The tragedy of Anthony Fauci – and his critics.

Many politicians and “pundits” are missing the point on Dr. Fauci and the pandemic response.

Yes, Dr. Fauci is arrogant and did a terrible job communicating during the pandemic. However, his critics are using his deficiencies to spread their own misinformation. Criticizing a liar doesn’t make your own lies OK.

Did the 6 foot rule make any sense? No, it did not. However, that doesn’t mean it was perfectly safe to go into a crowded bar during the height of the pandemic when no one had been vaccinated and hospitals were overrun with sick and dying people. The virus was spreading as an aerosol. Being in any enclosed space with a lot of people greatly increased your risk of infection. The 6 foot rule was a stupid attempt to pretend that crowded buildings were safe if only you followed it when clearly they were not.

Did asking small children to wear loose paper masks make any sense? No, it did not. However, that’s not because a properly fitted N95 doesn’t work, it is because it was unrealistic to expect small children to wear a N95 properly. Although children were less at risk than others, some children did die of Covid. Many teachers also died. Should we forget them?

Was it accurate to suggest that the Covid vaccine would stop transmission of the virus and that that the vaccination would last indefinitely. No, it was not. However, vaccination did slow transmission and did protect, to varying extents during the pandemic, the vaccinated from serious illness. Repeated vaccination at intervals of about 4 months greatly reduced the risk of death and Long Covid. And why do none of the pandemic revisionists mention Long Covid and the brain damage and other health risks it causes?

With a few notable exceptions, Members of Congress are missing the most important point about NIH funding of EcoHealth and the transfer of grant funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Dr. Fauci did not plan to create a pandemic. He’s not in league with the Chinese government. The funding of EcoHealth was intended to gain cooperation of Chinese scientists to identify new strains of virus that might pose a threat to the United States in exchange for instruction on how to manipulate viruses in the lab. However, given the nature of the Chinese government, this plan was dangerously stupid, and did not receive proper review.

Dr. Fauci and many other scientists know little about international politics or the ideology of the Chinese government. Dr. Fauci’s hope that the Chinese government would cooperate to warn the world about new viruses was naive. The Chinese government is aggressively seeking to create biological weapons with which to “clear the world” of non-Chinese. Xi Jinping is a genocidal maniac and so are many members of the Chinese government. Their racism includes a belief in a separate, and superior, evolution of the Chinese people, something they are rarely called on. Our intelligence agencies should know about this and should be warning anyone who has dealing with the Chinese government about this belief system. Frankly, the American people should know about this as well.

The NIH did arrange for money to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which intelligence agencies knew, or should have known, was engaged in biological weapons research. More importantly, NIH through its grants, facilitated the transfer of knowledge on how to engineer viruses to make them more dangerous from US scientists to Chinese scientists. This transfer of gain-of-function knowledge, without any review of potential danger by NIH or US intelligence agencies, is the most important fact for Congress to focus on. Until the US Congress, intelligence agencies and the Defense Department take biological weapons seriously, and I can assure you, they do not, presently, we will be at grave risk from attack after attack. We also have to stop pussyfooting around about the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and government. They are evil. They look at the Nazis as a cautionary tale. Not because the Nazis did evil things, but because the Nazis didn’t go far enough. Our government needs to start saying this, out loud.

Anthony Fauci is 83 years old. 20 years ago he was an able administrator. 40 years ago, he was an outstanding scientist. Now, however, he is a bitter old man with an inflated ego, a pathetic need for attention and a failing brain. His agency was poorly run before and during the pandemic. Funding EcoHealth alliance and teaching Chinese scientists the techniques they needed to make biological weapons was a huge mistake, but not an intentional one, on Dr. Fauci’s part. What was intentional was the cover up. Dr. Fauci’s reputation cannot be saved by any politician, no matter how well meaning. However, all the “personality stuff” about Dr. Fauci is not really important. Please, Congress, focus. The Chinese government means us ill. They are working on biological weapons. SARS-CoV-2 was likely an in-progress project that escaped through sloppiness. It is not the only project they are working on.

Focus. Focus. Focus.

References

THE STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES OF CHINESE RACISM: A Strategic Asymmetry for the United States. Mr. Andrew Marshall Director OSD Office of Net Assessment. January 7, 2013.

The Han Chinese ‘Master Race’. Charles Burton. The Dorchester Review. October 20, 2023.

