Week17 Links

 From the Z-Man: 

 Two items stand out in this week's podcast - DeSantis vs Trump and the death of philosophy. Since they got away with it in '20, the Democrats will win the White House again in '24, regardless of who the Republicans nominate or how the voting goes. So the question becomes; which (Republican) candidate will cause the greatest (negative) reaction to that result when they lose? Like Z-Man, my money's on Trump. 

He also has some thoughtful things to say about Christianity. Regardless of whether you are a theist or an agnostic like me, there's no denying that Christianity played a pivotal role in the creation of the modern world. And, IMO, it's the decline of Christianity that's driving its destruction. 

https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=29771
          

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If you don't know, vote "No"

"The onus is on nobody else but the Albanese Government to provide this strong evidence (for a 'yes' vote) which they are failing lamentably to do. As Alan Jones famously and 100 per cent correctly re-iterated almost daily in 1999, “If you don’t know, vote No”."  

https://politicom.com.au/how-to-defeat-the-voice/
               

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"So, why do we fight?

Historically, men have been prepared to fight, to endure hardship and torture, and to die for their nation precisely because their nation was their extended family. A family that looked like them, possessed a common history, culture, and crucially, a common ancestor.

Now our country hates us, is actively marginalising us and replacing us. The American military is losing recruits because the American government has similarly marginalised White men, and Australia’s military will have the same problem. The assumption that so-called “new Australians” will fight for this country in a time of crisis is simply wrong. For this reason, the West’s security was fundamentally undermined the moment our borders were opened to mass replacement immigration."

To make this article relevant here, replace "American" with "Australian".

https://xyz.net.au/2023/04/biggest-defence-review-since-ww2-to-fight-china-white-men-ignored/
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"De-Dollarization" is gaining traction and momentum. The Dollar's position as the global reserve currency is the keystone in the global American empire's hegemonic arch. Anwar Gadhafi and Sadam Hussein were both eliminated because they threatened this position, by offering to sell their oil in exchange for other currencies. It's one thing to bully small nations that lack the military clout to stand up to to them, but the Russian Federation is a "peer" (or near-peer) opponent and confronting them on a battlefield would reveal what much of the world already suspects - that the imperial military is a "paper tiger" and incapable of winning a "real" war. Why do you think the Pentagon has been dragging it's feet, getting advanced weapons like the Abrahams tank and the F22 and F35 fighters into action in Ukraine? It's because they'll be exposed for the useless, Platinum-plated boondoggles they actually are. Good only for shooting up goat-herders, armed with AK-47s. But by weaponizing the Dollar and stealing Russia's foreign reserves, the empire has made the same mistake Hitler did, on 11th December 1941. History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.  

"The defining moment – the actual trigger leading to the Fall of the Hegemon – was in February 2022, when over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves were “frozen” by the collective west, and every other country on the planet began fearing for their own dollar stores abroad. There was some comic relief in this absurd move, though: the EU “can’t find” most of it."

https://thecradle.co/article-view/24080/de-dollarization-kicks-into-high-gear

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Another one for the "Trifecta of Failure" * file:

"The spectre of power failure is haunting Europe as Britain and Germany demonstrate that modern societies can’t run on wind and solar power. Wind droughts are the fatal flaw in the system and one can envisage a future book titled How Wind Droughts Destroyed Western Civilisation. Think about the consequences of a system blackout if Net Zero policies are pursued to the bitter end in Western Europe and Australia…"

If only engineers ran things, instead if ideologues. 

* More expensive, less reliable (than Coal) and results in no measurable reduction in CO2 emissions. 

The endless wind drought crippling renewables | The Spectator Australia

Powder Keg, Meet Match

 Medieval towns and cities were traditionally surrounded by defensive walls. That's common knowledge. What's less commonly known is that there were some occupations that were required to operate outside those walls. Tannerys and cloth dyeing are two examples, mainly because those industries used chemicals that were, um, unpleasant. There's another occupation that was also relegated to operate outside the walls. One that produced an unbelievably good smell; Bakeries. 

The reason bakers had to ply their industry outside the walls had nothing to do with noxious chemicals or bad smells. It was the risk of fire. You see, ordinary flour is flamible. Not just flamible, but explosive if it reaches that "Goldilocks" stochiometric mixture of flour-dust and air. The Great Fire of London started in a bakery, ignited, in all probability, by a candle that someone forgot to extinguish when they went home for the evening. There's a scene in the movie, "The Equalizer 2" where Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) deliberately scatters flour in a bakery, effectively creating a thermobaric bomb that his antagonist detonates with a "Flashbang" device, perishing in the explosion.  

