Gestalt #203

Vlad’s futile warnings

Putin is issuing scary nuclear war warnings on almost a daily basis. I don’t think he is bluffing. I think he may actually use tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. However, his warnings will not achieve his goal of influencing the US public for one simple reason – the US media isn’t reporting them. Had these same warnings been given by a Russian leader back in the 1950s through the early 1990s, they would have received tremendous publicity. Americans would have been digging fallout shelters and moving out of cities or launching massive “give peace a chance” rallies depending on their individual inclinations. Now, the American public has no idea what is going on in Europe other than that there is a war in Ukraine. The days when you would have news bureaus staffed with knowledgeable reporters in foreign capitals are over. Now, you have the occasional trust fund recipient playing foreign correspondent to impress his friends who reports whatever he wants when he wants because he doesn’t cost the Networks anything. Even simple web searches would provide far more information than you will see on the news. A true picture of the threats facing us would be bad for advertisers, and most News organizations won’t cover anything that would disturb the buying public. So, Vlad, threaten away. Then watch our news. Your bone-chilling warnings won’t be covered. Instead, you can relax and watch yet another scintillating report about Taylor Swift.

Hiding H5N1 Human Cases – Biden administration policy?

The CDC has prohibited studies of wastewater from hospitals which would allow us to determine if H5N1 is infecting people as well as animals. The CDC only monitors wastewater from locations where the source of H5N1 could have been animals or people. The CDC and FDA are deliberately creating barriers to clinical testing for H5N1. Is it possible that the Biden administration is not simply doing a bad job of tracking H5N1 cases in humans, are they actively attempting to prevent the US public from finding out how many H5N1 cases in humans are occurring? Is this an attempt to keep a lid on bad news until after the election in November? I think this is possible.

First a whimper, then a bang

I have recently done a personal study of fast food restaurants. It started with one bad experience and then became an intentional survey of multiple chains in multiple States. Something is going on, in my opinion. Food quality has decreased dramatically and orders are frequently screwed up. It is clear that the quality control measures that used to be in place in chain restaurants, which is the only reason anyone ever ate at them, have been abandoned. Restaurants are not being inspected by health agencies. This is apparent to anyone who has seen what their kitchens look like or gotten sick after eating at one of these formerly safe restaurants. This erosion of quality and safety extends to many domains. Predatory businesses are preying on older people and the less well-educated without restraint or fear of prosecution. Prescription drugs are more expensive than they need to be and harder to obtain. So hard, that some people may actually be dying while jumping through unnecessary hoops to get them. What is the Bureau of Consumer Protection doing? What is the Attorney General doing? What is OSHA doing? Nothing, as far as I can tell. When such and such country is labeled as “third world”, many people mean an unsafe place with low standards and a lot of corruption. This increasingly describes the United States. The perception of the US in other countries is not what most Americans think it is. People in many other countries are increasingly viewing the US as lacking in the rule of law, as unsafe and corrupt. Our enemies sense weakness in our low standards and increasing disunity. This may encourage them to attack us. Whimper now, bang later.

References

Putin Issues Nuclear Warning to West. June 21, 2024. Isabel van Brugen. Newsweek.
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-nuclear-doctrine-weapon-use-west-nato-1915765

From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 bird flu. May 1, 2024. Denis Nash, John Dennehy, Monica Trujillo, and Leopolda Silvera. STAT.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/01/h5n1-bird-flu-hospital-wastewater-surveillance/

Experts blast CDC over failure to test sewage for signs of H5N1 bird flu virus. Susanne Rust. Los Angeles Times. May 10, 2024.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-05-10/experts-blast-cdc-over-refusal-to-test-sewage-for-signs-of-h5n1-bird-flu-virus

‘We’re Flying Blind’: CDC Has 1M Bird Flu Tests Ready, but Experts See Repeat of Covid Missteps. June 20, 2024. Amy Maxmen. KFF Health News.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/cdc-bird-flu-tests-covid-repeat-concerns/

My Health Insurance Company Is Trying To Kill Me. Jonna Jerome. The Huffington Post. June 22, 2024.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/health-insurance-no-surprises-medical-debt_n_665cdbb5e4b01ea28f32c18f

How PBMs Are Driving Up Prescription Drug Costs. Rebecca Robbins and Reed Abelson. The New York Times. June 21, 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/prescription-drug-costs-pbm.html

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 #147 – GISAID and the Germans

A dozen scientists spoke with Science raising complaints about their interactions with GISAID. They reported an opaque process of gaining access, unexplained interruptions once access was won, and phone harangues or threatening legal letters when they got on the wrong side of GISAID’s strict rules against resharing data. Many scientists who voiced criticisms declined to be identified for fear of losing GISAID access. They say that even as they race to study coronavirus evolution, they are walking on eggshells around their chief data supplier.

“I am so tired of being scared all the time, of being terrified that if I take a step wrong I will lose access to the data that I base my research on,” says one scientist who declines to be identified. “[GISAID] has that sword hanging over any scientist that works on SARS-CoV-2.”

Meredith Wadman, Critics decry access, transparency issues with key trove of coronavirus sequences, Science, March 10, 2021

GISAID is back in the news as sequences that may be key to understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2, appeared, disappeared and then re-appeared back in the GISAID database. Once again, scientists are wondering what is going on with GISAID.

For those who don’t already know, GISAID is a mysterious database where some of the most important viral sequences in the world are deposited. It was founded by Peter Bogner, a ski instructor. Yes, you heard me right, a ski instructor. How did a ski instructor come to found this database? No one knows. Some not-so-bright journalists praise GISAID to the skies apparently thinking that it serves as some kind of irreplaceable resource. Not true. Long before GISAID came to exist there were databases that made viral sequences freely available. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is one such database. It is free to deposit sequences there. Anyone can freely download sequences from NCBI. So, why was GISAID necessary? Only one reason – control. Someone wants to control the most important viral sequences in the world. We are told that this is for the benefit of scientists. See the quote and story above and see if this seems credible to you.

