>>62741

Thanks baker.

Da Football!

>>62767

>tide pods

>>62856

I always thought their handle was 'GV'

Is COVID-Derangement-Syndrome Real?

Authored by Donald Boudreaux via The American Institute for Economic Research – February 23, 2021

Over the past two weeks I’ve received emails urging me to tamp down my criticism of restrictions imposed in the name of fighting Covid-19. Most of the correspondents are polite, sincere, and even warm. ''Each, however, is convinced that I underestimate the threat that Covid poses to humanity.'' Each correspondent hopes that I come to take this threat much more seriously.

What follows here is part of my response to each of these correspondents. This essay isn’t meant to change their minds but, instead, to better explain why I hold the position that I do toward Covid, as well as toward the public’s and governments’ responses to Covid. For the record, I understand that different individuals have different risk preferences. I genuinely respect these differences.

I understand also that different individuals even have different perceptions of reality. As with the understanding of reality achieved by blindfolded persons each touching a different part of the elephant, reality isn’t revealed to everyone in the same way. Yet I’m sufficiently old-fashioned to believe that there is an objective reality, and that it’s the duty of everyone who comments publicly on that reality to do his or her best to understand it as well as possible, despite the inaccessibility of perfect understanding.

I believe also that, while the range of legitimate differences in this understanding is wide, this range isn’t unlimited. Some understandings are so detached from reality as to be illegitimate – as in, not to be taken seriously. It is for each reader to judge for himself or herself if my understanding of reality, as I express it here (and elsewhere), falls within or outside of the legitimate range.

Below is a list of some of the facts, as I understand them, about Covid-19, as well as about the reaction to this disease. Although some of these facts are more firmly established than are others, I believe that each of the facts detailed below is legitimate, and that my interpretations of them are plausible.

Further, I believe that my understanding justifies my relative lack of anxiety about Covid’s likely impact on me personally and about its impact on humanity. And I believe that the facts as I understand them warrant my description of the media’s, the public’s, and governments’ reactions to Covid as being hysterically excessive.

The Overestimated Dangers of Covid and Underestimated Dangers of Lockdowns

*Covid-19 is disproportionately lethal to the very old and ill, and heavily so. In the United States as of February 17th, 2021, nearly a third (31.8%) of “All Deaths Involving Covid-19” – as defined and reported by the CDC – were of persons 85 years old and older. Nearly 60 percent (59.6%) of these deaths were of persons 75 years of age and older. More than 81 percent (81.3%) were of people 65 years of age and older. Despite media-trumpeted exceptions, serious suffering from Covid-19 is largely an experience for very old people.

*Although Covid-19 is indeed unusually dangerous to very old people, it’s still not close to being a death warrant. The infection fatality rate for 85-year-olds is estimated to be 15 percent; for 75-year-olds it’s estimated to be 4.6 percent. For 65-year-olds, Covid’s infection fatality rate is estimated to be 1.4 percent. For 55-year-olds it’s estimated to be 0.4 percent.

*Covid’s overall lethality compared to that of the seasonal flu is no more than 10 times greater. (Some estimates have Covid’s lethality, compared to that of the flu, to be as low as 3.5 times greater.) Of course, because Covid’s lethality undeniably rises significantly with age, for the elderly Covid is far more than 10 times as deadly than is the flu, and for young people Covid is much less than ten times as deadly. (Keep in mind that the numbers in this and the previous two paragraphs come chiefly from before any vaccines were administered.)

*In the Spring of 2020, hospitals in the U.S. had a financial incentive to inflate their Covid numbers. As reported on April 24, 2020, by USA Today, “The coronavirus relief legislation created a 20% premium, or add-on, for COVID-19 Medicare patients.” Covid inflation occurred outside of the U.S. as well. In Toronto, for example, officials admit that they are inflating the Covid death count: Here’s Toronto Public Health: “Individuals who have died with COVID- 19, but not as a result of COVID-19 are included in the case counts for COVID-19 deaths in Toronto.” (I encourage you to read the whole Twitter thread.)

https://www.aier.org/article/why-i-believe-that-covid-derangement-syndrome-is-real/

continued

>>62868

*Lockdowns themselves have negative health consequences. How could they not, even if the only such effect arises because of people’s increased difficulty of visiting physicians for non-Covid-related illnesses and injuries? But there is evidence that negative health consequences of lockdowns extend beyond those that arise from delayed or foregone medical treatments.

