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Juan's avatar

It never ceases to amaze me how we allow people to be in charge that have no ability to run anything. From local communities to governments to corporations, I don’t know one that I would trust to feed my dog yet we allow them to be in charge. Well, I say no more. You will find me in the country running my own world. No idiots allowed inside the wall.

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PamelaDrew's avatar

More curious is how a cabal like Congress manage to build vast investment fortunes on info management that demands reliable reporting and analysis yet when it comes to their first job, to manage spending of taxpayer dollars, they shrug at Pentagon unable to account for 25% of its bloated budget.

How does that work? Amazon can track a tube of toothpaste from China to your door no problem but $56 billions in weapons to Ukraine fall into a black hole while the "law enforcement & intelligence" apparatus is targeting Jan 6 & Medical freedom protesters. Priorities!

One day before 9-11 the war on waste was declared a NatSec threat...

Donald Rumsfeld admits that the "adversary" is the "Pentagon bureaucracy." $2.3 Trillion is unaccounted for in Pentagon spending the day before 9/11. The "plane" that hit the Pentagon destroyed the entire department that was looking into this matter.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210713065350/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXm2yaoWyN8

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RLM RLM's avatar

Because it's theft and money laundering that's why. No one is watching the henhouse, just pilfering it.

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Mark's avatar

The Pentagon is nothing compared to the fraud and waste in the rest of the US government. The whole thing needs to be re-organized if that’s even possible.

It wouldn’t surprise me if fully 1/2 of the federal budget isn’t fraud and waste.....I suspect mostly fraud.

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RLM RLM's avatar

100%. The govt is a headless whore under the current system. Let that sink in..

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RLM RLM's avatar

It's more amazing to me so many follow what they say like cyborgs. Maybe we're already part programmed machine. Sure seems like many are...

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

I discovered that after this whole panic attack it is getting harder and harder to talk to people. Have I become a hermit ? My dog and cats make more sense than most humans. At the store I still met 2 people in masks. At least some are getting some sense back.

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Jimmy Gleeson's avatar

As a popular podcaster recently stated "you can't unring that dumbbell" These behaviors although irrational, are satisfying for a number of reasons. First you are able to "control" something that cannot be controlled. We can't control an airborne virus, what we can do is mask up because it is doing "something."

Imagine what would have happened had we modified our messaging and the mantra was "go out and interact." Think of the infographics and mottos, encouraging the healthy to gather together, to exchange the virus, and support one another emotionally, physically, and also to strengthen the overall herd immunity as well as promoting thre freedom to walk around and be among one another.

This would have engendered the same satisfaction without all the negative and unintended consequences.

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

of course then they would not have made a load of money from the jabs. But they could have made some from the approved and working meds which they forbid. Your system works for all childrens diseases too ! Whole school got the measles at once, then all were immune for life. Now they are immune to one strand and have to be boosted every so often, and if a wild variety pops up, they have no defense. So dumb indeed.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Mark's avatar

I can’t prove this, but I think that the clotshots cause brain damage in some people.

Traffic accidents are up and I see far more near misses than I used to (I drive a lot)

Everyday activities seem to be harder for the vaxxed and their comprehension seems impaired.

It’s hard to put into words, just a strong feeling that something’s wrong.

When I’m out with friends and we see someone doing something stupid......the first joke is ‘I bet they got the shot’

I hope that made sense......

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Patrick Wahle's avatar

Just ask them: "Do you watch a lot of TV?" And their answer will be: "Of course I watch a lot of TV, I need to be kept informed".

Too bad the brain wash does not get rid of the brain clots.

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Moonspinner's avatar

You'll want to watch this 14-minute video of Dr Richard Fleming explaining that the jabs cause prion disease and neurodegenerative processes: https://rumble.com/v1g31yl-dr.-richard-fleming-how-the-vaxx-is-breaking-down-the-body.html

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Aug 20, 2022
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Aug 20, 2022
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RLM RLM's avatar

Why are you asking me that question? Did i say anything about C02? I don't believe anything we're told by the media, politcans, or big business. Like zero. Nothing. Nada. You want to save the world? Stop Chyna and India from destroying the oceans. After that build 100k nuke plants and end coal and solar

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Wiremu Harpuka's avatar

Whoosh.

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Aug 20, 2022
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RLM RLM's avatar

Omg. Lol

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Aug 20, 2022
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Wiremu Harpuka's avatar

It’s insane.

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buddhi's avatar

Aside from selective pressure, it may be that things are too complex for anyone to run things properly. Whatever they do, the unintended negative effects outweigh the benefits. The proper solution is to do nothing and let events run. Had that happened with Corona we would have had fewer overall all-cause deaths and would be stronger as a species. But the media gins-up fear for their and the interest group's profit and the People demand action.

In the seventies when Ecology was just starting a group of ecologists tried to intervene in a pond. Despite their best efforts they killed it. When you get to a tipping point of complexity you just have to trust in its ability to self-regulate.

