Disease and government

Posted on 2022-10-18 by TPOL Nathan

A correspondent and reader recently shared this with TPOL.

West Nile virus kills about 130 Americans every year according to Wikipedia; other sources say 400; mostly around Arizona. Placing ivermectin in wild bird feed reduced transmission 60%. Or so the National Institutes of Health claims in a recent publication.

Oh, dear. The NIH has gone to sleep! (That is, they are no longer “woke.” They are no longer listening “to the science.” Right?

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Economy still sinking?

Posted on 2022-10-16 by TPOL Nathan

Got a future? Got a way to survive? To prosper? Really? Seems as though we are being told that “the end is near.” America is doomed. The world is doomed. Are the doomsayers right?

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Let’s talk about warhawks, chickenhawks, and pacifists

Posted on 2022-10-15 by TPOL Nathan

Joe Biden and a majority of congresscritturs and conscript parents (Senators) seem committed to these Fifty States having a war with evil, monstrous Russia over Ukraine. This has become a “progressive” cause and a neo-con cause. And who loses? The world, and the American people.

Uncle Joe has always been a warmonger. Despite his “progressive” creds. So have many others, such as Charlie Rangel, constantly pushing for a new draft: conscription of men and women to go and fight (kill and be killed). Most of those people up on Capitol Hill know where a bunch of campaign money comes from: the arms merchants and the people pushing profits from foreign aid. Some of the congresscritturs are more disgusting than ever.

It wasn’t always that way.

Jeanette Rankin, representative from Montana, was the only US Representative to vote against both the declaration of war against Germany in 1917 (First World War) and against Japan on 8 December 1941 (Second World War). She was only in Congress for two terms: 1917-1919 and 1941-1943; she was the first woman elected to Congress, the only women Montana has sent to DC, and she was a Republican! Shocking as that is, she stood up against both Wilson and FDR. She was a progressive, a feminist, and note: she was elected FOUR years before women were “given” the “right-to-vote” by the 19th Amendment. Shocking! She stood up against the establishment for her principles. She stuck to them: bad as they may have been.

Now, compare her to the best known of the many modern progressive female congresscritturs in 2022. Yep, talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beloved of part of New York City. Tom Woods sparked this commentary:

A couple of young people, one white and one black, confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during the Q&A period of a public appearance the other day. Despite her progressive veneer, when push comes to shove she gives the establishment what it wants. And that’s what those young people criticized her for. An excerpt:

Congresswoman, none of this matters if there’s a nuclear war. You voted to send arms and weapons to Ukraine…. Tulsi Gabbard, she left the Democratic Party because they are war hawks. You ran as an outsider, yet you’ve been voting to start this war in Ukraine. You’re voting to start a thermonuclear war with Russia and China. Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?…

You voted to mobilize and send money to Ukrainian Nazis. You’re a coward. You’re a progressive socialist? Where are you against the war mobilization? You have done nothing. Tulsi Gabbard has shown guts, where you’ve shown cowardice.

I believed in you. And you became the very thing you sought to fight against. That’s what you’ve become. You are the establishment, and you are the reason why everybody will end up in a nuclear war unless you choose to stand up right now and denounce the Democratic Party. Will you do that? Yes or no. Simple. Are you going to stop nuclear war? Yes or no?…

None of this matters if we’re all dead. None of it. You know that…. This is the only thing that matters right now. We could be in a nuclear war at any minute and you continue to fund it. That’s what’s going on…. Nobody has hold you accountable. That’s what’s happening. And it is time for you to stand up and realize that what you’ve been saying has been lies. Let your conscience come through for once.

Good for them.

When push comes to shove, Ms. Cortez plays it safe, and doesn’t upset the New York Times. Yes, she says and does “progressive” things, but when it comes to something the establishment – the deep state – really wants, she will never get in the way. She has no moral courage, no moral compass.

What better shows the degradation of American politics and government in just over a century? Rankin, unlike Ocasio-Cortez, was one of 80 representatives to vote against entering “the Great War” (branded by Woody Wilson falsely as “the war to end war”). Today, we are unlikely to see that many – on any side of the aisle – who would vote against war on Russia. In support of a corrupt tyrannical regime in Ukraine. Tulsi Gabbard, war veteran, progressive that she is, failed presidential candidate, did not seek to run for Congress again while running for president, and recently quit from the Democratic Party. Far from a libertarian, she still seems to have some principles: she stated that one major reason to leave the party was their warhawk standing.

I submit that while there are some warhawks in both the GOP and Democrats – people who have and are willing to take up the fight personally – most of them are chickenhawks: willing to send young men and women out to kill and be killed but chicken themselves. (And usually for their loved ones.) The only thing that might make them pause would be the idea of nuclear annihilation raining down on the District of Criminals. With them present.

