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From Lagos, Nigeria:

- COVID vaccine compliance is pretty much low. In fact, in some cases, people only take one dose and not the 2nd. Even though the Federal Government recently approved the "booster" shots, I'd dare say such efforts are dead on arrival

Although some people take it "for convenience", due to the "no jab, no X" stick being weilded by governments across the world for an increasing number of services/sectors (you probably heard about "Edo", another state in Nigeria, from a few months back, where that ignorant governor tried to go full Australia...based on your analyses of similar countries, you can probably guess the predictable results there too...)

- "social distancing" and mask mandates are pretty much for show. Some shops/businesses have a "no mask, no entry" policy, but it's largely ignored. Or, in cases where a security guard is present at the entrance, it serves like an ID badge: you can walk up to the door maskless, put one over your face, and then immediately remove it on entry. Lord knows how many people walk the streets with masks on their chins...

- that being said, the news, government and media stations — which basically just copy/follow the West — have managed to convince many, and it is with sorrow that I report that despite there being no such mandates, some schools still make (or at least don't discourage) children from wearing masks. Such cases are not in the majority, thankfully, but they're still there.

I don't think I've seen any public figure push back against the COVID madness...(emphasis on *I*, I might be the one not looking hard enough...)

- interestingly, some so-called "law enforcement" use this COVID idoicy as excuses to extort like the mafia e.g. they can walk into an event centre and lock it up, claiming lax distancing and mask compliance, "but we'd be willing to re-open your business, if you made us an offer we couldn't refuse...$$"

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fantastic, a report from Africa: will publish next week

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Small town Georgia, US. Stores here still have cards on the door - mask mandate. Hardly anyone wears one. In the grocery store I saw a few. In the convenience store, the cashiers were wearing one, even though the temperature was close to 80 degrees. A few customers wore one. In the streets, NO one is wearing one. In the bank the secretary told me it is to oblige with the rules. No one wore one.

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Dec 10, 2021
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"Masks = people spending money"

Interestingly you hit on a good point that plays out here, but in another way: masks are hot commodities. Here in Lagos, people stand outside event centers/banks/arenas/etc with face masks, at an affordable N100 (about ~$0.20), to "help" any poor soul that happened to be turned back at the door by a surprise security guard, and boy, do these masks sell! Asides that, people even make designs now — I attended a wedding just this past weekend, where I saw a lady using a mask that had fancy jewelry stones! Forget feeling safe — you can feel safe *AND STYLISH TOO!* (and don't even get me started on sanitizer sales...)

Fair to say, a number of people do *not* mind this COVID theatre continuing, because in a number of ways it's a cash cow...

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Dec 10, 2021
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Don't forget the Unmask. The mask designed to let you breathe freely while having the appearance of a standard (far more restrictive) mask.

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Shocking reading. I’m not quite sure of my emotions about it all. I’m almost embarrassed to say I selfishly feel blessed to not be living in Canada... it all seems very strange indeed. If you’re vaccinated and test positive you don’t need to isolate in the Czech Republic? Seems to say it all...

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central europe is just a festival of insanity right now

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Also a BC resident. It is as described, the Karenism is horrible here, many damaged people outdoors wearing their masks, riding their bikes! It’s breathtaking how far down the rabbit hole the majority of citizens are here. Still it’s a coastal/interior split, with the coast being the far left, virtue signalling, mask wearing Karenland.

My wife is in the process of losing her gov job for refusing the toxic jab, but I have worked from home since 2016, and my employer is supporting that, w/o requiring the jab unless I’m office based,though that may not be forever.

The indoors mask mandate is rigid here. Every major store has a Door Nazi to enforce said rules.

I literally hate this country. Never, ever would I think it would ever turn into this fascist dystopia. Yet, I cannot escape it, can’t cross the border, can’t fly out or get on a ship without the Vaxport. We, the Purebloods are held hostage here, by a despotic, incompetent, WEF compliant ponce in Trudeau and his minions from Quebec and Ontariowe.

I keep focused on our little place of sanity, on our own selfish needs and wants, to stay sane in an insane world. Somehow, this will end, but may not end as any of us might expect. I agree with many, that the parallels to 1930s Germany is striking. The next steps will determ8ne whether we return to sanity, or down the rabbit hole.

I’ve said a few times, we are only a step or two away from terrorism and striking back at gutless officials.

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Another British Columbian, living in Victoria. I work at a private firm which had the misfortune to hire a political commissar (aka HR Manager) right before the pandemic hit. She has directed the company's Covid response, and it has been every bit as pointless and aggravating as you might imagine. A few weeks ago the company instituted a vaccinated-only policy for the building (to ensure that people can feel "safe", according to our commissar), so I have been working 100% at home since then. At some point in the next six months, I expect the government to bring in compulsory vaccination, and then I'll be out of a job with no prospects and modest cash reserves.