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RLM RLM's avatar

That all maybe be true but I think you're missing the most important fact. It's all planned. This is not random?! There is a war going on without bullets. You don't see it. They created the virus to initiate all of these things you speak of. It was intentional.

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buddhi's avatar

Certainly not missing that Fact - read my other comment, where I logically prove that all this has been planned on such a high-level it could only have been accomplished by an alien AI. The brilliant and comprehensive planning required is far beyond human capability, but that's not proof. Airtight proof is presented in my other comment. See if you can prove me wrong.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

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RLM RLM's avatar

Good to know you're not a sheep BUT an AI was needed to do what? Own all the media outlets? Own half the politicians? These humans spent the last 100 PLUS years infiltrating education, medicine, and religion to Trojan horse them all!! You don't need an alien for this, you just need evil families who are behind the Federal Reserve, the wars, and just about everything else evil you see. They are very real flesh and blood humans. AND? They didn't do a good job AT ALL. This manmade sickness was a massive failure. The only thing that didn't kill it completely was the hospitals were in on it and they were killing people. If the hospitals weren't in on it and Ivermectin was not made illegal or poo poo'd, very easy to do an not be an alien, and that's all you need, many more people died. They failed so miserably that if this was an alien plan, they are not all that advanced, sorry to say.

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buddhi's avatar

I'm the least sheepiest sheep around. Those in power, our overseers herding us around, are pulling our strings while also running psyops on us. But their strings are also being pulled, by aliens, because they are simply not smart enough to have conceived and executed so perfectly what is happening, the very fast slide into a global totalitarian state.

Why aliens? Because that's exactly what aliens would do and they're here now working a plan. If there are UFOs, there are aliens, simple logic.

Unfortunately we live in a non-human universe highly populated by non-humans who do not think like us nor do they have human values. Most are far more advanced technologically than we are, in fact technology is every species' key driver. They need resources for technology to build and also to trade for technology. The aliens here are resource explorers, not military types. This planet is rich in resources, which we squander. Water, minerals, and biologics. Plus lots of soft robots for the taking. Biologics include blood, plasma, and cellulose all rare in the universe because they have to be evolved over time. Note that the universe is mostly barren so an oasis of biologics is rare and valuable.

Read the Wikipedia entry on cattle mutilations. There have been over 10,000 of them and they're often drained of blood without a drop spilled. Could you do that, to 10,000 cattle, internationally? Got a better explanation other than aliens?

We are all being played by aliens, just as many people are played by the Narrative. The technological universe is highly populated and technological societies most value conformity, standardization, and control - exactly what is happening here. We are being prepped for the pot.

Note also the aliens are masters of the mental environment. They are telepathic and can control you as consistently related by thousands of abductees. I speculate they use their advanced technology to amplify their mind control over entire populations - a possible explanation of the mass formation.

Dr. David Jacobs, an abduction researcher, was told quite a few years ago (before the WEF), by an abductee, that an alien telepathically said "Soon you will all know your place, and you will be happy." That was years before Klaus Schwab's similar statement.

Everyone needs to upgrade their operating system to include aliens here now. Once they do that things clarify.

We are experiencing planetary takeover. It's not like Cortés versus the Aztecs but more subtle, although then as now advanced technology does not imply advanced morality. It is subtle, happening inexorably under our noses. It will be complete before we know it.

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RLM RLM's avatar

That's a really cool story. The problem is it's a story. Could it be true? Sure. You're telling me to Wikipedia things. Anyone who is using that or anything they were TOLD means absolutely less than zero to me. I don't know you. I have had zero experience visual or otherwise with alien's in my 49 years. What I do believe is there a lot of BS about aliens like everything else. A planetary takeover?? Maybe it's true, but do you know how insane you sound without an explanation, background, sources, your personal experiences or otherwise? Heresy? What the tv tells us or people online? The alien's should stop you or educate how to explain better.

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Delcina Skrubbs's avatar

This sounds like a recipe for laissez-faire abdication of responsibility & hopelessness... Or, worse... a plea for A.I. to run the world for us.

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buddhi's avatar

We are not smart enough to intervene into complexity, we just make it worse, therefore we should not intervene. We need to understand and abide by our limitations.

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The Society of Problem Solvers's avatar

Our systems have been captured and corrupted by WEF Globalist Utopian drones. If we don’t fix the point of corruption this will continue to happen and our societies will continue to slide into tyranny. We need to re-infiltrate our own governments with people who agree to a new agreement and who are willing to put fixing the corrupted system above all else. How do we fix it? With transparency and decentralization. Like this:

https://joshketry.substack.com/p/do-we-need-to-re-infiltrate-our-own

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Jeremy Poynton's avatar

Almost all now working in the public sector (in the UK at least) seem to be there as a result of being utterly incapable of performing economically productive work. A vast hive of leeches sucking all that can be taken from the taxpayer, who now, it seems, have bottomless pockets. I seem to have become an ATM for the government. And see sweet FA in return.

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buddhi's avatar

True of the private sector too. Only laborers do work of any value.

Mostly true with non-hard science academics where only a few colleagues read each other's wordy papers that go on about nothing. Listened to a YouTube lecture and ended up with three bullet points after an hour.