I can't help but notice that, in this case, life is imitating art. 

The decline and fall of the American Empire took a dramatic step forward a couple of days ago. Of course, the MSSM (MainStream Social/Media) - which IMO includes (but isn't limited to) Facebook and Twitter - studiously ignored/suppressed this development. It was a speech, mumbled by (yet-to-be-verified) "President" Joe Biden, in response to the latest "mass shooting". As is standard practice for the political Left, who's goal is (and always has been) to disarm the population, he was (well, his puppeteers were) attempting to use this incident to undermine the Second Ammendment, but his efforts were laughable and insulting to all law-abiding Americans who consider themselves patriotic. It reminds me of the instances where Wyle E Coyote finds himself in a dark space, strikes a match and reveals he's sitting in a powder magazine. At least Wyle E has the self-awareness to realise he's done something stupid. 

The United States is a powder keg, a bakery filled with swirling clouds of apparently harmless Flour dust and its nearing that perfect, stochiometric mixture of social / cultural / political / economic / ethnic division, created and driven by the politcical Left. It will be the blind, ignorant, arrogant actions of a leftist, like Biden's speech, that touches off the explosion. Hubris truly does precede Nemisis. 

Worse Than the Disease?

I'm not a scientist, so I can't say whether the content in this article is  true or just propaganda from the so-called "anti-vaxers". But I can think about this logically and consider it in context rather than in isolation. It's called 'joining the dots'. 

Some dots: 

Scientific investigation and discovery isn't something that's done by genuinely independent researchers in basements and potting sheds, using equipment they could build themselves, any more. All that low-hanging fruit was picked more than a century ago. Science today requires massive and expensive infrastructure and commesurate levels of  investment. The scientific community is now almost completely beholden to governments and Big Business for it's continued existence (aka "funding"). It's impossible that this reality doesn't factor into what scientists say publicly. "Research" that confirms the biases/objectives of government and big business gets funding while research that produces results that don't, gets, uh, canned. 

Fauchi has been exposed as lying about the origins of the Chinken Pox. It was manufactured in a lab. It didn't evolve naturally. Discucussion about whether it is a bioweapon or a research tool is irrelevant, as are arguments about whether it was released accidentally or deliberately. Yet, governments everywhere have accepted the advice and formed policy based on F's utterances (even when he was contradicting himself). 

So much for the "Science". The official response to the pandemic has been entirely political. 

Everything governments have done, has had the effect of restricting or eliminating their citizens' legal and contitutional rights and civil liberties. Of course, these measures are "temporary", for "the duration of the emergency". I've also heard a lot of (official) talk that the Kung Flu will be with us forever, so there's that. Just for shits 'n giggles, would anyone like to identify a "temporary" power that a government has relinquished, voluntarily?  

Every economic measure in the Governments' response to the pandemic, has favored 'big business' and damaged small business. The public health response, on the other hand, has done nothing to actually stop the spread of the virus. The best they can claim is that they've slowed it, a bit. But the economic and social damage of these efforts is incalculable. All this for a disease that has a 99.99% survival rate among healthy people who don't have potentially lethal existing medical conditions and aren't morbidly obese?  

The death-toll from Wu-Flu - the number the media incessantly hammers you with, to frighten you into running to your nearest vaccination centre - isn't what matters. The number that really matters - the one the media never mentions - is the number of excess deaths. This is the number of deaths over-and-above the normal number that would occur in a typical, historical Flu season. Thousands die of common Flu every year and no one bats an eye. The total number of deaths in Australia during the 2020 Flu season was no higher statistically, than in any previous, pre Covid year. Ergo, no excess deaths. 

Authorities have actively suppressed dissent wherever it contradicts the 'official narrative'. Mainstream and social media are complicit in this. Good ideas, like good deals, are self-evident and can (but don't need to) be argued on their merits. Only bad deals and bad ideas have to be 'sold' to (or forced on) people. Just look at how hard the authorities are spruiking their "vaccine" and their lockdown. 

Further, authorities have ignored or actively suppressed discussion of any and all alternatives to their "vaccine". It was almost comical to watch our (Labor) state governments in Victoria and Queensland ban Hydroxychloroquine within hours of Donald Trump mentioning it in a speech. (He didn't say it was a cure. He didn't even recommend it as a treatment. He merely said it was something that was worthy of further investigation.) No explanation was given for the ban and no discussion was tolerated. Just threats to cancel the medical licences of any doctor who prescribed it. The only justification appears to be "Orange Man (and everything Orange Man says is) bad". 