Chinese Persecution of the Uyghurs. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

China committed genocide against Uyghurs, independent tribunal rules. December 9, 2021. Joel Gunter, BBC.

State Department cables: Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted classified research. Emily Kopp. June 14, 2023. US Right to Know.

Long-Term Effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the Brain: Clinical Consequences and Molecular Mechanisms. Granholm, A-C. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2023.

Gestalt #197

H5N1 virus has been found at very high levels in milk. Is it safe? We don’t know.

There is no data on whether or not pasteurization inactivates the virus. There is no indication that there will be any such studies.

Three and a half weeks after first announcing the startling news that cows from a milking herd in Texas had tested positive for H5N1, the government agencies involved in the investigations have not yet revealed what research shows about whether pasteurization of milk kills this specific virus.

Helen Branswell, STAT News, April 18, 2024

H5N1 is spreading cow to cow and cow to poultry. Pigs are at risk.

Virus has been found in nasal swabs from cows, so it could be spreading to the respiratory systems of cows. Pigs, which are mixing vessel that are known to produce human adapted strains of flu virus, are not being tested for H5N1.

Pigs are a linchpin in flu surveillance, many experts noted, as they are susceptible to both bird and human flu. They might act as “mixing bowls,” enabling H5N1 to acquire the ability to spread efficiently among people.

The U.S.D.A. is not testing pigs or asking farmers to do so, Dr. Sifford said.

Apoorva Mandavilli, Emily Anthes NY Times, April 19, 2024

We may be closer to nuclear war than is realized

Iran has everything it needs to make nuclear weapons within a few months.

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/iaea-chief-says-iran-could-produce-nuclear-weapon-within-months-209316933854
NBC News, April 19, 2024

Gestalt #196

Nuclear War – A review

I read the book “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen in one day. This fictional scenario was better written than most thrillers. Plot spoilers ahead. The book does not have a happy ending. The great strength of the book is its meticulous description of the procedures that would govern our response should the United States come under nuclear attack. These are quite frightening as they appear to be antiquated and not suitable for the 21st Century. The author suggests, and I agree, that even if a nuclear war begins “small”, it will likely expand to large scale launch of many nuclear weapons. There are just too many potential failure points and too little time to make decisions to stop at a limited war. Where I disagree with the author is her assumption of a nuclear winter that lasts five years. Maybe this will happen, but I don’t think this is the consensus. The truth is, we really don’t know what will happen. Certainly, some level of cooling will occur for at least a few months, which, in itself, will be devastating to countries that must import food to survive. However, the dire prediction that she makes is not well-supported by the available evidence. There are lots of activists pushing the same scenario. I get that she wants people to be scared enough to try avoid nuclear war. But frankly, there isn’t much her readers can do about stopping it from happening. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un are the men who will decide whether or not to start a nuclear war, not us. They are not smart or especially rational men. They are all megalomaniacs who live in echo chambers surrounded by eunuchs who tell them exactly what they want to hear. We can’t control what they do. However, we can decide to survive what they do. The truth is that deaths due to famine from nuclear winter will be unequal. Countries dependent on external inputs will do the worst. Countries that are well-prepared and self-sufficient in food production will do the best.

Where is Cesar Chavez when you need him?

For those who don’t know, Cesar Chavez was a labor activist who advocated on behalf of Mexican farm workers. He sought better working conditions for people who had been exploited by agribusinesses. Right now, farm workers in the dairy industry are being exposed to H5N1 without adequate protection. Farm equipment is thought to be aerosolizing contaminated milk. This is thought to be how the one documented human case occurred. How many undocumented cases have there been? We don’t know because no one is bothering to check on the farm workers many of whom are themselves, undocumented. Do the “liberals” in the media care? Don’t make me laugh. They could not care less. Evidence: how many stories do you see of uber wealthy elites like Anderson Cooper going down to the farms and exposing the lousy working conditions for workers. Do the “liberals” in Congress or the White House care? Please, stop. I need to breathe. Evidence: the White House controlled-CDC has done absolutely nothing to help get PPE or H5N1 tests to the farm workers. “Liberals” don’t really care about the poor or working class.

Where is Ronald Reagan when you need him?