Hard science research, such as cancer research or particle physics, works with an obsolete paradigm but stumbles on to get the hundreds of billions in funding producing no significant advancements decade after decade.

Money is not well allocated to its highest and best use even in for-profit organizations. The 75% of healthcare cost spent on chronic care is completely wasted; there is no beneficial effect except for doctors and Pharma. Surgery (acute care) seems to sometimes work but is way overpriced.  A 2017 study at top dog Mass General found that half of all surgeries have errors and 30% of those mistakes cause harm, but they don't give your money back.

Consider software, compare the minor "upgrade" improvement you get in one year to the total spend including salaries during that year by those companies. Same with the auto manufacturers.

Then there are the militaries around the world, all spending on non productive "investments" (actually expenses) which do nothing but depreciate and have very high maintenance costs as well as the very high running costs of personnel and fuel requirements.

Resource extraction is not very productive now that you have to dig or drill much deeper, although it is useful, but has very high investment costs and leaves behind huge externalities not accounted for in ROI.

Most corporate functions are staff and non productive versus line positions; sales and operations, which also have plenty of slack. A properly designed company can lose the CEO and senior management and the company will run itself on policies, procedures, and processes. Workers just watch the systems.

I'd guess that people waste about 99% of their day (life) at work, more if working from home. That spreadsheet you've been formatting for four days will hardly be used by anyone and if they do, will add no value because the results are purely speculative and mostly political.

On the other hand, leisure-time including sleep is 100% productive. In general, the less you are paid, the more value your work adds. This is because you have no power and you're not subsidized by standardized inefficiency or institutionalized overpayment. We live in a scam culture where the more you scam the more you're valued.

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RLM RLM's avatar

That's cause it's not really work. Should be called another word.

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buddhi's avatar

Work can be defined as trying to be productive, whether or not you actually are, or expending energy to do something, even if that something is negative.

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RLM RLM's avatar

Y

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Martyn's avatar

May I visit there for some reprieve from the idiocy everywhere else? I promise not to overstay my visa.

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pandelis's avatar

there is a reason for that ... be happy with what you got.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

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RLM RLM's avatar

Haha! Yeah. Saw that live 20 plus years ago....

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pandelis's avatar

people still dont get it ... still donkey monkey bs ...

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User's avatar
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Aug 20, 2022
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VeryVer's avatar

No normal person wants to be in government.

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JubalE's avatar

Normal people had better start getting there. Otherwise the bolsheviks/freaks will usher us into oblivion.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Kim G's avatar

<i>The heating of hallways and other common spaces will be outlawed, as will certain kinds of restroom water heaters.</i>

So employers will have to spend precious euros separating formerly common heating systems? Did anyone think this out? How exactly do you cut a hallway off from heating? And what about large common spaces that might get cold enough to freeze pipes? No heating there either?

As an American, I look aghast at Europe, where it's plainly clear that the political classes would literally rather their populations freeze to death, their economies crash, and their way of life be destroyed rather than give Putin what he (entirely reasonably) wants: a security guarantee that Ukraine be forever excluded from NATO.

I constantly tell folks here that Ukraine is Russia's Mexico: a large country which shares a long border. I ask my American friends how long we'd put up with Russia arming and training Mexican military forces? The answer is always, "about a millisecond."

Why can't the politicians get this through their thick heads?

Europe is getting scarier and scarier. As are the American politicians who (still!!!) want to emulate it. No thanks; they should emulate us. While there's still time.

Cheers,

Kim G

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Zenitram's avatar

We dont need Russia arming Mexican forces. We do it ourselves.

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Völva's avatar

I agree with the rest, but Americans need to stop talking about Europe as if it were one nation. It is a part of the world with very divergent countries and cultures.

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Aug 21, 2022
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Justin's avatar

I'm thinking the well off should be monitored with thermal imaging cameras to see if they're adhering with their own mandates. And their homes opened to the homeless.

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Cindi's avatar

Kim G, w/ all of the shit happening in the States & the diabolical people in charge, that our “rulers” don’t also wish to have our economy crash (were well on the way) or starve & freeze us or literally jab us to death? And yes, I’m American too & aghast @ what’s happening here

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I am not your Other's avatar

Good point about segregating heating areas. I have been in many buildings in England where it is already done. There are a LOT of doors in homes, for the exact purpose of choosing which room(s) to heat and live in during the cold winter.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Kim G's avatar

Well, Europe's illegal immigration problem seems at least as bad as America's. And I'd take Latin Americans over middle easterners any day. Sorry if that sounds hateful, but it's the truth. As for the bigger picture, two years ago, things in the USA were vastly better under different leadership, which actually does change here. In Europe it seems to be the same band of cronies, especially at the EU level.

But yes, your points are well-taken. Both continents are run by an unresponsive political class that's steering us off a cliff. I just think there's more hope of a sharp turn in the USA than in Europe.

Cheers.

