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 # 172 – KerPlunk

KerPlunk is game from 1970s. It includes a plastic cylinder with marbles held up by many thin plastic “straws”. Each player pulls out a straw one at a time in such a way as to avoid letting the marbles fall to the bottom. However, as the game proceeds and more straws are pulled, it is inevitable that the marbles will start to fall. The game ends when a player pulls out a straw and all the remaining marbles fall to the bottom. Russia, China, the US and Germany are all pulling straws to see who will have the least number of marbles fall. But, in the end, all the marbles are going to fall.

Corruption

I have previously discussed how WestExec Advisors operates a revolving door stable of consultants who rotate between serving as high-ranking US government officials and as very high income “advisors” for secretive clients who wish to influence the US government. WestExec Advisors was founded by Anthony Blinken, current Secretary of State and Michele Floumoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Employees have included Lisa Monaco, current United States Deputy Attorney General, and Avril Haines, current Director of National Intelligence.

Beacon Global Strategies is another company that includes people that rotate between employment as high government officials and highly paid private consultants. The managing directors include Michael Allen, former Majority Staff Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Jeremy Bash, former Chief of Staff to the Director of the CIA and Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense. At the end of 2022, Andrew Makridis left the CIA where he served as the Chief Operating Officer and joined Beacon Global Strategies. Mr. Makridis has been accused by a high-ranking CIA whistleblower of being involved in bribery of members of the CIA team investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Beacon Global Strategies has worked on behalf of a company seeking to transfer sensitive technology from the US to China.

Sequoia Capital, whose Chinese affiliate became one of the biggest funders of startups in China, has been working with Washington-based national security advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies as it faces potential U.S. government restrictions on American technology investment in China, according to four people with knowledge of the situation.

Beacon’s work for Sequoia, which hasn’t been previously reported, is of critical importance because the Biden administration has reportedly discussed limiting U.S. investment in China in key areas like semiconductors and artificial intelligence through a presidential executive order.

Sequoia Hired National Security Firm Beacon Amid Scrutiny of China Deals. Juro Osawa, Amir Efrati, Abram Brown. The Information. April 28, 2023

So, when did Mr. Makridis know he was going to work for Beacon Global Strategies? Surely he knew of their relationships with companies doing business in China. Why was he interested in altering the findings of the CIA team away from a lab-leak in China?

I suggest to you that the very existence of companies like WestExec Advisors and Beacon Global Strategies is not only evidence of corruption but of potential treason at the highest levels of government. Such companies should be illegal. Anyone who has access to top secret information should not be allowed to profit from such information. It is amazing to me as an American citizen that members of the Intelligence and Defense establishments are allowed to sell their privileged information and access to decision makers to the highest bidder, including hostile foreign goverments.

The United States used to have public officials who may have been corrupt in small ways, but not with regard to national security. Thanks globalization.

Mindwarp

Every day, there are stories relating to declining mental health in the US (and probably elsewhere): Declining test scores in young people; reports of atrocious behavior in schools; the continued rise of addiction to illegal drugs; the increased use of legal drugs meant to treat ADHD; flashmobs turning cities into chaotic free-for-alls of crime and wanton destruction; plummeting productivity at work; and skyrocketing suicide rates. Much of this has been attributed to lockdowns during the pandemic even though there is no evidence supporting this and strong evidence disputing it. For example, suicide rates in the US went down in 2020 when lockdowns were most rigorous and went sharply up in 2021 and 2022 when there were few if any lockdowns.

I have argued, and provided many references, suggesting that Long Covid is partially due to damage to the brain. Is it not possible that some of the negative behavior we are seeing is to due to direct damage of the virus to the nervous system? Why is this hypothesis not even being considered? There is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can damage the immune system. For this reason, in at least some people, repeated infections can cause worse and worse symptoms, including with cognition. If my hypothesis is correct, the behavioral problems we see now will affect more and more people. If someone is a pet psychic, well, problems thinking will be unfortunate for them and their family, but not for anyone else. But what if these cognitive problems affect people working at water treatment plants; power stations or nuclear missileers? How much does cognition have to decline before we start to have catastrophic failures? KerPlunk!