President Reagan, regardless of what you think of his policies on other issues, was a strong foe of the Soviet Union and the threat it represented to the free world. He must be turning in his grave to see Members of Congress who call themselves “conservatives” kissing up to Vladimir Putin, a man who seeks to re-establish the Soviet Union that Reagan helped dismantle. Win one for the Gipper? Not these clowns. They’re Red alright. Commie Red. Make careful note of who votes against helping Ukraine prevent the rebirth of the Soviet Union and you will know who the Communist Sympathizers are. Or worse. People who have betrayed the US – for what?

Gestalt # 190 – Nukes in Space

By now, everyone has heard that Putin plans to put nuclear weapons in space. Supposedly, this is to blow up satellites in case of war with the US. However, given that this is a gross violation of existing treaties and that he is anticipating war with the US, why should we believe that he wouldn’t put nukes in space with the intention of dropping them onto the US? Would nuclear bombardment from space offer a superior first strike capability? One wonders.

The soothers are out in full force, angry that the American people were told the truth about their danger.

House Freedom Caucus member Andy Ogles asked Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday to probe Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner’s decision to reveal a “serious national security threat” to the American public that could involve Russian space nukes.

Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote a letter to Johnson (R-La.) demanding a formal inquiry of the disclosure and accusing Turner (R-Ohio) of doing so with “a reckless disregard of the implications and consequences said information would have on geopolitics, domestic and foreign markets, or the well-being and psyche of the American people.”

New York Post, Feb 15, 2024

Translation: If the American people know how much danger they are in, they won’t buy as much stuff. They also might get the heck out of big cities and move somewhere safe.

Well, my fellow preppers, I hope you have moved to your safe space. Your well-being and psyche will be better off if you have.

Gestalt #189

The decay of American politics

One of the most disappointing features of the 21st Century is the decay in the quality of American politics. Both the politicians themselves and the media coverage of politics has descended to Third World levels. Compare the two currently likely candidates for President in the general election with John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon:

Compare also the anti-vaccine nonsense of a current Kennedy candidate with this statement by his uncle:

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkpof-036-047

Compare the quality of political analysis of the “pundits” with the intelligence of William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal:

The intellectual capacity of the people who lead us matters, greatly. Pretending it doesn’t won’t make the problem go away.

Our distorted economy

The vast majority of office jobs in the US are phony, make work jobs. If you look at the tasks that people actually do, almost all of them could have been automated out of existence back in the 1980s with the computers available back then. AI was not needed. At some point, the government, both federal and local, decided to sacrifice the obvious gains in productivity that could have been obtained by appropriate use of technology for the sake of apparent full employment. They did this by providing powerful financial incentives to companies to employ as many people as possible, regardless of whether this made any sense from an economic perspective. To meet government quotas, companies then created make-work jobs that involve useless box checking and paid workers as little as possible to maximize government funding and minimize the expense of paying the drone-“workers”. Instead of automating factories and dealing with predictable complaints by Unions, companies simply closed their factories, unbolted the machines and sent them to China where there were no Unions and no enforcement of environmental regulations. Upper management skimmed the cream from these schemes, hence the widely reported income inequality. This isn’t a result of market forces. This is the result of backroom deals between elite executives and politicians, of both parties. We are now in a situation where we don’t have enough people to do the jobs that need to be done (trucking, construction, law enforcement, health care, etc.) while millions sit in cubicles doing useless tasks and breathing in brain-destroying virus. I don’t know if there is any politician with the brains and the guts to tell the American people the truth and end the charade.

Who will win WW III?

The answer is simple: whoever has the most smart, well-educated people producing the most advanced technology. You think the US can avoid this war because others fear us? They don’t. I have heard this from the horse’s mouth. You think we will automatically win because we are the good guys? You haven’t read much history if you think this. The strong win, the weak go the wall. It doesn’t matter who is the good guy or the bad guy. The winner will write history and the loser will decay into compost. The anti-intellectualism prevalent in the US today is poison that will destroy us if we don’t wake up. We need Science. We need Engineering. And we need them now.

弱肉強食

Gestalt #188

The continuing human toll of COVID-19

A Canadian study suggested that for people infected three times or more, long COVID rates were around 38%.

Dr Rae Duncan, a consultant cardiologist and long COVID research clinician at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, warns that studies are beginning to suggest serious complications from COVID that could lie dormant for years.

“COVID is a spectrum and long COVID is only one end of that,” Dr Duncan says.