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Christian's avatar

From where I sit in Oz, at least the US has some states that allow their residents to decide for themselves what's good for them. Over here, not one state offers any meaningful differences. And citizens also have the means to push back.

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PamelaDrew's avatar

But the most devious and unscrupulous among us want their hands on funds government entities spend & invest.. Washington contractors earned the moniker Beltway Bandits and explosion of wealth in DC area since Reagan is a perfect reflection of a system of greed gone wild. We're ruled by Teflon Dons.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Philippe Perrault's avatar

The simple (naive) believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well (considers carefully) to his going. Proverbs 14:15

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Aug 20, 2022
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Aug 20, 2022
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STew's avatar

Yeah, I’ve been really struck by the conformity of everyone the last two and a half years. I’m still stunned by how quickly people who were never going to take “Trump’s vaccine” went all in on the mandates and the “Fauci Ouchie.” I practically have whiplash from the constant changing of the message. And likewise, I’m amazed that whenever the message shifts - practically overnight - nobody ever seems to question where we just were and what we believed just last week.

Some people argue that the mandates were designed to ensure ideological purity. I agree, somewhat. I think they were designed to push out non-conformists.

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Louisa Enright's avatar

Profitable people meaning that they are stakeholders in a policy in order to keep their jobs, which involves fitting in with what’s going down?

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Aug 20, 2022
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Louisa Enright's avatar

OK. So how to account for the layers and layers of stakeholders who promote and police these destructive policies because they will lose their jobs if they don’t? They aren’t really the kommissars. Some generate profit. Think, for instance, of all the MDs who know there is a problem, but refuse to speak out as they will be fired if they do. What has happened is the worst “system of cultural power” we have seen worldwide…maybe ever. It just feels to me like it will just have to burn down everything because it can’t be stopped.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Louisa Enright's avatar

Agree about the seeds of destruction. Thanks for clarifying

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Paul Ashley's avatar

I refuse to put any "smart" devices in my home. The long term intent for these is remote control of personal energy use, including shutting it off entirely if you exercise wrong think.

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Christina S.'s avatar

Same here.

I have always refused them because I saw in them a back door to hackers. It turns out the most dangerous ones are our governments.

I am also beginning to transfer all my contacts and sensitive information to paper, like our grandparents did. Once it is done, I’ll delete everything from my devices.

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

we might need to go back to snail mail. But how to keep in contact like we do on here?

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Jorj X McKie's avatar

When 'encryption' is targeted as a 'public enemy'... that is the hill to die on. If we shirk that calling, we'll deserve the [booby] prize.

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Aug 20, 2022
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Christina S.'s avatar

😂 One can’t make this stuff up… 😂

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Yal NA's avatar

I broke down and bought 1 smart device which is a microwave since it has the inside ceramic instead of Teflon covered but it is smart and with wifi and I can't turn it off. I thought I could but it was set up once to look and now don't know how to stop the wifi out of the kitchen. I feel like they can hack into micro and listen if they so wish since all have voice control which means it has listening abilities. We saw what happened with phone records which were turned over no problem to shifty schiff and co. Now amazon has roomba info which would be all the Floorplans by buying them up and with it all the cloud info. With the Floorplans they can possibly see gunstorage locations and well also listen to you or even turn cam on. So if course can your cellphone. I get ads of all the things I talk about. Creepy. Than we found photos of me u never knowingly took in Amazon cloud. The phone took it 'accidentally'?

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Christina S.'s avatar

This is scary. 😳 I would throw away the microwave.

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

gave away mine after I suspected it leaked waves. My friend took it and said it worked okay, but I had something like radiation sickness from it. No more micro in this house. And the so called smart phone is mostly turned off and covered LOL. No spies here.

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Charlotte's avatar

I really recommend a faraday bag for your phones. Works like a charm. Only take it out of the bag when you need it. It doesn't receive any signal while in there, but it does help minimize how many times a day you look at it.

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I am not your Other's avatar

Change your wifi password.

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Barbelo of the Pleroma's avatar

We bought a house that has some smart devices and they are incredibly hard to get rid of. I don't know how we start getting rid of our stupid Nest thermostat, though eventually we will. My wife walks the house with an EMF meter at night, catching devices emitting signal, which we shut down manually until the meter stays at zero for the whole house.

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Patrick Wahle's avatar

You may need to put your house in "Airplane Mode".

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CMCM's avatar

Can you just disconnect the Nest and install an old fashioned type thermostat? I just bought one recently (cheap!) and it's easy to do.

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Christina S.'s avatar

This is a nightmare! 😱

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uselesseater's avatar

No Venmo, tape on my cameras, no passwords on phone or tablet. I am shopping for a cute tin foil hat. I don't use voice commands but have no idea how to perfectly disable them on phone or tv.

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ZHcommenter's avatar

Leadership in the West is a product of an anti-Darwinian system that sees the most incompetent and incapable people rise to the positions of highest authority. It is as if the leaders of the major geopolitical foes of the West were picking and choosing which of the incompetent lot become their counterparties.

The many failures of our systems of governance are simply externalities of this core problem.

