December and June are rife with day-job deadlines, so I’ll be a little quieter during these months. So far I’m a single-issue blogger, and I have reservations about leaving my academic position to post on Substack full time, but I’m also overwhelmed by the growth I’ve had here. At some point, if growth continues, I’ll likely begin to work for you full time.
This would enable me to post more openly about my field, as doxxing won’t matter as much anymore, and also maybe to try some more openly journalistic content (involving travel, perhaps interviews, etc.)
I understand your motivations. But I also see a certain danger if all the top-level dissenters are leaving the system. In recent days I have been involved in company-internal discussions regarding vaccination (some 150 German companies initiated a pro-vaxx campaign where they adapted their well-known slogans, and I am working for one of them). Interesting to observe who speaks up publicly, and who addresses me in private.
I thought about that too. Also, in principle I like my day job, but the unending home office rules and bureaucratic virus hysteria have drained a lot of the fun out of it, while all the tedious chores are still there. And psychologically, publishing books and articles as an academic for a few hundred readers will never be the same, now that I post multiple times a week to thousands and thousands.
I see. When I left academia 15 years ago, I had the idea of returning there at some point. But then I realized that I can go as deep (I do mathematics, statistics, programming) when working for a company, and all that linked to real-world problems and with real-world data available. I also boast about having co-authored a book that has only found a few hundrer readers and is yet in its third edition...
Here in the USA mandates are being blocked all over the place. I am in rural Georgia and you would not know there is something unusual but for a single mask wearer. I do not go out much but hear from others that restaurants etc are open as usual. Walmart was the last to drop the mask I think.
Georgia! I'll be going through there on my way from Vermont to Florida and back -- planning on avoiding Atlanta and going through Macon. I'm looking forward ti visiting normal places for awhile.
If you want to see/experience a sane city on your way down, veer off the 75 20 minutes and go to Chattanooga. It was sane even Memorial Day weekend of 2020. You'd never know craziness was going on in the world if you didn't look at any media.
I have no idea how the cities are coping. Even the smaller one near to where I live (16000 people) got into the craze, whereas the small place where I live, about 2600, did not. I think most are over the panic attack and going back to normal now.
Eugyppius: you would be most welcome should you join the ranks of reformed journalists. Grow your brand independently from substack. They are tolerant, but only for now. Twitter delenda est.
Because I (and all other authors here) own the Substack subscriber email lists and can download them anytime, we're already fairly independent. It would be some administrative hassle with the subscriptions, but I could re-establish myself on another platform like Ghost and it would be a fairly seamless experience for my readers.
My days on Twitter are obviously limited, and my audience here is actually bigger now, so that's not too much of a concern. I'll still try maintain a presence, even on alts if I have to, as I get a lot of tips from followers there, and it does help to boost the numbers here a bit too.
I do not know you personally but I would advise you not to leave your position. I'd like to think it is beneficial to the dissident movement to have people that are fundamentally part of the intellectual elite / zoom class (and I say this with some sarcasm & cynicism)
Posting about the 'rona full time would perversely incentivize you to keep the pan-panic alive so you can continue to making a living by criticizing it. A lot of legacy media channels appear to have fallen into that trap; I hope you can avoid it.
ha don’t worry, not going to happen. before I went full-time, I’d develop a few other areas to post in. ideally, one historical (witchcraft and the history of magic is a long-running interest of mine), and one current evergreen issue (climate change is something I’ve thought of). but, I think also the overgrown pandemic response bureaucracy will now overreact to future flu seasons and so forth, so there may still be a wealth of related content here for years and years to come.
I don't think that making people aware of what egomaniacal politicians are doing, or presenting data that most news sources dutifully ignore, causes panic. Unless it's the panic of realizing what our "leaders" are really up to. Hopefully, that then leads to actions to corral those wannabe dictators.
That occured to me also. I really appreciate the work so many of the brave writers are doing to tear apart the COVID narrarive, but I do wonder if ultimately they perpetuate the matter .. a bit like Curtis Yarvin's 'Self licking ice cream'. Having said that, we are all gulity of it ..
I can appreciate the dilemma. A lot of inputs to the equation. Here, you have a following of what appear to be thoughtful people who are educated, if not formally, then at least by reality and experience. The Socratic Method of getting through a problem has been replaced societally by this crazy dogma of just accepting what someone says and never asking why? Makes me both crazy and sad. I am curious by nature, so I easily and naturally understood that method and try and use it in my life. Will this group follow you in other areas? I guess that is the big question, right?
I really enjoy reading your thoughts and conclusions. Your approach helps me with my own processing of all of this "stuff", some is just stupid and some is plain evil. I took me a few searches to finally figure out who Eugyppius was in history. Definitely a good choice. As for your other choices, here is something that I tried to get into my kids heads when they would still listen a little bit: "The only good you are on this Earth, is the good you are to other people. Otherwise, you are just breathing someone else's air." My best you.
Growing up a favorite story of my son's was "Riki Tiki Tavi" I think he really connected with the motto of "Run and find out!" Education should supplement that natural curiosity and desire of discovery not suppress it. That suppression is one reason people are infected with the lemming virus.
One thing I keep hearing from friends who decided to go self-employed or start their own business is how liberating it is. Even those that had great difficulties (coming to think of it, all of them had great difficulties.) The sample is rather small, though - just 4.
This is a powerful question, not only for Eugyppius, but for other devotees and commenters. The dreaded FB has the"PM" function, so that personal issues can be sent out of the main threads. The Eugyppius community has some necessary anonymity, as noted, for political and employment safety. I can tell from some of the comments the location of the members, but there is no easy way to contact those in the same jurisdiction to organise personal meetings . The oncoming "Metaverse" is fine, but not likely to affect political reality in our necessary timeframe.
I am giving each of my nephews a Voltron action figure. Science (and all 7 year boys) know that it takes Voltron to defeat Omnicron. Can't make the family too safe.
Glad you found something to substitute for your academic work. I am also an academic, but luckily am on sabbatical this academic year, so I am temporarily exempt from my University's mandates. Unless things change, I will be forced out of my position . In that case, I have no clue what kind of work I could do.
Also in Japan, down in Miyazaki. I have to wear a mask in class at elementary school. I don't wear a mask in any shops. I'm generally the only bare-face in there. 99% of people also sanitise hands when entering shops. At least I've never been confronted in any shop. I'm concerned that vax mandates will be brought in at the end of the school year (March 2022). Vax uptake in the elderly is really high but not so much in the younger generations. My wife got one shot back in March as she's a nurse. She hasn't been hassled to get a second and I've had a word since then and she understands the dangers now. None of my kids, all over 18, are getting it, including spouses. I can't see how they can bring in the vax passports but the government just needs to do it and everyone will comply and get their shot.
I'm curious...do you have a sense as to how much Ivermectin is being used in Japan? I saw this is video of the Chairman of the Tokyo Medical Associate talking about Ivermectin in late August.
The Japan case curve dropped like a rock shortly after this press conference and has stayed low ever since even as South Korea and Vietnam have begun to rise.
It's still not a government-sanctioned protocol. Doctors will give it to you if you want it (I asked mine). Japan pretty much stopped testing, this is why there was a huge drop. I wrote an article in The Light Paper about this issue (November edition).
Still better than the US. Most doctors will not write for it and most pharmacies refuse to fill scrips for it if written for C19. I used a tele-health company and an online pharmacy and paid out of pocket.
Are you able to provide a link or source document for Japanese government admitting heart disease is a side effect of the vax? Do they have stats? Would really appreciate getting hard figures on this. Keep up the good work. Best wishes, Kimberley
About to get fired from my job in a couple of months because of a vaccine mandate, that was implemented by my work voluntarily ( They werent covered under the government mandate, which covered healthcare workers, teachers, and hospitality.) I tried talking to the people who decided to implement this policy, I sent them studies about waning vaccine efficacy but all i got back was blank stares and fallacious arguments. I got my official notice today.
About 30% of people are still wearing masks outdoors. 100% compliance indoors. I dont wear one and get into frequent confrontations about it. 70% of people "scan in" to shops even though the government stopped updating their contact tracing site as they couldnt keep up.
Vaccine passports have been implemented, most stores have a sign outside that says theyre required. I havent gone into any stores with the sign on, as the idea of showing someone the app makes me feel physically ill, I cannot bring myself to do it. Fortunately my local coffee shop knows me and have not been asking about passports.
Our government continues to lie to us. They continue to push vaccination, mandates, and passports and will not update their thinking to the most recent evidence that the vaccines are useless at stopping transmission. Our media is a non stop barrage of Covid measure and vaccine propaganda. Our "reporters" are sycophants who never ask the government a single challenging question.
I am very concerned about our future. I see the signs of mass delusion, I see people who are angry and afraid, and I dont see it improving. When groups of deluded, angry, and afraid people get together they can do terrible things.
I have thought of moving to another country, but where would I go? It seems almost everywhere has been captured by the dystopian technocratic nightmare that is now our lives.
I am genuinely beginning to understand why people drop out of society. All those people who "go off-grid" to build cabins and live in communes and who are looked at slightly askance. Those are becoming my people. The sane ones. It started, for me, with the idea of a cell phone as an umbilicus. I have always fiercely resisted the concept. Even pre-covid. I resent - hugely - the expectation that I need to drag that dastardly thing around with me wherever I go. My family tell me that that is simply the way the world is going. That I must accept it. They blithely accept the encroachments on their freedom. The predatory opacity and presumptuous access that this whole "digitally connected" world brings. And worst of all, the sheer capacity for these devices to pulverise our ability to focus and think and rationalise. They are like pixelated candies to the digitally obese. An affront to everything that I hold dear.
Sorry to burst your bubble so to speak... I'm in New Zealand on a remote community and live in an off grid cabin. The pro-vax no-critical-thinking is strong out here.
About 50% follow blindly. 40% got the jab to avoid annoying the first 50% and the unjabbed are pariahs who are obviously anti-science and selfish. "Don't think about it - just get the damn vaccine" was literally said to me today.
There's no point arguing about original antigenetic SI , prion-like portions of the spike protein, bayesian inference and individualized risk profiles. They just look at me like I'm a madman.
Lots of people waking up on Facebook tho.
Lastest stats show 25% oppose the vaccine mandate so that's kinda reassuring and depressing at the same time.
14 deaths reported as possibly related to vaccination just for last week. No one seems to care.
Someone may have already mentioned this, but I recently saw our present times compared to the Brawndo scene in the movie Idiocracy. Idiocracy is a movie about a completely average guy named Joe who is put into hibernation, and when he wakes up he’s the smartest person in the dumbed-down world of the future. In the future, everybody now waters their plants with a drink called Brawndo, which is actually killing the plants. With logic and reason, Joe tries to convince them to use water instead. They respond by saying things like, “But Brawndo has what plants crave.” They simply cannot wrap their heads around the idea that water is better for plants than Brawndo. In the end, he needs to convince them that he is able to speak with plants, and that the plants tell him that they want water. Many people today simply cannot process words and phrases like "risk profile" and "spike protein" and "original antigenic sin." All they know is that you're challenging the idea that Brawndo has what plants crave. It's a little different today, because there are perfectly intelligent people whose minds simply cannot be penetrated by words that they have not heard on their TVs within the last week or two – preferably from Fauci (for Americans). I tried to discuss Sweden with someone, and I just cannot convince her that Sweden did not suffer from mass death. She DOES NOT CARE if I show her numbers, because only Brawndo can save us! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMHfBobgLSI
I got thrown off of Facebook two months ago. I have not been "on" FB for over two years but somehow, I got the boot two months ago. Initially, I did not care
(they sent me an email notifying me about this "suspension")
When I tried to sign into my Instagram account, I realized I was also removed from that format!!! I was .... devastated. Why? because I was rather involved with sewing groups on there, and also many many artists. Instagram was a great way to show my daddy various artistic adventures and people that were inspiring. Then I got vaporized. My daddy is 98. He misses the instagram adventures. I cannot get my account back. I do not want to make a new account. I do not have time for that. The whole ordeal is disgusting!!
Get a new email, rejoin Instagram. It's just a trade between your time and your enjoyment of the groups. I'm not sure why these platforms think so much of themselves as arbiters. My FB account is for read only and one day the fake info will be discovered.
Oh boy, I'm already headfirst in there. Have been for a while. Not in his camps, but applying the principles little by little here at home. Just want to get out the city, though.
So glad I do not live in NZ. If you want to move somewhere, Mexico is pretty laxed. US - if you pick the right state (like Florida) is ok, although I can tell some stories about Florida too, which will change people's perception of the theater they are putting on (all the same mandates are there).
I have a rural property in Tennessee outside of Nashville. No problems there at all. Even when lockdowns were strict across the country not many people took it seriously there. The people take pride in being rebels. For the past year it's been totally normal life. Only about 15% of people wear masks indoors in shops etc. No one cares, do what you want, you're free to do as you please. I don't think I've ever seen a person wearing a mask outdoors there. People would probably laugh at them if they did. The state government recently threatened to disband the state medical board for trying to punish doctors for spreading "misinformation" so now doctors can work and speak without that threat.
I also live in Los Angeles for work and it's a nightmare, many unvaccinated people looking to get out, moving to red states. Vast majority of people seem to have lost their minds there. Almost 100% conformity, independent thinking went out the window. They call you a conspiracy theorist for questioning anything. Masks indoors are required and many wear them outdoors too. Many refuse to socialize with unvaccinated people. Vax passports required to enter many places. They can be paper so some are fake. The funny part is people I know who work in advertising, who literally help create propaganda messages for a living, can't see that what they're saying on TV is propaganda. They actually believe in the myths they create.
Rural places everywhere are like this, even in rural California. but I've been to TN many times and I have a hard time telling Chattanooga apart from Encino. Even in NW Florida, for example in Pensacola, they would not let me in to a restaurant without a mask, in Tampa they would not let me check into a hotel without a mask (while people were sitting 20 feet away from me on couches sipping drinks without masks), in Ft Lauderdale I was told to put on a mask to walk to my table in a restaurant.. I can go on... there WAS a slight difference between a place like Los Angeles and say Pensacola, last year, but not anymore. Everyone is wearing masks about the same rate. Although I'd say in Los Angeles people kind of look at your weird if you are not wearing one, and there are no such looks in Florida. Could be my imagination though.
The root of this problem is emergency powers of the state, counties and cities. EVERYONE (I mean politicians) seem to be missing the root cause, probably on purpose because they want to keep those powers. There simply need to be limits on Governors and other executives emergency powers. Law needs to say, it can only last x number of days (say 14) and cannot be extended without legislature, then legislators can come in and pass actual laws - that would be fair. What I have a problem with is no law has been passed anywhere for any of these insane measures, all executive authority, which executives in our system should never have in the first place. A state declares a state of emergency to get money from the feds, then most counties and cities have provisions in their laws that they can do state of emergency as long as the state has one and our rights start getting diluted by every little city mayor who now has power. I don't think this is fixed anywhere. If legislature passed a mask law, I would be fine with it - it's obviously would be the people's will, and I'd just move out of that jurisdiction, but 1 person determining my rights? Don't think so.
This is such an important observation, and what is happening everywhere. We have lost sight of this - the indefinite extension of emergency powers. This gives rise to petty tyrants everywhere, in the guise of bureaucrats devising whatever pandemic measures they see fit. This devolves slowly but surely down to HR and H&S officers in every business and institution. Then to gate keepers at entrances. Then finally into our communities and our very homes. Everyone now gets to have a slice of the power to condemn and withhold and banish. It is intoxicating, and many take to it with relish and righteous fervour. They don't fully understand what the end game is, but have a vague idea that these measures will somehow "end the pandemic" and are therefore warranted. The "pandemic" will never fully end, because it looks as though we are set to be on a continuous rolling boil of boosters, with people's "vaccine"-induced "immunity" waxing and waning at different rates. Until the whole world decides to get off this ridiculous train to nowhere, and allow this flu to run its course like every other flu since time immemorial, we will remain hostage. If we don't, then the only true pandemic that will have replaced it is a pandemic of tyranny and lost freedom.
I'm in East Tennessee in the US. Unless you're Mexican it's hard as hell to get into the country, but I cannot imagine my life elsewhere. We have land, freedom, guns, liquor, four wheelers, fishing, and a state government that's largely been doing the right thing on vaccine mandates. I highly, highly recommend it. I would be in a state of total despair if I didn't see the freedom that I enjoy here, contrasted against the tyranny of NYC or San Fran.
If anything saves America, I think it will be the red states. So far the judges are helping as well. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will do the right thing.
Fly to Mexico and walk across the Rio Grande. If you get separated at the border, Brandon (our nickname for our glorious leader) will give you $450K to start your new life in America...so make sure you and your family members turn yourself into separate Border Control officers. :)
Seriously, we've literally had over million people come across the southern border since Biden assume the throne. We have no idea how many have been returned to their home countries or where Biden has flown them in the US. It's a clown show. If Central and South Americans can come illegally, I see no reason why Europeans, Aussies, and Kiwis can't as well.
We are just east of you in NC where we have a GOP legislature and a very blue Gov. The "big" cities are all blue, but the rural counties are all red. It's a purple mess. We can't impeach our governor, so we are stuck with him for quite a while. We love our beautiful state, but not sure it will ever go red again. I'm just about the only one not wearing a mask in stores, but so far I've not been stopped (the county mandate expired, but folks keep wearing them).
Another Aucklander here, so I feel your pain! Am optimistically hoping that the summer sun will disinfect the madness, although realistic enough to understand that cognitive dissonance is going to be a tough barrier for the 90+% jabbed.
Also here in Auckland and am feeling disoriented with all the media bombardment. The dishonesty around numbers in hospital and ICU and not delineating between someone being in hospital *because of Covid vs happenstance *having Covid while being there for a broken arm: is extremely frustrating. It's leading to mass hyperventilizing and hypochondriacs.
I got the vax (and passport) so I could go visit my family back in the States. Am now in a similar situation to other commentors here: wondering which country is having a remotely sane response to this and whether I should move again. 107 days of L4 lockdown does not equate to any semblance of quality of life, and we're seemingly one variant away from doing it all over again because of the hyperfocusing on case numbers instead of outcomes.
I am in Auckland as well. I cannot believe how this country has changed. I came back in 2012 to a free exciting vibrant country. It now has a virtual Berlin wall around it. I got vaccinated as I believed the coolaid but now wish I hadn't. Vaccine passports are dividing the country immensely. Local Maoris have been allowed by the government to establish roadblocks leading to Northland. Thanks for an immensely logical and powerful blog..I feel very unsure of the future. Its not going back to normal I fear.
Same here, man. The gaslighting has been off the charts. It's like we can't even see what's happening in Europe with the vaccine failures.
They tell us 2 + 2 = 5 and if you end up with 4, you're a stupid anti-vax denier who isn't doing his part to keep everyone safe.
The one thing I'm holding onto right now is knowing that everyone's going to get sick sometime in the fall, and it will be very hard for even our Lugenpresse to hang on to the lie once that happens.
Trying to point to waning vaccine efficacy and the skyrocketing cases even in highly vaccinated countries makes you feel like a madman. Nobody wants to listen, nobody cares. The arguments for our policies are based on a mountain of lies.
I imagine how you must feel! Hold the line and do not give up to this madness.
Sane states in the US are maybe the best option. I was in the UK in September and actually it was fine - nobody really was wearing masks in public transport or shops. People did not seem to care. Wonderful. Here and there some fully masked human being - typically young girls ... not sure why. Was just two weeks but felt alright.
If you sell a property in New Zealand you probably can retire in Mexico or south east Europe. Such rules never ever have made it long term there - nobody cares, bureaucracy is to lame and corrupt to enforce it and people mistrust politicians deeply.
Really I think we should start helping each other in the real world, not just giving verbal comfort in an anonymous forums. With eastern Europe - i can help!
Another kiwi here, I got out of the city and bought an off-grid lifestyle block up north, but the government is hurtling towards dictatorship and I want to get the hell out. I've been puzzling over where I can move to. Have a British passport, so that's a possibility. Considered Mexico but heard it's not the safest place in the world (in terms of people danger, not virus danger). What areas of Eastern Europe to you recommend? I have plenty of funds, any golden visas on offer?