Does a ski instructor really have the knowledge necessary to run a sophisticated viral database? Of course not. Initially, Bogner relied on the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics to run the database. This relationship ended in a lawsuit: Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics v. Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, No. 13-1274 (D.D.C. June 23, 2014), which the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics won. Who runs GISAID now? It’s not exactly clear, but it appears that the German government is “hosting” it.

The Federal Republic of Germany entered, in 2010, into a public-private partnership with the GISAID Initiative and has since hosted the publicly-accessible EpiFlu™ database, employing a unique sharing mechanism which ensures that inherent rights (e.g. IPR) of contributors of GSD [Genetic Sequence Data] are not forfeit.

GERMANY’S STATEMENT ON SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES AND CONCERNS REGARDING THE PIP FRAMEWORK AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION. Special Session of the PIP Advisory Group, 13 October 2015

Is the statement by the German government about the data from GISAID being publicly-accessible true? See the quote at the top of this blog.

Do I have feel comfortable with the fact that the German government controls the sequences of at least one virus that has already killed millions of people? No. Why? Nazis and Communists.

Some history:

Resources for genetic research had increased considerably since the mid-1920s, with a further boost from 1933 onwards. As a result, more and more scientists framed their research projects in terms of genetics, and claimed that their work could contribute to establishing criteria that differentiated inherited diseases from acquired diseases. The experiments carried out by Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz concentration camp were among the most radical demonstrations of genetic-research interests in these contexts. His investigations addressed questions such as the genetics of specific proteins protecting against infections, or the heredity of eye colour. Mengele correlated experimental data gained from examination of living people (especially twins), with pathoanatomical and biochemical analyses done after they had been killed. Tissue samples were sent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics in Berlin. Its director, Otmar von Verschuer, received funding for some of these activities from the prestigious Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Verschuer was an internationally recognised scientist, who, after World War II, was appointed professor of human genetics at the University of Münster. These details confirm that parts of Mengele’s research questions and methods conformed to the scientific logic of its time. However, in a context of unlimited access to unconsenting people who were defined as “biologically inferior”, the research programme was accompanied by complete disregard for the victims, and many cruelties ensued.

Prof Volker Roelcke. Nazi medicine and research on human beings. The Lancet. 2004

I know. You will say this is ancient history. The Germans are different now. They are democratic, liberal even. They would never go back to autocratic practices. The current Chancellors of Germany are nothing like Hitler.

Some more history;

The German-Soviet Pact was signed in August 1939. It paved the way for the joint invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that September. The pact was an agreement of convenience between the two bitter ideological enemies. It permitted Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to carve up spheres of influence in eastern Europe, while pledging not to attack each other for 10 years. Less than two years later, however, Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union.

Holocaust Encylopedia.

Gerhard Schröder was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 – 2005.

Among his more controversial cases, Schröder helped Horst Mahler, a founding member of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, to secure both an early release from prison and permission to practice law again in Germany.

Wikipedia

Bader-Meinhof was also known as the Red Army Faction. They were a German Communist Terrorist group that killed and maimed innocent people.

Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany from 2005 – 2021. She was born in West Germany but her father moved her family to East Germany when she was small.

In 1968, Merkel joined the Free German Youth (FDJ), the official communist youth movement sponsored by the ruling Marxist–Leninist Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

Wikipedia

Olaf Scholz is the current Chancellor of Germany.

Scholz joined the SPD in 1975 as a student, where he got involved with the Jusos, the youth organization of the SPD. From 1982 to 1988, he was Deputy Federal Juso Chairman, and from 1987 to 1989 also Vice President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. He supported the Freudenberger Kreis, the Marxist wing of the Juso university groups, promoting “overcoming the capitalist economy” in articles.[9] In it, Scholz criticized the “aggressive-imperialist NATO”, the Federal Republic as the “European stronghold of big business” and the social-liberal coalition, which puts the “bare maintenance of power above any form of substantive dispute”.[10] On 4 January 1984, Scholz and other Juso leaders met in the GDR with Egon Krenz, the secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and member of the Politburo of the SED-Central Committee, Herbert Häber. In 1987, Scholz crossed the inner-German border again and stood up for disarmament agreements as Juso-Vice at an FDJ peace rally in Wittenberg.[11]

Wikipedia

OK, you say. So, German Chancellors seem to have had “affinities” for Communism when they were young. But, hey, we were all young once. It’s not like these Chancellors had any affinity for totalitarian goverments now, right? Uh…

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friend Schroeder hastily signed the deal just as he was departing the office from which he had been voted out days earlier. Within weeks, he started to oversee the project implementation himself, leading the Nord Stream AG’s shareholder committee.

Schroeder went on to become a board member of several consortia in which Russian government-controlled energy company Gazprom is at least the majority shareholder. Most recently, he became chairman of Rosneft, which is Russia’s largest oil company and controlled by the Kremlin.

Rick Noack, The Washington Post, July 11, 2018

OK. Well, that’s one German Chancellor wholly owned by Russia.

But what about Angela Merkel? Surely she regrets her country’s dealings with Russia? Uh…

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she had no regrets about the course her government took with its energy policy and Russia during her time in power, which critics say left Europe’s biggest economy too dependent on Russian gas.

Reuters, October 13, 2022

Well at least she was tough on China, right? I mean, the Nazis had concentration camps. China has concentration camps. This would make her especially sensitive to evil being done by Xi Jinping. Uh…

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and ex-U.S. President Richard Nixon in the hallowed élite of foreign leaders to be designated “old friend” by China’s communist rulers.

She received the rarely awarded title from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.

“Chinese people put great emphasis on ties of friendship, we will never forget old friends, and China’s door will always be open to you,” Xi told Merkel in a video call, state media CCTV reported. “I hope you will continue to care about and support China’s relationship with Germany and with the EU.”

Stuart Lau, Politico, October 13, 2021

Well, once Putin showed his hand in Ukraine, surely Olaf Scholz would immediately spring to Ukraine’s aid. Right? Uh…

Germany has provoked outrage in some quarters after it offered to supply 5,000 military helmets to Ukraine to help it defend itself against a possible Russian invasion.