“It’s never been just a cold. The more times you’re infected, the higher your cardiovascular risk, neurological, and endocrine risk. These can all result in life-altering conditions.

“Some may have underlying silent organ damage, which is asymptomatic, meaning people are not aware of it. It needs more research but it’s very concerning.”

snip

One piece of research suggested babies born to COVID-positive, unvaccinated mothers had a 20.3% risk of neurodevelopmental delay by age, compared to 5.9% of babies whose mothers did not catch COVID while pregnant.

The virus is still evolving at an incredible rate’: How widespread is COVID now – and how many people are dying with it? Lara Keay, and Joely Santa Cruz, Sky News. January 31, 2024

Don’t let anyone tell you the pandemic is over. The consequence of repeated infections and the lifetime disability that will occur in children is just now starting to be felt. It will get worse.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The DRC, formerly known as Zaire, is a large country with a population of 111 million people. It has a tropical climate and a rainforest that is home for a wide variety of important animal species. It is also one of the poorest, most corrupt, violent and poorly run countries in the world. Few seem to be paying attention, but there is a version of monkeypox spreading among and killing children in the DRC that could easily spread to the rest of the world. There are two “clades” of mpox (monkeypox), clade 1 and clade 2. Clade 1 is much more lethal than clade 2, but clade 2 has spread more widely than clade 1. The recent epidemic that affected the United States and Europe is clade 2. However, clade 1 is starting to spread at a much greater rate in the DRC.

“The scale of the epidemic was outlined in new figures published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday: last year, more than 14,600 infections and 901 deaths were reported in the central African nation, compared to 5,600 cases and 213 fatalities in 2022.

The data also showed that, in 2023, some 65 per cent of cases and 75 per cent of deaths were in children under 15 years old, who spread the disease while out playing with one another.”

Children at centre of dangerous mpox outbreak ‘accelerating’ in DRC. Sarah Newey. The Telegraph. 30 January 2024

Vaccines for mpox that will be effective against clade 1 are urgently needed in the DRC. Getting the vaccines there and dealing with the corrupt government and anarchic situation on the ground will be difficult. However, it is in our interest to overcome these challenges. We ignore what is happening in the DRC at our own risk.

The Chinese Economy and the Timetable for Invasion

The Director of the FBI recently mentioned 2027 as the year we especially need to be concerned about with respect to China. This is likely in part due to reports from inside China about Xi Jinping’s timetable for invasion of Taiwan. However, circumstances change and the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry. There are reports that widespread corruption within the Chinese military has left it in a state of unreadiness. This would seem to give us more breathing room. However, the Chinese economy is finally imploding, as China-skeptics have been predicting for years. Both its property sector and its stock market are collapsing. These are the two areas where Chinese investors have been allowed to put their money for retirement. Since China, although a communist country, does not have a significant safety net, China’s aging population is looking at an economic disaster. Young people, despite being more educated than their parents, can’t find decent jobs and are increasingly pessimistic about their futures. There are not obvious fixes to China’s current economic crisis – other than scrapping the Communist Party and trying democracy and the free market, for a change; this seems unlikely any time soon. Xi Jinping is absolute dictator of China. He is responsible for China’s current mess. How will he save his own skin? The most obvious solution to that problem is War. I do not expect that he will wait for when it would be best for China to attack, which is probably never. Instead, he will attack when he decides the timing is best to save his own life. That may be before 2027.

Gestalt #187

Northern Europe

It is natural to focus on the Russia when thinking about the future of Europe. After all, Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and threatens to invade other countries. However, it is unwise to ignore historical, economical and technological factors that govern geopolitics. Sweden was once a great power and has had many wars with Russia. Today, Sweden’s technology is far superior to Russia’s. Russia does have a much larger population and nuclear weapons. However, Sweden could acquire nuclear weapons and reduce Russia’s population very quickly. Putin would be unwise to think that this could not happen. In the Winter War of 1938, little Finland killed so many Russian soldiers that women in St. Petersburg could not find husbands for a generation. I wonder, have the Russians forgotten this? Germany was once the most feared nation on Earth, and for good reason. For much of the 20th century, it had the best army. It lost the second world war because of strategic mistakes by Hitler. The German military fought against far superior numbers of both men and material and likely would have won had Hitler been more patient and only fought roughly equal numbers of foes. Declaring war on the US after Pearl Harbor was suicidal, ultimately, literally. Today, Germany’s economy is twice the size of Russia’s. Germany’s technology is far, far superior to Russia’s. Russians have long feared a war of revenge. Many in the West do not know this, but when Russian troops entered Berlin at the end of WWII, they raped every German women they could find. I wonder how many Germans think about this when they see what Russian troops are doing in Ukraine.