My daughter's boyfriend was fired last week from his 100% remote software job for not being vaccinated, so they'll need to live somewhere less expensive. But nowhere in Canada is free from this insanity, so he's applying for lower-paid remote contract work with European companies and hoping to scrape by.

Otherwise, I'm more or less a homebody, so most of the rules regarding restaurants and cinemas haven't affected me. The one thing that did was the vaccination requirement for gyms, so I bought a rack, bench, barbells, etc for my garage.

But as others say, the most striking thing is the bovine compliance of even intelligent people. They just believe everything the TV tells them. When my company brought in the vaccinated-only policy, I asked my boss how this could possibly make sense, given that the vaxxed can contract and transmit the disease just as well as the unvaxxed. He looked at me like I had three heads and said "We're just following public health guidelines. We're not experts." I guess I missed the bit where we all decided just to believe uncritically whatever unelected bureaucrats tell us, but I must not have been paying attention.

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Yep, yep, yep. I am combatting now my employer’s plan to require vaccination of our customers. It’s insane. My sheep of a colleague literally told us in a zoom meeting yesterday that she just got through covid quarantine (she got it and was sick) after being triple vaxxed. We’ve had outbreaks at the two main offices where we have upwards of 90-95% vaxxed. The supposed reason for changing the policy? Vaccinated customers demanding it. You cannot make this make sense.

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Wife and I are 2 loners who got married lol. We both have worked out for decades so we bit the bullet 20yrs ago and turned our basement into a gym. And even moved it 5yrs ago. Self employed and wife is retired. I work with my brother who is 100% simpatico.

We are fortunate enough to have a decent family Christmas with maybe a fellow traveler who is probably soon to be divorced (vax is the main reason, husband is an idiot). My dad and stepmom probably won't be coming even though I drive my 85yr old dad to work here during the week. She is former CBC, Toronto Public health. And yes, she is everything you could imagine that to mean. We tried last year and when our son's foreign University friends went home and stepmom pulled the same shit we said F*** this!

And promptly booked a last minute trip to our normal yearly Xmas stay in Cozumel. That was super nice and just the 2 of us for the first time in 19yrs. I do miss not being able to go this year but not enough to risk my health.

Point of note, the plane to Coz from YYZ is 80% empty. Were are a scared nation of wimps.

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When did you write that? I ask because this line: “The man lived in what now seems like a completely different era” doesn’t ring true. It seems like exactly the era we are now in! But of course the Covidians make any comparison to 1930’s-1940’s Germany off limits and will express insincere but passionate outrage at any attempt to draw parallels.

I do agree a lot of it is stupidity… but I think even more of it is tribalism and perhaps ego: inability to admit they were conned or go back on a previous stance. (That’s why the dissident voices matter so much—to normalize admitting were misled and changing our minds).

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I didn't write it

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Another BC resident, also in Victoria. I am being pushed out of my job - with a crown corporation. Probably sometime in Feb. The timing is a bit unclear. We have a deadline to declare of Jan 10th, but then they want us to all keep working until they've checked everyone's declarations and verified the ones who say they are vaccinated - they have suggested that might be early Feb. I think this foot-dragging is because of staffing issues - we're already short staffed, so it's going to be a nuisance to lose even the small number of us who have held out. I've been sticking my head above the parapet more and more often at work - i'm not too bothered with what the consequences might be, and actually nothing ever does happen. I've written to HR and the CEO, I've posted questions in company-wide online meetings, and not made myself anonymous when asking, so others could see who I am in case they were feeling alone. I'm okay with being let go - i've lost my respect and loyalty for the employer at this point. I will miss my colleagues though.

My partner is working for a private company that so far has resisted mandating its employees, but any who work on government contracts may have to be shuffled around if they are expected to be at a govt job site. I don't know what I'll do once I'm finally pushed out, but I am willing to take even a dishwasher job - you have to be vaccinated to be a customer, but not to work in a restaurant. Riddle me how that makes any sense. Mind you, none of this makes any sense if safety was the real concern...

I sometimes don't wear a mask in grocery stores, or cafe lineups, but I do get asked sometimes - "do you have a mask?" and then I say I am exempt. They are not supposed to ask to see the exemption, so it generally stops there. But sometimes I put the mask on - it's a bit tiring and stressful, bracing for the asking, and i also am aware that some people are genuinely scared, and i don't want to scare people.

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I am lucky my (foreign!) employer accepts exemptions. Otherwise I’d be in the same situation as you although with harder job prospects bc we have to be vaxxed in this country. As for speaking out. I have, too, in recorded company meetings. It’s weird to be the only one sticking their neck out and it makes me nervous, but I know the data squarely support what banal facts I point out, and I also know that there will be many silent coworkers appreciating my candor and courage. I just cannot tell lies about important things. And I also cannot stand being gaslighted to… so I just gather my thoughts/do some scripting, and hope they won’t retaliate bc they know they’d risk a lawsuit… (even if I’m not the litigious type).