About 100,000 Russian troops are believed to be on the border with Ukraine. While countries like the U.S. and U.K. have sent military hardware to Ukraine, Germany has been conspicuously reluctant to send equipment.

The offer of helmets, made on Wednesday, has been derided by some Ukraine officials. For one, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, dismissed the offer as “a joke” and said it had left him “speechless.”

Holly Ellyatt, CNBC, January 7, 2022

The German government has since provided more military aid to Ukraine, but only after very heavy prodding by the American government.

Can you understand why I don’t feel entirely comfortable with the fact that the German government controls sequences related to one virus that has already killed millions of people and other viruses that may be able kill billions?

Putin and Xi shouldn’t feel so comfortable, either. Stalin thought he could make a deal with Hitler, too. The only thing that saved him in the end was the US military. Ironic, that.

Gestalt # 116 – The Quiet Revolution – Being and Becoming

Who are you? What will you do?

These are essential questions. Who will answer them? You or those who seek to be your master?

Like all fields of knowledge, psychology can be used for good or ill. It can be used to help people lead more productive lives or it can be used to manipulate people in ways that are detrimental to the people being controlled. Unfortunately, the latter use is now prevalent.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is still alive. Why? Almost everyone agrees that the world would be a better place if he were dead. Indeed, there may not be a world if he doesn’t die soon. It is the only way the war in Ukraine will end. It may be the only way to prevent an imminent nuclear war. Yet, he lives. Answering why he lives is instructive.

Putin is an old, sick and partially demented man. There are girl scouts who could kill him with their bare hands. Some will say he lives because he is protected by men with guns. That’s not true. The men with guns could decide to kill him. Anyone near him could kill him. And if they won’t, other elements of the Russian military(ies) could kill the people who protect him and then kill him. Why don’t they? He represents an existential threat, not just to Ukrainians, but to all Russians as well, including the people who are protecting him. He lives only because he has convinced people to let him live even though every breath he takes brings the world closer to immolation.

The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were often weak, spindly men, the product of generations of incest. Yet, they had the power to order thousands of Egyptians to work themselves to death building monuments to their own lives, the pyramids. How did they do this? The answer again is psychology.

Humans are social animals, like wolves and their domestic cousins, dogs. In any social group, there needs to be some sort of hierarchy with a leader (alpha) and followers. Why follow a leader? The only good reason is because you think the leader will make good decisions from which you will benefit. To determine this, you need to know a leader well and see how he or she operates, close up. Human social groups have become enormous. Even in medieval times, the distance between the King and the average peasant was vast. Not coincidentally, the disparity in living conditions between Kings and peasants is much greater than the disparity of living conditions when social groups are smaller. One might even express this as a law: the natural tendency of humans to form social groups with a leader and followers will be used by unscrupulous leaders to exploit followers in ways that benefit the leader and hurt the followers in direct correlation to the size of the social group.

To exploit followers, leaders must understand human psychology and use it to manipulate them. Humans want to be protected from danger and hunger, so leaders must promise the followers that they will be safe only if they follow the leader. In small social groups, it is easy to see if the leaders keep their promises, and replace them if they fail. In large social groups, it is much easier for leaders to keep the truth from their followers. If they can convince their followers that they are benefiting from the leader, then it doesn’t matter if this is actually true. The followers will do what the leader wants them to do because they think it is in their interest to do so.

Why did the Germans follow Hitler in his evil plans to conquer the world? Were they evil too? Some were, but most were just following orders. They did not believe that they were doing evil. In fact, they thought they were the victims and it was the Allies who were the bad guys. They believed this because all their sources of information were controlled by the Nazi party. Goebbels was proud of his ability to control the German people through propaganda, mostly delivered through radio and newspapers. Anyone who attempted to break this information monopoly was discovered and executed. See “The White Rose” for an example.

The Russian people do not rise up against Putin because many of them believe the stupid propaganda delivered to them on Russian television. The more intelligent Russians see the truth but think their best option is to run to a Western country and stay safe there. Western countries are starting to tell these intelligent, but testicularly-challenged, Russians to go back to Russia and solve the Putin problem themselves.

The Chinese Communist Party maintains control of the Chinese people, not by force, but through psychological manipulation starting with their earliest education. The Chinese people are prevented from getting outside information by the Great Firewall that, unfortunately, many Western companies helped build.

We in the US should not be too smug about this. We are much better off than the Russians or Chinese in terms of access to information, but we may also be on the path to a totalitarian government – not because there is some group that will use guns to “take over” – but because we are allowing ourselves to be brainwashed into giving up our freedoms voluntarily. There is an increasing disconnection between the world presented in entertainment by Hollywood and the real world. Our educational system is de-emphasizing facts and instead teaching crypto-Marxist ideology. “News” networks have closed most of their foreign bureaus and now seek to reinforce the messages presented by Hollywood and the Education matrix. Yes, even Fox News. The hot button issues that are argued back and forth on CNN and Fox News are deliberate distractors from the real issues that confront us. As many have observed, these “arguments” are about as real as “professional” wrestling matches.

The only way to prevent enslavement to the manipulators is to separate from the mainstream culture. Stop going to movies. Stop watching new TV shows. Stop listening to talk radio. Take your kids out of public school and spend a lot of time investigating any new school you may send them to. Look into homeschooling. Read the classics of Western literature. Learn as much math as you can. Learn how to grow your own food. You know the drill.

Don’t listen to people who tell you to sit on a couch and binge watch fantasy world drivel and eat processed “food” crap. Work outside on your garden or just take a walk. When the weather is bad, read a good book or listen to great music. Learn a new language or a practical life skill like CPR. Even totally average people have the ability to do amazing things, if only they think for themselves and work towards goals in the real world. Cooperate with like-minded people. They exist, they are just scattered.

Discover who you are for yourself. Become the person you want to be, not who the manipulators want you to be.

A prediction: those who dream their lives away will have short ones; those who engage with the real world are more likely to survive our mounting challenges.