Edit: Might as well plug a piece I did today on our anti-Darwinian systems - https://zhcommenter.substack.com/p/working-hard-vs-quiet-quitting

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Gracchus's avatar

Progressives are pretty good at seizing power. But they suck at governing.

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Jimmy Gleeson's avatar

The reason they suck at governing is their philosophy that people don't know what is good for them. The "elites" in government think know better than the people what works and does not work. Whereas those of us in the real world who have friends and colleagues know early and often that while we may see some of the problems and issues our friends deal with, we are out of our depth as to what the solution should be

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pandelis's avatar

progressives suck ... bring back trump!

Operation Warpspeed 2.0

maga!!

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KC & the Sunshine's avatar

Trump is deeply flawed but at the end of the day, he wasn’t allowing “CHI-NUH” and the CCP to run rough shod over us. None of his children had bizarre habits needing covering up nor tying them inexplicably to China. Nor was he allowing people to walk into the country in droves, unlawfully, unvaxxed, (not that I care abt that!) and unvetted while allowing Tony “I am the science” Fauci to inject children. And I don’t think Putin would be doing what he’s doing if Trump were still in office.

Yes, Trump is deeply flawed but I’d rather have deep flaws than deep state running what’s left of our great country.

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Gracchus's avatar

Trump failed. Failed to stop the Covid atrocities. Failed to prevent the Biden junta's brazen coup.

Time for someone new.

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joe stuerzl 85's avatar

Hello there . If you appoint me dictator ,I promise to clean every thing up and than quit or die .

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Gracchus's avatar

That's a pretty good promise. But what about a pony? I want a pony!!

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Lori's avatar

It's the Peter Principle.

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ZHcommenter's avatar

I think it is an amplified version of the Peter Principle, which says people rise to their level of incompetence and no further. The system we have is more extreme and actively promotes incompetence in favor of the opposite.

Under the Peter Principle, the leader of an organization will still be the most competent of those in the hierarchy. Under an anti-Darwinian system, you will by definition eventually be governed by idiots.

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KW NORTON's avatar

Yes, and unfortunately this selection of the rise of incompetence is not confined to the West. It is anti-Darwinian - anti-Evolutionary - anti life. The rise of the International culture of death.

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Vanda Salvini's avatar

We've been living in a culture of death for quite some time. It's just becoming more obvious now. Years ago I passed by the store front window of a video game store. The entire shop window was filled with images (posters and CD/VHS sleeves) that glorified death and war.

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KW NORTON's avatar

Yes, a very, very long time. It wasn’t this possible to fool most everyone until we had Big Tech manipulation. But they sure tried to snow everyone under from many decades ago. As Janes Joyce said: “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

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Aug 20, 2022
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KW NORTON's avatar

We have grown extraordinarily afraid of death.

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Aug 20, 2022
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CMCM's avatar

Yep, and death is the ultimate equalizer as even the elites can't escape it (thought a few of them might think they can). The richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor, the end will be the same.

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pandelis's avatar

well could it because they are just pawns??

yeah, no ... well ...

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John Davison's avatar

I didn't think Germany did the "Peter Principle" - hence its hitherto economic success.

How wrong was I it seems, at least re public health measures.

Doesn't matter what principles we use in the UK - we're crap anyway.

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TOB's avatar

I don't know that the kiddie policies were maliciously directed at the young, so much as maliciously directed at families. Childless people (all with pets, natch) have displayed during the past two years a particular scorn and disregard for what used to be the basic unit of society, be it disregarding parents' rights to choose the best for their children, or families' entitlement to the free and appropriate public education their tax dollars fund, or families' desire to spend time together at holidays and just for fun.

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MacGuffin's avatar

Ah, the 'childless' meme raises its ugly head. I do not have children, yet I have been appalled at the acquiescence and even eagerness of most parents to go along with shutting schools.

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Jeff C's avatar

There is clearly a huge gulf between parents and the childless on issue after issue (school closures, masking, forced vaxxes, trans issues in schools, etc.). As a group the childless are far more left-wing than parents, this is a verifiable fact.

One can make general observations about a group without condemning everyone in it.

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TOB's avatar

It's not a meme. It's a thing that is true of many (but not all) people.

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MacGuffin's avatar

It is indeed a meme, and a meaningless one. It is true of childless authoritarians, and authoritarians with children, and not true of childless freedom-lovers and freedom-loving parents. Macron, Merkel, and May are/were crap because they were crap, not because they were childless. Trudeau and Biden have several children each. Stop this nonsense.

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TOB's avatar

Biden's kids are grown. And I covered the school board meeting at which in-person education was taken away from kids. Parents used the public comment for uowards of three hours. Zero people who were not parents of school children showed up to express their disapproval of what was happening. There are other divides--rich and not-rich, for example. The "wealthy Zoomers," by and large, let the families with no options get run over. Feel free to disregard whatever hurts your feelings.