It's a legal requirement that vaccine recipients be fully informed of any and all known effects (good and bad), risks and benefits of any pharmaceutical they are receiving. This also includes information about alternative treatments (like Hydroxychloroquine). The authorities fail utterly in this responsibility. There is no possible way anyone can make a genuinely informed decision about this "vaccine" if they are only given access to one side of the debate (the authority's) and unless all the concerns, such as those the linked article, whether valid or not, are made known to them. It is up to those promoting any treatment to adequately address all concerns. Refusing to acknowledge them, dismissing them as "nonsense" and "conspiracy theory" is not satisfactory. 

And again, the suppression of cheap, readily available treatments in favor of expensive, untested products from "Big Pharma" only emphasises where Governments' priorities and loyalties really lie. Let's not forget that "Big Pharma" has been completely indemnified against any and all legal repurcussions, should the rushed, untested products they produce, turn out to be worse than the disease they're meant to protect the population from. And evidence is building that this is exactly what's happening. 

The people pushing the vaccination campaign are the same ones who are pushing the so-called "Great Reset" (you know, the spruikers of "You will own nothing and you will be happy") and an integral part of this (globalist) initiative is the rapid reduction of the worlds' population. Because "climate change"or something. 

Once again, the mainstream and social media have backed this initiative to the hilt. 

Everything I've listed above, is the standard operating procedure of totalitarian regimes.

And in regard to the whole vaccine rollout, whatever happened to the Precautionary Principle? I trust the Science. That doesn't mean I trust the Scientists, particularly the ones whos' careers depend on keeping their paymasters happy. For those who've rushed out and got the jab because they were told it is the right thing to do, by people who lie for a living, or because "I want to travel!" or some such (IMO) frivolous reason, I wish you good luck. I think you're gonna need it. 

Me? I've always been a "late-adopter". I'll wait to see the results of the largest human trial in history before I even consider getting this particular "vaccine". And before I agree to it, I'll want to get tested to see if I'm already carrying antibodies. Because if I am, I don't need to be vaccinated. Is it selfish to say I prefer to be a live pariah than a dead lab-rat? 

 The full URL: https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/the-killer-in-the-bloodstream-the-spike-protein/

Facing Reality

I didn't want to write this. It's scary. It's one "I told you so" I hope I never get the opportunity to say. But I'd be remiss if I didn't flag the risk.

This article is an unblinkered look at the reality of Australias' social and economic health. And it ain't good. What David's describing, is the social and economic equivalent of an Avalanche or a Tsunami, just waiting to happen. And if when it does, the smartest thing anyone can do (the only thing, really), is get out of the way. Anyone who claims they can control it (like our political class) is delusional. Three hundred years of failure hasn't put a dent in their confidence, though.

I don't know when the next "big one" will occur. Only that, like the San Andreas Fault, it's mathematically certain. But the signs that it's near are getting more obvious and more frequent. So it might be time to start thinking about what you can do to move yourself out of its path.

Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

What History tells anyone who's willing to learn from it, is that the people who suffered the worst in previous economic downturns were those who were in debt when it started. So eliminating or minimising debt is a good start. Even if it means taking a lifestyle 'hit'. Learn the difference between "needs" and "wants". Think about getting rid of those expensive toys - particularly if you owe money on them. When the downturn comes you'll be selling them anyway, only then, it'll be at 'fire-sale' prices. "Bank Holidays" and daily withdrawl limits may become a regular feature. Think about how you might respond to that and prepare for it. What if cash is banned? It won't work, of course. "When you make possession of (insert banned item) a criminal offense, only criminals will have (insert banned item)."

Consider how you might earn an income, if your job goes away and doesn't come back. Once again, those who did best in previous economic downturns (aside from the elites, who always do extremely well), were those who had practical, useful, skills that they could trade for goods and services. Even in the worst circumstances, there are still necessities that must be provided. Think about what those might be. Learn how to provide them for yourself now and others later, if needed.

Dog-groomers, personal trainers, hair-stylists, interior designers, life coaches, personal chefs and the myriad other luxuries provided to people with money but no time won't be in demand. There are five categories of goods and services which are always regarded as 'necessities':

• Food
• Shelter
• Transport
• Communications
• Security

Find a way to supply one or more of these and you have the basis of gainful self/employment in the worst of (economic) circumstances.