I am from Bulgaria. I find it pretty safe - typically spend almost 2 Months each year there. A lot of EU and GB expats live in Bulgaria because of the cheap real estate and decent climate. In rural areas you can buy a nice houses for 30-40k. labour is cheap so you can also build one or order a tiny house if it is your thing (https://koleliba.com/). Of course you can also rent sth. There are literally villages with 'large' english speaking communities living there. You have cool mountains and the black sea shore. It's not the pacific though ... .
Biggest risk in Bulgaria is that it is in the EU so any EU wide mandate will be an issue. But in the rural areas nobody bothers to wear masks and the vaccine uptake is as low as 30%. Even if they introduce some mandates the fine would be tiny compared to a western-standard income.
Permanent visa for Bulgaria shouldn't be an issue at all with a British passport. Especially if you show enough money to support yourself.
With British passport you may as well go to the US, right? Pick some nice red state and be safe!
I visited UK this September and really found it pretty relaxed compared to Germany.
F*** sake, just read the news that Germany is f****d, aka the general vaccine mandate is coming, so I will be moving too for sure. It will be UK or Bulgaria, but maybe rather Bulgaria because of Brexit and me not having a British passport. It's much harder with family ... they want to stay. Those nasty politicians are tearing us apart.
Bulgaria sounds promising. British passport isn't much help for the US. I worked in NYC many years ago on an H1B1 visa using my British passport, but the visa was hard and expensive to get, and the green card process was also expensive and required my company to sponsor me. I didn't bother with the green card in the end, as I left the US a few months after 9/11. It's only in the last few weeks the US (well Florida and Texas) has looked appealing once again! UK is unfortunately introducing vaccine passports, a massive step backwards. And yep, very worrying to hear about Austria and now possibly Germany. I'm sure our NZ prime minister will do mandatory vaccines in a heartbeat if she thinks she can get away with it. Thanks for your comments and best of luck with your decision.
I am moving from NZ to Turkey in January. It is easy to get a one year permit with any western passport, very low cost of living in Ankara, you can investigate other options nearby from there.
Greece is also e really cool place. Again you may hear they introduced mandatory vaccines for the above 60Y old folks but the fine for not getting the jab is small and again, I do not think they will push too hard on enforcing it.
I am on Waiheke Island. A fabulous place to live but it has gone full woke so I am self locked down at home. I fear for the future of this wonderful country.
Same here but I haven't even noticed lockdown. Though I must admit entering the supermarket without a mask is like walking into a meerkat exhibition. Men on tiptoes heads swivel towards me a d angry alarmed chittering like they just saw a snake.
Dumb question, what do you mean by "IA guinea pigs"?
Thinking of heading to UK mid-January, flights from Auckland around $1,000 one-way on Air NZ.
The UK has just introduced vax passports, but they're pretty relaxed compared to NZ's. UK seems very liberal in general compared with the rest of Europe at the mo.
Hi Bridget, sailing to the Seychelles sounds awesome, but what would you do about a visa for staying there long-term? Mexico has a golden visa for US$100,000 I think. Costa Rica is another possibility. And I was under the impression that airlines still allow the vaccine-free to fly, as long as you present a negative test before flying...or am I wrong about that?
It must be very disheartening. I know it's not much but I am sorry you are faced with such a total barrage of lemming think. It occurs to me that one big reason so many countries are in position just like or close to NZ's is as a culture we have lost the true God and have filled that void with the gods of paper. By which I mean those who have some sort of paper proving their knowledge and ability to direct the lives of others. Only answers that come from those in a position of authority are valid. The new heretics are those who question this. The apostates are those with paper who dare preach a different Gospel. I don't know when it will end. I do know that a world wide "Come to Jesus" moment is long over due.
There are reports today in NZ (and even a video of a parent on Telegram and his son) that "pop up" vaccination busses are turning up to schools, such as Bethlehem and Hawera, and kids being told that it's vaccination time - no parental consent or anything. EVen some reports of kids being offered $50 a jab. It's unconscionable. It has to stop.
Two pupils at Bethlehem College suffered heart attacks. Both the school community and the hospital staff treating them were told to shut up lest they cause a panic. How's that for self preservation? F'ing pussies
I am optimistic the the US will lead the West out of this. It will probably be another half year. I credit federalism, where individual states have the most legal power over our lives. We have Florida and Texas, big populous states that are done with Covidism. We now see the judicial branch pushing back, remembering that our 200+ yr old constitution was written for times like these. Biden's vaxx mandates are vanishing.
Masking is resurging, but piecemeal, and the uptake of booster shots is weak.
The citizens are well armed. Our police are not nationally centralized. Only urban centers have sufficient numbers of police to enforce health mandates, which they are loath to do.
I pray the the omicron variant and its successors will be mild, contagious, and sterilizing. The trump card in this stupid game.
VeryVer, you and I live in the same state, I think. I love Vermont and my neighbors are great people. Our state government is stupid, however. This fact is countered by the echoing sound of gunfire in the hills. Deer hunting season is over, but the point was made. LOL
Yes, I'm in Addison County which is pretty much live and live here -- except for the Middlebury College influence. Thank God for the farmers! Vermont's motto of "Freedom and Unity" always strikes me as hilarious and contradictory. Well, which one do you want, freedom or unity?
Yes Big E the US will take the lead again. There are armies of vaccine-injured whose experiences can’t be denied. Those that survive will want justice. First it will be at the ballot box. Then Big Pharma and their corporate media conspirators. I see a brave new world where health freedom is defined by prevention of disease, not the management of disease. This shift will destroy the current Big Pharma model of sick care and its corrupting influence on society. However, we must first suffer the consequences of bad decisions as formerly benign conditions wipe out broad swatches of our population.
You've given me hope. I might have to move out of Pennsylvania, very difficult given my family situation, but I see/agree with your points and it helped tip the scales in my mind away from the doom and gloom side I was leaning towards.
I'm in Vermont and wonder every day if I should just move South. I've taken two trips to Florida and South Carolina in the last year and I am going again to Florida soon for two weeks. It helps so much to just get out on the road (no airports) and see all the normal people who honestly don't give a sh$t about this disease or the the government horse it rode in on. I honestly have found Penn refreshing (at least in the boonies where we travel.) It's only the cities that really push this craziness.
Even here in deep blue California things are pretty much normal once you get out of the major cities. My small rural Northern California town has been mostly normal since mid 2020. Our county basically ignored Newsom‘s mandates. You may have even seen this in the news LOL. Definitely a rural versus urban phenomenon.
I have noticed this as well. I work in the city of Sacramento, in poor areas you never see mask etc. everyone is normal. But just a mile away in the more upscale areas is masks everywhere and people are being belligerent about you not wearing one. It’s like a different planet
We moved to the boonies of Loudoun County 24 years ago. It was very conservative and deeply red back then. We had a delightfully olde timey Virginia out here, and low population. Over the past 12 years, this county has somehow... turned blue-ish and the population has soared. There are a lot of mask wearing kids, teenagers, people driving cars with masks on, biking alone with masks, outside in general with mask on, it is nuts. Obnoxiously so
Hmm.. it would appear that bullying people into your position seems to work. So.. what if we start mocking people wearing masks? Will they suddenly switch sides?
In my little Vermont town it's the same -- the "Food Co-Op" is all masks and panic and across the street the Regular Store is totally normal. And never the twain shall meet. lol
I live in Los Angeles County. My teenage son says that the boys and young men he knows completely reject the measures as stupid and useless. But he says the girls love the rules and at school were always reminding him, “Your mask isn’t covering your nose.” My sense is that some of these girls feel empowered to be enforcers of the rules. He played travel sports last season, and teams routinely had half a dozen boys get covid along with their parents, all at the same time. None of us followed any of the rules, because you simply cannot participate in travel sports and truly follow the covid measures. Some parents just didn’t let their kids play sports, but among those that did, there was widespread derision among the boys over the measures. At school, the first time a single kid got covid, those who were vaccinated taunted the ones who weren’t, even though the one unvaccinated boy who did get sick at that time basically ended up with the equivalent of the flu. But apparently the taunting was quite strong.
Also, in terms of blue California, we have a security camera out front, and several times people have been walking their dogs or just walking alone very early in the morning, with nobody around, and they’re wearing masks. I also see people driving in their cars with masks. And if there are people around, it is extremely common for many to wear masks outside. So on a street corner where a small group is waiting for the light to change, sometimes all of them are wearing masks.
I deeply love Vermont (except for the government and the libs) and I think you would feel very much at home in East Tennessee. Way lower taxes. Beautiful scenery. Lots of countryside. Good people.
We did like E. Tenn a lot as we drove through-- I always try to get off the interstates. It was beautiful and friendly. The coal country of W.Virginia nad Kentucky was phenomenal. A lot depends on how far the covid mania goes here in Vermont and the other states -- will I lose my job if I don't get the jabs? And if I do, where can I find another job? Will anyone in Vermont hire me after I tell them I as fired for being unvaccinated? I'm just stuck in limbo-land for now.
I think you can soundly count on the worst decisions being made by blue states and the best protections coming from red states, as a general rule. I don't even say that on a partisan basis, if the Republicans want to have any meaningful political future this is the fight they have to take up. DeSantis is leading that path forward and it's making the difference.
Yeah, DeSantis has been amazing. I hope he pans out. And ultimately, he's just doing simple, obvious stuff and telling the truth. Which states do you think are the most likely to stay red? I worry about places like Texas/Wyoming/Montana/Arizona etc. Even Florida. I'm thinking the deep red states that liberals are "scared" of, like Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, S.Carolina, Tenn and West Virginia.
I was in Vermont earlier this year to do a workshop at Yestermorrow (they teach carpentry, how to build your own home, etc) and I thought it would be full of free-spirited people (both in the state in general and at the workshop since it's a supposedly hippie school) but it was super uptight. The only time I ever had to take a PCR test was to go there. They practiced medical apartheid with unvaccinated people needing to wear masks outdoors as well as indoors (vaxxed just indoors). I was the only unvaxxed person, so that was just me. There was a lot of shaming and judgement from the admin, instructors and other students. When people found out I live in Tennessee many stopped talking to me altogether, pretty much openly judging me to be an uneducated moron (I actually have 3 masters degrees). It was really awful. I left halfway through because the classes weren't good enough to make it worth putting up with the bigotry.
Well at least the fear of you being a COVID infested moron keeps them from asking what you think of paved roads. I like to brag about having a mailbox post made completely of car parts (and not a single one a furrin one), and an electric icebox.
Oh wow, I know just what you mean. That sounds like an awful experience. The liberals here are very unfriendly if you don’t 100% agree with them. I know about Yestermorrow. There’s a weird feeling over there in Warren/Waitsfield. Very uptight “Eco fascists” I guess you’d say. They just this week voted for indoor mandatory mask rules again! A lot of people here are refugees from big cities and this is sort of their church/therapy. They don’t actually like the farmers and real people who live here.
Doesn't it just kill you that these people move there knowing full well it is populated with farmers and real folk? They remind me of people who build near train tracks then complain there are trains!
I am in Florida. Please do not let it get out that you saw normal people round these parts. Which I will heatedly deny even under oath. Not that you are wrong it's just that I like to get in and out of Publix under an hour. Which can't happen if there are people doing people things.
We are also quite used to being told FLEEEEEEEE DOOOM IS UPON YOU. Sometimes it's red tide. Sometimes it's killer algae. Sometimes it's a storm of the century. Sometimes it's brain eating amoeba. We all know there is really no reason to panic unless Jim Cantore. If it was COVID-CANTORE, that would make us get in line for every booster.
Yep. When you look at the 2020 election map and the entire country is red except for the little blue dots that run the place....how is this possible? I'm wondering now if the "Dem Cities" is even a myth and they just cook the books better there.
Yes -- taken at face value the 2020 election showed 75 million "reds" and 81 million "blues" so the red/blue difference it's not an 80/20 sort of thing, regardless. But the way the blue team is handling things, they often act like the red team doesn't exist at all, and doesn't deserve a say in anything. It certainly breeds a lot of resentment. But this is the problem with Democracy -- should only the most populous areas get a say? And they have tried to cure this problem by having a Senate and an electoral college. But over time, areas that feel unrepresented will eventually desire to break away and form their own republics. Which could happen here, eventually. We are a young nation after all.
I am in Oregon. It is terrible here. The governor just released us from outdoor mask mandates. The most important issue for me is the likelihood of mandatory vaccination for students to attend school. I know they are actively writing legislation for this in preparation for our upcoming legislative session in January. The same is true in Washington State, progressive legislators are writing proposed bills for mandatory student vaccination. I have three children in public schools and cannot afford private school. In Oregon the Democrats have a super-majority in both the State Senate and State House of Representatives, so this bill is likely to pass.
It must be very frustrating. It would be great to see a parent initiated boycott coming if vaccinations are mandated. Those FTE are a district's life blood. I am so grateful that I am in Florida and that my own children are quite grown. I still have concerns for my grandchildren regarding school policies. Some school boards just do not understand parental choice.
Your optimism gives me hope! I live in NY State, where Covidism is almost a religion in some circles. Here's hoping you are correct about the eventual end to this lunacy.
One thing that must change is that statutes, ordinances, regulations regarding emergency declarations re public health must have a time limit of how long they are active before a legislative body must act upon them. Either extending or ending them. Even then a limit should be established after which the decision is put before the voters.
From Portugal here... this is one of the most vaccinated places on earth, we have 87% of the population fully vaxxed and the covid delusion continues. Everybody keeps wearing masks outdoors. The "covid certificate" is required to eat at restaurants, go to gyms and stay in hotels, among other things. The media is hopeless, totally bought and controlled by the fascist govt. This week they began recommending the vaxx for kids aged 5-11, and the technical document that supposedly served as the basis for that decision is not being published... like it's some kind of state secret...
Everybody keeps buying the mainstream narrative, everybody keeps staring at the TV and happily complying. Nobody questions what is going on, there is no resistance whatsoever. It is true this country has a certain history of big government intervention and compliance, that probably stems from the time of the dictatorship between 1933-1974... But it is still appalling that only a tiny minority has seen what is truly going on. As you can imagine we are constantly blasted as crackpot "conspiracy idiots" and covid deniers...
Recommending the jabs to kids is the biggest sham ever. According to official DGPI (German Association of Pediatric infectiology) you have ZERO deaths of covid in healthy kids between 5 and 18 in Germany, up until end of May 2021. ZERO! So recommending a vaccine that potentially causes harm to prevent them from getting infected, even assumed the vaccines would protect them, is outright criminal.
If we cannot wake up people with this then it is all lost. Angry Moms could bring an end to all this.
A few weeks ago, to us Germans, Portugal was presented as role model. If we only had Portugal's vaccination rate! Then we would not have to enforce such strict measures! Now that Portugal has overtaken at least four Bundesländer in terms of infection rates, those voices seem to have fallen silent.
Oh, but they do love to cling to the "but it stops hospitalisations and death" argument. That is their last grand stand. And they cannot, will not see the sleight-of-hand. How the argument for mandates as a public health measure ("stop spread") has been deftly swopped out to forcibly adopt it as a personal health measure ("stop illness/death"). And no one bats an eyelid. The personal has become the public, and vice versa. No distinction between the two.
I find it increasingly irritating that people continue to brand this Bolshevik/ Communist takeover of the world, as "Fascist". The Fascists came into being to fight off the Bolshevik takeover of Europe, the two are arch enemies. Stop saying 'fascist' when you mean NWO/ Globalist/ Communist/ Bolshevik/ Satanist.
Just like Hitler's public health programme was for free medical assistance, to build a healthy work force that pays taxes, instead of the flea-ridden cripples bred by the Bolsheviks and their capitalist piggies as subsistence slaves.
Stop repeating the Bolshevik propaganda, it is racist and blood libel against the enemies of Bolsh, in other words everybody but the Bolsh High Command. Call them what they are, despicable misanthrope genocidal maniacs who wrote all your school history books, so their lies became part of your world view.
Fraudci is NOT Mengele. Mengele's careful research notes were the standard in genetics for decades, and only 'eye witness accounts' , no lab notes, attest to his evilness. Fraudci has repeatedly been caught torturing and killing anything from dogs and babies to HIV+ soldiers, yet his contribution to actual science is.... ??? Remdesivir? Covid?? Face nappies giving toddlers bacterial pneumonia? Triple-masking? What a friggin' genius!
"History is propaganda written by the victor". Take care who you accept as your overlords of Truth.
As Hitler once said, "Good Communists make good Nazis." Facism and Communism are both totalitarian ideologies that use the same methods. There really isn't that much difference between them other than the finer details of how society is organized, and who the "enemy" is.
Great point. But I might add that "totalitarianism" (or authoritarianism) is not an ideology. It's a natural feature of collectivism, which is an ideology. Nobody demonizes a football team or military unit because it's "totalitarian". We like to use the most insulting and bombastic language when describing our opponent, but it isn't helpful in understanding what we're up against. An ideology is something born out of our spirit that we give a name to, offering hope of a better future and a sense of virtue.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini
Facism is a more accurate description of today's affairs than communism whether you like it or not. And if I had to live under either system, I would prefer communism over fascism as communism mostly rots the body, whereas fascism (globo-homo corporatism) apparently rots the brain.
China is still formally "Communist", but is in practice Fascist. Islamic rule in places like Iran is similar. Totalitarian tyrannies are pretty much all the same, Some may work better economically, and China is very automated and efficient, but tyranny is tyranny. I think one of the motivating factors for the new tyrants is automating their tyranny they way China has. Thus all the emphasis on COVID passes that use the cell phone as a required device.
the term 'fascist' includes the term 'brown shirts', the 'wir haben es nicht gewüsst'-majority of ordinary folks, who allowed the propaganda to take over. Brain-washed and oppressed they snitched on their neightbours, Stasi-style. State-sponsored violence comes under many names, let's just recognise for the tyranny that it is.
I challenge the notion of "ordinary folks" being brain-washed and oppressed and somehow drawn into fascism. The common goal of far-left and far-right humanists is to absolve the basic human being of responsibility for horrific crimes against humanity, thus restoring their hope of a secular utopia. (right or left). I suspect these "ordinary folks" had a more willing and active role than people like to believe.
Whatever you call it, it's a collectivist uprising. In this case, humanist universal collectivism. Fascist seems to fit the best for lack of a better comparison. We need to invent some new words.
And at the same time restaurants and pastelarias are packed and streets in Lisbon packed to the brim with locals (Christmas market) and tourists... Nobody has asked me for green pass in a restaurant, but hotels seem to be enforcing it (was turned away twice already).
My favorite is "Walmart is still closed at 11" - not only is this a very keen observation, it also kind of tells everyone everything you ever needed to know about this "pandemic", if they just tried to use their brand. Does covid start spreading more at 1am? nope. Do walmart workers actually disinfect or clean anything hence they need that night time? Nope - they don't clean shit (more theater). The reason Walmart did this is because they probably always wanted to, probably because it's more profitable to close vs stay open and they just needed the excuse. This is how EVERYTHING works with this pandemic. COVID-19 is mainly an excuse to finally do what corporations and governments always wanted to do.
I don't want to boast or anything, but I knew this "pandemic" was a crock of shit from day 1. Mainly because unlink most midwits, I had some basic knowledge of viruses (and why doctors prescribing antibiotics to treat the flue was always idiotic). Of course these days everyone is a specialist on viruses and vaccines :) As my wife was wiping groceries with clorox wipes in Feb 2020 I was literally laughing at her on my way to the airport... (don't worry people, I have finally got her to see the light a few months later). The one thing I do miss about the pandemic theater are the half empty planes from back in Spring 2020. Again all you need know you can gleam from flights (so many obvious signs). When the "pandemic" started, planes were still packed, around April empty, then back to normal, packed like sardines in the summer - everyone was pretty much over the fear at that point obviously - even though we still have to keep those chin diapers on between sips of water (the theater). So on some level I think most people know it's theater, but want to play along just to fit in. That is our biggest hurdle as humans, to be able to live without conforming. It's tough.