Gestalt #97 – Pandemics, Something Old, Something New

Bush meat virus

A virus that originated in animals in Africa crosses over to humans from bush meat (wild animals butchered for their meat). It starts to spread human to human in Africa. Later, it starts to spread human to human in Europe, the United States and other countries. It requires close contact to spread, often with bodily fluids. Initially, it is found in one demographic but later is found in other groups as well.

Which virus am I writing about? Maybe you are thinking monkeypox. But it could just as easily be HIV. Monkeypox can be spread all the same ways HIV spreads. HIV causes AIDS. AIDS is a pandemic. Therefore, monkeypox can cause a pandemic. I am making this simple so that journalists, public health officials and politicians can understand.

AIDS was spread to recipients of blood transfusions before blood was tested for the presence of HIV. How many people have to get monkeypox injected directly into their bloodstream before blood is screened for monkeypox?

Contaminated Blankets

Everyone probably knows the story of how British colonists tried to infect American Indians with smallpox with blankets that someone with smallpox had used. Guess what? Monkeypox can be spread by blankets, sheets, towels, etc. How many hotels and motels thoroughly clean these items between guests? Not so many, I’m afraid. Going to try on some new jeans at a clothing store? Who else tried on those pants 15 minutes ago? Did they have monkeypox? You don’t know, do you?

Scarface

Milkmaids used to have a reputation for being especially beautiful. Why? Because they would get cowpox on their hands from milking cows. This protected them from getting smallpox. Everyone else would get smallpox and have big pits all over their faces (and other places as well). Guess what? Monkeypox also leaves scars.

Miscarriage and fetal death

I had read that monkeypox was dangerous to pregnant women. In what way? The only study I could find on this found that 75% of pregnant women who were infected with monkeypox miscarried or experienced a fetal death (Mbala et al. 2017). How many women know this? Shouldn’t they be told?

Vaccine and antivirals

We are told not to worry because we have a smallpox vaccine that is 85% effective against monkeypox. Great. Here’s the thing. This vaccine is not mild. No, it’s not. The side effects from this vaccine are much more serious than the vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. I will get it (again) as soon as I can but I know that others will have doubts, especially since they are being told that monkeypox isn’t much worse than poison ivy. Some anti-vaxxers are already saying they won’t get the vaccine to protect against monkeypox. The thing is, the only way smallpox was eradicated was through mandatory vaccination. In the 1960s, us kids just lined up and got our shots. We showed off the scars on our arms. Cool. Could mandatory vaccination happen today with the current Supreme Court? I have my doubts. If there is not a mandatory mass vaccination, then the virus will continue to spread and mutate. No one will be safe, even people who were vaccinated. 85% protection is not 100% protection. There are antivirals which may help, but what is the supply like for these? Who will get these antivirals if they are in short supply? Just the well-connected, like with Paxlovid? Cue the magic bean sellers hoping to make a quick buck with quack cures.

Russian Jokers

Two Russian state television hosts, Evgeny Popov and Olga Skabeeva, were recently having fun discussing the dissemination of monkeypox.

Monkeypox. Almost all who got sick with it are men of non-traditional sexual orientation,” Popov began.

Skabeeva added: “You won’t believe it, such a coincidence, or maybe it’s not a coincidence, most countries, whose homosexuals got monkeypox, are supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime. Stuff happens, right?”

Isabel van Brugen, Newsweek, 5/26/22

Yeah, stuff happens. The Soviet Union weaponized monkeypox. The Russians have this weapon in their freezers. Did they release it in NATO countries? Hope someone is looking into this. Can someone remind these jokers that we will have no choice but to nuke them if we find out Russia was behind this? It’s all fun and games until someone opens up a can of instant sun in your backyard.

References

Maternal and Fetal Outcomes Among Pregnant Women With Human Monkeypox Infection in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mbala et al. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 216: pages 824–828. October 2017
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/216/7/824/4348689

Statement by Dr. Kenneth Alibek, Program Manager Battelle Memorial Institute before the Joint Economic Committee United States Congress. Wednesday, May 20, 1998.
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/bt/smallpox/Congress/Alibek01.htm

Gestalt #93 – Preparing for a War that has already started

Ukraine

Vladimir Putin is said to believe that Russia is already at war with NATO (which of course includes the United States). I believe that in this he is correct. Although no official NATO troops are in Ukraine, the Ukrainians were and are being trained by NATO military personnel, they are supplied by NATO countries and ex-military from NATO countries are fighting along side Ukrainians. This is, at the very least, a proxy war.

Some Russian-friendly politicians and thought-leaders deplore our deep involvement in defending Ukraine against Russia. They warn that we are becoming involved in a war that does not affect us. They are wrong. If Russia prevails in Ukraine, I have no doubt that Putin will attack other countries and not just non-NATO countries like Moldova. He will go after the Baltics, which are NATO countries, as well. If we don’t stop him in Ukraine, we will be faced with fighting him in Lithuania under more difficult conditions, for us. If we decide to ignore our treaty obligations to Lithuania, then what is to stop him from attacking Poland?

Russia is a backward, primitive country with a thin veneer of European-educated elite. Much of its technical accomplishments have been the result of efforts of Jews and other minorities who most Russians scorn. Russia has lost its most intelligent, well-educated people in the Refusnik migrations to the United States and Israel and the recent escape of the remaining intellectual elite of Russia to Finland and Turkey. What remains in Russia is a group of ignorant, semi-barbarians who believe whatever stupidity they see on TV. And there is lots of stupidity on Russian TV – even more than what is on American TV. Russian “journalists” were recently shown chuckling about what would happen to NYC if Russia fired a 7 megaton nuclear weapon at it without considering that 15 minutes after this happened, they and their families in Moscow would be incinerated.

How can Russia survive without the accomplishments of intelligent people? Simple. Invade countries with smarter people and force them to work as Russia’s slaves. This was the “secret sauce” of the Soviet Union and Putin knows it. Without conquest of more advanced peoples, Russia will fail. Russia has always had exactly one advantage, a large population and the willingness of its leaders to spend Russian lives prodigiously. I’m afraid the only way to stop Russian aggression is to keep killing Russian invaders until they have no more people to use for invasion. We should give the Ukrainians whatever heavy weapons they want. They have to win.