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I hear you on the stressful part. I’m shy by nature and suffer from lower self esteem so I do not like confrontation. But I have checked into 2 hotels recently and not backed down. But I feel butterflies in my gut all the time I go sans mask, the stress can’t be good so I’ve been ordering more and more online.

I don’t really want to be part of this society anymore:(

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I strongly believe it is usually a big mistake to surrender our common sense to the experts. Unfortunately it is made far easier these days because personal, observed, wisdom, history and experience is suspect unless rubber stamped by the papered class.

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meanwhile, in north idaho, just across the border from eastern BC... barely a mask in sight, a vaccination rate of about 50% (plus or minus), and yet people aren't dropping dead in the streets. but i can't go visit family in Creston without a 2-week quarantine. i'm actually afraid to have them come visit because it would be such a huge culture shock.

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I’m in North Idaho also and it’s back to normal. Kids in school since August 2020 with no masks. I’m a physician with no mask mandates in my office. I might get 3 patients a week who wear a mask. Theaters full, no masks. Church, no masks, Costco, 50% masks despite mask mandate, Walmart even less. Nobody standing at the door acting like a mask Nazi anywhere. We’ve been back to normal a year. Very few Karen’s and we ignore them. I feel terrible for the rest of the world.

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I must be further north because Costco is far from us. We have a few doctor karens 😬, probably the worst combination. One is on the board of a private preschool so all the 5 yr olds are masked there. There was talk of a vaccine clinic there too. Mask mandates were a flashpoint up here but because we very quickly saw them as the gateway to the vaccine mandates.

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Reading this, I hear the drums in the mines of Moria. “We cannot get out. We cannot get out.” Sympathy and fellowship to you from the relatively sane Southeast USA.

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"They are coming."

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I live in Toronto and I, too, have come to hate this hypocritical country with a passion. We unvaxxed MUST find a way to connect locally and nationally - I confess I'm not sure how - to try and save ourselves and what is left of our society since, as you noted, we cannot escape this dystopia. We also need to come together for self-defense. This will become critical if the predicted die-off comes to pass. We will be blamed and in the ensuing chaos, who knows what "they" will do.

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The Monday rally/meeting at the Canada Christian College was awesome. 800 fellow freedom loving unmasked Canadians. I was half expecting the police to be outside (how sad is that ). Can’t wait until the next one.

Get your rPAL, it is currently 6+ months to get.

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What is a "rPAL"?

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Firearms license. Given the state of things I sleep well at night. It’s perfectly legal but there are rules and regs. You mentioned about defence so I’d thought I’d mention it. I was shocked when I learned years ago getting such items is perfectly legal and permissable.

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Ah! - thanks for that info! As you can, no doubt, figure out, I have never used a gun in my life and have no idea how to use one. I'll take a look at what's required.

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I'm a Nova Scotian and can confirm Bob's report in the post. I too have no explanation for our province's relative luck in escaping anything resembling a real wave of Covid; I've read one estimate that barely 1% of the population here has tested positive since the beginning of it all.

This however has led to near universal compliance with public health orders and complete trust in officials, because of course everything they are doing has worked, right? We follow the rules, therefore there is no Covid. Haha you stupid rednecks in other provinces and especially those stupid Americans. That's the general attitude.

Shots for the kids have begun and the pressure has escalated rapidly from officials. They've emphasized that there are enough shots for every child to receive their first dose before Christmas. They've even extended the Christmas school break for two days (why? No clear explanation). They've said the pandemic is now becoming one of schoolchildren. All of this to frighten parents and get doses into arms. My wife has become petrified and wants our 6yo jabbed immediately. I have held out thus far but it has put definite strain on our marriage and I may ultimately fail to save him.

Much like Dan, I have come to hate what this country has become. I had the sense it was going wrong when our pretty boy prime minister was first elected, but I couldn't conceive it would come to all of this. Were I younger and with no family ties, I would emigrate and never return.

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Do not fail your child.

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It is a monstrous thing to have such a rift form between husband and wife over the best course of action for their child due to the egregious actions of government and health officials in collusion with Big Pharma, the MSM and Big Tech.

I am no longer certain if western civilization will survive all of this. I don't think it deserves to.

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At the beginning I worried about western civilization's survival, but over time I realized that mere survival is not enough. If we rolled back some of the current insanity we would still be doomed in time. The current crisis may be a blessing in disguise. We have a cancer and the awful treatment may be our only hope. Good times have spoiled the children, and they've run amok. They'll only learn hard lessons through hard times.