*There is credible evidence that lockdowns do not significantly reduce people’s exposure to the coronavirus.

*Lockdowns have negative personal and social consequences. Avoiding contact with family and friends, even during holidays. Inability to fraternize at your favorite gym, coffee shop, bar, or restaurant. Restrictions on travel. Even if you believe that these costs are worth paying, you cannot deny that these costs are serious.

*Lockdowns have a severe negative impact on economic activity. How could they not, given that people are prevented from going to work and from engaging in much ordinary commercial activity? There’s debate about how much of the decline in economic activity is caused by voluntary action and how much is caused by the forcible lockdowns. Even in light of the likelihood that people’s fear of Covid is further stoked by the very fact that governments’ resort to the dramatic action of locking us down, evidence exists that a great deal of economic damage was caused by the lockdowns themselves.

Misinformation and Misunderstanding are Rampant

*I never recall the media giving running accounts of deaths from seasonal flu, from auto accidents, from heart disease, or from any other major sources of death. But the media do give such accounts of Covid. The false impression is thus created that the dangers posed by Covid differ categorically from the dangers posed by other of life’s serious risks. I find it incredible to suppose that such out-of-context and biased reporting does not give the general public a terribly distorted and outsized impression of Covid’s dangers – an impression that is then reinforced by people communicating with each other.

*Panic itself is contagious. As Gustave Le Bon observed in 1895, “Ideas, sentiments, emotions, and beliefs possess in crowds a contagious power as intense as that of microbes.” Social media and other sources of 24/7/365 contact with hordes of strangers is a new phenomenon, one that seems to me to have created an unprecedentedly large crowd through which panic spreads.

Panic, in turn, corrupts human decision-making abilities. This corruption is worsened by the echo-chamber feedback within the crowd. Combine these two realities with a third – namely, the difficulty the typical person experiences in expressing disagreement with a dominant narrative – and the overwhelming acceptance of the official fear-ladened account of Covid is unsurprising. But this overwhelming acceptance does not imply its own validity.

*I have encountered in major media outlets too many egregiously misleading accounts about Covid – see, for example, here and here – for me not to severely discount what the media (and government officials) ‘report’ about Covid.

*Decades of following media reports on, and politicians’ statements about, economic reality long ago convinced me that the proportion of misinformation to information is appallingly high. Because I know that most people in the media and in government are pathetically uninformed about economic reality – because I know that these people are largely innumerate and, in many cases, intellectually lazy – because I know that pundits and politicians often ignore facts and explanations that don’t fit their priors – I have every reason to doubt the reports on the numbers, to question the explanations, and to reject the spins that are issued by the media and by politicians.

https://www.aier.org/article/why-i-believe-that-covid-derangement-syndrome-is-real/

continued

>>62869

Justification for my skepticism of the popular narrative about Covid is only enhanced by the resulting panic. Aware that the public is in a state of panic, pundits and politicians who are prone to play fast and loose with the truth in normal times feel even less constrained to speak carefully and accurately during times of panic.

*The reaction to the Great Barrington Declaration alone proves the gross carelessness of too many mainstream voices. This carelessness puts me on yet higher alert against the popular perception of Covid.

For example, Paul Krugman attacked the Declaration with an ad hominem. This Nobel-laureate thinker asserted that the Declaration should be dismissed because of the organization that brought together the three acclaimed scientists who wrote it. That organization, of course, is AIER which – Krugman bizarrely thinks this fact is relevant – is said by Krugman to be “linked to the Charles Koch Institute.” (Not that it matters, but this ‘fact’ is not close – not remotely close – to what Krugman’s wording implies.)