Enormously good points. A lot of the theatre at the level of government is stuff bureaucrats always wanted to do anyway. Now nobody employed in the vast public sector, from swimming pool lifeguards to librarians to people in the tax office, actually has to go to the office anymore. A lot of municipal services operate at a very minimal level thousands and thousands of state employees get paid to do basically zero. A lot of the internal, bureaucratic pressure for lockdowns in Germany vanished, when the various branches of state government started formalising home office rules.
Exactly this. When will the "teleworkers" just be outsourced or replaced by computers? I used to work in an office doing government stuff -- it was stupid of course, but at least I had a place to go and an opportunity to wear real shoes. Then they forced us all to go home, and it looks like we will never go back. They even closed one of the office buildings. I hate working at home as I spent my whole life previously trying to get out of the house, go to college, get a job, be out in the world -- if I wanted to sit at home all the time I would've skipped that entire process and just stayed home on a sofa smoking pot.
The work itself, which involves applying meaningless and contradictory bureaucratic rules to piles and piles of paper, has been streamlined and largely "gone digital" so that we no longer have actual papers on which to stamp "approved" or "denied," we longer print things out to "put in the file" etc. etc. But also, what little oversight there was has vanished, and all the knowledge and the experienced required to do the job "correctly" seems to superfluous. It's so much faster and easier to do it badly. If they could only get the computers to "talk" to each other I know we would all be replaced in a heartbeat. I am just the interface between stove-pipesd computer systems.
I work for the NHS in IT and all I hear is how busy everyone is and what a great job we’re doing, yet over the past 2 years, i have on many an occasions spoken to the 2 line manager’s I’ve had in that time about how I haven’t got enough work to do and can I have some more please. I’ve even spoken to their managers about it and nothing has happene, no one has ever particularly given me any extra to do
Likewise now working from home and miss the fact that I actually worked in a big team and had a lot of good relations with my colleagues. Am finding now I’m at home, work can be a good reason to get out of the house, It’s OK not being busy when you’re in a big office. Now spend half the day sitting at my desk sharpening pencils waiting for an automated alert which takes me 30 seconds to resolve, or on the off chance my manager calls to check that I still haven’t got enough to be getting on with.
I often wonder how many more folk there are out there in my situation who just keep their mouths shut. I could quite easily have done so and given the impression I was busier than I was, or just worked slower and messed around on the internet more on work time. I kind of thought that the first time I said anything they’d just give me more work to do and that would be the end of it, but in the small world of office politics, I kind of feel I’m speaking a bit out of turn
Hello friend! I totally understand. My daily "work" takes approximately an hour. Maybe. The rest of the time I literally have nothing to do. But I'm still at "150% production" so that means I should do EVEN LESS! I've tried to do more, but it just causes trouble and you basically get punished because they look over your work more for mistakes. It's ridiculous. When I was in an office instead of at home, you do a lot more work -- talking to people, training new people, etc. Work at home is infantilizing. I don't even know what clothes to wear "outside" anymore. There's a great book called "Bullshit Jobs" by the anthropologist David Graeber which really encapsulates this whole thing. The author's thesis is that it's very hard for people with an actually honest work ethic to adapt to the "aristocratic" ideal that success is doing nothing.
He, he, I remember when they were desperate to convince people how safe it was to fly: it was the safest thing ever due to ventilation (or whatever). And then vaccines came along and now in many countries you can't fly without vaccine (*and* negative test in some cases).
And in the end, all we got was even further reduced service on the plane -- on a 4hr flight you barely get one cup of water.
Guess what - I got covid on a flight, I am sure of it. And I would bet my last dollar, that contrary to the propaganda, by what must be the greatest airline industry lobbyists ever, most spread happens on planes (and other public transportation). I mean where else are you locked in with a bunch of random people for hours? And PLEASE don't insult my intelligence by telling me that when some person 2 seats down sneezes or coughs, those viruses that came through his mask on the sides (or right through the mask, or just from his "maskless" while he is eating peanuts) somehow goes through the ventilation system before it gets to me. It makes zero sense and anyone who believes that you are not breathing in all the viruses from the person next to you (mask or no mask), I got a bridge to sell you.
Don't get me wrong, I was actually HAPPY I finally got covid (this was Jan 2021). I was flying at least once a month all over the country in 2020 and never got it, and kept waiting on when I was finally going to get it. The symptoms were so mild, I wasn't really sure if I had it, until I got an antibody test a few weeks later. And no, I was not vaccinated. And I abhor the face diapers, which of course I was forced to wear on the plane if I wanted to get somewhere - so guess what, the mask didn't work and long metal tubes with hundreds of people in them from all over the world are not virus free. Reality check.
I saw a woman pushing the button on pedestrian crossing with her elbow today. So I cycled over and said that viruses were rubbish and she told me to 'fuck off'.
So I think it must have been theater for others. She looked like she'd just done her shift at Salvation Army but cussed more army than salvation.
Unfortunately, I didn't see the "pandemic" for what it was from day 1. I'm a big fan of Michael Chrichton's books which probably contributed to my early concerns of a possible deadly pathogen sweeping the globe. I was 100% convinced that "2 weeks to flatten the curve" was reasonable based on the information that was coming out and I could understand not wanting to overwhelm hospitals. I didn't call bullshit until the temporary Covid hospitals were never used and the mask theatre began. I could never get over the idea that homemade masks were going to stop this "deadly" virus.
From personal experience, I've always been skeptical of government and industries that spend a lot of money lobbying Washington. Luckily, that was enough to pull me out of my hypnosis. However, it is tough to live without conforming......
there are quite a few businesses closing at 9PM on the dot. Here in Northern Virginia, 35 miles west of the cesspool, many chain stores are closing at 9PM due to lack of staff. No one wants a job anymore. High school kids would rather play with their phones or games. The immigrants of all sorts are here. They get the free housing, and food and provisions. They might have a job if they have a skill and can understand some english or spanish. Mostly, the stores are closing early to handle the irregularities of supplies, and most certainly employees.
My daddy lives at Ashby Ponds (google it, in No Va) and they are a massive independent living community, very expensive, very privately owned. 2000 people live there! Staff is a big problem. At this point, daddy has been there for 7 years now, the dedicated employees are still there.
Country wide, I think everyone wants more pay. Inflation is horrible. Yesterday I spent $180 on groceries for hubbs and myself. I did not even buy much.
I had the observation early on that a lot of what businesses did was stuff they wanted to do anyway and just needed an excuse. The move by businesses to go cashless (electronic payments only) is something they wanted to do anyway for security, accounting, or financial reasons. A small number of Virginia wineries did this. Not because of COVID of course, but because an electronic transaction always gives the customer a tip screen after their transaction, but wineries never ask for tips when you pay in cash. And stores don't have to worry about employees taking cash when there isn't any to take.
With Square and other suppliers of payment platforms it's a cinch for an employee to get their own payment machine and then just swap theirs out for yours when you're not there.
They could, but it wouldn't interface to your menu/order system. Also, most of the employees at food trucks and wineries wouldn't know how to do this without getting caught, and it would be traceable by law enforcement.
I have noticed this, too, and a number of other "great re-sets" that businesses have been happy to incorporate to save them money and time. Also to create fewer messes to clean up, fewer employees to hire. Some have closed dining rooms to utilize only drive through or carry out, etc. A couple of new restaurant businesses going in have no indoor dining! Everyone! No more menus to print up. Use your smart phone to read menus now! Even straws and napkins are becoming scarce. Put Lord, think of all the styrofoam!!!
My only comment is that of gratitude to Eugyppius and this community. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and thoughts on the madness. I feel a lot less "alone." I'm an American living in Germany.
From Frankfurt, once Germany's global village. Shops empty, those that are bothering to open are all 2G except for the few basic exceptions like supermarkets and pharmacies, which the unclean still have access to (for now). Masks enforced everywhere, except in the local ethnic Späti (kiosk). Doctors have signs reassuring terrified patients that all their staff have had the wax but remember to keep your distance and wear a mask.
After a year of almost weekly, chaotic rule changes, no one has a damn clue what they are any more. The reaction from Germany's most small-c conservative corner is predictable - withdrawal into shell. This is aided by Frankfurt having a relatively high proportion of houses as opposed to apartments, by comparison to other German cities. Cometh a vaccine mandate I could, depending on how it is enforced, quite easily hole up for a couple of years with deliveries, and occasional trips to the local Turkish-run grocers, that are unlikely to ever turn paying customers away whatever pressure the government puts on the behemoths that run the supermarkets.
It is difficult to imagine how the German bureaucracy could manage to implement a mandate. Rumours of its ruthless efficiency are greatly exaggerated. Waiting times to do simple things like get documents can run into months. Unless they come up with some particularly evil plan to turn employers into vaccine police or such, the narrative will have fallen by the time it catches up with everyone. Some of us will have paid our fine at the last option having rejected and appealed and refused and with the cops at the door offering a choice of card reader or handcuffs. Anything to snarl the system up will help.
Protests are small but growing, hampered by the banning of the unclean from the (reliable but limited) public transport, and rather bizarre choices of locations, access to which can be easily hampered by the police. They are always accompanied by Merkel's black-clad street thugs (Antifa) looking on with their expensive cameras, even more expensive telephoto lenses, and balaclavas.
Test stations seem quiet but that may be because tests are in short supply. No idea how the daily 3G (waxed, recovered <6 months, or daily test) is being enforced, some employers probably turning a blind eye, others not.
The remains of the "Christmas market" in one of our run down and almost deserted malls is a solitary stand with "Amazing Offers in Winter Maskland". The neighbouring apple wine stall has 30 empty tables. At one sits a sozzled old gran, mask around her chin, halfway through her morning cup of booze.
A once great place to live is fallen, but most of them are. If we thought Merkel was bad, the new psycho looks like he will be even worse. The ancient Chinese curse, that we may live in interesting times, is only just beginning.
Also in the area. Planning to head to the UK beginning of next year. It's not perfect but feasible now and people seem to have way more respect for personal freedoms. The shitshow in Germany is hilarious - the authorities feel entitled to prescribe me, as unvaccinated, how many people am I allowed to invite in my own house??? WTF
I really see no better action now as to leave and deprive them of my labour and tax money.
I think, in Germany there are two options left to wake them up without a wave of crumbling narrative coming from abroad:
1. Germans must realize how closely are they repeating the 1930's playbook. Just replace 'unvaccinated' with 'jews'. This message maybe has some power to wake them up
2. Angry parents which are not happy with bureaucrats mandating clot-shots on their kids
The problem with the UK is we seem recently to have taken a turn in the wrong direction - implementation of vaccine passports this week, and incredibly, the threat from the prime minister of the need for a national 'debate' about mandatory vaccinations.
1. does not work here. The holocaust is sacred, and every attempt at comparison of anything to it (that was a lot of prepositions, presumably some wrong) will be shouted down as trivialization. 2. might work but will require (really horrible thing to say) some dead kids.
This depends on who you are. If you are on the left you can shout "Nazi" at anyone, everyone, all day long, and that's just fine. If you want to point out some parallels between today and Nazi Germany long before the holocaust, well, you are not allowed to do that until we end up in a place at least as bad as the holocaust.
There is quite an upsetting video of the Bavarian state police taking down Dr. Andreas Noack from Nov., 2020. I found it on Truth11.com or Inside Papers. He was found dead last month shortly after his Graphene hydroxide video.
Does anyone know if the spectroscopy done in Spain cited by Noak as evidence of graphene hydroxide is being actively promoted elsewhere? Maybe the German lawyer suing the WHO would like to know.
From The greater Washington DC region (Virginia side). I think the narrative is starting to fall apart in the US. Could be overly optimistic but the energy feels different (very scientific I know).
I think people are done here. Nobody looks at NY, LA, SF, or DC and says “god they did it well”. Biden is well below 50% on COVID in polling here. I saw an article where Whitmer complained about the mandates. The masking rate is dropping quickly and boosters aren’t taking off.
I quit my job at a contractor due to my vax status and they gave me an exemption and begged me to stay. I took a job at a major tech company and told them I’m not getting the vax. They said no problem. I’m in a pretty fortunate career field as a software engineer and my experience isn’t the same as other people in different fields.
Trying to cause as much pain as I can for mandates.
I am also on the Virginia side of the river. I still see 70-90% of people wear masks in grocery stores (particularly Wegmans and Asian stores), but I never do. In Wegmans, with their mostly wealthier customers, people still distance in checkout lines, which I find extremely annoying. In bars, almost nobody wears a mask other than a tiny number of bar employees. For Murphy's in Old Town, the employees wearing masks are the ones servicing the outdoor tables, presumably to make the more fearful customers feel better (that's business). I never weared a mask in massage parlors after the state emergency ended, but the masseuses usually do, and if they want you to wear one they will put one on you. So I guess that is progress, as most people have realized that wearing a mask in a bar makes no sense whatsoever.
Vienna here. Husband and I never wear masks and are frequently the only people (esp in places like Whole Foods) who aren't. Our kids (8 & 12) seem to be the only ones un-shot among their peers. They think it's cool :) Really hoping the schools don't reinstate mask mandate if Youngkin gets rid of it, but not holding my breath.
I have kids in FCPS. Concerned that if FCPS imposed a vax mandate, Youngkin will say “oh well nothing I can do.” In which case I start home schooling. Have also been carefully watching the schools that have “vax clinics”. Have educated my kids that they don’t want or need the vax but am alert to the prospect that schools will try to bribe or trick kids into getting it. Interesting that at recent pediatric visit the doc asked if we wanted the vax but didn’t argue when I said kids under 18 don’t need it.
We have one in FCPS and one in private. I think FCPS is a lost cause, in that they will be quick to reimpose masks if Youngkin somehow gets them removed. Private school is tricky to read. I think if enough parents pushed them on it they wouldn't require masks. They like having the mandate as their excuse but I could see them not reinstating it themselves. Re vax: I don't think FCPS will mandate. We already declined one of the "mandatory" vaccines (HPV) and it was easy as could be. Esp with news coming out that Omicron may evade vax; what would be the point of mandating? Although that may give FCPS credit for a level of critical thinking they absolutely lack ;)
Youngkin said he won’t interfere with local school choices. My wife and I are thinking about leaving VA or moving outside the DC area. Still out here in Loudoun it’s better than Vienna.
I don't think Youngkin can get rid of it because it was imposed with an act of the General Assembly, and the State Senate is still controlled by Democrats. He might try not enforcing it, but he can't get rid of it.
That's good news, sort of. I figure all the politicos know this covid stuff is just a BIG BAG of FAILURE, but don't know how to back away from it. Perhaps the courts will save them.
The Democrats will probably dial the fear and panic up to 11 if a more virulent strain emerges - particularly if one evolves in the USA that gives them an excuse for domestic travel restrictions. Omicron is apparently a dud, so they can't push the fear too much right now.
We’re trying to go full nazi here in Germany but a couple of those American courts are making it awkward for our German government. European civilisation my ass.
I’ve been trashed many times by Europeans about how backwards the US is. When I was younger it bothered me. The older I get the more I love freedom loving “backwards” unsophisticated red neck hicks.
I've been making a similar point. The survival brain is ignited when we feel a threat, and is calmed when we feel "safe." Putting in place measures that exclude any group for safety reasons teaches the limbic system they are a threat--LITERALLY REWIRES THEIR BRAIN--and then keeping those measures in place affirms this. The brain thinks "Whew! I am only "safe" because the unv'd were not allowed to attend that event." It wires a phobia into the brain. (This is related to OCD, so it's the same thing.) What you need to do to REMEDY this phobia/limbic loop is NOT to indulge it, but to use exposure therapy, and reteach your brain what's safe. You attend "mixed" gatherings of v'd and unv'd people and "survive" them and your limbic system cools, and it unlearns that threat association. This is vital. That's why v passes are guaranteed to plant the idea in people's minds that v'd people are unsafe. Repeated experience confirms it. We must make a moral and factual argument against every institution or govt that's tempted to implement a v pass or people's brains will become entirely convinced that the unv'd are a threat (despite, of course, UK official stats showing that v'd ppl 40 to 59 have twice the infection rate as the unv'd).
my grand daughter is 6 and she is suffering from OCD from this pandemic. I observe from afar but she needs help. My daughter is working on this with the pediatrician. Who can you trust? I knew this germ phobia would develop. Remember only 10 years ago when companies were told not to make antibacterial hand soaps anymore because it was making the children antibiotic resistant? That went "out the window"
I am of the "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." school when it comes to children and germs. Such a shame your granddaughter has germ phobia because of the pandemic. Maybe you could do some plantings with her. Sort of a science experiment showing how bacteria helps plants grow. To show that bacteria (germs) are often beneficial. Just a thought.
Just a quick thought. Ritual is the means by which magick is worked. In its most powerful form other worldly beings are summoned and reality itself is altered. Initiates and adepts show loyalty both by how they dress and behaviors. The role of the High Priest commands this loyalty both by fear and reward.
I think perhaps the same psychology that drives those connections also drive the response to COVID especially concerning the trifecta you mention. That is very hard to break.
You are less secure on a dumb phone than on a de-Googled smartphone using encrypted chat protocols like Signal. And emails, regardless of the provider, are never safe, were never intended to be safe, will never be safe.
Smartphone or dumb, telcomms are collecting metadata as you make calls, texts, or ping your nearest cell towers. Your SMS are logged, perhaps forever, unencrypted and easily retrieved by interested parties. Depending on your threat model and concerns for privacy, ditching your smartphone might not have actually given you any useful advantage, sorry to say.
Me too. You should see how people's eyes pop when I share. Family has heard it all already so I figure why not make somebody else's life that much more interesting. The colorful part just bout always knocks them for a loop.
You ARE lucky. States like yours, and now the courts, are holding back the floodgates at the moment. I'm very thankful. Smart of you to ditch your smartphone. About six months before Snowden came out, I told someone in no uncertain terms not to email me with his ideas about what he'd "like do to with the heads of Monsanto," etc and another group member said I was being paranoid thinking the govt was reading our emails. Grateful for solidarity with many wise and clear-seeing people during this crisis.
That could all change in an instant if Biden gets an excuse to impose a federal COVID passport. For instance, if a new extremely virulent vaccine escaping strain emerged in Virginia, which is right near DC, he would order a severe crackdown and possibly suspension of Habeas and martial law just to preserve his own life. He would want to make sure that us Trump supporters would not be able to pass the virus to his staff or places they frequent.
"if"....? nah, even the original cov-virus strain has still not been isolated, so litterally no-one knows what they're talking about. remember also that Fauci was actively engaged in the manufacture of AIDS and following that, using poisonous protocols to "treat" it. sheesh, so many died as a result of that!
no smartphone here either (I'm smarter than my phone), so quite impossible to adhere to and/or comply with QR-codes and all the other idiocies they're trying to cook up.
Fighting a real lack of information we have concerning what is going on in other countries:
Wouldn't it be great if we could have mechanism with daily updates from dedicated, on the ground, honest people with journalism experience about what is going on in each country? MSM is so biased, I never know what is going on and I have to follow a variety some people on Telegram that post things they come across. Daily update examples, when should be succinct and in easy to read categories :
What is really going on with vaccine passports? Do they exist, they being enforced or not?
What is really going on at the land borders? Are there covid checks? Are they actually being enforced?
Are people protesting? Approximately how many? Where? Is there police brutality?
If I want to travel to a country? Testing/vaccines, quarantines?
Do I have to wear mask? Is it enforced, or are people ignoring it?
What is actually going on with testing? In hospitals?
Are there vaccine mandates? Are they working?
Are the politicians making any concessions, resigning, or are they becoming more hardline?
I'd also love to see updates from people who work in hospitals...what is really going on? Are the sick vaxxed or not? Are they seeing an increase of cardiac cases, autoimmune problems, cancers, or not? Are medical staff also brainwashed, or do they know better?
Funny, we were writing responses at the same time. I'm in healthcare (doctor). There are definitely sick (some very) people in the hospital. The public stories are always more alarmist. As for whether everyone's brainwashed, I would say it's hard to tell because of a general atmosphere of fear to dissent and very little conversation around the margins.