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Irena's avatar

You think it's the childless? I have no children and don't plan to have them, but I have found the whole thing appalling. (In part, because it really isn't much fun to sit at home alone, without having a face to face conversation with anyone for months on end. Well, apart from two-sentence "conversations" with cashiers.) It's always dangerous to generalize, but among my acquaintances, the ones who liked lockdowns the most were professional women with families and nice, spacious housing, who used to have long commutes, but could suddenly work from home and spend more time with their families. Granted, they eventually got sick of it, too.

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Jane Geraci's avatar

Yep with the lockdowns—I’ve seen it said that the “laptop class” overall benefitted, to the detriment of everyone else, and especially the poor.

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MacGuffin's avatar

Indeed. The lockdown-lovers I know, and know of, were all people with families and long commutes. They absolutely loved being at home with the kids.

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Vanda Salvini's avatar

I'm 65 and have no children. I feel like I worry more about the children both young and older of my friends than they do. No pets although years ago my family had a wonderful, huge german shepherd.

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Dhammafarer's avatar

https://youtu.be/6AzUhFFDv88

MESSAGE TO THE UNVACCINATED by an unknown author:

"Even if I were pollinated and fully vaccinated, I would admire the unvaccinated for withstanding the greatest pressure I have ever seen, even from partners, parents, children, friends, colleagues and doctors. People who were capable of such personality, courage and critical ability are undoubtedly the best of humanity. They are everywhere, in all ages, levels of education, states and ideas. They are of a special kind; they are the soldiers that every army of light wants to have in its ranks. They are the parents that every child wants to have and the children that every parent dreams of having. They are beings above the average of their societies, they are the essence of the people who have built all cultures and conquered horizons. They are there, next to you, they look normal, but they are superheroes. They did what others could not, they were the tree that withstood the hurricane of insults, discrimination and social exclusion. And they did it because they thought they were alone, and believed they were the only ones.Banned from their families' tables at Christmas, they never saw anything so cruel. They lost their jobs, let their careers sink, had no more money ... but they didn't care. They suffered immeasurable discrimination, denunciation, betrayal and humiliation ... but they kept going. Never before in humanity has there been such a "casting", now we know who are the best on planet Earth. Women, men, old, young, rich, poor, of all races or religions, the unvaccinated, the chosen of the invisible ark, the only ones who managed to resist when everything collapsed.

That's you, you passed an unimaginable test that many of the toughest Marines, Commandos, Green Berets, astronauts and geniuses could not withstand. You are made of the stuff of the greatest who ever lived, those heroes born among ordinary men who glow in the dark."

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Irena's avatar

Re: heated shelters for the old, the sick and the poor

The interesting thing is that such shelters are breeding grounds for epidemics. Kinda like hospitals, only with fewer safety protocols in place. It'll be interesting to see what happens once a virus (corona, flu, whatever) starts spreading through those places.

Re: restricting fossil fuel consumption

Most likely, Germany (all of Europe, really) will burn a lot more coal than in the last few years. Whatever the goals may be, in the end, all the fossil stuff that can economically be burned, will be burned. Eventually, that will come to an end, but only because there will be nothing left to burn, not because the activists won.

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Viv's avatar

Against some very stiff competition, the heated shelters, "Wärmehalle", have set a new record for the shortest time between emergence as a deranged far-right conspiracy theory that only lunatics intent on toppling the constitutional order believed, and the government actively preparing to do it.

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joe stuerzl 85's avatar

And where will all that burning take place? On the side walk ? modern housing is build minus a chimney . Remember smoke causes climate change and that is verboten,unless it is green smoke .

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Irena's avatar

The burning will take place in coal power plants. Then you use the electricity for heating and other purposes.

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smokegetsinyoureyes's avatar

I had the same thoughts re the heating centres. Horribly convenient(?) idea.

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Barbara costas's avatar

If the Greens are so powerful in the German gov't, enforcing the elimination of oil, gas and nuclear power, wouldn't it make sense then to stop voting Green?

I say the same thing here in the US: STOP VOTING DEMOCRAT

(I point out the same energy hypocrisy here in the US to my Democrat friend and he nods yes, you are right. Then I ask him why he continues to vote for it, and he cries: Because I'm a Democrat!)

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Patrick Wahle's avatar

So true but you have also the answer: "I'll never vote Conservative" or "I don't vote because they are all the same and nothing changes". If you look at the recent elections in France the abstention is close to 47% of the registered voters so you have a President elected with less than 30% of the votes

Abstention has become the largest political party.

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I am not your Other's avatar

Abstention really is a bad idea. A third party in the US, for example, Libertarian, REALLY needs to gain traction. Anything besides the ridiculous extremes at each end of the spectrum.

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Tardigrade's avatar

I was a liberal. I've now come to recognize that the Democrats are horrible on some things, and the Republicans are horrible on other things. It would be really nice if we could step outside our tribes more often.

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KC & the Sunshine's avatar

Maybe watch 2000 Mules?

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Aug 20, 2022Edited
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Barbara costas's avatar

Chicago, close to where I live, is being renamed : Nuevo Oaxaca

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Aug 20, 2022
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Barbara costas's avatar

Our reimagining is taking place with the full assistance of the Illinois General Assembly:

They just passed legislation- the "SAFE-T Act"- saying that if trespassers come on your property, say ,set up a tent and squat, the cops can only issue a citation; they cannot removed them or take them to jail.