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While it might not work if she's hypnotized, watch RFKjr on vaxing kids. Excellent and not super long.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/robert-f-kennedy-jr-chd-louisiana-pfizer-covid-vaccine-kids/

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https://uncoverdc.com/2021/12/07/the-testimonies-project-israeli-citizen-documents-vaccine-injury/. Have her watch this. There are many more collections of vax injured testimonials on the interwebs but this one cannot but make her ponder the potential downside.

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As a hostage here in Ontario, I feel exactly the same as you. I'm ashamed of this country, unfortunately.

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I took my national flag morale patches off my clothes recently. I had been proud of them before, but after the government a few weeks ago instituted discrimination against the unvaxxed, I felt like the state had declared war on me and the national symbols now seem like they represent a hostile enemy force that I don't identify with.

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I wear mine upside down, and have done so for a while.

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Ponce should be word of the year in Canada.

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We just got NZ passports this week. May as well burn them as they are useless

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I am from Ontario and I am as annoyed as you are by the rules from our emperor Justin.

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I have heard that some Canadians have been able to get out by hiring a helicopter to cross over and a driver to bring their vehicle across the border. It’s extreme, but something to ponder I guess.

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I've gotten a quote for chartering a private jet out of NZ to south america in the event J'ASSinda tries to force this poison on me (commercial becomes impossible without vax from Feb) That's how far I am willing to go to keep this shit out of my body. Targeting a low vax country with cheap blow (for the end of world party!!!)

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That was when the land border was closed. CDN Seniors spend winters in Florida and AZ. We made good use of govt ineptitude by flying to the US twice in 2020 and Mexico over the Christmas holidays. With Biden and the deep state back in charge we (the unclean) can’t get into the US period full stop. I could try kayaking across Lake Ontario and sneaking in, the Niagara river probably has CBP security up the wazoo.

In all seriousness we are unable to get on a train or airplane thanks to Trudeau. Prisoners in our own country.

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This is so sad.

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My businesses are in Hong Kong but I have not been for 2+ years now (3 week quarantine inbound 2 weeks on return to NZ). 7M people ... stacked on top of each other. You'd think covid would rip through the city. Nope.

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Yeah, and the unvaxxed are excluded from public life even if they have a negative test. Which shows the policy is not really about the virus or public health at all. The policy is simply intended to punish and hurt the unvaxxed, so they'll get vaxxed.

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Yup. Though I've been thinking about something else as well. I know you need a pass for cultural events, etc. I technically have the pass (from my COVID in October), but the only time I used it was to get out of the testing requirement at work. Why haven't I been asked to show it anywhere else? Because I haven't been going anywhere that would require me to show it. Not because I'm afraid of the virus (ha). It's because I have no desire whatsoever to go to (say) a concert where I'm going to have to wear the stupid mask and now have to share personal medical information on top of that.

If and when this ends, will I go back to frequenting restaurants, concerts, etc.? I'm far from sure, to be honest. Too many bad associations. And how many people like me are there? And what does that mean for people who work in such settings? Making a living as an actor or musician or similar has never been easy. It may just become even more difficult, semi-permanently. ("Semi," because I don't pretend to know what the situation will be like a generation or three from now.)

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My daughter, trapped in Chicago by a good job and many friends, attended a play by the Shakespeare company that operates on Navy Pier. One had to be vaxxed to attend and still had to be masked for the entire performance. As a casual musical gigger myself, I cannot imagine how a performer can enjoy playing for an audience from which no facial signals can be received.

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Me too. I used to attend concerts, museums, spas, etc frequently but have lost all interest now.

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I watched a short commentary by Neil Oliver today in which he said, by being unvaxxed he will not be kept out of any venues - concerts, pubs, restaurants, etc. - he wants to go to. Because he doesn't want to go anywhere that requires you to be vaxxed! I don't want to go anywhere that requires me to show papers to get in. I believe, that on principle, no one should have to show papers to participate in public life and I don't want to participate in a system that requires such things.

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I'm a performer and choreographer and now banned from appearing onstage in most places. (I'm in New Mexico US). I know a few classical musicians in the same boat, and one or two actors. Every other performer I know has complied willingly with all the BS from day one. It's in part due to the fact that in the US, dissent against the covid narrative was presented as "right wing" and this strident media propaganda convinced most that this was so. So performers tend to self identify as "liberals". Whatever those are (most are apparently fine with the US war machine, too). Anyway. A few of us actually organized some underground performances in private venues. And we've committed what one of my friends calls "career suicide." But we can't just go along, we're not wired like that. What else can we do?

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Good for you!

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Irena, I feel the same way. I will remember the venues that *ucked me and may never use them when/if this ends. Still a few venues that are open. I will also remember them as long as I live.

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I’m not so sure that is correct on the Czech Republic. I have family members there, they have has two shots months ago, got COVID and are forced to isolate for 14 days post positive test. The hygiene department even checked in on them yesterday.