Also, I do think there are many docs (and other less basic academic-trained providers, eg. nurse practitioners) who, despite whatever knowledge they personally might have, tend to follow institutional and professional society guidelines. And I believe there has been institutional capture of many of these. At this point, the "mainstream" medical societies parrot the narrative.
Because my specialty is not one that would provide primary direction of very sick COVID patients, it is hard to have more than casual conversations re: therapeutics, efficacy, etc. Even so, I think any heterodoxy (e.g. discussing Ivermectin, FLCCC protocols, etc) is very hard to do where I am, even in a freedom-loving state.
FWIW there is pushback against vaccine mandates here, at least among non-doc staff (whom I perceive as more fearful of their jobs). Admin is centralized in a big blue city, but the state laws and court stays have provided a reprieve.
I have been in a similar situation, but am now excluded.
The medical staff are "True Believers" in vaccines, so calling the ClotShots "Vaccines" was a real winner. A few of my former colleagues had some idea of the mechanism of the PCR testing, 95% not. Totally unaware of the over 90% false positive rate when cranked over Ct40. One ER physician had some idea in the spring that Vitamin D was helpful.
The Licensing Authorities have threatened members with dismemberment if caught treating patients with effective early treatment, or questioning the narrative in public. The Admin VP physician with whom I had my exit interview last month had no idea how the PCR's worked, or that the hospitals' "Delta Wave" was "Vaxx" injury. I wrote him a nine page letter , with references, but have not received a reply.
And no understanding that having had Covid in the first wave, I was better protected and less contagious than his double-vaxxed acolytes and bimbocrats.
Amen, amen. You are a good person for writing that letter. It is interesting that medical autonomy can be fought not only by de-licensing, pharmacy pushback, "best practices" (a favorite of the nihilists for some time), but also just by simple opprobrium.
informative article by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons/AAPS concerning the financial incentives to adhere to (brutal) cov-protocols
Yes! Add are people able to get early treatment? I live in Germany and it is virtually non-existent. I've recently read articles that give the impression that monoclonal antibodies are new.
'early treatment' is both Ivermectin (tablets) and Hydroxychloroquine, which is easy to make (have tried it) and really quite enjoyable!
Take the rind (peel) of 2 or 3 lemons + 2 or 3 grapefruits, take the peel only. put these in a pot and cover it with 3 inches of water. put a glass lid on your pot if you have one, a metal one is fine if you don't.
Let it simmer for about 2 hours. Do not take the lid off untill it cools completely, as this will allow the quinine to escape in the steam. Let it cool (and scoop out the rinds) untill it's drinkable and sweeten it with honey or sugar for it's quite bitter. Actually it resembles bitter lemon (without the fizz!).
Take one tablespoon every few hours, discontinue when you feel better. GOOD LUCK
As to your other questions (sorry to not originally answer): Most of the really sick people with complications (some horrific) I see are not vaxxed AFAIK... hard to tell as not always obvious from chart and the presumption among colleagues is that they must not be. Seeing some younger people getting sicker, but generally overweight or with other diseases (demographics here). Seasonality as an issue.
I did hear about a sudden cardiac collapse in a young man (teen) a few weeks ago and only later thought to ask about COVID. I haven't closed the loop on that one since I wasn't in the primary chain it is harder to ask questions.
Interestingly, a beloved man in the community we left out West died suddenly. I heard that it was the day after his second shot, but only from a close contact, zero mention elsewhere... There is just such a filter on this.
I strongly agree. I've seen such a skewed or filtered view of places or things that I know personally (here in the US), that I wonder what's really going on. E.g. after a short spate of stories, mostly in conservative/heterodox outlets, I stopped seeing any mention of martial law in Australia.
Certainly, the filter and search bubbles work against us here. That is one reason this thread and community are so interesting.
I wonder if something like amateur radio would be helpful (HF), although that is not anonymous and might discourage honest discussion. There are efforts to create decentralized messaging platforms, mesh radio, etc, but I don't think any have taken off to my knowledge.
Curious if some of the more world-connected and tech savvy people here might have some thoughts how to get better info?
I believe news and information is so disorganized and chaotic because it is being controlled. There is not consistency because there is no real plan.
Everything needs to go through the filter. This is what happens when the power is at the top. Here in US it seems that most of it is none of our business
Update from Western Canada below...As always, so appreciate the content and dialogue here.
It feels like we are frogs in water that is about to boil. In many cases, we are the most, or one of the most, restricted countries in the world.
-Current case counts, per capita, and relative to history can be described as "low". What is missed by the population is that Canada had relatively low cases per capita all along. The media, continually compare them to previous highs and new records were achieved by some provinces in the fall which kicked of AGGRESSIVE campaigns the coerce folks to get vaccinated and to despise the unvaccinated.
-The anger/hatred directed towards the unvaccinated/anti-vaxers is palpable. The media has hammered on how the ICU's were filled with the unvaccinated etc. and it is now okay actively shame and discriminate against that group.
-And although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects individuals on medial and religious grounds from putting things into their body, this is being walked around routinely by the government (mandates) and companies.
-Living in British Columbia (BC), the West-most, and left-most province. It's our version of California. So the narrative is very strong #understatement, and there is NO coverage outside of "vaccines are great" in any form of mainstream media.
-Canada, which simply receives FDA recommendations, has approved vaccines to 5-year olds. Was one of the first countries to vaccinated down to 12 years old.
-As of Nov 30, in this province, 88% of 12+ population is double vax'd, 91% with at least one shot. 91%! So there aren't many people left who have yet to "do the right thing".
-In this province, we have a passport system in place. Outside of shopping, you need to scan a QR code to enter fitness facilities, cinemas, restaurants, etc. (Sidenote, the Federal government set aside $1 billion for passport systems across Canada to be developed...incentives!)
-Here, there is no way to test out. Getting a medical or religious exemption is essentially impossible. Vaccine or bust. In some provinces you can test out.
-We now have volunteers scanning passports (i.e. guarding the entrances) to see our kids play hockey and other sports.
-Here, participants, up to 20 years old, can play without a passport - thankful for that (in some provinces everyone 12 and over entering a facility need a passport or negative test). While I haven't been able to coach/watch my kids, at least they can play? That's good, right?!
-As a result, the unvaccinated here are basically treated like the newly "locked down" unvaccinated in Austria. The difference is that I can still buy shoes on top of groceries. Although, New Brunswick, an Eastern province just made it possible for grocery stores (who can't maintain physical distance) to bar those without a passport from shopping - for food.
-You can no longer fly or ride a train without proof of vaccination. This is a federal mandate. There is no way to test out. There are many stories of Canadians abroad who have been denied travel via flight back from countries even with negative tests. They are, in essence, homeless.
-The standard play book here is for federal and provincial authorities to release policy (vaccine mandate) which then has to be implemented by small business, associations, etc. So the dirty work is done by people to other people. More division and all in the name of safety.
-The play book also has a number of examples where mandates have been threatened and then on the day they go into effect to be delayed or cancelled altogether. Remarkably effective in getting hold-outs, who need to work, to submit.
-But officially there is no mandate for those not working for the government.
-Masking is mandatory indoors except when at a table at a restaurant on on a treadmill or if you are eating popcorn at a movie.
-In many places there are still restrictions on gatherings even for fully vaccinated. No more than two families.
-Ski hills, in a number of areas, have gone vaccine only. SKI HILLS! You can't go to the ski hill without a passport (in some cases you can test out). Some are still open to the unvaccinated but you can't access the lodge and in some cases the rental shop.
-Our federal government, aside from spending the most number of delegates to COP, is basically non-functional and has been for 1.5 years. And our Prime Minister is actively shaming the unvaccinated. Sowing the seeds of division within his own country.
And somewhat unfortunately, as indicated above, we have yet to see a true winter increase in cases. Our low density could be a factor however starting to see increased cases in vaccinated population.
Have had the opportunity to travel extensively and always had Canada as my favorite. Unfortunately this is no longer the case but where would I go right now?
There's more to say here but will leave it at that.
Hello Friend, Stay strong. I know these are difficult times, but try and last through the winter. Spring should see an easing of cases and (hopefully) a weakening of the mandates. I am in Oregon, just south of you, and it is also difficult, although far better in eastern and rural areas. I am also hand delivering graphs and data to elected officials; most of those lower down have no idea what the actual data says; my hometown newspaper ran a headline "Vaccine 100% effective for kids." Difficult to wade against that current. But have courage, these times will pass, and sanity will slowly return.
First, my apologies for the sloppy typing and grammar above. It was a very quick response.
Amazingly a few of you subscribed to my newsletter (which I accidentally set up). If you are still there and have interest, I am going to take that as a sign that perhaps it's time to say a bit more. ks2525.substack.com Be well.
I live in the US state of Ohio. Which is “red”, but the largest urban area (Cleveland) is as yankee blue as can be. So around here we see the highest levels of compliance with fauci-ism.
But still I know I don’t have it so bad. Masks are required in most indoor jobs. Customers aren’t required except in medical and govt offices. But smaller independent docs aren’t requiring them. I’m not confronted by anyone when I don’t wear one in public spaces. Most people don’t wear them outside. Indoors it’s 50/50
Vaccine use is high, but people seem to tolerate others choice. Very few mandates and the hospitals just backed off mandate implementation, so I think some if not all other private actors will also. Here’s hoping.
The governor of the state is useless and will be replaced next election, but anger isn’t too high even though most people agree that masks and vaccines aren’t working as promised.
I live in a conservative community that has high regard for authority and following rules. So people are pushing back, but still comply when told to mask. Our schools started the year mask optional, but they have this plan where masks become mandatory as certain criteria apply. So as cases went up in Sept, masks went on. When cases went down in Oct they came off. As cases went back up November masks came back.
The kids don’t seem to care either way, but they take them off when permitted. So it isn’t a brainwashing thing, it’s a they follow the rules and really don’t care. My kids tell me most of their friends have parents telling them masks don’t do anything. So people understand. I’ve had interactions with the super abd the school board. The board refuses to weigh in on the matter and the super is trying to placate the assholes. In some ways it’s admirable they have gone as far as they have. In another. I’m pissed that they know what is true and refuse to stand up for what’s right.
My kids just don’t want me to be “that dad”. So we’re at a compromise. I won’t wear masks in the schools EVER, and I won’t cause a scene or lecture the midwits who think masks work. I went to a parent teacher event where parents for all kids were there. Masks were mandated. I was literally the only person out of a few hundred without a mask. No one said a word. I go in all the time to pick up my kid who has a lot of medical issues, no mask. They don’t say a word.
All it takes are people willing to just not comply. Enough of us will make the rules followers realize it really isn’t a rule.
- non-vaccinated people cannot attend any cultural event or go to restaurants, not even with PCR test
- non-vaccinated employees need to test every week, any test suffices (paradoxically)
- the government limited pubs and clubs also for vaccinated by mandating closures after 22:00
- vaccinated still can test for covid, because it is paid by the health insurance but they do not have to quarantine if they test positive
- the government shut down Christmas markets (while not limiting any shopping centres, only you cannot eat in the food court)
- the outgoing government also planned vaccine mandate for some employee groups and the elderly...
It is a bizarre situation and the logic of the regulations eludes me. I am convinced that there is a group of the population that does not agree with the restrictions or does not comply but it is draining and somewhat sad when people are still defending these policies and don't see the danger of the divisiveness, distrust of authorities and overall hatefulness.
Eugyppius: As an academic struggling to publish I can empathise with wanting to make a difference. But there is a danger of being a one-topic kind of author. I would wait a little bit and build variety or experiment with other forms of content. If the day job is bearable, it is a reliable income. But then I am risk-averse and my dissent over vaccination (I had covid already and have still positive antibody count) is me learning not to be the nice girl who does what is said to her. I don't know what I would do if it would put me in danger of losing my job. Thank you for your writing.
Greetings from Prague. The logic is that they want to increase vaccination uptake. Period. It's not about virus suppression anymore, and it's only partially about virus mitigation (if they were interested in that, they'd be offering early treatment).
That's how bureaucracies work. They have some goal, such as "eliminate SARS‑CoV‑2." Then they come up with some method to do it, such as "vaccinate everyone." It then turns out that the method will not lead to the goal. Oops. So, abracadabra, the method becomes the goal! And now the bureaucracy has a workable goal to move toward. Now, if you fail to realize that the original goal has been abandoned and replaced by the method (now seen as a goal in its own right), then it's very difficult to see how any of it makes sense. But if you understand that this is what actually happened, then the internal bureaucratic logic becomes clear.
That's it exactly -- bureaucracies become obsessed with methods and metrics, and the idea of "does this thing we are doing actually work?" is never asked. Because the only time they go back to the original problem is when you try to get them to change the method. "You need to stop with these vax mandates -- they're causing more harm than good!' "Well then how else can we *stop covid?*"
As an example, I work in a bureaucracy and part of my job is to look through "the file" for alternative names and spellings of the applicant in order to put them in "the system" and look for "hits." ("Hits" are basically crimes or other "bad actions" that have been put into the database.) This made sense 20 years ago because we never used to do that and some very bad people "got approved" and we should have known about it.
So today we have very detailed procedures about how to look for the names, where to look for the names and how to enter the names into the database. The system was developed for a very primitive computer system that was easily confused and overwhelmed. Today's system is much more powerful and could find a chipmunk on Mt. Everest, but nonetheless, we have to be careful NOT TO PUT TOO MANY NAMES IN as it will CREATE TOO MUCH WORK. So, even if you know of a name that SHOULD should be put in the database, if it was found in the WRONG piece of paper, then don't enter it. But that really is irrelevant anyway because, I have yet to see, in 17 years, any hit that prevents approval. And I have tried. "But this person is a bad person! Look at these crimes!" "Not our problem." The entire process has become "finding and entering into the system only those names which were found in certain place and then ignore the result that the system gives you anyway" instead of the goal which was to prevent bad people from doing bad things.
So yes I despair of any of this covid madness ever going away -- at least not gradually. It takes a complete collapse for things to change.
In new Zealand the goal was "herd immunity" from vaccination, now that that's impossible the goal is "90% of the population vaccinated". Next goal will be 6 monthly boosters for as long as the pupation can bear and finally an annual COVID jab.
I wouldn't put it past the corporates to fake some bioterrorism thing and conjure up some new threats as the business model has proven successful.
Čau, pridaj sa k nám. Máme nové slobodné fórum (reddit-style) pre nezaočkovaných a všetkých ostatných odporcov "nového normálu" a koronafašizmu na Slovensku a v Čechách. S dôrazom na anonymitu a mimo dosahu Big Tech. Radi ťa tam uvidíme!
thanks for the advice, Aladel. i won't go full time right away. there's some targets I want to meet first, and I want to see how some of my non-Corona posting appeals to you and my other readers. I will try this over the Christmas holidays.
Right! When I tested positive for COVID back in October (this was in the Czech Republic), I got a call from some epidemiological something or other, and they said my unvaxxed (*only* unvaxxed) contacts would have to go into quarantine. (I don't know if anyone - other than me, that is - quarantined because of me and my COVID. I told them where I work, and that was it.) If the goal is to stop the spread, then this is quite laughable. But if the goal is to make life miserable for the unvaxxed, then sure, it makes sense. Pfizer must be really happy about all this.
Čau, pridaj sa k nám. Máme nové slobodné fórum (reddit-style) pre nezaočkovaných a všetkých ostatných odporcov "nového normálu" a koronafašizmu na Slovensku a v Čechách. S dôrazom na anonymitu a mimo dosahu Big Tech. Radi ťa tam uvidíme!
I post this for the mutual edification and mirth of all who need a really good laugh in the face of Government tyranny. It’s an old video meme gag, but it’s been updated to reflect the insanity (or is it stupidity?) that has currently infected New Zealand. The context is the recent lockdown of Auckland and the introduction of vax mandates… https://youtu.be/7azd_PtJNlM
And, I’ll comment first.
December and June are rife with day-job deadlines, so I’ll be a little quieter during these months. So far I’m a single-issue blogger, and I have reservations about leaving my academic position to post on Substack full time, but I’m also overwhelmed by the growth I’ve had here. At some point, if growth continues, I’ll likely begin to work for you full time.
This would enable me to post more openly about my field, as doxxing won’t matter as much anymore, and also maybe to try some more openly journalistic content (involving travel, perhaps interviews, etc.)
I understand your motivations. But I also see a certain danger if all the top-level dissenters are leaving the system. In recent days I have been involved in company-internal discussions regarding vaccination (some 150 German companies initiated a pro-vaxx campaign where they adapted their well-known slogans, and I am working for one of them). Interesting to observe who speaks up publicly, and who addresses me in private.
I thought about that too. Also, in principle I like my day job, but the unending home office rules and bureaucratic virus hysteria have drained a lot of the fun out of it, while all the tedious chores are still there. And psychologically, publishing books and articles as an academic for a few hundred readers will never be the same, now that I post multiple times a week to thousands and thousands.
I see. When I left academia 15 years ago, I had the idea of returning there at some point. But then I realized that I can go as deep (I do mathematics, statistics, programming) when working for a company, and all that linked to real-world problems and with real-world data available. I also boast about having co-authored a book that has only found a few hundrer readers and is yet in its third edition...
if you decide to take the move to full time blogger, then do not resign but rather wait, see and document what happens. Will be powerful
Here in the USA mandates are being blocked all over the place. I am in rural Georgia and you would not know there is something unusual but for a single mask wearer. I do not go out much but hear from others that restaurants etc are open as usual. Walmart was the last to drop the mask I think.
Georgia! I'll be going through there on my way from Vermont to Florida and back -- planning on avoiding Atlanta and going through Macon. I'm looking forward ti visiting normal places for awhile.
If you want to see/experience a sane city on your way down, veer off the 75 20 minutes and go to Chattanooga. It was sane even Memorial Day weekend of 2020. You'd never know craziness was going on in the world if you didn't look at any media.
I have no idea how the cities are coping. Even the smaller one near to where I live (16000 people) got into the craze, whereas the small place where I live, about 2600, did not. I think most are over the panic attack and going back to normal now.
Except here in Maryland, some Walmarts "require" masks depending on which county you're in. Absolute madness.
Eugyppius: you would be most welcome should you join the ranks of reformed journalists. Grow your brand independently from substack. They are tolerant, but only for now. Twitter delenda est.
Because I (and all other authors here) own the Substack subscriber email lists and can download them anytime, we're already fairly independent. It would be some administrative hassle with the subscriptions, but I could re-establish myself on another platform like Ghost and it would be a fairly seamless experience for my readers.
My days on Twitter are obviously limited, and my audience here is actually bigger now, so that's not too much of a concern. I'll still try maintain a presence, even on alts if I have to, as I get a lot of tips from followers there, and it does help to boost the numbers here a bit too.
Wow. You are still allowed on twitter? Fools!! lol.
LOL!!
I hope you won't make the jump prematurely. Canceling is somewhat self-extinguishing, and seems to be starting to fade.
I do not know you personally but I would advise you not to leave your position. I'd like to think it is beneficial to the dissident movement to have people that are fundamentally part of the intellectual elite / zoom class (and I say this with some sarcasm & cynicism)
Posting about the 'rona full time would perversely incentivize you to keep the pan-panic alive so you can continue to making a living by criticizing it. A lot of legacy media channels appear to have fallen into that trap; I hope you can avoid it.
ha don’t worry, not going to happen. before I went full-time, I’d develop a few other areas to post in. ideally, one historical (witchcraft and the history of magic is a long-running interest of mine), and one current evergreen issue (climate change is something I’ve thought of). but, I think also the overgrown pandemic response bureaucracy will now overreact to future flu seasons and so forth, so there may still be a wealth of related content here for years and years to come.
I don't think that making people aware of what egomaniacal politicians are doing, or presenting data that most news sources dutifully ignore, causes panic. Unless it's the panic of realizing what our "leaders" are really up to. Hopefully, that then leads to actions to corral those wannabe dictators.
That occured to me also. I really appreciate the work so many of the brave writers are doing to tear apart the COVID narrarive, but I do wonder if ultimately they perpetuate the matter .. a bit like Curtis Yarvin's 'Self licking ice cream'. Having said that, we are all gulity of it ..