If the Northern European countries of Germany, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Poland and the Netherlands would band together, they could easily defeat Russia in a conventional war. If Putin did order an attack on one of these Northern European countries with nuclear weapons, he should expect devastating nuclear retaliation regardless of what the US or NATO does.

Depopulation

Direct deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 continue, unabated. Indirect deaths due to Long Covid are not counted. US life expectancy has declined significantly, partly due COVID-19, but also due to wildly unequal access to healthcare and an abysmal public health establishment.

U.S. life expectancy has declined to 76.4 years, the shortest it’s been in nearly two decades, according to December data from the CDC. Two experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—Dean Michelle Williams and Ariadne Labs’ Asaf Bitton—discussed the problem on WP Live, a podcast from the Washington Post.

“The numbers are shocking,” said Williams on the April 10 podcast. She noted that younger people in America are dying at high rates than their counterparts in other high-income countries, and that that the U.S. also has among the highest maternal and infant mortality rates among upper-income countries.

Harvard School of Public Health, What’s behind ‘shocking’ U.S. life expectancy decline—and what to do about it. April 13, 2023

The birth rate in the U.S. has dropped to 1.64 per woman. Obviously, this is much lower than replacement. This is happening for several reasons: increased access to birth control, endocrine disruptors in the environment resulting in decreased testosterone levels in American men, and “social” media which discourages real social interaction.

Increasing deaths and decreasing births spell eventual extinction. Yet, we hear almost nothing about this in the media. Some fear that their group will be “replaced” by immigrants. I don’t think this is true as immigrants ultimately follow the same patterns of decreasing fertility as native-born Americans. However, people who fear “replacement” can adopt a simple strategy to prevent this: get married and have a bunch of children. Make love, not war.

The real reasons for the push for return to office

There have been conflicting results reported from studies that attempt to measure the effect of remote work on productivity. However, I have seen no study that suggests that profitability was decreased as a result of remote work. It could hardly be otherwise. Remove the expenses of office space lease or purchase, and the bottom line of almost any company should improve, dramatically. This is simple logic. So, why the stubborn push for Return to Office?

Here are some reasons:

• Satisfy ego of CEO and managers
• Increase opportunities for sexual harassment
• Provide justification for bad decisions related to commercial real estate purchase/long term leasing
• Pressure from banks that also made bad decisions related to commercial real estate
• Tax incentives/subsidies provided by cities and States to keep big cities financially viable
• Threaten older employees with death or severe disease due to infection so that they retire early

Here are some reasons for remote work:

• Increase profitability
• Decrease sexual harassment
• Increase employee satisfaction and retention
• Increase available talent pool
• Increase health of employees
• Strengthen families
• Increase participation of women and minorities in the work place
• Improve financial status of rural areas.

Statists, big city advocates and controlling CEOs and managers who put their personal interests above those of their company want return to office.

Profit-driven company executives, pro-family traditionalists and rural advocates want remote work.

In the end, I think the latter will win, but it will take a few years.

Gestalt #186

North Korea

Kim Jong Un makes so many threats with such frequency that one has a tendency to tune them out. This is probably a mistake. North Korea has made significant progress in building both nuclear warheads and missiles that can deliver them. It is an open question as to whether these missiles can strike targets in the continental United States with any precision, but they can certainly destroy South Korea, Japan and possibly Guam. Two experts on North Korea recently wrote an article predicting that Kim Jong Un has made the decision to go to war with nuclear weapons. The main target appears to be South Korea, but other targets are possible.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950. That may sound overly dramatic, but we believe that, like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war.

Robert L. Carlin and Siegfried S. Hecker, Is Kim Jong Un Preparing for War? 38 North, January 11, 2024

The DEFUSE grant proposal

A grant proposal, entitled “DEFUSE” was submitted to the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA). More details about this proposal have recently been obtained by the US Right to Know Organization.

The DEFUSE grant proposal was led by EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak.

Now, drafts and notes uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act reveal fresh details about the intended research.