These are the kind of people we have in government – one of the reasons we cannot tolerate government – or them.

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Hated ideas: The evils of democracy

Posted on 2022-10-14 by TPOL Nathan

Local, State, federal, world… today, and for a century-plus, we have been told that “democracy” is a good thing – and the only legitimate form of government. We are being treated (and threatened) with that today, both with the upcoming 2022 elections in the States and the continuing vendetta against The Donald. And we even see it in the UK with the changes in government. And many other places: even while populist protests (energy and inflation, for the most part) rock the various democracies yet again, we are told this is the best government we can have: whether it is Czechia, Italy, Argentina, Sri Lanka, or even the Netherlands. The politicians keep saying this even while they seemingly ignore the will of the people.

They are, of course, lying. I know, politicans are ALWAYS lying: it is their specialty, their career, their lives and livelyhood. But it is more than that.

Let us go beyond the “two wolves and a sheep” model to look at why “rule by the people” is evil. For one, it promotes and supports demagogues. What’s that? Webster’s says “a person who appeals to the emotions and prejudices of people in order to arouse discontent and advance his or her own political purposes.”

I like HL Mencken’s definition:

Democracy breeds and instigates – and often needs – demagogues.

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Lessons learned – or not: families and Chinese communism

Posted on 2022-10-12 by TPOL Nathan

A recent article published by AIER discusses a study of the Chinese Great Leap Forward of 1959-1962, entitled “When the family is abolished people starve.” It is of course condemning totalitarianism, communism, and mandatory human government in general. Read it, please.

In just three years in China, as Mao sought to fully establish communism and create the conditions to totally end private property, two key features of family life as found throughout human history were abolished: “private” (family) raising and teaching children, and “private” (again, family) preparation and eating of meals together. These were replaced by “community/cooperative” institutions: child-rearing and caring facilities (creches, ala Brave New World), and communal “canteens:” all food and utensils and ancillary items moved into a single place and meals prepared, served, and eaten in a public place.

Barry Brownstein concentrates in his article, as did the book, on the physical catastrophe. THIRTY-TWO million people died in the worst manmade famine known in the history of the world. But the clearly-document attempt by Peking and the CCP to throw families onto the ash heap of history also had significant societal impacts. Very negative impacts.

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Winter is coming – to the entire planet

Posted on 2022-10-11 by TPOL Nathan

A lot of attention has been paid to Europe’s energy situation since Russia’s ‘special military operation’ began in February, eight months ago. Driven by both geopolitical needs (control of their perimeter) and the treatment of the linguistic/ethnic Russians by the corrupt Kyiv regime, the war seemed intended to be a limited operation similar to the success annexation of the Crimea in 2014. There has also been a certain amount of “egging on” by NATO – Brussels, DC, and London – especially since Uncle Joe occupied 1600 PA. Oops.

Fimbulwinter

Of course, the plans didn’t survive contact with the Ukrainians. Russia overestimated both the quality of its forces and the willingness of the Ukrainians (both military and civilian) to fight. And perhaps also underestimated just how perfidious NATO was, as well as how much treasure and risk they would offer up to “stop Putin.”

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Corruption unlimited – DOJ and FBI

Posted on 2022-10-10 by TPOL Nathan

Back in the 1980s, it took decades for the evils of J. Edgar Hoover to be revealed. And oddly enough (from the point of view of so-called conservatives and right-leaning libertarians (minarchists, at least), one of the least corrupt of US Attorney Generals during the 20th Century may have been Bobby Kennedy. Did the FBI and DOJ become more and more like their enemies (the mob, or Mafia) or was it the other way around?

All questions of historical interest, but which have implications in 2022.

Today, the modern Federal Bureau of Investigation: the Feebs; is being revealed almost daily as the corrupt tool of power and tyranny that (as many have noted) it has always been. And the Department of Justice – not just the Attorney General but its entire leadership, senior bureaucracy, and many of its “special agents” (oh, so special!) are venal, arrogant, often-clueless, and bullying people who prey on other criminals but more and more on political opponents of the deep state.

And normal people and their businesses and institutions.

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Who is winning the American propaganda wars?