I can appreciate the dilemma. A lot of inputs to the equation. Here, you have a following of what appear to be thoughtful people who are educated, if not formally, then at least by reality and experience. The Socratic Method of getting through a problem has been replaced societally by this crazy dogma of just accepting what someone says and never asking why? Makes me both crazy and sad. I am curious by nature, so I easily and naturally understood that method and try and use it in my life. Will this group follow you in other areas? I guess that is the big question, right?
I really enjoy reading your thoughts and conclusions. Your approach helps me with my own processing of all of this "stuff", some is just stupid and some is plain evil. I took me a few searches to finally figure out who Eugyppius was in history. Definitely a good choice. As for your other choices, here is something that I tried to get into my kids heads when they would still listen a little bit: "The only good you are on this Earth, is the good you are to other people. Otherwise, you are just breathing someone else's air." My best you.
Growing up a favorite story of my son's was "Riki Tiki Tavi" I think he really connected with the motto of "Run and find out!" Education should supplement that natural curiosity and desire of discovery not suppress it. That suppression is one reason people are infected with the lemming virus.
Amen to that.
Best of luck if you decide to do that!
One thing I keep hearing from friends who decided to go self-employed or start their own business is how liberating it is. Even those that had great difficulties (coming to think of it, all of them had great difficulties.) The sample is rather small, though - just 4.
How can I reach you via email? Reply to the substack subscription?
eugyppius-africanus@tutanota.com is best. you can also reply to substack email but as you might imagined that inbox is very chaotic.
This is a powerful question, not only for Eugyppius, but for other devotees and commenters. The dreaded FB has the"PM" function, so that personal issues can be sent out of the main threads. The Eugyppius community has some necessary anonymity, as noted, for political and employment safety. I can tell from some of the comments the location of the members, but there is no easy way to contact those in the same jurisdiction to organise personal meetings . The oncoming "Metaverse" is fine, but not likely to affect political reality in our necessary timeframe.
Wenn Doxx, dann lad ich dich auf ein Paar Weißwürscht ein
We must relentlessly Mock Coronamania.
https://markoshinskie8de.substack.com/p/mocking-coronamania
I am giving each of my nephews a Voltron action figure. Science (and all 7 year boys) know that it takes Voltron to defeat Omnicron. Can't make the family too safe.
Glad you found something to substitute for your academic work. I am also an academic, but luckily am on sabbatical this academic year, so I am temporarily exempt from my University's mandates. Unless things change, I will be forced out of my position . In that case, I have no clue what kind of work I could do.
Report from Tokyo, Japan:
- voluntary masking is as popular as ever
- Karen-ism is low
- some restaurants have acrylic panels up, some sheets. Customers move them out of the way. Staff don't care and sometimes assist
- there are discounts and some lame offers for the vaccinated at some businesses
- there are murmurs of vaxport implementation, but very quiet and the idea isn't popular
- overall the hype is down
- gov has acknowledged heart disease as. aside effect
- top voted comments on legacy media articles are generally done with this shit
- my current impression is that there is a conscious effort behind the scenes to suppress hysteria and quietly move away from all of it
- otherwise normal: no lockdowns, no legal Vax mandates (some defacto at some work places but they can be fought)
- praying it lasts
Also in Japan, down in Miyazaki. I have to wear a mask in class at elementary school. I don't wear a mask in any shops. I'm generally the only bare-face in there. 99% of people also sanitise hands when entering shops. At least I've never been confronted in any shop. I'm concerned that vax mandates will be brought in at the end of the school year (March 2022). Vax uptake in the elderly is really high but not so much in the younger generations. My wife got one shot back in March as she's a nurse. She hasn't been hassled to get a second and I've had a word since then and she understands the dangers now. None of my kids, all over 18, are getting it, including spouses. I can't see how they can bring in the vax passports but the government just needs to do it and everyone will comply and get their shot.
I did a more detailed post in October regarding this if anyone wants more info: https://pacificnarrations.substack.com/p/nzherald-republishes-the-aps-provax
I'm curious...do you have a sense as to how much Ivermectin is being used in Japan? I saw this is video of the Chairman of the Tokyo Medical Associate talking about Ivermectin in late August.
https://rumble.com/vlsvp6-tokyo-medical-association-chairman-praises-ivermectin.html?fbclid=IwAR23o5mA0wfd9rG_9nHqgQK3lGBBPqOTOjEMvkULugT31_Foxzv483y67uc
The Japan case curve dropped like a rock shortly after this press conference and has stayed low ever since even as South Korea and Vietnam have begun to rise.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/japan?country=JPN~VNM~KOR
It's still not a government-sanctioned protocol. Doctors will give it to you if you want it (I asked mine). Japan pretty much stopped testing, this is why there was a huge drop. I wrote an article in The Light Paper about this issue (November edition).
Still better than the US. Most doctors will not write for it and most pharmacies refuse to fill scrips for it if written for C19. I used a tele-health company and an online pharmacy and paid out of pocket.
Me too.
Are you able to provide a link or source document for Japanese government admitting heart disease is a side effect of the vax? Do they have stats? Would really appreciate getting hard figures on this. Keep up the good work. Best wishes, Kimberley
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211204_12/
Thank you. High quality stats!
Have heard that "IVM" was used there successfully, but can't find any data. Is this true, as far as you know? Thx.
See comment above. :)
Hi friends.
Current report from Auckland, NZ.
About to get fired from my job in a couple of months because of a vaccine mandate, that was implemented by my work voluntarily ( They werent covered under the government mandate, which covered healthcare workers, teachers, and hospitality.) I tried talking to the people who decided to implement this policy, I sent them studies about waning vaccine efficacy but all i got back was blank stares and fallacious arguments. I got my official notice today.
About 30% of people are still wearing masks outdoors. 100% compliance indoors. I dont wear one and get into frequent confrontations about it. 70% of people "scan in" to shops even though the government stopped updating their contact tracing site as they couldnt keep up.
Vaccine passports have been implemented, most stores have a sign outside that says theyre required. I havent gone into any stores with the sign on, as the idea of showing someone the app makes me feel physically ill, I cannot bring myself to do it. Fortunately my local coffee shop knows me and have not been asking about passports.
Our government continues to lie to us. They continue to push vaccination, mandates, and passports and will not update their thinking to the most recent evidence that the vaccines are useless at stopping transmission. Our media is a non stop barrage of Covid measure and vaccine propaganda. Our "reporters" are sycophants who never ask the government a single challenging question.
I am very concerned about our future. I see the signs of mass delusion, I see people who are angry and afraid, and I dont see it improving. When groups of deluded, angry, and afraid people get together they can do terrible things.
I have thought of moving to another country, but where would I go? It seems almost everywhere has been captured by the dystopian technocratic nightmare that is now our lives.
I am genuinely beginning to understand why people drop out of society. All those people who "go off-grid" to build cabins and live in communes and who are looked at slightly askance. Those are becoming my people. The sane ones. It started, for me, with the idea of a cell phone as an umbilicus. I have always fiercely resisted the concept. Even pre-covid. I resent - hugely - the expectation that I need to drag that dastardly thing around with me wherever I go. My family tell me that that is simply the way the world is going. That I must accept it. They blithely accept the encroachments on their freedom. The predatory opacity and presumptuous access that this whole "digitally connected" world brings. And worst of all, the sheer capacity for these devices to pulverise our ability to focus and think and rationalise. They are like pixelated candies to the digitally obese. An affront to everything that I hold dear.
Sorry to burst your bubble so to speak... I'm in New Zealand on a remote community and live in an off grid cabin. The pro-vax no-critical-thinking is strong out here.
About 50% follow blindly. 40% got the jab to avoid annoying the first 50% and the unjabbed are pariahs who are obviously anti-science and selfish. "Don't think about it - just get the damn vaccine" was literally said to me today.
There's no point arguing about original antigenetic SI , prion-like portions of the spike protein, bayesian inference and individualized risk profiles. They just look at me like I'm a madman.
Lots of people waking up on Facebook tho.
Lastest stats show 25% oppose the vaccine mandate so that's kinda reassuring and depressing at the same time.
14 deaths reported as possibly related to vaccination just for last week. No one seems to care.
Someone may have already mentioned this, but I recently saw our present times compared to the Brawndo scene in the movie Idiocracy. Idiocracy is a movie about a completely average guy named Joe who is put into hibernation, and when he wakes up he’s the smartest person in the dumbed-down world of the future. In the future, everybody now waters their plants with a drink called Brawndo, which is actually killing the plants. With logic and reason, Joe tries to convince them to use water instead. They respond by saying things like, “But Brawndo has what plants crave.” They simply cannot wrap their heads around the idea that water is better for plants than Brawndo. In the end, he needs to convince them that he is able to speak with plants, and that the plants tell him that they want water. Many people today simply cannot process words and phrases like "risk profile" and "spike protein" and "original antigenic sin." All they know is that you're challenging the idea that Brawndo has what plants crave. It's a little different today, because there are perfectly intelligent people whose minds simply cannot be penetrated by words that they have not heard on their TVs within the last week or two – preferably from Fauci (for Americans). I tried to discuss Sweden with someone, and I just cannot convince her that Sweden did not suffer from mass death. She DOES NOT CARE if I show her numbers, because only Brawndo can save us! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMHfBobgLSI
I've long held held that Idiocracy only got the timeline wrong.
That is depressing, indeed. So a cabin without neighbours, then.... I'm warming to it already.
I got thrown off of Facebook two months ago. I have not been "on" FB for over two years but somehow, I got the boot two months ago. Initially, I did not care
(they sent me an email notifying me about this "suspension")
When I tried to sign into my Instagram account, I realized I was also removed from that format!!! I was .... devastated. Why? because I was rather involved with sewing groups on there, and also many many artists. Instagram was a great way to show my daddy various artistic adventures and people that were inspiring. Then I got vaporized. My daddy is 98. He misses the instagram adventures. I cannot get my account back. I do not want to make a new account. I do not have time for that. The whole ordeal is disgusting!!
Get a new email, rejoin Instagram. It's just a trade between your time and your enjoyment of the groups. I'm not sure why these platforms think so much of themselves as arbiters. My FB account is for read only and one day the fake info will be discovered.
Oh boy, I'm already headfirst in there. Have been for a while. Not in his camps, but applying the principles little by little here at home. Just want to get out the city, though.
So glad I do not live in NZ. If you want to move somewhere, Mexico is pretty laxed. US - if you pick the right state (like Florida) is ok, although I can tell some stories about Florida too, which will change people's perception of the theater they are putting on (all the same mandates are there).
I have a rural property in Tennessee outside of Nashville. No problems there at all. Even when lockdowns were strict across the country not many people took it seriously there. The people take pride in being rebels. For the past year it's been totally normal life. Only about 15% of people wear masks indoors in shops etc. No one cares, do what you want, you're free to do as you please. I don't think I've ever seen a person wearing a mask outdoors there. People would probably laugh at them if they did. The state government recently threatened to disband the state medical board for trying to punish doctors for spreading "misinformation" so now doctors can work and speak without that threat.
I also live in Los Angeles for work and it's a nightmare, many unvaccinated people looking to get out, moving to red states. Vast majority of people seem to have lost their minds there. Almost 100% conformity, independent thinking went out the window. They call you a conspiracy theorist for questioning anything. Masks indoors are required and many wear them outdoors too. Many refuse to socialize with unvaccinated people. Vax passports required to enter many places. They can be paper so some are fake. The funny part is people I know who work in advertising, who literally help create propaganda messages for a living, can't see that what they're saying on TV is propaganda. They actually believe in the myths they create.
Rural places everywhere are like this, even in rural California. but I've been to TN many times and I have a hard time telling Chattanooga apart from Encino. Even in NW Florida, for example in Pensacola, they would not let me in to a restaurant without a mask, in Tampa they would not let me check into a hotel without a mask (while people were sitting 20 feet away from me on couches sipping drinks without masks), in Ft Lauderdale I was told to put on a mask to walk to my table in a restaurant.. I can go on... there WAS a slight difference between a place like Los Angeles and say Pensacola, last year, but not anymore. Everyone is wearing masks about the same rate. Although I'd say in Los Angeles people kind of look at your weird if you are not wearing one, and there are no such looks in Florida. Could be my imagination though.
The root of this problem is emergency powers of the state, counties and cities. EVERYONE (I mean politicians) seem to be missing the root cause, probably on purpose because they want to keep those powers. There simply need to be limits on Governors and other executives emergency powers. Law needs to say, it can only last x number of days (say 14) and cannot be extended without legislature, then legislators can come in and pass actual laws - that would be fair. What I have a problem with is no law has been passed anywhere for any of these insane measures, all executive authority, which executives in our system should never have in the first place. A state declares a state of emergency to get money from the feds, then most counties and cities have provisions in their laws that they can do state of emergency as long as the state has one and our rights start getting diluted by every little city mayor who now has power. I don't think this is fixed anywhere. If legislature passed a mask law, I would be fine with it - it's obviously would be the people's will, and I'd just move out of that jurisdiction, but 1 person determining my rights? Don't think so.
This is such an important observation, and what is happening everywhere. We have lost sight of this - the indefinite extension of emergency powers. This gives rise to petty tyrants everywhere, in the guise of bureaucrats devising whatever pandemic measures they see fit. This devolves slowly but surely down to HR and H&S officers in every business and institution. Then to gate keepers at entrances. Then finally into our communities and our very homes. Everyone now gets to have a slice of the power to condemn and withhold and banish. It is intoxicating, and many take to it with relish and righteous fervour. They don't fully understand what the end game is, but have a vague idea that these measures will somehow "end the pandemic" and are therefore warranted. The "pandemic" will never fully end, because it looks as though we are set to be on a continuous rolling boil of boosters, with people's "vaccine"-induced "immunity" waxing and waning at different rates. Until the whole world decides to get off this ridiculous train to nowhere, and allow this flu to run its course like every other flu since time immemorial, we will remain hostage. If we don't, then the only true pandemic that will have replaced it is a pandemic of tyranny and lost freedom.
I'm in East Tennessee in the US. Unless you're Mexican it's hard as hell to get into the country, but I cannot imagine my life elsewhere. We have land, freedom, guns, liquor, four wheelers, fishing, and a state government that's largely been doing the right thing on vaccine mandates. I highly, highly recommend it. I would be in a state of total despair if I didn't see the freedom that I enjoy here, contrasted against the tyranny of NYC or San Fran.
If anything saves America, I think it will be the red states. So far the judges are helping as well. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will do the right thing.
I wish I could emigrate to the states now! Happy for you guys!
Fly to Mexico and walk across the Rio Grande. If you get separated at the border, Brandon (our nickname for our glorious leader) will give you $450K to start your new life in America...so make sure you and your family members turn yourself into separate Border Control officers. :)
Seriously, we've literally had over million people come across the southern border since Biden assume the throne. We have no idea how many have been returned to their home countries or where Biden has flown them in the US. It's a clown show. If Central and South Americans can come illegally, I see no reason why Europeans, Aussies, and Kiwis can't as well.
We are just east of you in NC where we have a GOP legislature and a very blue Gov. The "big" cities are all blue, but the rural counties are all red. It's a purple mess. We can't impeach our governor, so we are stuck with him for quite a while. We love our beautiful state, but not sure it will ever go red again. I'm just about the only one not wearing a mask in stores, but so far I've not been stopped (the county mandate expired, but folks keep wearing them).
Another Aucklander here, so I feel your pain! Am optimistically hoping that the summer sun will disinfect the madness, although realistic enough to understand that cognitive dissonance is going to be a tough barrier for the 90+% jabbed.
Your crazy PM is the problem. She's downright psychotic.
I so want to visit NZ one day! Hope we will be able to.
Hello,
Also here in Auckland and am feeling disoriented with all the media bombardment. The dishonesty around numbers in hospital and ICU and not delineating between someone being in hospital *because of Covid vs happenstance *having Covid while being there for a broken arm: is extremely frustrating. It's leading to mass hyperventilizing and hypochondriacs.
I got the vax (and passport) so I could go visit my family back in the States. Am now in a similar situation to other commentors here: wondering which country is having a remotely sane response to this and whether I should move again. 107 days of L4 lockdown does not equate to any semblance of quality of life, and we're seemingly one variant away from doing it all over again because of the hyperfocusing on case numbers instead of outcomes.
Appreciate your writeup, all the best.
I am in Auckland as well. I cannot believe how this country has changed. I came back in 2012 to a free exciting vibrant country. It now has a virtual Berlin wall around it. I got vaccinated as I believed the coolaid but now wish I hadn't. Vaccine passports are dividing the country immensely. Local Maoris have been allowed by the government to establish roadblocks leading to Northland. Thanks for an immensely logical and powerful blog..I feel very unsure of the future. Its not going back to normal I fear.
Same here, man. The gaslighting has been off the charts. It's like we can't even see what's happening in Europe with the vaccine failures.
They tell us 2 + 2 = 5 and if you end up with 4, you're a stupid anti-vax denier who isn't doing his part to keep everyone safe.
The one thing I'm holding onto right now is knowing that everyone's going to get sick sometime in the fall, and it will be very hard for even our Lugenpresse to hang on to the lie once that happens.
Trying to point to waning vaccine efficacy and the skyrocketing cases even in highly vaccinated countries makes you feel like a madman. Nobody wants to listen, nobody cares. The arguments for our policies are based on a mountain of lies.
I imagine how you must feel! Hold the line and do not give up to this madness.
Sane states in the US are maybe the best option. I was in the UK in September and actually it was fine - nobody really was wearing masks in public transport or shops. People did not seem to care. Wonderful. Here and there some fully masked human being - typically young girls ... not sure why. Was just two weeks but felt alright.
If you sell a property in New Zealand you probably can retire in Mexico or south east Europe. Such rules never ever have made it long term there - nobody cares, bureaucracy is to lame and corrupt to enforce it and people mistrust politicians deeply.
Really I think we should start helping each other in the real world, not just giving verbal comfort in an anonymous forums. With eastern Europe - i can help!
Another kiwi here, I got out of the city and bought an off-grid lifestyle block up north, but the government is hurtling towards dictatorship and I want to get the hell out. I've been puzzling over where I can move to. Have a British passport, so that's a possibility. Considered Mexico but heard it's not the safest place in the world (in terms of people danger, not virus danger). What areas of Eastern Europe to you recommend? I have plenty of funds, any golden visas on offer?
I am from Bulgaria. I find it pretty safe - typically spend almost 2 Months each year there. A lot of EU and GB expats live in Bulgaria because of the cheap real estate and decent climate. In rural areas you can buy a nice houses for 30-40k. labour is cheap so you can also build one or order a tiny house if it is your thing (https://koleliba.com/). Of course you can also rent sth. There are literally villages with 'large' english speaking communities living there. You have cool mountains and the black sea shore. It's not the pacific though ... .
Biggest risk in Bulgaria is that it is in the EU so any EU wide mandate will be an issue. But in the rural areas nobody bothers to wear masks and the vaccine uptake is as low as 30%. Even if they introduce some mandates the fine would be tiny compared to a western-standard income.
Permanent visa for Bulgaria shouldn't be an issue at all with a British passport. Especially if you show enough money to support yourself.
With British passport you may as well go to the US, right? Pick some nice red state and be safe!
I visited UK this September and really found it pretty relaxed compared to Germany.
F*** sake, just read the news that Germany is f****d, aka the general vaccine mandate is coming, so I will be moving too for sure. It will be UK or Bulgaria, but maybe rather Bulgaria because of Brexit and me not having a British passport. It's much harder with family ... they want to stay. Those nasty politicians are tearing us apart.
Bulgaria sounds promising. British passport isn't much help for the US. I worked in NYC many years ago on an H1B1 visa using my British passport, but the visa was hard and expensive to get, and the green card process was also expensive and required my company to sponsor me. I didn't bother with the green card in the end, as I left the US a few months after 9/11. It's only in the last few weeks the US (well Florida and Texas) has looked appealing once again! UK is unfortunately introducing vaccine passports, a massive step backwards. And yep, very worrying to hear about Austria and now possibly Germany. I'm sure our NZ prime minister will do mandatory vaccines in a heartbeat if she thinks she can get away with it. Thanks for your comments and best of luck with your decision.