For example, Australia's economy is completely dependent on transportation. Not just ships, trucks and planes, but on personal motorised transportation. The "big-box" retail business model (like Bunnings and the supermarkets) isn't viable without a customer base that's motor-vehicle mobile. We occupy the landscape in a manner that mandates ubiquitous ownership of personal motorised transport. With the distances people have to travel to get anywhere, our communities simply aren't 'walkable'.

Fuck you very much, town planners.

But the cost of reorganising our built infrastructure to make it 'walkable' is prohibitive. If cars get too costly to run, people will be forced to switch to alternatives. Public transport can't can't be expanded to cater to everyone at any affordable cost. Bicycles won't cut it. Forget EVs; They're already unaffordable for the majority. And an expensive, unreliable electricity supply makes that technology useless.

Fuck you very much, greenies.

It has to be something already available and affordable. Look at any large city in SouthEast Asia for a glimpse of what our cities will look like in a decade or even sooner. Think small-capacity motorcycles and scooters. There's a potential occupation if you're mechanically inclined. Buy a used 'Postie-bike' or a scooter. Buy tools and learn how to 'wrench' it.

That's just one example. Think about all those categories and compare them to your knowledge/skill/interests set.

Community and personal relationships were incredibly important factors that relieved the worst hardships during previous downturns. Regardless of what they say, everything the "powers that be" do, is designed to destroy community and make you dependent on them. That alone, should tell you that there's value in community and personal relationships. Cultivate good relations with your neighbours.

Most people will choose to ignore the signs and believe the platitudes of the chattering classes. To me, those who adopt the stance of the Ostrich are inviting a treatment with what John Cadogan describes as, the "sandpaper dildo". Mental preparedness is arguably even more important than physical preparedness. A prepared mind is a calm mind and a calm mind can cope with calamity far better. "If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs..."

Lenin: Worse than Stalin?

From the Unz Review. Blocked by Facebook.

FaceBook Censorship, Again!

FB has blocked my post because it "goes against our community standards on spam".
So here is the article and my comments:
A good summary of what the Left is doing to our society: "When conquering armies of the ancient world subdued an enemy, they often defaced the conquered tribe’s symbols – destroyed the statues, burned the temples, desecrated anything sacred; both Muslim and Christian conquerors were famous for this. Same thing here. The new regime is burning the cultural bridges so you can’t go back to the better world left behind, the one not ruled by them." I consider "Babylon 5" a far better series than "Star Trek". I think I understand why; B5 came and went before it could be infested and defaced by the SJWs. 

The Decline Continues

We're living in a declining civilization and the slope of that decline is getting steeper. (In case you're wondering, I put the high-water mark of Industrial Civilisation at fifty one years ago, on July 20th, 1969, to be exact.) Eventually that slope, gentle at first, becomes a cliff. Just like the top of Ayres Rock. The collapse cliff is perilously near.

Dmitri Orlov opines that collapse occurs in five stages. 1 - Financial. 2 - Commercial. 3 - Political. 4 - Social. and 5 - Cultural.

I'm now convinced that the world has already passed Stage One - financial collapse. I think that event occurred in 2008; Subtract all the 'wealth' generated in the financial sectors of the worlds' industrial economies from their respective GDPs and you'll find that the physical economies of the OECD - where the production and distribution of real, tangible goods and services occurs - have been in freefall since 2005. The global financial system was only saved from collapse by converting it into a gargantuan Ponzi scheme, financed with trillions of Dollars of borrowed money.

But that was only a temporary fix.

For more than a decade now, the real economy has been rotting away behind a facade of borrowed money. Like all Ponzi schemes, those who invest earliest, get rich, while those in last, end up holding the bag. The 'elites' of our society have convinced everyone else that the financial system is the wealth-producing engine of the economy. But it isn't. True wealth is (the production of) real, tangible goods and services. The financial sector simply facilitates (and regulates) this process.

Coincidentally, 2005 is the same year that the global production of 'conventional' Crude Oil peaked. You see, the production of real, tangible goods and services is directly proportional to (and dependent upon) the availability of energy and raw materials. This is the real reason why the standard of living of most working-class people in the OECD has been declining since the nineteen seventies, while the financial markets seem to soar forever skywards. The 'inconvenient truth' behind the rosy energy outlook over the last fifteen years, is that the energy profit (aka energy return on energy invested or EROEI) has been declining steadily. Fifty years ago, it took one barrel of energy (equivalent) to extract one hundred barrels of oil. That was a 99% profit that could be (and was) used for all other economic activity in the industrialised world. That ratio now stands at about one to seven. In other words, it now takes one barrel of oil (energy equivalent) to extract seven barrels of oil. The total amount of oil extracted is irrelevant. Since 2005, the real economy has been forced to operate on an energy supply that's been steadily increasing in price relative to everything else. Inflation hides this inconvenient fact. The problem is that most of the worlds' industrial infrastructure is optimised to run on energy that's both plentiful and CHEAP.