Nor, by the way, does the Great Barrington Declaration advocate a strategy of “let it rip.” But you’d never know this fact by reading many ‘descriptions’ of it. (Googling “Great Barrington Declaration” and “let it rip” – with each of the two terms in quotation marks – pulled up on February 21, 2021, 34,200 results.)

Covid Derangement Syndrome

I could list many other reasons for why I’m convinced that humanity’s fear of Covid-19 springs from profound misinformation about this disease. I could also expand my list of reasons why I believe the public’s precautions are grossly disproportionate to this disease’s actual dangers, and for why I regard the lockdowns, mask mandates, quarantine ‘hotels,’ and other restrictions to be tyranny that is wholly unjustified by the facts. But already I’ve overtaxed readers’ patience.

One doesn’t have to have Covid in order to have a life that’s meaningful and to suffer a death that’s mournful. Yet most of the public, media, and governments have reacted to Covid as if the only deaths that matter are Covid deaths – as if the only lives that matter are the lives of people with Covid – as if the only risk that matters and, hence, the only risk worth reducing is the risk of suffering from Covid.

This lack of proportion – this sudden ignorance that our lives are inescapably filled with many different risks that must be traded off against each other – this treatment of Covid deaths as being categorically worse than are non-Covid deaths – all combined with a blind faith that politicians and bureaucrats will use vast powers wisely, prudently, and effectively – is what I call “Covid Derangement Syndrome.”

I believe this syndrome to be real and deserving of a name that grabs attention. Such attention-grabbing is warranted, because I further believe that this syndrome poses a dangerous risk to humanity that dwarfs the risk posed by SARS-CoV-2.

https://www.aier.org/article/why-i-believe-that-covid-derangement-syndrome-is-real/

Watch: Flying-Robo Harvester Picks Ripe Fruit, Set To Displace Humans

by Tyler Durden - Wednesday, Feb 24, 2021 - 22:00

It's no secret by now that the rise of automation and robots is projected to displace millions of jobs in the coming years. Many low-skilled jobs will be wiped out because of robots, sending technological unemployment, the loss of jobs caused by technological change, through the roof.

The latest installment of technological change leading to short-term job loss could soon be seen in the fruit harvesting industry.

Israeli company, Tevel Aerobotics Technologies, has developed a flying autonomous robot (FAR) that works day and night to pick fruit. Artificial intelligence embedded within the FAR determines the ripest fruit to pick through sensors and computer vision.

''"The FAR robot can work 24 hours a day and picks only ripe fruit. It uses AI perception algorithms to locate the trees and vision algorithms to detect the fruit among the foliage and classify its size and ripeness. After choosing the right fruit, the robot then works out the best way to approach the fruit and remain stable as its picking arm grasps the fruit," said Inceptive Mind.''

"There are never enough hands available to pick fruit at the right time and the right cost. Fruit is left to rot in the orchard or sold at a fraction of its peak value, while farmers lose billions of dollars each year," the company's website said.

Below, FAR robots pick ripe apples instead of humans.

The automated system provides farmers with real-time updates on harvesting progress, time completion, quantity picked, and overall costs. At the end of Tevel's promotion video, it says, "this is our future."

Expanding more on the "future" as described by Tevel, one where robots will displace low-skilled workers, a "great transformation" is underway where upwards of 20 million jobs could be lost due to robots by 2030.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/watch-flying-robo-harvest-picks-ripe-fruit-set-displace-jobs

>>62867

nite

US Army Building World's Most Powerful Laser To Vaporize Drones

by Tyler Durden - Wednesday, Feb 24, 2021 - 23:20

The US Army appears to be developing a laser weapon that is a "million times stronger" than anything ever used before - instead of concentrating a beam of light to destroy a target, the new weapon will fire short pulses, sort of like laser beam weapons from science-fiction movies, according to New Scientist.

The Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser (UPSL) for Army Platforms will be designed to fire pulse-like bursts for a brief 200 femtoseconds or one quadrillionth of a second. The laser, firing bullet-like pulses of light would be enough to vaporize a drone, cruise missile, mortar, and or any other threat in its vicinity. UPSL can also function as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

"The sheer amount of intensity in a terawatt pulse laser is able to cause a non-linear effect in the air resulting in a self-focusing filament," according to the Small Business Innovation Research (or SBIR) posting titled Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser for Army Platforms.