People fear that Putin will use nuclear weapons in desperation. Me too. However, if we give in to nuclear terrorism, what is stop him from using this threat to conquer one country after another? You know what I fear more than nuclear weapons? Look at the what the savages from the Russian Federation do to the civilians in Ukraine: Torture, Rape, Murder. Now, imagine these Russian soldiers coming to your neighborhood and doing the same thing to your family and friends. I don’t want nuclear war, but I prefer it to subjugation by barbarians.

Taiwan

No one doubts that Xi Jinping plans to do the same thing to Taiwan that Putin is doing to Ukraine. The only question is when will he be ready to do it? Our stake in Taiwan is even greater than in Ukraine. Taiwan is an advanced country with unique, and I really do mean unique, importance. Apparently, only Taiwanese engineers can produce a critical component of modern economies – the most advanced computer chips. Lots of countries produce lower level computer chips, but the most complex machines, and operators of those machines, are in Taiwan. Taiwan is starting to move some of its chip-making factories to the US and other countries. We should expedite this in every way we can.

The US has treaty obligations to Taiwan which we should honor. That means we must prepare to fight and win a war with China. If we do not and China conquers Taiwan, they will acquire the technical expertise necessary to conquer other Asian countries. It will then be a matter of time before they invade Hawaii and ultimately all of the US.

War time economy, War time media, War time education

We must recognize that WW III has begun and start transforming our economy to war-time production. We have been supplying Ukraine with weapons and also reinforcing NATO allies with even more advanced weapons. That’s the right thing to do and we should continue doing it. Further, we need to get as many appropriate weapons to Taiwan as fast as possible. We are rapidly drawing down our stockpiles of some weapons. We need an immediate increase in defense production. The American people need to know why this is necessary. We cannot have a media empire that kisses up to psychopathic murderers like Xi Jinping. Although coverage of the war against Ukraine has been appropriately negative towards Putin, the media continues to ignore the threat from Xi Jinping’s China. That needs to change, fast. The US government has potent regulatory weapons it can use against pro-communist China Hollywood. The US government should explain to Hollywood producers exactly what it will do their industry if they don’t change their tune, now. US education has been dumbed-down and become a platform for anti-American propaganda. That also needs to change. We need to give new meaning to Civics education. That doesn’t mean that we ignore our original sins of slavery and maltreatment of American Indians. We should teach the mistakes made by the American government and honor the people who helped us correct them. But we also need to teach children that without the United States, the entire world would be living in a Nazi or Communist hell-hole. The United States is the only country that can prevent a world dictatorship from being imposed by evil psychopaths. Yes, the United States is exceptional, whether we want it to be or not. It is our historical fate to be the last bulwark of freedom, despite our many faults. If we fail, the world will fall into an unimaginable abyss of evil.

Requiem for Medical Maven

Old time readers will remember Medical Maven. He was a long time contributor to Pandemic Flu Information (PFI) forum, which I moderated. I recently learned that he died a few years ago.

I did not always agree with Medical Maven; he was slightly to the right of Atilla the Hun and I am not (despite what you may think from reading the above). However, I always respected his analysis, especially of military issues. He was a staunch enemy of communism. I cannot imagine that he would watch what is happening in Ukraine without wishing he could go over there and shoot some Russians with his assault riffle. He would see the hammer and sickle flag on Russian tanks and know what that means. Medical Maven realized the threat from Communist China sooner than most and never hesitated to call for preparation for their assault – whether they attacked with biological weapons or nukes.

I’m not sure I know all of Medical Maven’s involvements, but I suspect he was supportive of forums and groups with strong concerns about the over-reach of the US government. I want to speak to these groups directly, should any be reading this. The United States is now facing implacable enemies who mean to enslave and kill Americans, if they can. This is not the time to plan the kidnapping of women governors of American States. It never was. Whatever your politics, you must prepare to resist the Russian and Chinese Empires. This does not mean beating up random Asian-Americans. It means enlisting in the US military, if you are of age and are eager to kill the enemy. If you are a member of a militia, think carefully of why militias are allowed in the US. Your role is not to overthrow the US government, it is to protect the American people from foreign invaders. If the US is attacked by Xi Jinping with nuclear weapons, that will not be the end of the conflict; it will only be the beginning. Mao used to brag that the Chinese population was so large that even after a nuclear war, China would have plenty of people to invade other countries. Xi Jinping may be thinking the same way. Watch how the Ukrainians defend their cities from Russian barbarians. This will be your role, should the worst happen.

When I first saw “Red Dawn” in 1984, I quite enjoyed it, but did not take it seriously. To me, the purpose of the movie was to make Americans sympathetic to what other countries were experiencing after invasion by Communist imperialists. Now, I think of that movie differently. After nuclear war, it is possible that the US will be invaded. We will then be fighting street-by-street just as the Ukrainians are doing. Don’t think this is possible? There was a remake of “Red Dawn” in 2012. In the original version, the invaders were Chinese communists. However, the Chinese government pressured MGM to change the invading country from China to North Korea. How ridiculous is that? This new “Red Dawn” was a box office failure. Why was the Chinese government so scared of the release of this movie? Did the image of American patriots defending their country from invaders from Communist China strike a nerve?

We’ll see.