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might be outdated information

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I believe the vaxxed get tested several (five?) days after their contact, and during that time, they do not need to isolate. But then if they test positive, they do. Anyway, the rules change every couple of days, and I'm having trouble keeping track of it all.

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Regarding the constant rule changes, that's a technique of brainwashing. I'm reminded of a passage in "Son Of The Revolution", a great book about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, in which the protagonist related that each day he when he went to work, he found that the street names had changed to reflect the latest in and out groups.

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Constantly changing farcical "rules" with short periods of indulgences is classical psychological torture.

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Yes, although in the Czech context it's hard to tell if the rule changes are intended to torture, or simply the result of rank incompetence and stupidity. I guess if the outcome is the same, it doesn't really matter.

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Paul, I have that book, and read it a couple months ago. It is a very good teaching of how Mao manipulated the young and used them and their violence to break down the traditional social ties for his own purpose.

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Hello Eugyppius.

Romania:

- General situation: the vaccination rate plummeted. People were partially scared, partially forced to get a vaccine in October and November, when the Delta wave hit the peak, but today almost nobody cares about vaccines. The wave is gone. We don't want to get the vaccine. Everybody knows somebody that either died, either had an unpleasant side effect and so on. So, we try to avoid these vaccines as hardly as we can.

- Hovewer, as unvaccinated people, we have many theoretical restrictions. Tehcnically we are barred to enter in restaurants, in shopping malls, in non-food shops and in official buildings. Practically, restrictions are mild. I have a fake certification code (from a friend) and I can go everywhere, the guards just look at it and let you go, nobody verifies the codes. Small shops don't care about restrictions, everybody can shop inside. The same with postal offices, banks etc. Technically, they should enforce the rules, but nobody cares, they don't want to lose clients. In Bucharest every tax can be paid online, so there is no need to enter in any official building, and in small cities and towns, and in rural areas, nobody cares. One can enter into the mayor's building like he or she enters his own house.

- My wife was yesterday at the beauty saloon, nobody asked her for the Covid certificate (she is, of course, unvaccinated).

- The new government will try to impose the vax certification at work. Very big companies - multinationals - were among Government's most trusted partners. Many organised "vaccination sessions" for their employees. But with SMM Romanian companies, things are different. I have among my clients two of them with over one hundred employees and millions of EUR turnover. They already said "F... OFF, nobody will vaccinate us by force". Simply put, they won't comply. One of them is in top 20 companies in his county - nobody would dare to close him! He already had Covid, TWICE. He is a healthy 40-something yrs guy, he had no problems from it (only a couple of days loss of smell and some headache, the first time; the second one it was like a very mild flu). Another one is very religious, for him these vaccines are coming from the Devil and definitely opposes any mandate for him or for his employees. He had Covid in January 2021. He is older (59 years), he was in the hospital. Still not willing to get the jab.

- In Northern Moldavia (Bucovina), where people are very religious, the vaccination rate is only 25%. Bucharest is the champion, with 55% (or something). I'm from Bucharest (among the other 45%). In the city centre most people are putting on the mask, including the children, but in the more peripheric quarters (the "banlieues") people are more relaxed. Until a few days ago the mask was mandatory on the street. I never put it on. Nobody fined me or asked me something. Policemen just pass by me. In general, we use the masks only inside the shops.

- Politicians, ... I mean "Pfi$$er's sales agents"..., are desperate because of the low vaccination rate. In order to make us to accept the vaccines, they litteraly depleted the hospitals from any medication, they did NOTHING to prevent the Delta wave, they put gas on fire at the beginning of September by organising some huge festivals with little rules put in place, and so on. The Delta wave was huge, was bad, but also fast. Now is gone. They managed to convince / to force another 2 million to get the jab, especially after Oct.25 when they announced the restrictions. Many people were forced to get the jab in order to be able to enter into the working place (for example, people working in shopping malls). The vast majority opted for J&J because it is in single dose. However, after approx. 2 weeks it was clear for everyone how to trick the system (by getting a fake vaccination certificate from a vaccinated friend) and the initial scare was gone. Now, many refuse to get the booster. In a little bit over 2 months, only 1,7 million accepted to get a booster dose. So, out of 16,8 million elligible persons we have now 5,6 million fully vaccinated and another 1,7 vaccinated with 3 doses.

- We don't care about omicron.

- I think I had the Covid, but I don't care. I never had the curiosity to measure my antibodies. But I measured instead my D vitamin level and I found out that I need more. Instead of focusing on Covid antibodies, I prefer to focus on what it really matters.

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will publish next week, thank you

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Romania Kingdom of Pseka. Ιn greece people against state dystopian narrative are called chemtrailed= psekasmeni in greek (ψεκασμένοι). Even the PM called us like this. Of course with every dose and every wave "pseka" are proved correct again and again.

Dont know if we will reach victory soon but a giant "fuck off" is expanding gradually rn, and hopefully exponentially in the future.

