, high mask wearing ought to be obvious on a map of COVID-19 severity. If you were to shade countries by death rates, figured as honestly reported deaths from COVID-19 divided by population, then the “good” nations–the ones putting everyone on house arrest and mandating mouth diapers as a precondition for any social contact whatsoever–should jump out as GREEN GREEN GREEN. The nations making everything voluntary, where most people do not wear masks, where the kids are still in school and the bars and restaurants open should be RED RED RED, oh the humanity, oh the horror!!
But of course 9 months–which is about where we are at–is enough to do that drill. The USA is by far the worst, for a variety of reasons. We are fat and unhealthy, in a world where death rates seem to correlated to overall national health. The numbers are being vastly and inexcusably overreported, and if reported honestly are in reality perhaps between a third and half those being touted by illegitimate and dishonest health prostitutes. None of our leaders are recommending the basic and obvious step of at least Vitamin D supplementation now, and generous quantities of zinc and Vitamin C at the first sign of symptoms, or even exposure.
Look at Finland: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/fi
408 deaths/5.53 million people. That works out to, if I am carrying the zeros far enough, a death rate of .00007 percent. Let’s simplify it to 500 deaths out of 5,000,000. That is one person in a ten thousand.
Here is their list of restrictions: https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/information-on-coronavirus/current-restrictions
For most of this whole thing most of them were not wearing masks, and very few restrictions existed. I think they reduced restaurant capacity and cancelled some large events, but from what I read they were if anything more lenient than Sweden. And note that their official page says “Government restrictions are not legally binding.”
Here is the UK: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/gb
60,113 deaths/63 million population. Let’s make this simple: 60,000 divided by 60,000,000. If I am moving my zeros correctly that means one person in a thousand has died of this illness. Which is TEN TIMES the death rate in Finland.
Even so, this is not a huge number. This is not a wave of death. But this is still considered a sufficiently serious problem that the nation is on lockdown. They are wrecking the mental health of millions that was in far too many cases tenuous to begin with. They are leaving psychic scars that will last for decades, and in many cases result in suicides and drug overdoses. 1 person in a thousand. That is not a plague. I’m not sure 1 person in a hundred would warrant what is being done.
Australia, and I am seeing a pattern now, is even worse. They have more or less declared martial law. Police can enter people’s homes without warning, just like in 1984, to make sure they are not doing something they are not supposed to do, like have one too many friends over.
Here is their chart: https://covid19.who.int/region/wpro/country/au
908 deaths in a population we will call 25 million. Let’s call it a thousand deaths. 1,000 divided by 25,000,000. If my zero moving is correct, that is one person in 25,000. This is less than half the number of Finland, but they are on full stop. Their government has gone full Nazi, with more or less literal storm troopers breaking down doors if they are not opened fast enough.
For THAT they are on a more oppressive stance than when they were at war–or fearing it–with Japan in World War 2. Unfuckingbelievable.
As I think I mentioned here, I had a dream early on of escaping all this by living on a beach in Tasmania and surfing every day. Well, people did this in reality–this vision became true for some– and they were found out with Orwellian drones, and police dispatched in a helicopter to force them into home incarceration, far from the clean air, ocean surf, and blue skies where they had been.
According to this, there were 163,000 deaths in Australia in 2019: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/deaths-australia/latest-release
That means that in the time not quite a thousand people have died of COVID-19, that 120,000 people (call it 9 months and 75% of a year) have died of other causes, if this is otherwise a normal year.
And there is a HUGE difference in tone and policy between Finland and Australia. In both of these countries COVID-19 deaths amount to background noise statistically, but in one case they kept most or all of their freedoms, did a few things a bit differently, but have otherwise continued with their lives. In the latter case they are being traumatized and oppressed by their government, for what amounts statistically to NOTHING.
Again, this is mass delusional psychosis. It is an atrocity. A human rights assault of historically unprecedented proportions.
Finally, let’s return to our friends the Swedes, who have textbook curves. This is what Farr’s Law looks like. This is what a scientific response looks like: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/se
7,000 deaths in a nation of 10,000,000 or so. 1 person in 1,400. That is lower than the UK.
It is higher than Finland, but as they themselves admit, they failed to keep the thing out of the nursing homes. And they have continued something like normal life through all of this. Few masks and certainly no mask mandate. And I wonder if, in the case of the Finn’s, their national obsession with saunas might not have made a huge difference. I personally think it OBVIOUS that regular use of saunas should have been made a part of our national response. Obviously, no viruses can survive in 200 degree saunas, and even if they were packed full of people the immunity benefits of regular use would easily have outweighed any possible increase in transmission, especially if it were emphasized that even sniffles were not OK.
One or two more. Spain: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/es
46,000 deaths/46,000,000 (close enough): one person in a thousand. Actual population is 47 million and change, so it is a bit lower than that.
France: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/fr
54,000 deaths (rounded up)/67 million. 1 person in 1,240. Higher than Sweden, lower than Spain and the UK.