Laser weapons are beneficial when combating enemy drones and missiles. The cost per round depends on the amount of energy available, which is far cheaper than launching costly interceptor missiles.

A UPSL prototype model could be ready by 2022. Under the Trump administration, funding dramatically increased for laser weapon development. Multiple types of continuous-wave laser weapons have been fielded in the past couple of years.

We've outlined some of those laser systems that have been fielded, including the high-energy laser (HEL) weapon with various energy output levels measured in kilowatts

The Navy is expected to install the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler (HELIOS) with surveillance sensors aboard an unspecified Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA destroyer in the early 2020s.

The Air Force has mentioned a roadmap to laser weapons for this decade. It plans to mount lasers on stealth jets.

Instead of continuous-wave lasers already in deployment among various services, the Army is preparing to test laser, firing bullet-like pulses as early as 2022.

Lasers, hypersonics, fifth-generation fighters, and autonomous war machines are some of the new technologies already entering some modern battlefields.

Bank of America's equity strategist Haim Israel recently told clients that the next frontier between major superpowers could outer space.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-army-building-worlds-most-powerful-laser-vaporize-drones

How Societies Are Imprisoned: The Whole World Will One Day Be Like Hollywood?

Authored by Brandon Smith - February 24, 2021

I rarely write about Hollywood or the film industry, primarily because there is a vast array of analysts and YouTubers in the alternative media that discuss the bizarre behaviors and trespasses of Tinsel Town on a daily basis. They usually have it covered. That said, every once in a while I find that events in Hollywood reflect a much more pervasive dynamic in our culture and that the bigger picture needs to be addressed.

I also want to be clear that when I talk about “Hollywood” I am not only referring to the place; I’m referring to the entire corporate empire. I’m including Netflix and other streaming companies that may not work completely out of LA. They are all funded and run by the same people anyway.

Hollywood and the corporate cabal behind it have long sought to be the center of America’s cultural universe. In other words, they are seeking to pervert the natural dynamic so that life imitates art instead of art imitating life. And, if they control all the art then they control people’s perceptions of life.

The concept of “Manufacturing Consent”, posited by people like Noam Chomsky, plays a role here, but I think it goes far beyond that. Rather, Hollywood seeks to not only manufacture consent from the public, but also to manufacture the public’s relationship to reality. They don’t just want us to keep our heads down and begrudgingly accept their ideological zealotry; they want us to believe that their way is and always was the ONLY way.

What I see in the film industry and in the corporate world in general today is complete and unfettered propaganda. We have moved beyond the phase of subversively hidden manipulations to a new stage in which the propaganda has become blatant and aggressive. Almost every new movie and television series, not to mention most commercials, are rife with leftist distortions. You will be hard pressed to find any content these days that does not push ideas like:

1) Endless feminist platitudes.

2) Mentions of patriarchy and “white privilege”.

3) Ridiculous exaggerations of racism in America (as if nothing has changed since the days of Jim Crow).

4) Oppression of women, rape culture, etc. as if all the tenets of first and second wave feminism have not already been accomplished. Depicting oppression of women where none actually exists.

5) Women consistently portrayed as overtly masculine with traits and abilities that defy their biology.

6) Men consistently portrayed as weak and feminine.

7) Masculinity, strength, competition and merit portrayed as destructive, “toxic” and outdated.

8) Common positive feminine traits (nurturing, child rearing, home making) portrayed as obsolete or oppressive.

https://alt-market.us/how-societies-are-imprisoned-the-whole-world-will-one-day-be-like-hollywood/

continued

>>62874

9) Forced and unrealistic diversity, which misrepresents the actual statistical racial make-up of the US population and other Western nations.

10) Saturation of gay and Trans representation – A tiny percentage of the population is made to appear as if it is a vast movement that inhabits every person’s daily experience.

11) Older generations cast as confused and ignorant, or removed from film and television completely.