Specifically, the scientists sought to insert furin cleavage sites at the S1/S2 junction of the spike protein; to assemble synthetic viruses in six segments; to identify coronaviruses up to 25 percent different from SARS; and to select for receptor binding domains adept at infecting human receptors.

The genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, matches the viruses described in the research proposal

Emily Kopp, US scientists proposed to make viruses with unique features of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan. January 18, 2024

There is little doubt in my mind that US scientists transferred knowledge about how to build more deadly viruses to Chinese scientists who then built SARS-CoV-2. At this point, I don’t see how we can get any more damning evidence other than for Xi Jinping to stand up and say “We did it! We did it! Ha, ha, ha!”

The Omega Man virus

Could there be an infectious virus that kills nearly 100% of its victims? Yes, it may already exist. Yes, in a lab in China. Yes, another coronavirus.

China has recently made headlines by developing a new mutant strain of the COVID-19 virus that has shown a staggering 100 percent mortality rate in “humanized” mice. This new variant, known as GX_P2V, has raised alarm bells within the scientific community due to its potential implications for human health.

…

The study focused on human ACE2-transgenic mice, which are specifically engineered to possess a human receptor for the virus. These mice were intentionally infected with GX_P2V, leading to tragic consequences. The mortality rate among these mice was unprecedented, suggesting that this new variant is particularly lethal.

After analysing the bodies of the mice, they found that the virus had infected the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas and brains. The brain infection was so severe that it killed the animals, the researchers concluded.

Satata Karmakar, China Develops New Covid Strain with 100% Mortality in Humanised Mice: Know All About This New Virus Variant, January 18, 2024

Gestalt #185

Sweden

Sweden is a small country with advanced technology. Most people don’t pay much attention to it. They should, because Sweden has a history of taking care of itself while situated in a dangerous neighborhood. In WW II, Sweden avoided invasion by Nazi Germany by attaching explosives to every single piece of infrastructure and factory of value, drafting everyone who could possibly hold a gun and telling Hitler that if he invaded Sweden, he would “win”, but since the Swedes would fight to the last man Hitler would lose a huge number of his troops and they would gain nothing because Sweden would blow up everything of value before German troops got to it. Instead, the Swedes offered to remain neutral and trade with both the Allies and Nazi Germany. Hitler took the latter deal. As a result, Sweden was not bombed, did not lose a large portion of its population and was well-positioned to achieve a socialistic paradise in the 1950s. This history lesson is to provide context for a recent announcement by the Swedish Civil Defense Minister and Commander-in-Chief:

Bohlin expressed concern that the modernisation of the Swedish civil defence system was not happening fast enough and urged everyone, from managers and local councillors to private citizens, to take action.

“Many have said it before me, but let me say it with the force of my office – there could be a war in Sweden.”, he said, adding that awareness needs to be translated into practical action.

He also drew parallels with Ukraine, which faced a full-scale Russian invasion with “total resilience”, according to him.

“Such an effort can only be made quickly enough if the vast majority of people are aware of the situation and understand what is at stake,” Bohlin said.

Commenting on Bohlin’s take on Swedish broadcaster SVT on Monday, Swedish Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén said he agreed with what the minister said.

“On an individual level, you have to prepare yourself mentally,” Bydén said, adding, “This is a very serious situation, and the clarity yesterday was unmistakable. It is now about moving from words and understanding to action”.

Charles Szumski, January 8, 2024, Swedish minister, commander-in-chief warn of possible war in Sweden, Euractiv.

Many Swedish families have “Stugas”, cottages in the woods that they can go to in an emergency. For those who don’t, there are 7 million well-equipped bomb shelters waiting for them to go to. Sweden has a surprisingly sophisticated military given the size of the country. They make their own fighter aircraft, the Gripen, designed specifically to fight over Swedish territory. All of this is public knowledge. I suspect that preparations for war that are not public will be serious. Sweden will do what it must to survive.

Iran

The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Hamas was suicidal from the standpoint of the Gazans. Obviously, they did not benefit. This could easily be foreseen. The attack was ordered by Iran who view Gazans as easily manipulated and entirely expendable. The Houthis of Yemen have launched suicidal attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The US and other western militaries have been responded by bombing the Houthis, as could easily be foreseen. The Houthis are backed by Iran. Once again, Iranian leaders have manipulated an unsophisticated people to be their catspaw. How many other chess pieces will Iranian leaders sacrifice to win? When will those who are being attacked by Iran’s pawns go for the King in Tehran? To me, this is just one of the theaters of WW III. The big show is yet to come in Asia.