Gestalt #91 – Plague and War

B cells, T cells and the brain

As I’ve said many times, I am not an immunologist, so take the following with a large grain of salt. The following is a gross oversimplification. Our bodies have two major lines of defense against SARS-CoV-2: B cells and T cells. B cells produce antibodies that bind to and inactivate virus. T-cells destroy cells that are infected with virus. B cells are our first line of defense against infection. T cells are our second line of defense. B cells work well when a vaccine is well-matched against a specific strain or the individual has recently been infected with the same strain. They work much less well, or not at all, when vaccines are poorly matched against the infecting strain or when a person has been previously infected by another strain. The effectiveness of T cells, however, appears to hold up better against new strains of SARS-CoV-2. When both B cells and T cells are working, SARS-CoV-2 cannot get a foothold in our bodies and is quickly destroyed. Not only do we not get sick, we also don’t spread the virus to others. If B cells fail but T cells work, the virus does get in and does get a foothold but the cells hosting the virus do get killed by T cells limiting its spread. We may get a little bit sick and we can spread the virus to others, but our odds of dying are much lower than if we were not vaccinated or previously infected with another strain. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Here’s the thing, what is typically killing people is damage to the lungs. So, having effective T cells is apparently enough to prevent too much damage to the lungs; therefore, we don’t die (usually) when our T cells are working. But what about the brain? It is also affected by SARS-CoV-2. If the B cells don’t work, then the virus can get to the brain. We know that SARS-CoV-2 can cause brain damage. The exact mechanism is unclear. However, I worry that relying on T cells, only, to protect us, will lead to brain damage for many people. There are reports that each attack of SARS-CoV-2 destroys 1% of our cerebral cortex, even in “mild” cases. Many people will probably not even notice this loss although some may complain of “brain fog.” If an individual gets infected multiple times with SARS-CoV-2 and is relying only on their T cells to protect them, what happens to their brains? I worry that the effects of this virus on the brain, even in “mild”, T cell protected infections, is being grossly underestimated. You can lose quite a bit of your cerebral cortex and not die. But do you want to see your IQ lowered every time you get infected?

This is why I still wear a mask even though I have received 4 vaccinations.

XE strain

There is a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 that appears to more infectious than all previous strains. Its current designation is “XE”. It is a recombinant of BA.1 and BA.2. That means it is a chimera with part of its genetic material from BA.1 and part from BA.2. There are two variables that determine whether a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 will become dominant: does it have a transmissibility advantage and can it overcome immunity in the host? XE has a transmissibility advantage. What remains to be seen is whether it can overcome herd immunity conferred by previous strains and vaccines.

Mordor

Ukranians have been calling Russian soldiers “orcs”, a reference to the fictional world of JRR Tolkein. I had thought this was over-the-top and not justified for most Russian soldiers. After seeing a number of reports, I now agree with the Ukrainians. Most Russian soldiers really are unthinking, greedy murderers. Russian soldiers invade Ukrainian civilians homes and torture, rape and murder the inhabitants. They then loot the homes, call their relatives back in Russia and tell them what they just did and what the relatives back in Russia can expect to get. The relatives back in Russia cheer their soldiers on and look forward to receiving the loot. In recently liberated Bucha, many unarmed civilians were found shot in the head at close range. Their arms were tied behind their backs. Russian soldiers kidnap children and put them on their tanks and use them as human shields. Are the Russian people upset by such images? Mostly, no. At the beginning of the war you could say they didn’t know. Not now. They know and they are OK with it. There were some peace activists, but proportionately, not that many. Most of these people have gotten out of Russia because they know what is coming. Putin’s popularity in Russia is higher now than it was before the war started. The attitude of the Russian people (mostly) is, “We are stronger than Ukraine, so we can do whatever we want”. Their attitude towards the West is, “We have nuclear weapons, so the West can’t do anything to stop us.” I’m afraid we are going to have to disabuse them of this notion. The hard way.

Gestalt #91 – Surviving in a Dangerous World

We live in dangerous times. The worst pandemic in 100 years emerges mysteriously from China. Russia invades Ukraine and threatens nuclear war. North Korea tests an ICBM that can carry nuclear warheads to the United States. There are yet more dangers that have not made the headlines, yet.

What is a Prepper to do?

Number 1. Don’t give up. You can’t survive if you give up. I know, you’ve been told that if there is a nuclear war, almost no one will survive and if they do, they’ll wish they were incinerated in the first blast. This is not accurate. I recently spoke to an old minuteman missileer. He dismissed the consequences of nuclear war. “Oh” he said, “Everyone is scared of nuclear war. Frankly, it won’t be so bad as WW II. It will be over in 15 minutes. The casualties won’t go on and on.” Now, I think he may have been underestimating the effects of nuclear war, a bit. Maybe more than a bit. However, he does have a point about how people underestimate what WW II was like. Many countries, especially Germany, had their cities reduced to rubble. 70 – 85 million died – 3% of the world population at the time. A full scale nuclear war is estimated by some to result in 770 million deaths or about 10 % of the world population. So, WW III would be about 3 times worse than WW II. Bad, but not the end of the world.

Number 2. Many deaths will not come directly from explosion of bombs but from radioactive fallout. Proper instruction in civil and family defense could reduce these numbers. The time to instruct people in how to minimize the effects of fallout is now. I will work on collecting resources and posting them on this site. Other deaths will come from secondary effects like infrastructure failure and starvation. Preppers are ideally qualified to protect their families from these failures. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

Number 3. The most important thing the US government can do to protect Americans and make nuclear war less attractive to the Russians and Chinese governments is to encourage decentralization. The fewer people crowded together in large cities, the more who will survive. Please, President Biden, stop telling people we need to have downtowns of big cities humming again. I understand that you don’t want all the sandwich shops in downtowns to go out of business. But really, saving lives should take precedent. Encouraging and supporting remote work will reinvigorate rural areas that were gutted when so many of the young and gifted people left them for the cities. Let these people return to the small towns they or their parents grew up in. This country will be healthier in every way if the trends started by the pandemic are allowed to continue.

Nuclear Autumn

We’ve been told that nuclear war will result in “Nuclear Winter” – 10 years or more with temperatures below freezing which result in the loss of almost all life on Earth. The “science” behind this assertion has been debunked, many times. This idea was promoted by Carl Sagan and other peace activists who clearly had an agenda. Now, I actually share that agenda: I would like to see all nuclear weapons eliminated from the Earth. But as long as Russia, China and other countries have them, the US must have them and have a plan to prevail in a nuclear war. And that means having a real understanding of the likely consequences. A nuclear war will result in a lot of smoke that will interfere with light getting to the surface of the Earth. How much is subject to debate. This is hard to model and assumptions will greatly affect the outcome. I think the current consensus is that nuclear war will result in significant, temporary cooling which will reduce crop yields, but will not result in the drastic outcome predicted by the “Nuclear Winter” hypothesis. Starvation probably will occur in areas that are dependent on food imports. However, food exporting regions will probably be able to keep a significant portion of their population fed if they plan for nuclear autumn. Planning will make a difference which is why suggesting that everyone will immediately die in a nuclear war will actually result in more death than if people are told the bad, but not hopeless, truth.