12) Younger people portrayed as wise leaders “cleaning up the messes” of older generations, somehow blessed with extensive knowledge and experience by mere virtue of their youth.

13) History erased and rewritten to reflect modern leftist ideals.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. “Representation” in itself is not a bad thing, but when it becomes a weapon used to twist fundamental truths for political gain, then it is a problem. None of the concepts listed above are an accurate reflection of the Western world or human reality. Instead, they seek to make the outliers into the mainstream, and they seek to take normal human biological and psychological standards and portray them as aberrant and wrong.

Yes, there are cases where Hollywood is dabbling in fantasy and science fiction and this could be used to rationalize some of their odd depictions. That’s not what I am talking about here. I am talking about force feeding the public an obvious agenda across the full spectrum of storytelling. These are not just movies. These are not just TV shows. This is not just storytelling; this is brainwashing.

Hollywood is not in the business of making art. They are not even in the business of making money anymore. Rather, they are in the business of indoctrination. Yes, it is a “conspiracy”. Not a conspiracy theory, but conspiracy reality.

Their job is to make the public believe that leftist ideals (or in some cases globalist ideals) are the prevailing ideals. If you see the same lies everyday in every manufactured depiction of life, you might start to think that your more rational, traditional and grounded views are in the minority. You might begin to self censor for fear of being ridiculed. You might even join the other side just to avoid being attacked.

In order to maintain control over the propaganda machine a very important factor is ensuring that the faces on the screen are never allowed to deviate from the party line. Your puppet and pet celebrities need to be kept under lock and key.

Like most people, I recently watched Ben Shapiro’s interview with Gina Carano and it basically confirmed everything I already knew about Hollywood (my brief stint as a screenwriter 20 years ago exposed me to the underlying sell-out culture and I was repulsed by it).

What was striking though was the extent to which the Hollywood corporate elites seek to rape the minds of their employees and force them to submit to the cult. It wasn’t that Carano was fired for posting a historical fact on Twitter, it was everything that happened before that.

We see corporate diversity training such as Coca Cola’s “Be Less White” seminars and we are disturbed by the cultism and manipulation. But listen to Carano’s story and you’ll realize that Hollywood is far ahead in their exploitation of social justice controls.

Carano mentions that as soon as she began speaking her mind from a conservative position, Disney and Lucasfilm bombarded her with representatives, publishing agents, etc. whose mission was to convince her to stay silent or apologize publicly for her personal statements. They even tried to force her to endure a mass admonition in front of 40 trans people because she refused to post her “pronouns” to her Twitter page.

https://alt-market.us/how-societies-are-imprisoned-the-whole-world-will-one-day-be-like-hollywood/

continued

>>62875

This is often referred to as a “struggle session” in communist circles, a crucible used to berate and destroy people who dare step out of line . It is also used to strike fear in the hearts of anyone else who might be thinking about voicing independent views.

Struggle sessions were the primary tactic employed during the Cultural Revolution in China as a means to pacify the citizenry and erase all ideas that opposed Marxism. The movie ‘The Red Violin’, produced in 1998, is one of the only films I have seen that accurately depicts the ravages of the communist social sterilization:

This is what happens when big business or government align with the leftist cult. SJWs would have no power at all if it were not for the backing of corporations and government institutions.

You want to know why so many celebrities these days seem desperate to virtue signal online all the time? It might not be because they agree with the leftists. They may just be trying to keep their jobs and avoid being suffocated by a weaponized mob. What the interview with Gina Carono really revealed to me was the extent to which Hollywood corporations are involved in that mob.

Companies like Disney aren’t following the mob’s lead – Instead, they are USING the mob as a tool. They are LEADING the social justice cult, the cult is not leading them, as many wrongly assume.

After finishing the Carano interview I could not stop thinking about a show from the 1960’s called ‘The Prisoner’ starring Patrick McGoohan. It portrays a man who works for the government and abruptly quits, only to be kidnapped by a nefarious unknown organization and transported to a place called “The Village”. The Village is a sprawling complex made to look like a happy seaside vacation town on the surface, but underneath it is a vast surveillance grid.