Dementia Dystopia

Imagine a giant warehouse, except, instead of being filled with boxes and crates, it’s filled with thousands of older people on cots. There is an unpleasant smell that hits you as soon as you enter. The moans, groans and inarticulate mutterings of the people on the cots combine to make waves of sound suffused with suffering. As you approach closer, you see heavily tattooed workers roughly changing the diapers of the people on the cots. Crude robots, mostly carts with cameras on them, bump along crowded aisles carrying human waste to a back area. Not infrequently, a larger cart comes to pick up the body of someone recently expired. It goes to the same back area.

The United States is facing a debt crisis. The US debt is now 34 trillion dollars and rapidly climbing. How will this be paid? There is no plan. Both Social Security and Medicare will soon be insolvent. What happens then? There is no plan. Study after study has shown that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 causes damage to the brain. There is evidence that the risk for long covid goes up with each re-infection. This damage is relatively mild in young people, but it may be taking its toll. On almost every metric of cognitive and mental health, young people are struggling. We are told that this is because they had to learn remotely for a few months. Is this believable? Or is the alternative hypothesis, that SARS-CoV-2 is slowly causing an erosion of mental faculties of those it infects more believable?

Consider the following possibility: What if the brain shrinkage known to be caused by SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the declining cognitive and mental health of people in the US? What if there is a massive wave of dementia in a few years as a result? What if Congress does not act and no funds are provided for the long term care of people with dementia?

References

Brain disorders: Impact of mild SARS-CoV-2 may shrink several parts of the brain. (2023) Kumar et al. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 149: 105150.

COVID-19 Associated with Long-Term Cognitive Dysfunction, Acceleration of Alzheimer’s Symptoms. (2021) Alzheimer Association.

Medicare Won’t Have Enough Money to Pay Full Benefits After 2031: Report. April 5, 2023. Adam Hardy.

Gestalt #184 – Empire

Rome was a Republic and then it was an Empire. This wasn’t just because of a few ambitious Roman leaders.

Rome was surrounded by States ruled by stupidly hostile leaders and hordes of people from areas that had never had nation-states. It had to expand outward and bring Roman order to chaotic regions or risk being overrun. I’m not endorsing the brutal way in which this was done, only explaining why it was necessary.

There was a time when intellectuals proposed that a World Government be formed. This idea seems naive now, but was suggested for a good reason. Modern transportation made isolationism more difficult. Modern warfare makes it impossible. If any two countries anywhere in the World get into a nuclear war, everyone else will be affected. Perhaps unfortunately, a voluntary world government is unlikely given our experience with the League of Nations and the United Nations.

I have long been concerned about the power modern biology to create biological weapons with the potential to kill more people than nuclear weapons. My fears were confirmed when SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in Wuhan China and killed many millions of people around the world. It is still killing. It is still causing long term damage to multiple organ systems of hundreds of millions of people. This virus will limit the life expectancy of humans for the foreseeable future. And it is just the beginning.

SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t “done” when it escaped the lab. Chinese scientists, using knowledge transferred to them by American and Canadian scientists, have been collecting a Devil’s brew of dangerous viruses which they are experimenting with to make them more contagious and lethal. You can argue that this is stupid because it could backfire on them. Of course, it is stupid. However, Xi Jinping is a stupid man and he is making the decisions.

Xi Jinping is stupid and always has been. He is good at killing his competitors, and that’s about it. Vladimir Putin is senile and is now stupid (he didn’t use to be). Kim Jong Un is monumentally stupid, not to mention, an incredible blank_head. All three men have access to nuclear weapons. The leaders of India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and hate each other for religious reasons, always the most dangerous. Israel has nuclear weapons and Iran is quickly moving to acquire them. How many of these countries are also working on biological weapons? More than a few, I’m afraid.