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Hi again, this is written today by a notorious Romanian journalist (unvaxxed). Since last Monday we, the unvaxxed, can enter in the Shopping Malls provided that we have a negative PCR test. Her post summarizes all the absurdity of such measures that look scaring on paper but that can be easily overcame with little complicities between ordinary people and those who should enforce the law (and we, Romanians, are notorious in passively and collectively rejecting authorities' stupid orders... we are saying "da, da" / yes, yes in front of the idiots and "F... you" when they are turning the back to us):

"I went to the hospital on Friday. I just wanted to talk to a doctor. Obviously, from the gate, I was greeted by the boss of all the bosses - the security guard. I ignored him, but he ran after me. He could barely breathe when he reached me. He lifted his trousers, because the belly, in running, pushed his buttocks down. With the air of announcing something important, on which my life depends, he said to me: Triage, you have to go to the triage. And he shows me a hut. I'm going back to the triage. A lady wrote the names of those waiting for the triage on a piece of paper. Name and surname! Angelina, I say. Jolie? says the pretty lady, and winks at me. You can pass Jolie too, I say, smiling. I gave some false data and that was all the triage. The paunchy waited around the corner. I waved the paper and he told me to enter.

Today I also found a real usage for that paper. I had to go to a shopping mall. When I got to the boss of all the bosses, the security guard, I took out the document. Which has imprinted on it the official header of the hospital. What is this ?, asked the QR codes specialist. The test, I answer. He gazes at me like an idiot, then says: It's okay, you can pass."

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Ontario here, compliance capital of the world. I have tried, throughout, to put forward a non-nutty-person form of resistance, to make it a smaller psychological leap for acquaintances when they find themselves exasperated. One of my older friends who used to say things like "we eradicated Polio, for god's sake!" came to me first when Omicron broke -- he wanted to know if it's really a big deal. I said it's doubtful but that probably won't change our policy trajectory. He was still reluctant to go to the cinema, so I took him to see Dune last week when the cinema was completely empty. He settled right in and the paranoia simply evaporated.

Every time things are looking better, they go harder. Canada had the most expensive lockdowns in the world, with the Federal government paying everyone's bills and enabling our Provincial premiers to act like cowboys and lock everything down for months and months at a time. Now the Feds are tapped out and won't bankroll more shutdowns, so the provinces must decide between letting Covid go or embarking on ever more personal surveillance at an unprecedented level of detail.

I cross the US border for work occasionally, and US guards don't even ask about my vax status. Coming home an hour later, I need to log into a government app, outline my "quarantine plan" and list members of my household, upload my passport and vax certificate, and even then they still asked for my negative PCR result. Failure to cooperate means two weeks in a quarantine hotel.

I had a bad cardiac reaction to my shots, but when I bring it up with my doctor she gets flustered and acts like her office is bugged. "It's just speculation... probably no connection... would have been worse without it..." Finally, finally she referred me to a cardiologist the same day Canada admitted there may be an issue with Moderna.

Every boomer I encounter is in love with all this. They've lived their lives coasting on the stolen valour from their parents' participation in the war, and have unlimited faith in the government. They squandered 70 years of peace and prosperity and now spend their retirement calling the cops on kids playing basketball.

Everyone here seems to think they are some kind of authority, and they exert this with unblinking dishonesty. Early on, a sign went up in my building claiming that Covid lives on fabrics for up to a week. Yesterday I got an email from the building manager about the "many complaints" he's gotten since I stopped wearing a mask in the elevator -- the bylaw expired in August -- and warning me they would call the city to fine me for breaching a non-existent rule. When the law expired I assumed people would be elated, but no: the signs stayed up and the masks stayed on. Yesterday our Health officer announced an explosion in school outbreaks despite no increases.

However, in private businesses, everyone seems to have formed maskless cohorts amongst themselves. Visitors mask out of courtesy until they're invited to remove them. It's really only in public that the aggressive masking continues, like we're all playing along to appease the people who haven't noticed that everyone is in on the joke but them.

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"They've lived their lives coasting on the stolen valour from their parents' participation in the war" - LMAO.

So true. There are many of us who view the pictures of distant relatives who didn't make it back from WW2 and feel sadness. All for nothing? Not on my watch.

Cheers from Alberta and "Keep Fighting"

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I’m not playing along with my maskless anti social behaviour. My dad barely escaped with his life after fighting the commies in Hungary in ‘56. So I come by it naturally. How idiotic is it though that I’m being a Revolutionary by just going to the grocery store sans face diaper?

*sighs*

I tell my customers to take off the mask if they wish, the notices on my front door are to keep the bylaw vampires away.