I am moving from NZ to Turkey in January. It is easy to get a one year permit with any western passport, very low cost of living in Ankara, you can investigate other options nearby from there.
If Florida appeals to you the house next to mine may well be up for sale soon. We are on the coast about 50 miles north of WPB.
Greece is also e really cool place. Again you may hear they introduced mandatory vaccines for the above 60Y old folks but the fine for not getting the jab is small and again, I do not think they will push too hard on enforcing it.
I am on Waiheke Island. A fabulous place to live but it has gone full woke so I am self locked down at home. I fear for the future of this wonderful country.
Same here but I haven't even noticed lockdown. Though I must admit entering the supermarket without a mask is like walking into a meerkat exhibition. Men on tiptoes heads swivel towards me a d angry alarmed chittering like they just saw a snake.
Also see this link:
https://www.travelinglifestyle.net/countries-open-for-unvaccinated-tourists/
Air NZ will require full vaccination for international travel from 1 February 2022:
https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/covid19-international-travel#vaccination
Dumb question, what do you mean by "IA guinea pigs"?
Thinking of heading to UK mid-January, flights from Auckland around $1,000 one-way on Air NZ.
The UK has just introduced vax passports, but they're pretty relaxed compared to NZ's. UK seems very liberal in general compared with the rest of Europe at the mo.
Hi Bridget, sailing to the Seychelles sounds awesome, but what would you do about a visa for staying there long-term? Mexico has a golden visa for US$100,000 I think. Costa Rica is another possibility. And I was under the impression that airlines still allow the vaccine-free to fly, as long as you present a negative test before flying...or am I wrong about that?
It must be very disheartening. I know it's not much but I am sorry you are faced with such a total barrage of lemming think. It occurs to me that one big reason so many countries are in position just like or close to NZ's is as a culture we have lost the true God and have filled that void with the gods of paper. By which I mean those who have some sort of paper proving their knowledge and ability to direct the lives of others. Only answers that come from those in a position of authority are valid. The new heretics are those who question this. The apostates are those with paper who dare preach a different Gospel. I don't know when it will end. I do know that a world wide "Come to Jesus" moment is long over due.
glimmers of optimism: a 'song' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJAMua8J_94
and fabulous Australian politician Pauline Hanson's channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulineHansonsPleaseExplain/videos
enjoy, be well!
There are reports today in NZ (and even a video of a parent on Telegram and his son) that "pop up" vaccination busses are turning up to schools, such as Bethlehem and Hawera, and kids being told that it's vaccination time - no parental consent or anything. EVen some reports of kids being offered $50 a jab. It's unconscionable. It has to stop.
Two pupils at Bethlehem College suffered heart attacks. Both the school community and the hospital staff treating them were told to shut up lest they cause a panic. How's that for self preservation? F'ing pussies
It won't stop unless the sheeple on NZ make it stop.
Hey buddy. I could have written your post. If you ever down in Tauranga hit me up.
Stay strong - this will pass.
Won't pass soon without a push-back
I'm a US citizen.
I am optimistic the the US will lead the West out of this. It will probably be another half year. I credit federalism, where individual states have the most legal power over our lives. We have Florida and Texas, big populous states that are done with Covidism. We now see the judicial branch pushing back, remembering that our 200+ yr old constitution was written for times like these. Biden's vaxx mandates are vanishing.
Masking is resurging, but piecemeal, and the uptake of booster shots is weak.
The citizens are well armed. Our police are not nationally centralized. Only urban centers have sufficient numbers of police to enforce health mandates, which they are loath to do.
I pray the the omicron variant and its successors will be mild, contagious, and sterilizing. The trump card in this stupid game.
I am hopeful and grateful that I live in such a big country where there is such diversity in opinion and culture.
VeryVer, you and I live in the same state, I think. I love Vermont and my neighbors are great people. Our state government is stupid, however. This fact is countered by the echoing sound of gunfire in the hills. Deer hunting season is over, but the point was made. LOL
Lol this describes my blue state, also....a stupid governor, liberal cities, and the rural areas full of gun-toting common-sense folk. Thank God.
Yes, I'm in Addison County which is pretty much live and live here -- except for the Middlebury College influence. Thank God for the farmers! Vermont's motto of "Freedom and Unity" always strikes me as hilarious and contradictory. Well, which one do you want, freedom or unity?
Yes Big E the US will take the lead again. There are armies of vaccine-injured whose experiences can’t be denied. Those that survive will want justice. First it will be at the ballot box. Then Big Pharma and their corporate media conspirators. I see a brave new world where health freedom is defined by prevention of disease, not the management of disease. This shift will destroy the current Big Pharma model of sick care and its corrupting influence on society. However, we must first suffer the consequences of bad decisions as formerly benign conditions wipe out broad swatches of our population.
You've given me hope. I might have to move out of Pennsylvania, very difficult given my family situation, but I see/agree with your points and it helped tip the scales in my mind away from the doom and gloom side I was leaning towards.
I'm in Vermont and wonder every day if I should just move South. I've taken two trips to Florida and South Carolina in the last year and I am going again to Florida soon for two weeks. It helps so much to just get out on the road (no airports) and see all the normal people who honestly don't give a sh$t about this disease or the the government horse it rode in on. I honestly have found Penn refreshing (at least in the boonies where we travel.) It's only the cities that really push this craziness.
Even here in deep blue California things are pretty much normal once you get out of the major cities. My small rural Northern California town has been mostly normal since mid 2020. Our county basically ignored Newsom‘s mandates. You may have even seen this in the news LOL. Definitely a rural versus urban phenomenon.
Very much so. I've seen this all over the country. Even in "red" states -- pockets like Asheville or Chatannoga.
I have noticed this as well. I work in the city of Sacramento, in poor areas you never see mask etc. everyone is normal. But just a mile away in the more upscale areas is masks everywhere and people are being belligerent about you not wearing one. It’s like a different planet
sounds just like Northern Virginia.
We moved to the boonies of Loudoun County 24 years ago. It was very conservative and deeply red back then. We had a delightfully olde timey Virginia out here, and low population. Over the past 12 years, this county has somehow... turned blue-ish and the population has soared. There are a lot of mask wearing kids, teenagers, people driving cars with masks on, biking alone with masks, outside in general with mask on, it is nuts. Obnoxiously so
Hmm.. it would appear that bullying people into your position seems to work. So.. what if we start mocking people wearing masks? Will they suddenly switch sides?
Asking for a friend.... :-)
In my little Vermont town it's the same -- the "Food Co-Op" is all masks and panic and across the street the Regular Store is totally normal. And never the twain shall meet. lol
I live in Los Angeles County. My teenage son says that the boys and young men he knows completely reject the measures as stupid and useless. But he says the girls love the rules and at school were always reminding him, “Your mask isn’t covering your nose.” My sense is that some of these girls feel empowered to be enforcers of the rules. He played travel sports last season, and teams routinely had half a dozen boys get covid along with their parents, all at the same time. None of us followed any of the rules, because you simply cannot participate in travel sports and truly follow the covid measures. Some parents just didn’t let their kids play sports, but among those that did, there was widespread derision among the boys over the measures. At school, the first time a single kid got covid, those who were vaccinated taunted the ones who weren’t, even though the one unvaccinated boy who did get sick at that time basically ended up with the equivalent of the flu. But apparently the taunting was quite strong.
Also, in terms of blue California, we have a security camera out front, and several times people have been walking their dogs or just walking alone very early in the morning, with nobody around, and they’re wearing masks. I also see people driving in their cars with masks. And if there are people around, it is extremely common for many to wear masks outside. So on a street corner where a small group is waiting for the light to change, sometimes all of them are wearing masks.
I deeply love Vermont (except for the government and the libs) and I think you would feel very much at home in East Tennessee. Way lower taxes. Beautiful scenery. Lots of countryside. Good people.
We did like E. Tenn a lot as we drove through-- I always try to get off the interstates. It was beautiful and friendly. The coal country of W.Virginia nad Kentucky was phenomenal. A lot depends on how far the covid mania goes here in Vermont and the other states -- will I lose my job if I don't get the jabs? And if I do, where can I find another job? Will anyone in Vermont hire me after I tell them I as fired for being unvaccinated? I'm just stuck in limbo-land for now.
I think you can soundly count on the worst decisions being made by blue states and the best protections coming from red states, as a general rule. I don't even say that on a partisan basis, if the Republicans want to have any meaningful political future this is the fight they have to take up. DeSantis is leading that path forward and it's making the difference.
Yeah, DeSantis has been amazing. I hope he pans out. And ultimately, he's just doing simple, obvious stuff and telling the truth. Which states do you think are the most likely to stay red? I worry about places like Texas/Wyoming/Montana/Arizona etc. Even Florida. I'm thinking the deep red states that liberals are "scared" of, like Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, S.Carolina, Tenn and West Virginia.
I was in Vermont earlier this year to do a workshop at Yestermorrow (they teach carpentry, how to build your own home, etc) and I thought it would be full of free-spirited people (both in the state in general and at the workshop since it's a supposedly hippie school) but it was super uptight. The only time I ever had to take a PCR test was to go there. They practiced medical apartheid with unvaccinated people needing to wear masks outdoors as well as indoors (vaxxed just indoors). I was the only unvaxxed person, so that was just me. There was a lot of shaming and judgement from the admin, instructors and other students. When people found out I live in Tennessee many stopped talking to me altogether, pretty much openly judging me to be an uneducated moron (I actually have 3 masters degrees). It was really awful. I left halfway through because the classes weren't good enough to make it worth putting up with the bigotry.
Well at least the fear of you being a COVID infested moron keeps them from asking what you think of paved roads. I like to brag about having a mailbox post made completely of car parts (and not a single one a furrin one), and an electric icebox.
Sounds like the Wooden Boat School in Maine. Vaxxed only allowed.
One of my hub's someday dreams was to go there. By the way I have a whole slew of Wooden Boat magazine if you know of anyone interested.
Oh wow, I know just what you mean. That sounds like an awful experience. The liberals here are very unfriendly if you don’t 100% agree with them. I know about Yestermorrow. There’s a weird feeling over there in Warren/Waitsfield. Very uptight “Eco fascists” I guess you’d say. They just this week voted for indoor mandatory mask rules again! A lot of people here are refugees from big cities and this is sort of their church/therapy. They don’t actually like the farmers and real people who live here.
Doesn't it just kill you that these people move there knowing full well it is populated with farmers and real folk? They remind me of people who build near train tracks then complain there are trains!
I am in Florida. Please do not let it get out that you saw normal people round these parts. Which I will heatedly deny even under oath. Not that you are wrong it's just that I like to get in and out of Publix under an hour. Which can't happen if there are people doing people things.
We are also quite used to being told FLEEEEEEEE DOOOM IS UPON YOU. Sometimes it's red tide. Sometimes it's killer algae. Sometimes it's a storm of the century. Sometimes it's brain eating amoeba. We all know there is really no reason to panic unless Jim Cantore. If it was COVID-CANTORE, that would make us get in line for every booster.
Yep. When you look at the 2020 election map and the entire country is red except for the little blue dots that run the place....how is this possible? I'm wondering now if the "Dem Cities" is even a myth and they just cook the books better there.
Those little blue dots have most of the people.
I think how corrupt they are depends on how long a voter has been dead for, don't you?
Yes -- taken at face value the 2020 election showed 75 million "reds" and 81 million "blues" so the red/blue difference it's not an 80/20 sort of thing, regardless. But the way the blue team is handling things, they often act like the red team doesn't exist at all, and doesn't deserve a say in anything. It certainly breeds a lot of resentment. But this is the problem with Democracy -- should only the most populous areas get a say? And they have tried to cure this problem by having a Senate and an electoral college. But over time, areas that feel unrepresented will eventually desire to break away and form their own republics. Which could happen here, eventually. We are a young nation after all.
I am in Oregon. It is terrible here. The governor just released us from outdoor mask mandates. The most important issue for me is the likelihood of mandatory vaccination for students to attend school. I know they are actively writing legislation for this in preparation for our upcoming legislative session in January. The same is true in Washington State, progressive legislators are writing proposed bills for mandatory student vaccination. I have three children in public schools and cannot afford private school. In Oregon the Democrats have a super-majority in both the State Senate and State House of Representatives, so this bill is likely to pass.
It must be very frustrating. It would be great to see a parent initiated boycott coming if vaccinations are mandated. Those FTE are a district's life blood. I am so grateful that I am in Florida and that my own children are quite grown. I still have concerns for my grandchildren regarding school policies. Some school boards just do not understand parental choice.
Your optimism gives me hope! I live in NY State, where Covidism is almost a religion in some circles. Here's hoping you are correct about the eventual end to this lunacy.
My kind of place -- is it Oklahoma?
Josh Hawley is a very strong senator. When he grilled the head of DOJ about the school board letter I was yelling (in a good way) at the telescreen
One thing that must change is that statutes, ordinances, regulations regarding emergency declarations re public health must have a time limit of how long they are active before a legislative body must act upon them. Either extending or ending them. Even then a limit should be established after which the decision is put before the voters.
From Portugal here... this is one of the most vaccinated places on earth, we have 87% of the population fully vaxxed and the covid delusion continues. Everybody keeps wearing masks outdoors. The "covid certificate" is required to eat at restaurants, go to gyms and stay in hotels, among other things. The media is hopeless, totally bought and controlled by the fascist govt. This week they began recommending the vaxx for kids aged 5-11, and the technical document that supposedly served as the basis for that decision is not being published... like it's some kind of state secret...
Everybody keeps buying the mainstream narrative, everybody keeps staring at the TV and happily complying. Nobody questions what is going on, there is no resistance whatsoever. It is true this country has a certain history of big government intervention and compliance, that probably stems from the time of the dictatorship between 1933-1974... But it is still appalling that only a tiny minority has seen what is truly going on. As you can imagine we are constantly blasted as crackpot "conspiracy idiots" and covid deniers...
these reports are great. maybe i compile them into a separate post.
Recommending the jabs to kids is the biggest sham ever. According to official DGPI (German Association of Pediatric infectiology) you have ZERO deaths of covid in healthy kids between 5 and 18 in Germany, up until end of May 2021. ZERO! So recommending a vaccine that potentially causes harm to prevent them from getting infected, even assumed the vaccines would protect them, is outright criminal.
If we cannot wake up people with this then it is all lost. Angry Moms could bring an end to all this.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.30.21267048v1
Good article. I have been recommending Kostoff, RN et al.: doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.08.010
A few weeks ago, to us Germans, Portugal was presented as role model. If we only had Portugal's vaccination rate! Then we would not have to enforce such strict measures! Now that Portugal has overtaken at least four Bundesländer in terms of infection rates, those voices seem to have fallen silent.
Oh, but they do love to cling to the "but it stops hospitalisations and death" argument. That is their last grand stand. And they cannot, will not see the sleight-of-hand. How the argument for mandates as a public health measure ("stop spread") has been deftly swopped out to forcibly adopt it as a personal health measure ("stop illness/death"). And no one bats an eyelid. The personal has become the public, and vice versa. No distinction between the two.
I still remember this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/world/europe/portugal-vaccination-rate.html
So, who are they trying to find with these vaccine passports restrictions that is not vaccinated yet?
I find it increasingly irritating that people continue to brand this Bolshevik/ Communist takeover of the world, as "Fascist". The Fascists came into being to fight off the Bolshevik takeover of Europe, the two are arch enemies. Stop saying 'fascist' when you mean NWO/ Globalist/ Communist/ Bolshevik/ Satanist.
Just like Hitler's public health programme was for free medical assistance, to build a healthy work force that pays taxes, instead of the flea-ridden cripples bred by the Bolsheviks and their capitalist piggies as subsistence slaves.
Stop repeating the Bolshevik propaganda, it is racist and blood libel against the enemies of Bolsh, in other words everybody but the Bolsh High Command. Call them what they are, despicable misanthrope genocidal maniacs who wrote all your school history books, so their lies became part of your world view.
Fraudci is NOT Mengele. Mengele's careful research notes were the standard in genetics for decades, and only 'eye witness accounts' , no lab notes, attest to his evilness. Fraudci has repeatedly been caught torturing and killing anything from dogs and babies to HIV+ soldiers, yet his contribution to actual science is.... ??? Remdesivir? Covid?? Face nappies giving toddlers bacterial pneumonia? Triple-masking? What a friggin' genius!
"History is propaganda written by the victor". Take care who you accept as your overlords of Truth.
As Hitler once said, "Good Communists make good Nazis." Facism and Communism are both totalitarian ideologies that use the same methods. There really isn't that much difference between them other than the finer details of how society is organized, and who the "enemy" is.
IMHO, Communism is just Fascism by committee.
Great point. But I might add that "totalitarianism" (or authoritarianism) is not an ideology. It's a natural feature of collectivism, which is an ideology. Nobody demonizes a football team or military unit because it's "totalitarian". We like to use the most insulting and bombastic language when describing our opponent, but it isn't helpful in understanding what we're up against. An ideology is something born out of our spirit that we give a name to, offering hope of a better future and a sense of virtue.
I would love to see where you pulled that Hitler 'quote' from, please supply reference?
P.S. Please rinse your reference in disinfectant first, I don't want to touch your E. coli.
I remember it from high school class on WWII, back in the 1970s.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini
Facism is a more accurate description of today's affairs than communism whether you like it or not. And if I had to live under either system, I would prefer communism over fascism as communism mostly rots the body, whereas fascism (globo-homo corporatism) apparently rots the brain.
China is still formally "Communist", but is in practice Fascist. Islamic rule in places like Iran is similar. Totalitarian tyrannies are pretty much all the same, Some may work better economically, and China is very automated and efficient, but tyranny is tyranny. I think one of the motivating factors for the new tyrants is automating their tyranny they way China has. Thus all the emphasis on COVID passes that use the cell phone as a required device.
the term 'fascist' includes the term 'brown shirts', the 'wir haben es nicht gewüsst'-majority of ordinary folks, who allowed the propaganda to take over. Brain-washed and oppressed they snitched on their neightbours, Stasi-style. State-sponsored violence comes under many names, let's just recognise for the tyranny that it is.
I challenge the notion of "ordinary folks" being brain-washed and oppressed and somehow drawn into fascism. The common goal of far-left and far-right humanists is to absolve the basic human being of responsibility for horrific crimes against humanity, thus restoring their hope of a secular utopia. (right or left). I suspect these "ordinary folks" had a more willing and active role than people like to believe.
Whatever you call it, it's a collectivist uprising. In this case, humanist universal collectivism. Fascist seems to fit the best for lack of a better comparison. We need to invent some new words.
What has become of "tyranny" and "tyrants"? All you need is old words.
Those words are no longer useful. They're counterproductive in an honest debate.
Neo-feudal. Driven by the ownership class.
Ayn Rand described these systems as "Statist" , as opposed to her concept of "Egoism" , a personal value system incorporating libertarianism.
Her propaganda minister, in "Atlas Shrugged", was titled the "Morale Conditioner", a concept I have always appreciated.
And at the same time restaurants and pastelarias are packed and streets in Lisbon packed to the brim with locals (Christmas market) and tourists... Nobody has asked me for green pass in a restaurant, but hotels seem to be enforcing it (was turned away twice already).
Last year, a Portuguese court sentenced the PCR test to death (figuratively speaking). Surely the vaxxpass is unconstitutional?
Thanks, I like the updates from other parts of the world.
My favorite is "Walmart is still closed at 11" - not only is this a very keen observation, it also kind of tells everyone everything you ever needed to know about this "pandemic", if they just tried to use their brand. Does covid start spreading more at 1am? nope. Do walmart workers actually disinfect or clean anything hence they need that night time? Nope - they don't clean shit (more theater). The reason Walmart did this is because they probably always wanted to, probably because it's more profitable to close vs stay open and they just needed the excuse. This is how EVERYTHING works with this pandemic. COVID-19 is mainly an excuse to finally do what corporations and governments always wanted to do.