I’m not a neo-Con. I don’t want to get involved in the affairs of any more countries than is necessary. But if someone is breaking into your house, putting your head under the covers isn’t the best move. Our Southern Border is not secure. I know, I know. This is a Republican talking point. It just happens to be true. What is not true is that we can solve the problem with a Wall. I’m not against using a wall to make the lives of Border Patrol agents easier, but it won’t be enough. The population of Mexico is 127 million. If Mexico is destabilized, do you think any wall will keep this number of people out? Of course not. So, we have a vital interest in the stability of Mexico. This is currently threatened by narcotics-fueled corruption and even more by the hordes of people entering Mexico from its southern border. Haiti is a failed state, population 11 million. Venezuela is close to a failed State, population 28 million. Colombia is starting to fail, population 51 million. Most Americans don’t know this, but many highly educated South Americans are flying to the US and becoming citizens, perfectly legally. This will accelerate the failure of the countries from which they have fled. The less well-educated members of the failed states will try to come to the US via Mexico. Currently, the Mexican authorities are letting people pass right through their country to the US, so that the migrants become our problem and not Mexico’s. We can pressure Mexico to not let hordes of people get to our Southern Border, but then what happens to Mexico? If the US can’t handle the influx of millions of people, how can Mexico? Recall Mexico’s population and consider what will happen if it is destabilized. We cannot afford to let Mexico go.

If the problem was limited to just Central and South America and the Caribbean, that would be bad enough. However, there are now reports of people from Asia, the Middle East and Africa coming through Mexico to our Southern Border. This is because there are failed States in all of these regions as well. Obviously, we cannot handle this influx and neither can Mexico.

Corruption is the reason for failed States. However, once one State fails, this puts pressure on its neighbors creating a domino effect. The end result will be destroyed countries, large numbers of dead people and hundreds of millions of people migrating to try to save their lives.

I have tried to think of a way around our problems: 1. stupid leaders of powerful countries with access to world-killing technology they don’t understand and 2. failed States due to massive corruption. I can come up with only one – American Empire. I don’t like it. We certainly have our own problems including a degenerate elite and growing political and corporate corruption. If someone can think of another solution, please post below.

References

Migrants pass quickly through once impenetrable Darien jungle as governments scramble for answers. Juan Zamorano. AP. October 6, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/panama-darien-colombia-migrants-da582a3f695206f68952dddccaa93f6d

Haiti has become a failed state, says former governor general Michaëlle Jean. Darren Major. CBC. February 15, 2023.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/haiti-faile-state-michaelle-jean-1.6749717

The Dangers of Failed and Weak States in the Caribbean. Scott B. MacDonald. The National Interest. August 31, 2023.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/dangers-failed-and-weak-states-caribbean-206756

Aging and Abandoned in Venezuela’s Failing State. Stephania Taladrid. The New Yorker. April 12, 2022.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/aging-and-abandoned-in-venezuelas-failing-state

Growing exodus of Venezuelans reveals failure of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile to comply with regulations. Amnesty International. September 21, 2023.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/exodus-venezuelans-colombia-peru-ecuador-chile-obligations/

African Migration to the U.S. Soars as Europe Cracks Down. Miriam Jordan. New York Times. January 5, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/us/africa-migrants-us-border.html

More than 200K African, Asian migrants crossed US southern border during ballooning crisis: data. Isabel Vincent. New York Post. November 4, 2023.
https://nypost.com/2023/11/04/news/more-than-200k-african-asian-migrants-crossed-us-southern-border-during-ballooning-crisis-data/

Migrants from around the world converge on remote Arizona desert, fueling humanitarian crisis at the border. Camilo Montoya-Galvez. CBS News. December 8, 2023.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-arizona-migrants-us-mexico-border/

US Department of Health official who conspired with Anthony Fauci to downplay COVID lab-leak theory reveals ‘agonising’ over his actions. Sharri Markson. Sky News Australia. November 27, 2023.
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/us-department-of-health-official-who-conspired-with-anthony-fauci-to-downplay-covid-lableak-theory-reveals-agonising-over-his-actions/news-story/f568f544d4b5eb05fb26dc3e198f50ae

Scientists at the center of the ‘lab leak’ controversy met with NIH, Fauci.
Emily Kopp U.S. Right to Know. January 6, 2024.
https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/daszak-shi-visits-nih-fauci/

On Parliament Hill – Winnipeg to Wuhan revisited. Ted Falk. March 6, 2023. The Carillon.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/the-carillon/local/2023/03/06/column-on-parliament-hill-winnipeg-to-wuhan-revisited

List of states with nuclear weapons. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

Plagues, Cyborgs, and Supersoldiers. The Human Domain of War. Matthews et al. Rand Corporation. 2024.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2520-1.html