What happens if the trespassers don't want to leave?

NOTHING.

You are stuck with them.

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CMCM's avatar

Many of them (and not just Hispanics) flee the old land and come here, only to re-create the conditions from which they fled. And they vote for similar minded people. Maybe people just gravitate towards what they are used to? Why do abused children often go on to become abusers themselves?

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Ronin's avatar

"In a very big way that I still don’t fully understand, lockdowns were a measure directed, sometimes even with malice, specifically at the young."

Permit me to speculate that the apparent maliciousness here, like so much of this catastrophe, flows merely from ignorance.

Covidworld is a place occupied by people who (a) don't understand the statistics of death, and cannot tell the difference between someone dying and someone being killed (b) don't understand the human immune system (b) subscribe to Consequentialist notions of ethics i.e. "greatest good for the greatest number". I do not believe grandiose concepts like 'mass formation' are required to explain the Covidian mindset: it follows to a sufficient degree from these two ignorances and one ethical pathology.

(a) is the reason one becomes Covidian: one cannot distinguish between 'people who are dying and will be finished off by one of several infections, whichever gets them first' and 'DEADLY KILLER VIRUS'. (I don't, however, want to underestimate the mortality of the Wuhan and Alpha strains, which seem to have been comparable to 1957 and 1968 influenza strains. Omicron, on the other hand....).

(b) is the reason children seem to be punished in Covidworld. Because "everyone knows" that children are 'germ factories' and spread disease just like "everyone knows" that the Germ theory means lockdowns just have to work (even though they patently didn't). What everyone doesn't seem to know is how effective childhood immune systems are, and how respiratory infections require sick people to produce virions - not children who get the virus but don't get the disease.

(c) is the reason (a) and (b) lead to calamity. The problem with all Consequentialist ethics is that you must have perfect knowledge of outcomes to do the maths. We don't ever have that. So it only ever comes out as justifications for action, and never as a pathway to good outcomes.

(c) is, in my view, an even bigger problem, one a century in the making. It is the problem that will survive even if we can manage to overthrow the Covidian movement.

PS: 'long time listener, first time caller'! Huge fan of your stat analyses, scientific agnosticism, and thoughtful digressions. May I also thank you from the bottom of my heart for your discussion of the 1918 influenza epidemic, which I continue to ponder. In fact, now I've broken cover, I'll go give it a 'like'. Stay wonderful!

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DB's avatar

Regarding that ethical pathology, I recommend you listen this essay...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ9vB_jNQTk

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Ronin's avatar

Cheers! I'll see your video, and raise you one of my own:

https://youtu.be/J-j-6sWtScE

Don't be mislead by the apparently neutral opening - it's heading for Covidworld at the end. :)

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DB's avatar

Thank you!

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Paul Ashley's avatar

After my first comment about energy use control, I finished the article and got a big smile and chuckle over your refusal to minutely address Berndt's 11 point to-do list. At a certain point, we do just have to laugh at these people.

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NE - Naked Emperor Newsletter's avatar

I had a look at English excess deaths as well. I agree the mid 2021 start of the increase needs looking at.

https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/massive-increases-in-excess-deaths

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ZHcommenter's avatar

https://twitter.com/EthicalSkeptic/status/1554938352469696512

It started Week 14 of 2021 as identified by EthicalSkeptic. He estimates 330k excess death in US among working age people since.

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Outsider's avatar

On a slightly different note, it is tragic that Novak Djokovic will not be permitted to enter the US for the US Open due to his very brave refusal to take the vaxx. It shows how truly backward the US is compared to other countries.

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Irena's avatar

I feel bad for Novak, of course, but his case is exposing just how ridiculous the mandates are. Even if he doesn't get to play, the attention his case is getting may lead to a relatively speedy revoking of those mandates. Here's to hoping!

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Pantheon's avatar

Why is "living with the virus" is unacceptable to most ordinary Westerners, no matter how much they see the lying and dissembling of the vaccinators?

The idea we should "live with the virus" is contrary to the deepest tenet of faith of the contemporary West: that Humanity must become god, because God is bad at His job. That's why people see Corona deaths as the intolerable crimes of Nature and Nature's God against Man, but the lockdown and vaccine deaths as noble sacrifices to the pursuit of Man's ascent to godhood.

There are many qualifications to this basic understanding of the situation, but it makes sense of the behavior of the many intelligent, capable, rich people in the West who are quite capable of following their self-interest in daily life. Believing that these people have been hood-winked by people like Fauci and Lauterbach is, I think, unlikely. Instead, I think they see the vaccinators as the most capable technocrats capable of progressing Man's ascent.

Anyone who is smarter, more honest or more capable than them, but argues that we should "live with the virus", is automatically disqualified by these people as not understanding Man's collective purpose.