Cobalt warheads and the need for regime control

After the somewhat good or at least not terrible news above, I must warn people that there are weapons that could be made, that Putin plans to make, that really could result in making large sections of the Earth uninhabitable for decades – cobalt warheads.

The danger from radiation in fallout from the nuclear weapons currently deployed will be most dangerous for 10 – 15 days. So, if you are not in the immediate blast zone and you have an adequate fallout shelter, you have an excellent chance of surviving nuclear war. This does not mean that you will avoid all exposure to radiation. Everyone will probably get a “dose”. This will result in increased cancer rates and miscarriages of women who are pregnant at the time of the detonations. But, many people will live normal lives and normal children will be born in many areas.

Nuclear warheads using radioactive cobalt would change these calculations. The fallout for cobalt weapons would be lethal for decades. Not many people could shelter for this length of time. Few plants or animals would survive this fallout. The area of Earth exposed to cobalt bomb fallout would be sterilized.

The Russians are working on the “Poseidon” an underwater drone that could carry different types of warheads. It is rumored that Putin wants to use a cobalt warhead which, when exploded near a US coastline, could make large sections of the US uninhabitable. Current analysis suggests that this weapon is not yet ready to deploy and given the performance of Russian military equipment in the war against Ukraine, may never be ready. Nonetheless, the mere fact that Putin wants this sort of weapon should cause us to re-evaluate our red lines for invasion of other countries.

I do not believe that any country should be allowed to develop cobalt weapons. We should have, and announce it loudly, a policy that requires immediate declaration of war on any country which seeks to develop cobalt weapons. We should get NATO and all civilized countries to agree that regime change must immediately happen if the leader of any country seeks to develop cobalt weapons. These weapons cannot be trusted to be under the control of anyone – and certainly not a madman like Putin, Xi or Kim Jong-un. As bad as nuclear war would be with our current weapons, nuclear war with cobalt weapons has the potential to destroy all life on Earth. This must be prevented at all costs. And I do mean at ALL costs.

Gestalt #90 – A New Form of Russian Roulette

Traditionally, in Russian Roulette, a player puts one bullet in a revolver and spins the chamber before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Putin has, instead, put 5 bullets in the revolver. Russia has one chance in 6 of surviving his “game”. How did Russia get here?

Dead Souls

Russia is a grim place. I’m not just referring to the lack of human rights or the economic situation. I’m also referring to the moral environment. After the fall of communism, many Russians who had been forbidden religion embraced their heritage with Orthodox Christianity. Churches were rebuilt. Congregations swelled and many Russians rejoined the Christian community. However, an evil has seeped into the Russian church. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is a Putin ally and does Putin’s bidding. He supports Putin’s repression of Russians and murder of Ukrainians. He is personally corrupt and has taken many bribes. Patriarch Kirill is not a Christian, despite his title. He works for the Other Side.

Want to know why Russian soldiers feel so free and easy about committing atrocities in Ukraine? It’s because their religious leader is a servant of … Well, you know.

Crime and Punishment

Henry Kissinger is famous for his embrace of “Realpolitik”, which is really just a form of situational ethics. Basically, he suggests that countries should do whatever is in their best interest at the time, regardless of morality. Mr. Kissinger has practiced this belief system himself. He will promote any world leader who pays him enough. He has been a good friend to both Putin and Xi Jinping.

The US and other countries have been practicing Realpolitik for too long. We ignored Hitler’s persecution of the Jews in the 1930s because we had important business interests in Germany. After WW II, we let Russia invade and conquer Eastern Europe because we were tired of war and didn’t really care about the people there. The result was the rise of the Soviet Union and its successor fascist Russian Federation. We let Mao take China, again because we didn’t want to “waste” resources on people we didn’t care about. The result was the rise of Communist China which now poses an existential threat to the United States. Again and again, by doing what is in our short term interest and ignoring crimes against humanity, we set ourselves up for greater and greater threats.

In our country, we will not tolerate violent criminal behavior. We know that criminals must be punished or they will become emboldened and commit more and more violent crimes. Why should we think Dictators are any different? We must suppress Evil regimes regardless of the short term costs because what happens in Russia and China will not stay in Russia and China.

If we don’t stop them now, they will come for us.

The Idiot

Freedom of speech has eroded in Russia over the past couple of decades. It now scarcely exists at all. There is no political freedom. Anyone who opposes Putin is put in jail. There is massive corruption with most of the wealth of Russia going to Putin and his cronies. So far, I’m describing a “normal” dictatorship. However, “normal” dictators are usually careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. This doesn’t mean they don’t make miscalculations, of course. Dictators are usually psychopaths who have an exaggerated sense of their own intelligence. However, even psychopaths will correct their course when they realize they are in trouble. Putin has put Russia, and himself, in big trouble.

Experts say that Putin did not know that Shoigu and other Russian military leaders were corrupt and were stealing money from the Russian Army endangering its ability to function in combat. Really? Mr. KGB didn’t know? How is that possible? Putin is one of the most cynical people on the Earth. How could he not know? He has stolen so much money himself. He didn’t realize Shoigu et al. were also stealing? Even if he didn’t know before, he certainly knows now. So, why hasn’t he had Shoigu executed and publicly blamed for the debacle in Ukraine? That would be the normal procedure for a Dictator. Find a scapegoat and publicly sacrifice him to the anger of the public.

I’m no military expert. But even I can understand the videos coming out of Ukraine indicating incredible incompetence on the part of the Russian Army. It’s as if Russian soldiers were deliberately being sent to their deaths. I’ve seen many ex-military commentators scratching their heads and wondering why Putin’s Generals are doing this. They may be corrupt. But are they also morons? Why is Putin behaving like an Idiot?