Wendigos

Terrorism on the part of Islamist radicals is not new. However, the deliberate plan to massacre large numbers of men, women and children in horrifyingly evil ways was taken to a new level by Hamas. No one can do what they did and have a normal brain. I’m sorry, it is just not possible. I don’t know what exactly happened to them, but they are now a type of evil that has to be destroyed, and not just to save Israel. Such creatures cannot be permitted to walk the Earth. They have proven that there is no limit to what they will do. They won’t stop their horrors until they are dead. I fear that there will be more of these wendigos – people who have lost their souls – and more atrocities. We may see them in the US. I hope not, but am not confident in this hope.

References

WestExec Advisors. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WestExec_Advisors

Beacon Global Strategies. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_Global_Strategies

Testimony From CIA Whistleblower Alleges New Information on COVID-19 Origins. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Sep 12, 2023.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/testimony-from-cia-whistleblower-alleges-new-information-on-covid-19-origins/

Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Turner’s letter to former CIA COO Andrew Makridis. September 12, 2023.
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.12-SSCP-HPSCI-Letter-to-Makridis-Re.-COVID.pdf

CIA bribed its own COVID-19 origin team to reject lab-leak theory, anonymous whistleblower claims. Jon Cohen. Science. September 12, 2023.
https://www.science.org/content/article/cia-bribed-its-own-covid-19-origin-team-reject-lab-leak-theory-anonymous-whistleblower

CIA Official Questioned Over Wuhan Cover-Up Took Job at U.S.-China Consulting Firm. Sep 17, 2023. Lee Fang.
https://www.leefang.com/p/cia-official-questioned-over-wuhan

A Look at the Latest Suicide Data and Change Over the Last Decade. Heather Saunders and Nirmita Panchal. KFF.Aug 04, 2023
https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/a-look-at-the-latest-suicide-data-and-change-over-the-last-decade/

Wendigo. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo

Gestalt # 171 – Global Meltdown

I am going to offend a lot of people with this blog. Sorry, but it is time to tell the plain truth, as I see it, no matter how unpleasant it is to hear.

The Middle East

Like most people, I have been shocked and horrified by recent events in Israel. It is too early to know what led to the catastrophic failure to anticipate and respond to the attack by Hamas. I suspect that multiple causes will be found. I would suggest that one variable was the pandemic. Israel had been one of the leaders in responding to the pandemic. But the Israeli government, like all the others, eventually threw in the towel and let the virus rampage in the country unchecked. It is hard to understand how so many poor decisions could have been made to allow the current situation to occur. Could it be that some of the people who had been quite good at anticipating problems and planning for them no longer have brains that work as well as they used to? Israel is a small country surrounded by enemies and can only survive if it is vastly superior in technology and planning to its neighbors. This was true but may no longer be. The (Shia) Iranian government continues to stir up trouble and develop its nuclear weapons. The (Sunni) Saudis respond by talking about developing nuclear weapons of their own. Israel already has nuclear weapons. How does this end?

Africa

Africa has some of the best reserves of natural resources in the world. Yet, most countries within the continent are poor. This is partly due to the after effects of colonialism and stupidly designed national borders for which the English government is mostly responsible. However, incredible levels of corruption within African governments, religious wars and ancient tribal hatreds are also responsible for collapsing African economies. Repeated epidemics of extremely dangerous viruses such as Ebola have nearly destroyed some African countries and may yet do so. All of this is leading to mass migrations to Europe which are not sustainable. How does this end?

Europe

To continue this theme into Europe, how long before the Italians and Spanish decide their survival as nations requires draconian and very definitely unhumanitarian measures to stop from being overwhelmed by boatloads of angry young men? Eastern Europe is already starting to address the issue of huge numbers of angry young men seeking to escape from the Middle Eastern caldron. This isn’t going to be nice to watch.

Why haven’t the Russian people risen up and torn Mad Vlad limb from limb? Why do they climb into buses to be sent with lousy weapons and equipment to Ukraine where they are likely to be killed or maimed? Could it be that their brains were fried by SARS-CoV-2? Russia had one of the lowest levels vaccination in Europe and compliance with masking recommendations was poor. Mad Vlad threatens nuclear war every other day unless he is allowed to conquer as much of Europe as he wants (although he has fans in Germany and the US, sadly). Besides his, thus far, empty threats, Putin is moving forward with a number of nuclear-related technologies. They may not work perfectly, but even one poorly functioning nuclear warhead can ruin your whole day as long as it goes boom. How does this end?