And now, the actual quantity of oil that is being produced is beginning to decline as "unconventional" sources - deep-water, fracking, tar-sands etc - dry up.

That's the biggest Pachyderm in the room.

So, with the global financial system resembling nothing as much as a gargantuan confidence-trick, having abandoned all connections to objective reality, all it may take to trigger a failure, is a sneeze. Enter the Wuhan Flu.

The "lockdown' may serve to trigger Stage Two - Commercial Collapse - of Orlov's Five Stages. If governments keep their economies shut-down for too long, vast numbers of businesses will fail. Banks must keep money flowing as without it, the grand Ponzi scheme will collapse. Without a Financial system to enable payments, settlements and capital allocation, the real economy of goods and services freezes up. Every day the lockdown continues, increases the odds that Stage Two will occur.

Of course, governments might find a way to kick the can down the road for a while longer. They'll try regardless, because addressing the root-cause of this crisis essentially involves redeeming or forgiving a truly astronomical amount of debt, and the people who will be most impacted by that policy are societys' elites. I think the odds of that happening are comparable to the odds of a butterfly surviving a trip through an operating blast-furnace.

The more likely alternative then, is a massive economic dislocation.

What form that dislocation will take, is a matter of debate, but if history is any guide, what can be predicted is that everyone below the elites will end up a LOT poorer than they are now. It doesn't matter much to a population reduced to destitution, whether the mechanism that got them into that state was an inflationary recession or a deflationary depression. What does matter is that all trust in (and respect for) societies' institutions - government, universities, Police,  media, the banks etc will be shattered. And once that trust is gone, you're at Stage Three - political collapse. This is the fertile soil in which radical ideologies germinate and grow. It's a powder-keg that can explode into revolution.

Watching the Democrats in the U.S. behaving like a proverbial wrecking-ball in the economic and political spaces, you can be forgiven for concluding that this is their grand strategy to win power. This once, history is on their side; Lennin did it in 1917. Mussolini did it in 1923. Hitler did it in 1932. The results weren't pretty, which explains why the Left is so 'enthusiastic' about revising or erasing history.

Of course, the alternative could be that present governments use this pandemic as an excuse to impose a more authoritarian rule, discarding the polite fiction that is 'democracy' altogether. This would work, if the people were convinced that their rulers were acting in their best interests and for the benefit of the country and not just the elite. This strategy has proved successful in places like Singapore but that's because their government is authoritarian, not totalitarian and is NOT parasitic. Ordinary people there have the (economic) freedom to prosper. Beyond a reasonable set of rules that apply to everyone equally, and are designed to facilitate people to live together and interact peacefully, the government stays out of its peoples' lives and pockets.

However, the Australian government is ideologically of the Left. Everyone in politics identifies our form of government as a "Liberal Democracy". Liberalism is a euphemism for Socialism. Socialism in all forms, is parasitic. They prey on the productive, to support the unproductive, with themselves at the top of that list. Once you account for Income Tax, GST and all the other taxes and fees that all three tiers of government impose, Australians work for six months out of every year to support the state. The most signifigant obstacles to establishing and running a business are all created by government. I've yet to meet a regulation that costs you nothing to comply with.

ALL signifigant Australian political parties are left of centre. Only the distance varies. And, they all march Left, ideologically, over time. Todays Liberal Party would be indistinguishable from the Communists, to someone in Robert Menzies' cabinet. The so-called 'Conservatives' haven't conserved anything in the last fifty years. They've simply consolidated the gains made by the extreme Left. So it's a fair bet that, if they had the opportunity, our existing parties would impose a parasitic totalitarian government that served the interests of the elite, only. Just watch how the authorities in Victoria and Queensland (both Labor state governments) are behaving towards their citizens in the present emergency.

What about the possibility of revolution? That's going to vary from country to country, depending on a lot of factors - culture, degree of indoctrination, how severe the deprivations are and so-on. One very important factor will be whether or not the people possess the means to revolt. That means guns. It's no accident that once it gains power, the first priority of every Socialist state is to disarm its citizens. If you can find an exception to this rule, please let me know. Revolution here in Australia? I doubt it. Australians are too fat, too lazy, too well off, too indoctrinated and too mistrustful of each other to organise a revolt.

A country, not a nation, inhabited by sheep.