I don't want to boast or anything, but I knew this "pandemic" was a crock of shit from day 1. Mainly because unlink most midwits, I had some basic knowledge of viruses (and why doctors prescribing antibiotics to treat the flue was always idiotic). Of course these days everyone is a specialist on viruses and vaccines :) As my wife was wiping groceries with clorox wipes in Feb 2020 I was literally laughing at her on my way to the airport... (don't worry people, I have finally got her to see the light a few months later). The one thing I do miss about the pandemic theater are the half empty planes from back in Spring 2020. Again all you need know you can gleam from flights (so many obvious signs). When the "pandemic" started, planes were still packed, around April empty, then back to normal, packed like sardines in the summer - everyone was pretty much over the fear at that point obviously - even though we still have to keep those chin diapers on between sips of water (the theater). So on some level I think most people know it's theater, but want to play along just to fit in. That is our biggest hurdle as humans, to be able to live without conforming. It's tough.
Enormously good points. A lot of the theatre at the level of government is stuff bureaucrats always wanted to do anyway. Now nobody employed in the vast public sector, from swimming pool lifeguards to librarians to people in the tax office, actually has to go to the office anymore. A lot of municipal services operate at a very minimal level thousands and thousands of state employees get paid to do basically zero. A lot of the internal, bureaucratic pressure for lockdowns in Germany vanished, when the various branches of state government started formalising home office rules.
Exactly this. When will the "teleworkers" just be outsourced or replaced by computers? I used to work in an office doing government stuff -- it was stupid of course, but at least I had a place to go and an opportunity to wear real shoes. Then they forced us all to go home, and it looks like we will never go back. They even closed one of the office buildings. I hate working at home as I spent my whole life previously trying to get out of the house, go to college, get a job, be out in the world -- if I wanted to sit at home all the time I would've skipped that entire process and just stayed home on a sofa smoking pot.
The work itself, which involves applying meaningless and contradictory bureaucratic rules to piles and piles of paper, has been streamlined and largely "gone digital" so that we no longer have actual papers on which to stamp "approved" or "denied," we longer print things out to "put in the file" etc. etc. But also, what little oversight there was has vanished, and all the knowledge and the experienced required to do the job "correctly" seems to superfluous. It's so much faster and easier to do it badly. If they could only get the computers to "talk" to each other I know we would all be replaced in a heartbeat. I am just the interface between stove-pipesd computer systems.
I work for the NHS in IT and all I hear is how busy everyone is and what a great job we’re doing, yet over the past 2 years, i have on many an occasions spoken to the 2 line manager’s I’ve had in that time about how I haven’t got enough work to do and can I have some more please. I’ve even spoken to their managers about it and nothing has happene, no one has ever particularly given me any extra to do
Likewise now working from home and miss the fact that I actually worked in a big team and had a lot of good relations with my colleagues. Am finding now I’m at home, work can be a good reason to get out of the house, It’s OK not being busy when you’re in a big office. Now spend half the day sitting at my desk sharpening pencils waiting for an automated alert which takes me 30 seconds to resolve, or on the off chance my manager calls to check that I still haven’t got enough to be getting on with.
I often wonder how many more folk there are out there in my situation who just keep their mouths shut. I could quite easily have done so and given the impression I was busier than I was, or just worked slower and messed around on the internet more on work time. I kind of thought that the first time I said anything they’d just give me more work to do and that would be the end of it, but in the small world of office politics, I kind of feel I’m speaking a bit out of turn
Hello friend! I totally understand. My daily "work" takes approximately an hour. Maybe. The rest of the time I literally have nothing to do. But I'm still at "150% production" so that means I should do EVEN LESS! I've tried to do more, but it just causes trouble and you basically get punished because they look over your work more for mistakes. It's ridiculous. When I was in an office instead of at home, you do a lot more work -- talking to people, training new people, etc. Work at home is infantilizing. I don't even know what clothes to wear "outside" anymore. There's a great book called "Bullshit Jobs" by the anthropologist David Graeber which really encapsulates this whole thing. The author's thesis is that it's very hard for people with an actually honest work ethic to adapt to the "aristocratic" ideal that success is doing nothing.
well stated!
They love it, until they realize it's cheaper to pay someone in the third world to work from home than it is to pay a local.
He, he, I remember when they were desperate to convince people how safe it was to fly: it was the safest thing ever due to ventilation (or whatever). And then vaccines came along and now in many countries you can't fly without vaccine (*and* negative test in some cases).
And in the end, all we got was even further reduced service on the plane -- on a 4hr flight you barely get one cup of water.
Guess what - I got covid on a flight, I am sure of it. And I would bet my last dollar, that contrary to the propaganda, by what must be the greatest airline industry lobbyists ever, most spread happens on planes (and other public transportation). I mean where else are you locked in with a bunch of random people for hours? And PLEASE don't insult my intelligence by telling me that when some person 2 seats down sneezes or coughs, those viruses that came through his mask on the sides (or right through the mask, or just from his "maskless" while he is eating peanuts) somehow goes through the ventilation system before it gets to me. It makes zero sense and anyone who believes that you are not breathing in all the viruses from the person next to you (mask or no mask), I got a bridge to sell you.
Don't get me wrong, I was actually HAPPY I finally got covid (this was Jan 2021). I was flying at least once a month all over the country in 2020 and never got it, and kept waiting on when I was finally going to get it. The symptoms were so mild, I wasn't really sure if I had it, until I got an antibody test a few weeks later. And no, I was not vaccinated. And I abhor the face diapers, which of course I was forced to wear on the plane if I wanted to get somewhere - so guess what, the mask didn't work and long metal tubes with hundreds of people in them from all over the world are not virus free. Reality check.
Did you drink that water they gave you?
I apologize for the dumb typos :)
i really wish we had an edit button for comments.
I saw a woman pushing the button on pedestrian crossing with her elbow today. So I cycled over and said that viruses were rubbish and she told me to 'fuck off'.
So I think it must have been theater for others. She looked like she'd just done her shift at Salvation Army but cussed more army than salvation.
Nothing will ever replace that one on one human communication. A virus can't change that.
Unfortunately, I didn't see the "pandemic" for what it was from day 1. I'm a big fan of Michael Chrichton's books which probably contributed to my early concerns of a possible deadly pathogen sweeping the globe. I was 100% convinced that "2 weeks to flatten the curve" was reasonable based on the information that was coming out and I could understand not wanting to overwhelm hospitals. I didn't call bullshit until the temporary Covid hospitals were never used and the mask theatre began. I could never get over the idea that homemade masks were going to stop this "deadly" virus.
From personal experience, I've always been skeptical of government and industries that spend a lot of money lobbying Washington. Luckily, that was enough to pull me out of my hypnosis. However, it is tough to live without conforming......
there are quite a few businesses closing at 9PM on the dot. Here in Northern Virginia, 35 miles west of the cesspool, many chain stores are closing at 9PM due to lack of staff. No one wants a job anymore. High school kids would rather play with their phones or games. The immigrants of all sorts are here. They get the free housing, and food and provisions. They might have a job if they have a skill and can understand some english or spanish. Mostly, the stores are closing early to handle the irregularities of supplies, and most certainly employees.
My daddy lives at Ashby Ponds (google it, in No Va) and they are a massive independent living community, very expensive, very privately owned. 2000 people live there! Staff is a big problem. At this point, daddy has been there for 7 years now, the dedicated employees are still there.
Country wide, I think everyone wants more pay. Inflation is horrible. Yesterday I spent $180 on groceries for hubbs and myself. I did not even buy much.
Where I live, Walmart closes at 10 PM. May be the time zone...
You miss out on a great source of entertainment.
I had the observation early on that a lot of what businesses did was stuff they wanted to do anyway and just needed an excuse. The move by businesses to go cashless (electronic payments only) is something they wanted to do anyway for security, accounting, or financial reasons. A small number of Virginia wineries did this. Not because of COVID of course, but because an electronic transaction always gives the customer a tip screen after their transaction, but wineries never ask for tips when you pay in cash. And stores don't have to worry about employees taking cash when there isn't any to take.
With Square and other suppliers of payment platforms it's a cinch for an employee to get their own payment machine and then just swap theirs out for yours when you're not there.
They could, but it wouldn't interface to your menu/order system. Also, most of the employees at food trucks and wineries wouldn't know how to do this without getting caught, and it would be traceable by law enforcement.
Traceable only if you decide to trace it.
I have noticed this, too, and a number of other "great re-sets" that businesses have been happy to incorporate to save them money and time. Also to create fewer messes to clean up, fewer employees to hire. Some have closed dining rooms to utilize only drive through or carry out, etc. A couple of new restaurant businesses going in have no indoor dining! Everyone! No more menus to print up. Use your smart phone to read menus now! Even straws and napkins are becoming scarce. Put Lord, think of all the styrofoam!!!
My only comment is that of gratitude to Eugyppius and this community. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and thoughts on the madness. I feel a lot less "alone." I'm an American living in Germany.
From Frankfurt, once Germany's global village. Shops empty, those that are bothering to open are all 2G except for the few basic exceptions like supermarkets and pharmacies, which the unclean still have access to (for now). Masks enforced everywhere, except in the local ethnic Späti (kiosk). Doctors have signs reassuring terrified patients that all their staff have had the wax but remember to keep your distance and wear a mask.
After a year of almost weekly, chaotic rule changes, no one has a damn clue what they are any more. The reaction from Germany's most small-c conservative corner is predictable - withdrawal into shell. This is aided by Frankfurt having a relatively high proportion of houses as opposed to apartments, by comparison to other German cities. Cometh a vaccine mandate I could, depending on how it is enforced, quite easily hole up for a couple of years with deliveries, and occasional trips to the local Turkish-run grocers, that are unlikely to ever turn paying customers away whatever pressure the government puts on the behemoths that run the supermarkets.
It is difficult to imagine how the German bureaucracy could manage to implement a mandate. Rumours of its ruthless efficiency are greatly exaggerated. Waiting times to do simple things like get documents can run into months. Unless they come up with some particularly evil plan to turn employers into vaccine police or such, the narrative will have fallen by the time it catches up with everyone. Some of us will have paid our fine at the last option having rejected and appealed and refused and with the cops at the door offering a choice of card reader or handcuffs. Anything to snarl the system up will help.
Protests are small but growing, hampered by the banning of the unclean from the (reliable but limited) public transport, and rather bizarre choices of locations, access to which can be easily hampered by the police. They are always accompanied by Merkel's black-clad street thugs (Antifa) looking on with their expensive cameras, even more expensive telephoto lenses, and balaclavas.
Test stations seem quiet but that may be because tests are in short supply. No idea how the daily 3G (waxed, recovered <6 months, or daily test) is being enforced, some employers probably turning a blind eye, others not.
The remains of the "Christmas market" in one of our run down and almost deserted malls is a solitary stand with "Amazing Offers in Winter Maskland". The neighbouring apple wine stall has 30 empty tables. At one sits a sozzled old gran, mask around her chin, halfway through her morning cup of booze.
A once great place to live is fallen, but most of them are. If we thought Merkel was bad, the new psycho looks like he will be even worse. The ancient Chinese curse, that we may live in interesting times, is only just beginning.
Also in the area. Planning to head to the UK beginning of next year. It's not perfect but feasible now and people seem to have way more respect for personal freedoms. The shitshow in Germany is hilarious - the authorities feel entitled to prescribe me, as unvaccinated, how many people am I allowed to invite in my own house??? WTF
I really see no better action now as to leave and deprive them of my labour and tax money.
I think, in Germany there are two options left to wake them up without a wave of crumbling narrative coming from abroad:
1. Germans must realize how closely are they repeating the 1930's playbook. Just replace 'unvaccinated' with 'jews'. This message maybe has some power to wake them up
2. Angry parents which are not happy with bureaucrats mandating clot-shots on their kids
The problem with the UK is we seem recently to have taken a turn in the wrong direction - implementation of vaccine passports this week, and incredibly, the threat from the prime minister of the need for a national 'debate' about mandatory vaccinations.
1. does not work here. The holocaust is sacred, and every attempt at comparison of anything to it (that was a lot of prepositions, presumably some wrong) will be shouted down as trivialization. 2. might work but will require (really horrible thing to say) some dead kids.
This depends on who you are. If you are on the left you can shout "Nazi" at anyone, everyone, all day long, and that's just fine. If you want to point out some parallels between today and Nazi Germany long before the holocaust, well, you are not allowed to do that until we end up in a place at least as bad as the holocaust.
1) .....while recognising the brain-washed vaxx'd as the former nazi brown shirts.
I gather the "papers" the Nazis wanted were called a 'Gesundheitspass' (Health pass). That might wake them up.
There is quite an upsetting video of the Bavarian state police taking down Dr. Andreas Noack from Nov., 2020. I found it on Truth11.com or Inside Papers. He was found dead last month shortly after his Graphene hydroxide video.
Dr. Noack's findings - https://www.bitchute.com/video/EmNrg9nNA1fZ/
his death - https://www.bitchute.com/video/WDz1vBH6YPWH/
Does anyone know if the spectroscopy done in Spain cited by Noak as evidence of graphene hydroxide is being actively promoted elsewhere? Maybe the German lawyer suing the WHO would like to know.
I am in the area as well. We are right between Mainz and Marburg, the two towns that will get shitloads of tax money from Biontech.
From The greater Washington DC region (Virginia side). I think the narrative is starting to fall apart in the US. Could be overly optimistic but the energy feels different (very scientific I know).
I think people are done here. Nobody looks at NY, LA, SF, or DC and says “god they did it well”. Biden is well below 50% on COVID in polling here. I saw an article where Whitmer complained about the mandates. The masking rate is dropping quickly and boosters aren’t taking off.
I quit my job at a contractor due to my vax status and they gave me an exemption and begged me to stay. I took a job at a major tech company and told them I’m not getting the vax. They said no problem. I’m in a pretty fortunate career field as a software engineer and my experience isn’t the same as other people in different fields.
Trying to cause as much pain as I can for mandates.
Hold strong everyone!
I am also on the Virginia side of the river. I still see 70-90% of people wear masks in grocery stores (particularly Wegmans and Asian stores), but I never do. In Wegmans, with their mostly wealthier customers, people still distance in checkout lines, which I find extremely annoying. In bars, almost nobody wears a mask other than a tiny number of bar employees. For Murphy's in Old Town, the employees wearing masks are the ones servicing the outdoor tables, presumably to make the more fearful customers feel better (that's business). I never weared a mask in massage parlors after the state emergency ended, but the masseuses usually do, and if they want you to wear one they will put one on you. So I guess that is progress, as most people have realized that wearing a mask in a bar makes no sense whatsoever.
I’m a little further out then you I’m guessing. In deeper it’s much worse. I’m out around Dulles.
Vienna here. Husband and I never wear masks and are frequently the only people (esp in places like Whole Foods) who aren't. Our kids (8 & 12) seem to be the only ones un-shot among their peers. They think it's cool :) Really hoping the schools don't reinstate mask mandate if Youngkin gets rid of it, but not holding my breath.
I have kids in FCPS. Concerned that if FCPS imposed a vax mandate, Youngkin will say “oh well nothing I can do.” In which case I start home schooling. Have also been carefully watching the schools that have “vax clinics”. Have educated my kids that they don’t want or need the vax but am alert to the prospect that schools will try to bribe or trick kids into getting it. Interesting that at recent pediatric visit the doc asked if we wanted the vax but didn’t argue when I said kids under 18 don’t need it.
We have one in FCPS and one in private. I think FCPS is a lost cause, in that they will be quick to reimpose masks if Youngkin somehow gets them removed. Private school is tricky to read. I think if enough parents pushed them on it they wouldn't require masks. They like having the mandate as their excuse but I could see them not reinstating it themselves. Re vax: I don't think FCPS will mandate. We already declined one of the "mandatory" vaccines (HPV) and it was easy as could be. Esp with news coming out that Omicron may evade vax; what would be the point of mandating? Although that may give FCPS credit for a level of critical thinking they absolutely lack ;)
Youngkin said he won’t interfere with local school choices. My wife and I are thinking about leaving VA or moving outside the DC area. Still out here in Loudoun it’s better than Vienna.
I don't think Youngkin can get rid of it because it was imposed with an act of the General Assembly, and the State Senate is still controlled by Democrats. He might try not enforcing it, but he can't get rid of it.
I thought it was an executive order from Northam that required masks in all K-12 schools, even private. No?
I’m pretty sure repubs won’t it
That's good news, sort of. I figure all the politicos know this covid stuff is just a BIG BAG of FAILURE, but don't know how to back away from it. Perhaps the courts will save them.
Science changes with the poll numbers… who could have guessed
The Democrats will probably dial the fear and panic up to 11 if a more virulent strain emerges - particularly if one evolves in the USA that gives them an excuse for domestic travel restrictions. Omicron is apparently a dud, so they can't push the fear too much right now.
she's up for re-election.
All those pesky little corpses in care homes perhaps? Second only to Cuomo-care, if I am right?
Election coming up next year. Who could have guessed.
We’re trying to go full nazi here in Germany but a couple of those American courts are making it awkward for our German government. European civilisation my ass.
I’ve been trashed many times by Europeans about how backwards the US is. When I was younger it bothered me. The older I get the more I love freedom loving “backwards” unsophisticated red neck hicks.
I've been making a similar point. The survival brain is ignited when we feel a threat, and is calmed when we feel "safe." Putting in place measures that exclude any group for safety reasons teaches the limbic system they are a threat--LITERALLY REWIRES THEIR BRAIN--and then keeping those measures in place affirms this. The brain thinks "Whew! I am only "safe" because the unv'd were not allowed to attend that event." It wires a phobia into the brain. (This is related to OCD, so it's the same thing.) What you need to do to REMEDY this phobia/limbic loop is NOT to indulge it, but to use exposure therapy, and reteach your brain what's safe. You attend "mixed" gatherings of v'd and unv'd people and "survive" them and your limbic system cools, and it unlearns that threat association. This is vital. That's why v passes are guaranteed to plant the idea in people's minds that v'd people are unsafe. Repeated experience confirms it. We must make a moral and factual argument against every institution or govt that's tempted to implement a v pass or people's brains will become entirely convinced that the unv'd are a threat (despite, of course, UK official stats showing that v'd ppl 40 to 59 have twice the infection rate as the unv'd).
That is very interesting and useful info, explains a lot, thank you for posting it!
my grand daughter is 6 and she is suffering from OCD from this pandemic. I observe from afar but she needs help. My daughter is working on this with the pediatrician. Who can you trust? I knew this germ phobia would develop. Remember only 10 years ago when companies were told not to make antibacterial hand soaps anymore because it was making the children antibiotic resistant? That went "out the window"
I am of the "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." school when it comes to children and germs. Such a shame your granddaughter has germ phobia because of the pandemic. Maybe you could do some plantings with her. Sort of a science experiment showing how bacteria helps plants grow. To show that bacteria (germs) are often beneficial. Just a thought.
Now, even that ridiculous Febreez spray can be procured in antibacterial form!
Just a quick thought. Ritual is the means by which magick is worked. In its most powerful form other worldly beings are summoned and reality itself is altered. Initiates and adepts show loyalty both by how they dress and behaviors. The role of the High Priest commands this loyalty both by fear and reward.
I think perhaps the same psychology that drives those connections also drive the response to COVID especially concerning the trifecta you mention. That is very hard to break.
You are less secure on a dumb phone than on a de-Googled smartphone using encrypted chat protocols like Signal. And emails, regardless of the provider, are never safe, were never intended to be safe, will never be safe.
Smartphone or dumb, telcomms are collecting metadata as you make calls, texts, or ping your nearest cell towers. Your SMS are logged, perhaps forever, unencrypted and easily retrieved by interested parties. Depending on your threat model and concerns for privacy, ditching your smartphone might not have actually given you any useful advantage, sorry to say.
Oh ok then no worries. My signal chats are a little more uhh colorful than that...
Me too. You should see how people's eyes pop when I share. Family has heard it all already so I figure why not make somebody else's life that much more interesting. The colorful part just bout always knocks them for a loop.