All the people that live there are trapped, watched constantly and the group that runs The Village uses elaborate mind games to break the prisoners down. The Village operates by turning prisoners into informants and guards; its goal often has nothing to do with making people talk. Instead, the goal is to get prisoners to submit, to get them to love the village and become a part of it. The Village is not only a prison, The Village is an experiment, a microcosm of what the elite want for the entire world.

Hollywood IS The Village. Corporate culture and Marxist culture are melding together until they are one and the same.

The way Carano was essentially stalked by her own employers and prodded with struggle sessions and mind games, the way that Hollywood operates behind the scenes, is exactly what leftists and corporate elites intend for the rest of us. It is already happening to some extent. How often have we heard conservatives labeled as “insurrectionists, terrorists and racists” in the past year alone? How many conservatives have been censored by Big Tech platforms? How many have lost their jobs because of their opinions, or simply making factual statements?

The social justice cult and the corporations that control them want the world to be Hollywood. They want that environment of oppression and fear to become the standard. They want everyone to be afraid to speak, or to disagree, or to step away from the agenda in any way. Everyone must play their part to perpetuate the fantasy world. Everyone must battle to appear virtuous and pure for the mob. Everyone is an actor, pretending they love their new totalitarian collective.

There is a huge weakness to this strategy, though…

All of it depends on people’s aversion to loss. If you are afraid to lose something, then that something can be used to control you. Carano was not afraid to lose and so she could not be controlled, and I commend her for that. The example she has set for others is far more valuable than any work that she might have done by submitting to the Hollywood Cheka. If only the majority of people would do the same, our civilization could change for the better overnight.

All tyranny is an illusion predicated on fear within the minds of the enslaved. So, do not fear.

https://alt-market.us/how-societies-are-imprisoned-the-whole-world-will-one-day-be-like-hollywood/

Biden cancels Trump’s ‘Operation Talon’ Program that Targeted Sex Offenders Living in U.S. Illegally

By Human Events Staff on February 24, 2021

Biden has made it clear that his number one mission as president is to undo everything the Trump administration accomplished over the last four years.

His newest cancellation simply does not make sense.

Biden’s administration recently cancelled Operation Talon, a Trump administration programaimed at removing convicted sex offenders living in the United States illegally.

Though the program seems to be something everyone should support, it clearly isn’t. Why would anyone want sex offenders to remain in the country?

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined a coalition of 18 state attorneys general to urge Biden to reverse the cancellation, according to ABC 4 News.

“We’re working hard to fight human trafficking and sex crimes in South Carolina and allowing convicted sex offenders who are here illegally to remain in our country makes absolutely no sense,” Wilson said. ''“These trafficking and sex crimes are repugnant to human decency generally and to children specifically,” he added.''

The letter, directed to Joe Biden, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Director of ICE Tae Johnson, pointed out the problems with this cancellation. The attorneys general argued that canceling Operation Talon could encourage sexual predators to attack.

“The United States’ population of illegal immigrants includes disturbingly large numbers of criminals with prior convictions for sexual crimes,” the letter reads. “According to data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, during the period from October 2014 to May 2018 ICE arrested 19,572 illegal aliens with criminal convictions for whom the most serious prior conviction was a conviction for a sex-related offense.”

''“Meanwhile, an increasing number of illegal aliens are entering the United States after having been previously convicted of sexual offenses,”'' it continues. “The cancellation of [Operation Talon] effectively broadcasts to the world that the United States is now a sanctuary jurisdiction for sexual predators. This message creates a perverse incentive for foreign sexual predators to seek to enter the United States illegally and assault more victims, both in the process of unlawful migration and after they arrive. It will also broadcast the message to other criminal aliens who have committed other offenses that any kind of robust enforcement against them is unlikely.”

The letter begs perhaps the most important question: ''“If the United States will not remove even convicted sex offenders, whom will it remove?”''

In addition to South Carolina, the state attorneys general that signed on to the letter include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

https://humanevents.com/2021/02/24/biden-cancels-trumps-operation-talon-program-that-targeted-sex-offenders-living-in-u-s-illegally/

Fam it's check out time.

g'nite