The Indian Subcontinent

There was recently a Nipah virus epidemic in India. We don’t know the source. However, the virus in this latest oubreak clearly was transmitted human to human fairly efficiently. Nipah can be as deadly as Ebola. The current outbreak has apparently ended. But wherever the virus came from, it may return. We Americans tend to forget that India and Pakistan are bitter, nuclear-armed enemies. India’s current leader is an intolerant Hindu religious zealot who is leading India towards theocracy. Muslim Pakistan borders on a failed State (Afghanistan) and is close to becoming a failed State itself. It is not easy to tell where Pakistani intelligence operatives end and terrorists begin. Any number of terrorist groups within Pakistan or adjacent Afghanistan would like to get their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Given that Pakistani officials do not have good control over their nuclear weapons, it is possible that terrorists will get them. How does this end?

Asia

SARS-CoV-2 originated in China (as did SARS-CoV-1 and H5N1). The consensus is slowly moving away from a natural origin to this virus to a laboratory origin. There is zero doubt in my mind that Chinese scientists are aggressively developing biological weapons with, I’m afraid, some funding and assistance from the American government. Scientists in China working with these viruses are notoriously sloppy. Many in the US know this but can’t say it out loud without being branded racist. However, the truth is the truth and the result of this truth is over one million dead Americans. Xi Jinping is a sociopath and a megalomaniac. His incompetence has resulted in the destruction of the Chinese economic miracle pioneered by Deng Xiaopeng. Xi won’t take the blame of course. He’d rather extend WW III to Asia and kill more millions of people than risk the displeasure of the Chinese people. His fat little stooge, Kim Jong Un, develops nuclear weapons with help from China (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). North Korea may be used as a disposable pawn in a nuclear attack on South Korea, Japan or the US. How does this end?

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand are both doing fairly well. These two countries are most likely to survive a global meltdown. However, they will need to learn to make things for themselves instead of importing so many manufactured goods. They will also need to be able to defend themselves from any desperate surviving superpowers.

South and Central America

Lots has been written about revolutions and emigration in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of the New World. However, people who write in English almost never tell the truth about the history of these countries and how it relates to the current immigration crisis. What follows is a bit of a simplification. There are three groups in “Latin” America: Indios (the original inhabitants), mestizos (people of mixed heritage) and blancos (European-descendants, whites). There were great civilizations in the New World which were destroyed by invading Europeans. The descendants of these civilizations were subjugated, discriminated against (to this day) and reduced to poverty. Mestizos were allowed to rise to middle class status. However, it is the pureblood Spanish and Portuguese descendants who still mostly rule and have most of the land in many of these countries (and American States like New Mexico). Marxist and other revolutionary ideologues have played on the grievances of the poor Indios and poor mestizos to sway them to their side. US companies, supported by the US government, did not help matters by siding with the blancos and helping them to keep down the nonwhites. What about drugs you say? Take a look at pictures of the drug lords. Be honest. What kind of people do they look like? Yeah, guess what? They are mostly blancos. If they were walking the streets of Madrid, they would not stick out. Now look at immigrants coming over the border. What do they look like? Yeah, they look like the statues of ancient Mayans – because that’s what many of them are, Mayans, not Spaniards. Many don’t speak Spanish, which, and some people seem to forget this, is a European language spoken by people who live in Europe. Poor Indios seeking to escape the murderous drug gangs founded by blancos are desperately trying to reach safety in the US. I know, we can’t take them all in. So, maybe we need to stop coddling corrupt blancos and step in on the right side “down there”. Fix the problem at the source.

Canada

Canada’s Prime Minister is a weak-willed, corrupt Nepo-Baby with questionable loyalty to his own country. That is all.

The United States

I have covered many of the problems of the US in past blogs, so I will be brief. The hereditary elite in this country, mostly Anglo-Saxon and Dutch Episcopalians, have degenerated both intellectually and morally. Unfortunately, they still control vast resources, both physical and social. They control access to the best educations and systematically deny it to the vast majority of Americans. They control access to the best jobs including in key government agencies like the CIA and systematically deny it to the vast majority of Americans. They own vast quantities of the land in this country and would like to deny as much as possible of it to other Americans. For all our faults, we have better chances to improve out lot than the citizens of most countries. Most of our chains are psychological. We can deprogram ourselves from the soul-destroying fantasies of Hollywood and the false narratives of the mainstream media. We can buy land (still) and build our own secure holds. We can raise and educate our own children. We can be who we want to be. Who the founders wanted us to be. Who we should be.