Posted on 2022-10-07 by TPOL Nathan
As with games and philosophy, propaganda is targeted but sometimes…

Americans and our States and societies are (so we are told) facing a large number of “crises” right now. Among them:

  • The immigration crisis, with a claimed 2 million + border jumpers flooding over the border with Mexico since Uncle Joe moved into 1600 PA.
  • The monstrous and evil human trafficking by the governors of Florida and Texas of some of those border jumpers (closely related to the above).
  • The inflation (at a level not seen since the 1970s) of the American “dollar” (FRN).
  • Runaway manmade global climate change.
  • Russian imperialism/fascism/communism and the resulting war in Ukraine.
  • Islamic-related terrorism and wars, internal and spilling over into other countries.
  • Continuing deterioration/breakdown of the supply chain.
  • Chinese Communist threat.
  • Corrupt elections – particularly the threat posed by Trumpistas and The Donald himself.

What do YOU believe about these issues? What do government officials and politicians running for office tell you? What does the media and the “experts” tell you? How much of what you are told do you believe? Fortunately, many writers and spreaders of propaganda are so stupid (and brainwashed themselves) that we can recognize some of the propaganda. But not all!

It is actually hard to list these without using the same words as the propaganda coming from all sides on these issues. All sides? There are not just the sides – increasingly dug in and hardening their positions – of the old parties, but the various fringe groups: Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Libertarians, Greens, even monarchists and anti-monarchists.

As discussed in a recent commentary, a very common method of propagandizing is the screaming of outrageous exaggerations about the evil opponents. Attacking their motives, their attitude, their beliefs and their actions – and what the results of those actions will be.

At the same time, propagandists greatly exaggerate the wisdom, soundness, and benefits of their own positions and proposed actions – and their past and recent actions (always “achievements”).

But there is, of course, much more to propaganda than telling lies or exaggerating: the objective of propaganda is to get someone to do something: buy, vote, donate, physically express their anger, etc. So we see this daily in the news, in the speeches (and sound bites) of media talking heads, politicians, lobbyists, pundits, and attorneys. As we’ve written before, propaganda is a tool, a tactic, used by enemies of liberty: predators who want victims and power and wealth.

The targets of propaganda? People. Pretty much ordinary people. Sometimes one kind or group, sometimes another, directly or indirectly. But always for the purpose of taking advantage of them. Sometimes to influence politics, or promote products, or just to keep control. And far too often, the targets – sometimes the intended audience but often not! (see above graphic) – swallow the guff. They buy into the propaganda.

The point to the question in the headline? It may be Democrats that are winning, or Republicans. It may be so-called liberals or those who claim to be conservatives. It may be corrupt business, or corrupt government. Or even foreign entities. They seem to take turns, tugging back and forth.

But whomever is “winning,” it is ordinary Americans who are losing. Losing our wealth and prosperity, our liberty and freedom, and both our past and our future. And if we do act, any hope.

As we’ve quoted before in TPOL, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” But the obverse is also important to remember: lies enslave you.

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Perverting the truth

Posted on 2022-10-06 by TPOL Nathan

As the divisions in these Fifty States continue to be deepened and spread wider, every form of propaganda, intimidation, actual acts of violence, retribution, and more is seen. And seen more and more frequently. We’ve discussed propaganda especially as it relates to the war in Ukraine, and here at home in the States before. Let us talk about who is perverting the truth.

Both the so-called conservatives and so-called liberals are doing this. Whether they are the woke of the left or the alt-right, they see the stakes are enormous. So great that the ends of defeating their enemies fully justify any means. Of course, in doing so, they become more and more like each other.

We see this in how they spin, twist, and pervert the truth. Any truth. Regardless of its source. Whether it comes from their allies (and kindred) in the past or present. Or their enemies now and in the past. Or the scientists. Or religion – especially the Bible and the christian faith. (For readers who are not religious, please read on – this commentary is about more than just religion.)

One of Newsom’s billboards in seven right-to-life States

Today we have an excellent example – a sickening example – of such perversion in the form of billboards a California political organization (promoting re-election of its woke governor) has posted in various States.

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Russia, Ukraine and liberty at home

Posted on 2022-10-04 by TPOL Nathan

With the Russian “special military operation” (war) in the Ukraine now seven months old, everyone seems to be upping the ante.

Especially in the propaganda war. Propaganda is virtually always a tool of enemies of liberty. We see it clearly in Ukraine, Russia, and the Fifty States.

As Russia seems to be retreating, losing more equipment and soldiers, and apparently desperate enough to formally annex four different regions, the Western powers are eager to push harder and harder. And Ukraine is eager for this increased support. Hence the need for propaganda: to sell their cause.

Virtually NOTHING we read or hear about the war there can be trusted to be the truth. All the pretty colored maps, all the breathless reports of Russian defeat and Ukrainian victories. None of it. We certainly cannot trust anything coming out of the halls of the FedGov in DC, His Majesty’s government in London, or the idiotic collective government joke in Brussels. Nor for that matter Berlin, Paris, Stockholm or even Warsaw.

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