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I have two close mates with Pfizer heart. One ignored the pain after shot one and has serious myocarditis. He was a fit long distance runner now he is ruined. The other mate is a semi pro athlete -- he had shot one --- has really bad heart pain --- diagnosed pericarditis. Both are struggling to get exemptions so they can stop injecting the poison

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My god, I'm so sorry for your poor friends. I hope they get whatever healing is possible. And I hope, long-term, that lawsuits are coming for the pharma companies.

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This is how it was in Manitoba as well. In July they briefly ended the indoor mask mandates, and I assumed everyone would be elated. I had just been to Saskatchewan where mask mandates had been suspended a month earlier, and no one wore masks indoors. In Manitoba the mandate lifted and everyone continued to mask as usual saying things like 'we just feel it's being lifted too quickly, there are still cases,' and to walk into an establishment without one made you an instant social pariah, an 'anti-masker' (a term that gets thrown around often here and marks you as worthy of open scorn and derision).

Young university types in Manitoba are trapped by massive cognitive dissonance. If you talk to any of them about COVID they'll mouth all the platitudes about 'doing the right thing', and masking and vaxxing to save lives. But I frequently play concerts in bars (though now some are requiring proof of vax), and two drinks in every youngster in the place is maskless and dancing.

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Her office may well be bugged. Don't put anything past these bureaucratic psychos.

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Karen (indeed!), loved your insight, especially the comment about stolen valor...how true! I can only imagine going-back in time to Normandy Beach, circa 1944, and placing the same entitled nitwits inside a landing craft as its door opened to blazing Nazis machine guns. And your doctor saying you would have been worse off without the jab. I would expect that type of empirical statement from someone looking into a crystal ball or reading tarot cards, certainly not an MD. We must be strong, persevere, and fight the good fight when necessary!

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I had a customer (forklift mechanic) in his 70’s tell me on Nov11 that those who fought in WWII did so so we had the right to get vaccinated. I kid you not.

This idiot was also close friends with someone who died from a group breakthrough infection that even made the news . It was in a adult hockey league. Players got sick who got their friends and family sick, all vaccinated. Yet in the news article they tried to blame kids as the source of infection they were the only unvaxxed humans allowed in the indoor ice rinks. I guess it was lost on them they all got each other sick??

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Karen (yes really). Taking the Karen meme in stride, eh?

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We play the cards we're dealt!

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From Sweden:

Despite very low levels of death with Covid19, the government has switched much of its policies towards containment.

Vaccine passports are required for certain (not all!) indoor gatherings with more than 100 people.

Vaccine passports are to be implemented far more broadly in long distance public transport, primarily long-distance trains and buses (not however for airlines or ferries, the latter more or less relevant only to the island of Gotland) in the event of larger spread.

Vaccine passports in the event of larger spread, may (will) also be implemented in areas of commerce (grocery stores, postal delivery points and public libraries are to be exempted, as will be health service, dentists and veterinaries) in the current draft ordinance.

Vaccine passport is in German terms an "1G" policy, i.e. recovery from covid or negative tests do not count.

Face masks are required in the public transport during rush hours (however with limited effect).

The new Swedish PM and the new director-general of the Swedish public health authority have obviously changed the policies. It is not due to any dramatic surge in infections, hospitalisations, ICU or deaths, but seems to be some kind of adaptation to the policies in Germany.

Increasing number of Swedish local governments require vaccination for potential employees. Formally that is more difficult in central government agencies, but where these things will end up is not clear at the moment.

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internal eu pressure i would guess. all eu countries going the same way.

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I do also think so. Van der Leyen is talking of implementing a general vax mandate in the EU - utter madness, when you think of the different measures countries have taken, various vaccination rates, recovery rates and so on. Why would Sweden start to introduce covid passes at this point? It doesn't make sense! I am not sure most countries would appreciate if the EU got involved, but then it might take pressure off national governments ("Sorry guys, we have to have vaccine mandates - EU is telling us we have to, can't back out, sorry, sorry.").

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Wow, truly depressing. You practically have herd immunity and then they do this?

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Would someone help me with this: Does the medical community talk about herd immunity for the common cold viruses? If there is such a thing, why is there a flu 'vaccine' every year?

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Good point. Tolerating the useless (and somewhat dangerous) influenza vaccine in our communities was the camel's nose under the tent for decades. It paved the way for this madness.

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The flu mutates too quickly for the flu you got last year, or the year before, to prevent you from getting this years version. Twice a year, experts meet and look at the flu that is circulating now, and guess which one will be in your neck of the woods in 6 months. Then they go make flu shots for that. If they guess right, the shots usually work, at least somewhat, in terms of preventing severe disease. If they guess wrong, they don't do a thing. Rarely, they guess right but the shots still seem to do very little. We still do not know why, though there is much speculation among the virologists.

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After leading the way for nearly two years, the only "reason" for such a regressive move by Sweden would be that that the goal all along was a Chinese-style authoritarian social credit passport. As the virus wanes, the gains made in citizen compliance with and acceptance of irrational and capricious government restrictions must be consolidated.