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Jimmy Gleeson's avatar

I would be the first to admit that although I did not agree with the lockdowns, I also found them to be welcome to the introverted side of me. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to minimize in-person interactions for two weeks, which I knew would last longer than the initial two-week period. One of the things the lockdowns highlighted was how much I needed other people in my life, and I could see the detrimental effects isolation was having on me.

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eugyppius's avatar

this really parallels my own experience/ perspective. i thought it would be no big deal and it almost destroyed me, the worst period of my life by far.

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chrissie's avatar

Societies, to succeed, need optimism. Lockdowns, corona- and climate-restrictions destroy joy and optimism. Politicians don't take this into account and it will destroy them.

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Rubberto Kaufen's avatar

They took it into account all right...they knew exactly the socioeconomic destruction of would cause. I've been hammering this since 2020...

Not all, but enough WEF Young Leaders in the pot to spoil the batch...

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invektor's avatar

About workplaces and temperatures: this is madness. It was like this in Romania under Ceausescu. I remember when I was child and in our home, in the winter, we barely had 17 degrees (more often 15-16). Our parents used improvised electrical devices to warm themselves at work, and when an inspection was announced they had to hide the improvised installation. It's impossible to live like this, you'll either die or you'll kill your leaders, like Romanians did with Ceausescu - there is no middle way.

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eugyppius's avatar

absolutely this. most Germans have never experienced the enduring cold of winter. they fear it will be bad, but really nobody making these policies has any idea what will be in store for them politically. the hopelessness of not being able to warm yourself, at all, will become a political force in its own right.

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Charlotte's avatar

I'm just wondering how bad does it need to get, to finally pierce this brainwashing bubble...

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joe stuerzl 85's avatar

The Germans have lots of experience in freezing to death like in Stalingrad before .So why not make all of Germany a new Stalingrad to even the pain?

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Irena's avatar

The thing is, people do get used to the new normal. Wearing a winter coat in the living room, having electricity turned off for several hours each day, etc. At this point, it's not clear the Russians would be willing to renegotiate, even if Germany had a change of heart. So, expect lots of coal to be burned to mitigate (not eliminate) the sudden energy shortage.

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joe stuerzl 85's avatar

Housing construction in Germany after the second world war ,did not include a chimney .So if somehow you find a stove and put it up in your apartment the stove pipe will have to go out the window . No doubt Germany will look like it was in the good old days soon .

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Irena's avatar

It'll be interesting to see what happens politically. Will people take to the streets? However, on an individual level, 15C indoors is very much survivable (yes, I've done it). Pleasant? No. Survivable? Most certainly. The trick is to wear warm socks and spend all day long in a winter coat. Two sweaters are unlikely to do the trick.

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invektor's avatar

Yes, it's doable, but is humiliating. In Romania we have a saying: "Mai puneți o haină pe voi, tovarăși!" / "Put an extra coat on you, comrades!" This is what Ceaușescu said during an official party meeting when he intended to raise the moral of the people confronted with the harsh winters and empty shelves. I remember his sayings like yesterday, because I was mature enough (11-12 years) to understand what's happening and state TV broadcasted his discourse. At an individual scale everything is doable - the Indian fakirs are even living without breathing too much! But at a societal scale you'll see that this is very difficult. With cold will come sickness. With dark streets, will come thieves and rapes. The German State will be forced to enforce the police. The enforcement of the police will increase the societal stress. And so on. These guys are crazy, but to my amazement, when looking on Politico's Poll of Polls I'm seeing that the craziest among them, which are the Greens, seems to be the only one gaining electoral support.

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Irena's avatar

As I said, we'll see what happens. The politics of it will be interesting. My guess? Governments will fall, only to be replaced by even bigger buffoons. Europe's decline is likely terminal. As I see it, I am a foreigner in the country I live in, and therefore, I have no political rights. I have two options: (1) prepare for what's coming to the best of my ability (I need to order a warmer blanket...), or (2) pack my bags and leave the country. So far, I'm focusing on (1), but if it comes to that, I may end up choosing (2). In any case, it'll be interesting.

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Rubberto Kaufen's avatar

Right there with you....I'm currently working/living in Germany....in an old GDR hot spot.....wonder what will come of it...

I can always tell them to pack me up and send me home. This is madness. Germany for the win! AGAIN!

If they tries this in the US, there would gallows going up...

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

Has anybody driven through office areas at night ? In the US all office buildings have the lights on 24/7. Several stores do too. Is that a waste of energy or what LOL

Poor Germans. Poor Europeans. Seems I left just in time, before the EU became a nazi style government

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Yancey Ward's avatar

I am going to miss you, Eugyppius, when the Gestap.....er......health police come and toss you into a prison for being a light of reason in a mad world.

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eugyppius's avatar

well, I won’t stop posting until they get me.

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Charlotte's avatar

I actually worry about that censorship scenario a little bit, because Germany decided to ban comments for most publications online, because, heaven forbid, if they found too many people disagreed with their narrative. Germany also has a very strict control on media, empires like Axel Springer really do control a lot of what is put out there and they are the voice piece for the government. I'm sure Eugyppius is on their radar...

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