Last two. Switzerland: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/ch
Switzerland is an interesting one, since they made the disease disappear quickly, and it was attributed to HCQ. But their second wave has been much worse than the first. Why? Was HCQ banned again? Were they told by somebody to improve their numbers since they were making everyone else look like the power grabbing maniacs they actually are? I’ve done some searching, but not come up with any answers. Keep in mind our global information is stored in a card catalog which can be altered infinitely second by second depending on the needs of the Ministry of Information. There could come a day when claiming that the United States won the Second World War will get me fact checked and banned from Facebook for 24 hours. That is the path we are on.
But the math, including the recent and likely inflated wave: 4,732 deaths/8.5 million people works out to one person in 1,796. Not as good as Finland, but much better than most.
Finally, the good old USA, which used to be the land of the free and home of the brave, in the not so distant past: https://covid19.who.int/region/amro/country/us
274,000 deaths, out of a population of 330,000,000: one person in 1,200 has died of this disease, even using the obviously inflated numbers.
Now, we expect about one person in 117 to die each year of something, which is 2.8 million out of 330 million.
How the FUCK can anyone justify what is being done to us over these numbers? Finland did something close to nothing and so did Sweden, and both have better numbers.
You CANNOT look at a map and see ANY correlation between the Nazi score and the health outcome.
This whole thing is madness. Mass delusional psychosis. Fear driven hallucination.
It is surreal, is it not, that Rudy Guiliani is having to do the work law enforcement will not do?
It is also surreal that court after court is simply dismissing him without any serious consideration.
There are huge allegations. There is nothing that is OK with Trump having a huge lead in the evening and that some time around 4am hundreds of thousands of new votes, all for Joe Biden, just show up. We have reports of trucks pulling up. We have video of suitcases in Atlanta. We have missing USB drives, and people accessing machines with them.
What a strange time it is. We have everything we should need to be intelligent, sober people, operating the most perfect system of government ever developed, and we are regressing to execrable levels of feudal mediocrity, out of cowardice, stupidity, and no doubt regular and old school corruption.
I of course don’t understand our system well enough to be able to say what is possible, and given that we are in extraordinary times, even what was previously impossible may have become possible. No one in 1960 could have guessed we would be putting a senile crook we already KNOW has been taking bribes from Communists into the White House. Or at least be very close to it.
I don’t think anyone would have guessed fraud on the scale being made obvious would ever happen, or that the media would be able to cover it up, or that people could be trained to ignore it.
Here is what I wonder: what CAN the Supreme Court do? They are not really the place where you have a “trial”. They are not the place where you present evidence. They are the place where convoluted elements of the law receive definitive treatment. They tell the world what a word in a given statute should be understood to mean.
Here is a pathway, an idea, that makes sense to me. It may be unrealistic to ask them to “declare” Georgia for Trump. It may be unrealistic for them to render rulings on what ballots to keep and which to throw away, as in Pennsylvania. But what would make sense is for them to declare Voter Fraud to be a violation of Equal Protection, and demand of lower courts that ALL claims of voter fraud receive in ALL cases evidentiary hearings from the lower and where needed the Appellate Courts.
Rudy Guiliani and Jenna Ellis and the rest of them have amassed a HUGE stockpile of information. But all the courts are saying “sorry, closed for business, go elsewhere.” Then the Left is saying “Look, their lawsuits FAILED. They must be without merit.” I continue ask: where were they HEARD? Nowhere, as far as I know. Guiliani is presenting to Legislatures, which is good, but these are criminal actions which have not yet been investigated honestly by Federal or seemingly even local law enforcement, and where the large amount of evidence gathered in effect by Guiliani acting as a freelance and multi-jurisdictional prosecutor can’t get an honest hearing.
If the Supreme Court wants to punt on deciding which candidate or which ballots, that would be comprehensible legally. But the POINT is that this IS the job of the lower courts, and THEY ARE NOT DOING IT.
A ruling from the Supreme Court dictating speed would help.
I would also comment that they COULD find that, in cases where fraud is sufficiently massive that it is impossible to say who actually won, that the Constitution would REQUIRE the State Legislatures to select the Electors, and/or to throw the issue to the House.
There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know, but what we need more than anything is legal instruction, issued by the highest court, that voter fraud matters, and that it cannot be shrugged off, ignored, or prolonged indefinitely because the people doing it control the law enforcement and courts that might stop them.
And it should seem obvious that fraud in, say, Philadelphia, matters to the whole nation. When national representation is concerned, we are all affected by how they do things. As I will continue to comment, absent Daly in Chicago, Nixon would have won in 1960. One man, one city, but the entire election. It was that important.
That is why I referenced the old saying “For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost.” the other day.
There HAS to be a means for other States to exert some control on Philly and everywhere else. It has to be a national effort because it is a national problem. We need some sort of legal framework to do that, or it will get worse, and eventually completely invisible again, what with the censorship that is becoming a daily outrage.