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Hello ,thanks to the Swedes we got the great example of a non lockdown control group but I figured the Government wouldn’t hold out .The Government of Sweden didn’t lockdown not because of any real anti-lockdown beliefs but because the chief of SAPO convinced them he couldn’t control population for an extended period of time and the main medical people did think lockdown was a crazy idea.The Swedish people probably mostly are against anything but just so used to government micromanaging their lives ,it’s not that hard to implement measures.

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Reports abound about some Swedes getting implanted RFID chips loaded with their vax pass have made the rounds. Is that a small fringe?

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I live in Sweden, I don't know of any people who have done this. Getting RFID chips in your body was a fad done by a few people who thought it was cool for other things 3 years ago. 'Show your ski pass without having to take off your gloves' sort of thing. I cannot, of course, say that it isn't being done by some people, as there are always people who will do anything, but if it is, it is a small fringe. It's a QR code you read off your phone or a piece of paper if you don't have a smartphone to get into a venue that needs a vaccination pass.

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Aha, I just discovered that the app for reading your vaccine passport is open source and on github. https://github.com/DIGGSweden/VaccinationsbevisVerifiering -- and looking at the code, it doesn't understand RFID at all.

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Arizona USA: no restrictions or mandates of any kind. People are living life normally. Economic activity is booming in an unbelievable way. You’ll occasionally see someone with a mask and that’s it. The health systems immediately encourage use of the monoclonal antibodies if you’re diagnosed. Clinics are walk-in and free for the antibodies.

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I live in Oak Park, Illinois- a deep blue suburb west of Chicago.

The people at my local gym wear their masks IN THE POOL while doing their water aerobics.

Have been snarled at twice this week by 2 local Kens on the street to "wear your mask!".

I refuse.

I am definitely in a very small minority here.

Everyone and every store and restaurant requires them.

By the way, Illinois has the highest population exodus rate of all the states...so that's a good sign...

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Child abuse by a someone masquerading as an adult.

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Cant wait to inject the kids with boosters! First in the queue

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My that does look rather cumbersome for those children. Perhaps a "Danger! We Bite!" sign would be less awkward while still making people aware of the hazard they pose would make more sense.

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I wonder if they keep that gear on when they swim hahaha These are Hyper CovIDIOTS!!!

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I’ve read that that picture is of a doctor and her family at the airport. She proudly posted it to social media to show how very virtuous she is. I was tempted to find her original post and reply that someday, when her children put her in a smelly old nursing home, and drive away for good without even a backwards glance, she can think back to this picture and understand why they have abandoned her. Harsh, but the damage she has already done to her children is probably irreversible.

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That is a blame on all the real witches out there. But I see the point LOL. And of course, you are right !

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Oh Look - it's a Family of Hyper CovIDIOTS!!!! Shall we capture them and put them in the ZOO????

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They might not live to put here in a retirement home. But then she will suffer the heartbreak of loosing a child. Both are terrible. But she might then think about what she has done.

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OMG Space age is here. Thanks for sharing. A good laugh is the best medicine

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that looks like an airport but I get it!- lunacy

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OH canada....

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Not terribly far away from you, I know of a few restaurants where even the staff don't wear masks! It is like a haven of sweet freedom. Hopefully the governor gets voted out, even though all those who oppose him are moving away, as you say.

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Chicago is a little too close to Canada. Our lunacy is spreading south!

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I would like to see that map for the US be broken down by state. I appreciate the data points for the US above but I live in Pennsylvania which is split 50/50 red/blue (free/tyranny) and in the rural areas where I live it's fine but a couple towns/miles over they are hardcore fanatics insane for tyrannical lockdowns. I need to know where I can move to get away from this insanity. We can't all move to Florida or Texas although their the top of my list.

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I had more US reports, but I’m not really abreast of the region-by-region breakdown, so I aimed to include some blue-state perspective, and some red/open-state perspective. Many readers of course can’t give their precise state.

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The interesting thing about the US is how quickly any state could change from red to blue, especially the states making the news. All it would take is one election in Florida for the state's response to look like MI's. For that matter, all it would take is Whitmer being replaced as governor of MI for the state to suddenly start acting like Florida. All of these covid responses in the US are executive level orders that have little to do with the general mood of the population.

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Here's an interactive map of U.S. vaccine "hesitancy" at the county level.

https://ce.naco.org/?dset=Vaccine%20Hesitancy&ind=Hesitant

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Thanks for this map ! I seem to be in a dark blue area, which means we still have some real blood people I guess !

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You're lucky. I live in an ostensibly conservative county in Western NC - voted 65% Trump - that is heavily vaxxed. I think it's due to the large retiree population, many having fled blue states but not having left behind their trust in government. Still, we're relatively free from COVID rules and I've encountered no live Karens.

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