You ARE lucky. States like yours, and now the courts, are holding back the floodgates at the moment. I'm very thankful. Smart of you to ditch your smartphone. About six months before Snowden came out, I told someone in no uncertain terms not to email me with his ideas about what he'd "like do to with the heads of Monsanto," etc and another group member said I was being paranoid thinking the govt was reading our emails. Grateful for solidarity with many wise and clear-seeing people during this crisis.
That could all change in an instant if Biden gets an excuse to impose a federal COVID passport. For instance, if a new extremely virulent vaccine escaping strain emerged in Virginia, which is right near DC, he would order a severe crackdown and possibly suspension of Habeas and martial law just to preserve his own life. He would want to make sure that us Trump supporters would not be able to pass the virus to his staff or places they frequent.
"if"....? nah, even the original cov-virus strain has still not been isolated, so litterally no-one knows what they're talking about. remember also that Fauci was actively engaged in the manufacture of AIDS and following that, using poisonous protocols to "treat" it. sheesh, so many died as a result of that!
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/catherine-austin-fitts-rfk-jr-the-real-anthony-fauci/
Yes, we are far from out of the woods yet. Gotta keep at it...
no smartphone here either (I'm smarter than my phone), so quite impossible to adhere to and/or comply with QR-codes and all the other idiocies they're trying to cook up.
Fighting a real lack of information we have concerning what is going on in other countries:
Wouldn't it be great if we could have mechanism with daily updates from dedicated, on the ground, honest people with journalism experience about what is going on in each country? MSM is so biased, I never know what is going on and I have to follow a variety some people on Telegram that post things they come across. Daily update examples, when should be succinct and in easy to read categories :
What is really going on with vaccine passports? Do they exist, they being enforced or not?
What is really going on at the land borders? Are there covid checks? Are they actually being enforced?
Are people protesting? Approximately how many? Where? Is there police brutality?
If I want to travel to a country? Testing/vaccines, quarantines?
Do I have to wear mask? Is it enforced, or are people ignoring it?
What is actually going on with testing? In hospitals?
Are there vaccine mandates? Are they working?
Are the politicians making any concessions, resigning, or are they becoming more hardline?
I'd also love to see updates from people who work in hospitals...what is really going on? Are the sick vaxxed or not? Are they seeing an increase of cardiac cases, autoimmune problems, cancers, or not? Are medical staff also brainwashed, or do they know better?
Funny, we were writing responses at the same time. I'm in healthcare (doctor). There are definitely sick (some very) people in the hospital. The public stories are always more alarmist. As for whether everyone's brainwashed, I would say it's hard to tell because of a general atmosphere of fear to dissent and very little conversation around the margins.
Also, I do think there are many docs (and other less basic academic-trained providers, eg. nurse practitioners) who, despite whatever knowledge they personally might have, tend to follow institutional and professional society guidelines. And I believe there has been institutional capture of many of these. At this point, the "mainstream" medical societies parrot the narrative.
Because my specialty is not one that would provide primary direction of very sick COVID patients, it is hard to have more than casual conversations re: therapeutics, efficacy, etc. Even so, I think any heterodoxy (e.g. discussing Ivermectin, FLCCC protocols, etc) is very hard to do where I am, even in a freedom-loving state.
FWIW there is pushback against vaccine mandates here, at least among non-doc staff (whom I perceive as more fearful of their jobs). Admin is centralized in a big blue city, but the state laws and court stays have provided a reprieve.
HTH!
I have been in a similar situation, but am now excluded.
The medical staff are "True Believers" in vaccines, so calling the ClotShots "Vaccines" was a real winner. A few of my former colleagues had some idea of the mechanism of the PCR testing, 95% not. Totally unaware of the over 90% false positive rate when cranked over Ct40. One ER physician had some idea in the spring that Vitamin D was helpful.
The Licensing Authorities have threatened members with dismemberment if caught treating patients with effective early treatment, or questioning the narrative in public. The Admin VP physician with whom I had my exit interview last month had no idea how the PCR's worked, or that the hospitals' "Delta Wave" was "Vaxx" injury. I wrote him a nine page letter , with references, but have not received a reply.
And no understanding that having had Covid in the first wave, I was better protected and less contagious than his double-vaxxed acolytes and bimbocrats.
Amen, amen. You are a good person for writing that letter. It is interesting that medical autonomy can be fought not only by de-licensing, pharmacy pushback, "best practices" (a favorite of the nihilists for some time), but also just by simple opprobrium.
informative article by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons/AAPS concerning the financial incentives to adhere to (brutal) cov-protocols
https://aapsonline.org/bidens-bounty-on-your-life-hospitals-incentive-payments-for-covid-19/
Thanks for posting this. Great article, I am reading it now.
Yes! Add are people able to get early treatment? I live in Germany and it is virtually non-existent. I've recently read articles that give the impression that monoclonal antibodies are new.
'early treatment' is both Ivermectin (tablets) and Hydroxychloroquine, which is easy to make (have tried it) and really quite enjoyable!
Take the rind (peel) of 2 or 3 lemons + 2 or 3 grapefruits, take the peel only. put these in a pot and cover it with 3 inches of water. put a glass lid on your pot if you have one, a metal one is fine if you don't.
Let it simmer for about 2 hours. Do not take the lid off untill it cools completely, as this will allow the quinine to escape in the steam. Let it cool (and scoop out the rinds) untill it's drinkable and sweeten it with honey or sugar for it's quite bitter. Actually it resembles bitter lemon (without the fizz!).
Take one tablespoon every few hours, discontinue when you feel better. GOOD LUCK
https://www.empowerglobalgroup.com/docs/Home%20Recipe%20for%20Hydroxychloroquine.pdf
Thank you for your response!
As to your other questions (sorry to not originally answer): Most of the really sick people with complications (some horrific) I see are not vaxxed AFAIK... hard to tell as not always obvious from chart and the presumption among colleagues is that they must not be. Seeing some younger people getting sicker, but generally overweight or with other diseases (demographics here). Seasonality as an issue.
I did hear about a sudden cardiac collapse in a young man (teen) a few weeks ago and only later thought to ask about COVID. I haven't closed the loop on that one since I wasn't in the primary chain it is harder to ask questions.
Interestingly, a beloved man in the community we left out West died suddenly. I heard that it was the day after his second shot, but only from a close contact, zero mention elsewhere... There is just such a filter on this.
Thank you for more info. Yes, exactly, so much filtering of information is in place.
I strongly agree. I've seen such a skewed or filtered view of places or things that I know personally (here in the US), that I wonder what's really going on. E.g. after a short spate of stories, mostly in conservative/heterodox outlets, I stopped seeing any mention of martial law in Australia.
Certainly, the filter and search bubbles work against us here. That is one reason this thread and community are so interesting.
I wonder if something like amateur radio would be helpful (HF), although that is not anonymous and might discourage honest discussion. There are efforts to create decentralized messaging platforms, mesh radio, etc, but I don't think any have taken off to my knowledge.
Curious if some of the more world-connected and tech savvy people here might have some thoughts how to get better info?
I believe news and information is so disorganized and chaotic because it is being controlled. There is not consistency because there is no real plan.
Everything needs to go through the filter. This is what happens when the power is at the top. Here in US it seems that most of it is none of our business
and no one cares.
wait a minute. ... there are those that do, right?
Update from Western Canada below...As always, so appreciate the content and dialogue here.
It feels like we are frogs in water that is about to boil. In many cases, we are the most, or one of the most, restricted countries in the world.
-Current case counts, per capita, and relative to history can be described as "low". What is missed by the population is that Canada had relatively low cases per capita all along. The media, continually compare them to previous highs and new records were achieved by some provinces in the fall which kicked of AGGRESSIVE campaigns the coerce folks to get vaccinated and to despise the unvaccinated.
-The anger/hatred directed towards the unvaccinated/anti-vaxers is palpable. The media has hammered on how the ICU's were filled with the unvaccinated etc. and it is now okay actively shame and discriminate against that group.
-And although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects individuals on medial and religious grounds from putting things into their body, this is being walked around routinely by the government (mandates) and companies.
-Living in British Columbia (BC), the West-most, and left-most province. It's our version of California. So the narrative is very strong #understatement, and there is NO coverage outside of "vaccines are great" in any form of mainstream media.
-Canada, which simply receives FDA recommendations, has approved vaccines to 5-year olds. Was one of the first countries to vaccinated down to 12 years old.
-As of Nov 30, in this province, 88% of 12+ population is double vax'd, 91% with at least one shot. 91%! So there aren't many people left who have yet to "do the right thing".
-In this province, we have a passport system in place. Outside of shopping, you need to scan a QR code to enter fitness facilities, cinemas, restaurants, etc. (Sidenote, the Federal government set aside $1 billion for passport systems across Canada to be developed...incentives!)
-Here, there is no way to test out. Getting a medical or religious exemption is essentially impossible. Vaccine or bust. In some provinces you can test out.
-We now have volunteers scanning passports (i.e. guarding the entrances) to see our kids play hockey and other sports.
-Here, participants, up to 20 years old, can play without a passport - thankful for that (in some provinces everyone 12 and over entering a facility need a passport or negative test). While I haven't been able to coach/watch my kids, at least they can play? That's good, right?!
-As a result, the unvaccinated here are basically treated like the newly "locked down" unvaccinated in Austria. The difference is that I can still buy shoes on top of groceries. Although, New Brunswick, an Eastern province just made it possible for grocery stores (who can't maintain physical distance) to bar those without a passport from shopping - for food.
-You can no longer fly or ride a train without proof of vaccination. This is a federal mandate. There is no way to test out. There are many stories of Canadians abroad who have been denied travel via flight back from countries even with negative tests. They are, in essence, homeless.
-The standard play book here is for federal and provincial authorities to release policy (vaccine mandate) which then has to be implemented by small business, associations, etc. So the dirty work is done by people to other people. More division and all in the name of safety.
-The play book also has a number of examples where mandates have been threatened and then on the day they go into effect to be delayed or cancelled altogether. Remarkably effective in getting hold-outs, who need to work, to submit.
-But officially there is no mandate for those not working for the government.
-Masking is mandatory indoors except when at a table at a restaurant on on a treadmill or if you are eating popcorn at a movie.
-In many places there are still restrictions on gatherings even for fully vaccinated. No more than two families.
-Ski hills, in a number of areas, have gone vaccine only. SKI HILLS! You can't go to the ski hill without a passport (in some cases you can test out). Some are still open to the unvaccinated but you can't access the lodge and in some cases the rental shop.
-Our federal government, aside from spending the most number of delegates to COP, is basically non-functional and has been for 1.5 years. And our Prime Minister is actively shaming the unvaccinated. Sowing the seeds of division within his own country.
And somewhat unfortunately, as indicated above, we have yet to see a true winter increase in cases. Our low density could be a factor however starting to see increased cases in vaccinated population.
Perhaps the only way for parts of the country to wake up is if they see, first hand and similar to other countries, how the vaccinated are anything but immune. Provincial summary http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/COVID_sitrep/2021-12-02-Data_Summary.pdf
Have had the opportunity to travel extensively and always had Canada as my favorite. Unfortunately this is no longer the case but where would I go right now?
There's more to say here but will leave it at that.
Be well everyone.
Hello Friend, Stay strong. I know these are difficult times, but try and last through the winter. Spring should see an easing of cases and (hopefully) a weakening of the mandates. I am in Oregon, just south of you, and it is also difficult, although far better in eastern and rural areas. I am also hand delivering graphs and data to elected officials; most of those lower down have no idea what the actual data says; my hometown newspaper ran a headline "Vaccine 100% effective for kids." Difficult to wade against that current. But have courage, these times will pass, and sanity will slowly return.
Thanks for the well wishes. That is our intent...to hold the line.
First, my apologies for the sloppy typing and grammar above. It was a very quick response.
Amazingly a few of you subscribed to my newsletter (which I accidentally set up). If you are still there and have interest, I am going to take that as a sign that perhaps it's time to say a bit more. ks2525.substack.com Be well.
New Zealand on the same trajectory if not worse.
I live in the US state of Ohio. Which is “red”, but the largest urban area (Cleveland) is as yankee blue as can be. So around here we see the highest levels of compliance with fauci-ism.
But still I know I don’t have it so bad. Masks are required in most indoor jobs. Customers aren’t required except in medical and govt offices. But smaller independent docs aren’t requiring them. I’m not confronted by anyone when I don’t wear one in public spaces. Most people don’t wear them outside. Indoors it’s 50/50
Vaccine use is high, but people seem to tolerate others choice. Very few mandates and the hospitals just backed off mandate implementation, so I think some if not all other private actors will also. Here’s hoping.
The governor of the state is useless and will be replaced next election, but anger isn’t too high even though most people agree that masks and vaccines aren’t working as promised.
No talk about passports yet.
I know it could be much worse
But do the k-12 have to wear face diapers? Sadly, I bet they do and that is one of the worst crimes of all.
I live in a conservative community that has high regard for authority and following rules. So people are pushing back, but still comply when told to mask. Our schools started the year mask optional, but they have this plan where masks become mandatory as certain criteria apply. So as cases went up in Sept, masks went on. When cases went down in Oct they came off. As cases went back up November masks came back.
The kids don’t seem to care either way, but they take them off when permitted. So it isn’t a brainwashing thing, it’s a they follow the rules and really don’t care. My kids tell me most of their friends have parents telling them masks don’t do anything. So people understand. I’ve had interactions with the super abd the school board. The board refuses to weigh in on the matter and the super is trying to placate the assholes. In some ways it’s admirable they have gone as far as they have. In another. I’m pissed that they know what is true and refuse to stand up for what’s right.
My kids just don’t want me to be “that dad”. So we’re at a compromise. I won’t wear masks in the schools EVER, and I won’t cause a scene or lecture the midwits who think masks work. I went to a parent teacher event where parents for all kids were there. Masks were mandated. I was literally the only person out of a few hundred without a mask. No one said a word. I go in all the time to pick up my kid who has a lot of medical issues, no mask. They don’t say a word.
All it takes are people willing to just not comply. Enough of us will make the rules followers realize it really isn’t a rule.
Primary would be best. Because he can’t win an election. His base despises him.
Report from the Czech Republic:
- mask mandates in closed areas
- non-vaccinated people cannot attend any cultural event or go to restaurants, not even with PCR test
- non-vaccinated employees need to test every week, any test suffices (paradoxically)
- the government limited pubs and clubs also for vaccinated by mandating closures after 22:00
- vaccinated still can test for covid, because it is paid by the health insurance but they do not have to quarantine if they test positive
- the government shut down Christmas markets (while not limiting any shopping centres, only you cannot eat in the food court)
- the outgoing government also planned vaccine mandate for some employee groups and the elderly...
It is a bizarre situation and the logic of the regulations eludes me. I am convinced that there is a group of the population that does not agree with the restrictions or does not comply but it is draining and somewhat sad when people are still defending these policies and don't see the danger of the divisiveness, distrust of authorities and overall hatefulness.
Eugyppius: As an academic struggling to publish I can empathise with wanting to make a difference. But there is a danger of being a one-topic kind of author. I would wait a little bit and build variety or experiment with other forms of content. If the day job is bearable, it is a reliable income. But then I am risk-averse and my dissent over vaccination (I had covid already and have still positive antibody count) is me learning not to be the nice girl who does what is said to her. I don't know what I would do if it would put me in danger of losing my job. Thank you for your writing.
Greetings from Prague. The logic is that they want to increase vaccination uptake. Period. It's not about virus suppression anymore, and it's only partially about virus mitigation (if they were interested in that, they'd be offering early treatment).
That's how bureaucracies work. They have some goal, such as "eliminate SARS‑CoV‑2." Then they come up with some method to do it, such as "vaccinate everyone." It then turns out that the method will not lead to the goal. Oops. So, abracadabra, the method becomes the goal! And now the bureaucracy has a workable goal to move toward. Now, if you fail to realize that the original goal has been abandoned and replaced by the method (now seen as a goal in its own right), then it's very difficult to see how any of it makes sense. But if you understand that this is what actually happened, then the internal bureaucratic logic becomes clear.
That's it exactly -- bureaucracies become obsessed with methods and metrics, and the idea of "does this thing we are doing actually work?" is never asked. Because the only time they go back to the original problem is when you try to get them to change the method. "You need to stop with these vax mandates -- they're causing more harm than good!' "Well then how else can we *stop covid?*"
As an example, I work in a bureaucracy and part of my job is to look through "the file" for alternative names and spellings of the applicant in order to put them in "the system" and look for "hits." ("Hits" are basically crimes or other "bad actions" that have been put into the database.) This made sense 20 years ago because we never used to do that and some very bad people "got approved" and we should have known about it.
So today we have very detailed procedures about how to look for the names, where to look for the names and how to enter the names into the database. The system was developed for a very primitive computer system that was easily confused and overwhelmed. Today's system is much more powerful and could find a chipmunk on Mt. Everest, but nonetheless, we have to be careful NOT TO PUT TOO MANY NAMES IN as it will CREATE TOO MUCH WORK. So, even if you know of a name that SHOULD should be put in the database, if it was found in the WRONG piece of paper, then don't enter it. But that really is irrelevant anyway because, I have yet to see, in 17 years, any hit that prevents approval. And I have tried. "But this person is a bad person! Look at these crimes!" "Not our problem." The entire process has become "finding and entering into the system only those names which were found in certain place and then ignore the result that the system gives you anyway" instead of the goal which was to prevent bad people from doing bad things.
So yes I despair of any of this covid madness ever going away -- at least not gradually. It takes a complete collapse for things to change.
there's no introspection in any bureaucracy, it's all 'form' over 'content'.
This is a fantastic reply, thanks!
In new Zealand the goal was "herd immunity" from vaccination, now that that's impossible the goal is "90% of the population vaccinated". Next goal will be 6 monthly boosters for as long as the pupation can bear and finally an annual COVID jab.
I wouldn't put it past the corporates to fake some bioterrorism thing and conjure up some new threats as the business model has proven successful.
New Zealand is at the top of the NWO list: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Reimagining_Regulation_Age_AI_2020.pdf
Just as Israel is the lab for Pfizer, so is NZ for WEF. "Vaxx", QoD, AI, 5G, and zombies blissfully entering the Brave New World. Or Hotel California.
Well.. of course... it was a rhetoric question more than a real one. :-)
Čau, pridaj sa k nám. Máme nové slobodné fórum (reddit-style) pre nezaočkovaných a všetkých ostatných odporcov "nového normálu" a koronafašizmu na Slovensku a v Čechách. S dôrazom na anonymitu a mimo dosahu Big Tech. Radi ťa tam uvidíme!
https://tinyurl.com/nezaockovani
thanks for the advice, Aladel. i won't go full time right away. there's some targets I want to meet first, and I want to see how some of my non-Corona posting appeals to you and my other readers. I will try this over the Christmas holidays.
the 'vaccinated still can test for covid [....] but they do not have to quarantine if they test positive'.... <-- this one made me laugh out loud :-))
Right! When I tested positive for COVID back in October (this was in the Czech Republic), I got a call from some epidemiological something or other, and they said my unvaxxed (*only* unvaxxed) contacts would have to go into quarantine. (I don't know if anyone - other than me, that is - quarantined because of me and my COVID. I told them where I work, and that was it.) If the goal is to stop the spread, then this is quite laughable. But if the goal is to make life miserable for the unvaxxed, then sure, it makes sense. Pfizer must be really happy about all this.
Čau, pridaj sa k nám. Máme nové slobodné fórum (reddit-style) pre nezaočkovaných a všetkých ostatných odporcov "nového normálu" a koronafašizmu na Slovensku a v Čechách. S dôrazom na anonymitu a mimo dosahu Big Tech. Radi ťa tam uvidíme!
https://tinyurl.com/nezaockovani
I post this for the mutual edification and mirth of all who need a really good laugh in the face of Government tyranny. It’s an old video meme gag, but it’s been updated to reflect the insanity (or is it stupidity?) that has currently infected New Zealand. The context is the recent lockdown of Auckland and the introduction of vax mandates… https://youtu.be/7azd_PtJNlM
fantastic, posted a link in twitter.
As a Kiwi I love this. It made my day. i have passed it on. Thanks!