There is something wrong with Putin’s brain. Maybe he is just senile. Maybe he has long Covid. Whatever. But why is the entire Russian establishment acting like they want to kill as many Russian soldiers as possible? It’s one thing to be willing to sacrifice their soldiers to get something they want. It’s another thing to deliberately send them into situations where they will be killed for no gain. Not for Putin. And certainly not for Russia. Why?

The only person that benefits from the slaughter of Slavs in Ukraine is Xi Jinping. My only question is: how did he get Putin to do it?

Gestalt #89 – Pozor Rossii (Russia’s Infamy)

h/t to Rueben Johnson (quoted below) and an unnamed Russian protestor with “Pozor Rossii” on her sign

The World of Wendi Deng

I recently saw a picture of Wendi Deng that included the wife of a Russian Oligarch (Roman Abramovich). This made me wonder. You will be forgiven for forgetting that Wendi Deng used to be married to Rupert Murdoch, the medial mogul who owned Fox News. I hate celebrity gossip. But I made an exception for Wendi Deng due to current events. Here is what I found. Wendi Deng comes from a stalwart Communist Party family in China. Indeed, her Chinese name means “Cultural Revolution”. She went through a series of men before getting to Rupert Murdoch and marrying him in 1999. Given his age and physical appearance, more than a few people thought this marriage may not have been entirely due to romantic inclinations. I noticed that while Rupert Murdoch was married to Wendi Deng, Fox News was soft on China and especially the Communist Party. Kind of strange for a network that was supposed to be conservative. Murdoch was apparently using Deng to try to get his media empire into China. She was apparently using Murdoch to influence Fox News coverage of the Chinese Communist Party. Murdoch divorced Wendi Deng, reportedly because she had an affair with former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. Blair has been accused of being soft on the Chinese Communist Party. Murdoch apparently warned Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner that Wendi Deng, their good friend, might be a Chinese spy. More recently, Wendi Deng is reputed to be the girl friend of … Vladimir Putin. Well.

This is quite a list:

Rupert Murdoch – Media Mogul, former owner of Fox News
Tony Blair – Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner – well, you know
Roman Abramovich – Russian Oligarch
Vladimir Putin – Dictator of Russia and best buddies with Xi Jinping

Now, it could be that Wendi Deng is just a really good gold-digger. Maybe. Or it may be that she is a Chinese Communist Party asset. An extremely successful one. I would like to know more about Wendi Deng’s relationship with Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Putin and whether she has had any contact with General Shoigu.

Evil and Stupid

The invasion of Ukraine will go down in history as one of the most evil actions of all time. Ukrainian civilians are being deliberately murdered by the Russian military. The invasion will also be remembered as among the most stupid. Evil and stupid – that is the only way to characterize Russian behavior.

The Russian justifications for the invasion of Ukraine are all lies. Ukraine was not going to be admitted to NATO any time soon. Indeed, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine NATO was in the process of unraveling. The Ukrainians gave up the nuclear weapons that they had after the dissolution of the Soviet Union based on a guarantee that Russia would respect their sovereignty. Although there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, as there are in Russia and many other countries, the President and Defense Minister of Ukraine are Jewish. Indeed, members of President Zelenskyy’s family were murdered by Nazis. Putin is the one who uses Nazis to do his dirty work. The mercenaries that Putin has sent to kill President Zelenskyy (Wagner group) have Nazi symbols tattooed on their shoulders.

It is reported that Putin thought the invasion would be easy. Turns out that was wrong.

The overall assessment at this point by US and other NATO-nation observers is that despite almost a year’s worth of preparation by the Russian armed forces that had been massing at several points along the Ukraine border, the invasion is a “disaster and a borderline failure,” as one former US military officer, now working as a civilian contractor in Poland, told Breaking Defense.

(snip)

One “Five Eyes” nation former intelligence officer on temporary duty in Kyiv informed Breaking Defense “Russian troops have been foraging, looting, and trading with civilians for food. If they are already running short of rations [on day three] then their logistics must be struggling immensely – and must have been so even all of these months in these staging areas.”

(snip)

“Putin has all the appearances of a man whose state of mind has deteriorated to the point where he is seriously contemplating bringing about the end of the world before his own regime might come to an end,” said one former Polish intelligence officer on condition of anonymity.

Reuben Johnson, Breaking Defense, March 03, 2022

Putin has apparently ordered the shelling of nuclear reactors in Ukraine. This is both evil and stupid. If radiation leaks out of the reactors, the people doing the shelling will be among the first to die. Apparently, they are too stupid to understand this. Many other Russian soldiers will also die from radiation poisoning. That’s the stupid part. The evil part is that this is a way to turn Ukrainian nuclear reactors into giant dirty bombs which may kill millions of people. This cannot be permitted to continue.

Regime Change

Senator Lindsey Graham has proposed that Putin be “taken out”. The White House has discouraged talk about Putin’s removal. It is taboo for the leader of one country to discuss the assassination of the leader on another country. I think we should make an exception for Putin. He has sent several assassination teams to murder President Zelenskyy. Why is it OK for Putin to try to kill the leader of another country but wrong to talk about Putin’s assassination? If this is just due to a fear of panicking Putin into nuking the world, well, OK. But regime change in Russia must happen. As bad as the current nuclear weapons are, Putin has ordered the development of cobalt nuclear weapons. If enough of these are made, there are calculations that suggest that all life on Earth could be extinguished. Putin has to die before these weapons are developed, or we will all die. It is that simple.

I now think that no evil regimes can be allowed to exist anywhere on Earth. The technology we have access to as a species is simply too dangerous. Peace activists can ban these technologies in their own countries, but their pleadings will have no effect on people like Putin, Xi or Kim Jong-un. I believe that WW III has already begun. Millions, perhaps billions, will die. We may face nuclear, chemical and biological war. I don’t think that the US will escape losses from this war, perhaps major ones. We must win this war, no matter the cost. When the war is over, we must destroy all the evil regimes and prevent new ones from arising again.

Patton was right.