Thank-you to all our readers and supporters
A brief pause this Easter Monday to say thank-you to everyone who has been supporting us through these weeks, through donations and just through reading and sharing our output.
It has not been an easy time. We’ve been attacked, sometimes in pretty unscrupulous ways, by some we used to call friends and colleagues. And to begin with our sceptical and fact-based stance was very much a minority position. We seemed to be fighting a pretty lonely battle for a while.
Thankfully, this is changing as the evidence has accumulated and more people are seeing reason to be both questioning of the official covid19 narrative and of the massive authoritarian roll out it is intended to justify.
But without you guys it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to keep doing this. Your readership has helped get our work out there to reach people, and your generosity and support has helped us pay OFfG’s bills for another year at a time when we would have been struggling to find the resources otherwise.
We know some of you must be finding things hard too, and yet you still dug in and gave us some pounds/dollars of your hard-earned money.
That’s amazing.
You are all amazing.
Bless you.
From the OffG team
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Thank you OffG for your steady stance and voices of reason in the muddied seas of misinformation. All the best to you all and all those who visit this island of rationality to query and escape the onslaught of MSM. When I am in a position to be able to offer a donation I will be glad to do so. It seams that attacks on free thought are growing and it is a sad reflection of what is happening that rationality and reason are treated as an enemy.
This site has been a light in the darkness. I’m truly grateful for your work. Sane people writing meaningful texts, valuable comments from an intelligent readership all over the world.
Ich bedanke mich herzlich und gruesse Sie mit vorzueglicher Hochachtung.
Rechenmacher
The childish and rather pitiful reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic by some of the ‘progressive’ alternative media outlets who ought to know better (eg, Off Guardian), has shown itself to be so stubborn and stupidly obtuse in refusing even to see facts let alone regard them as ‘sacred’, that this deserves attention, exploration and explanation.
First, let’s examine some of the howling inconsistencies in the politics surrounding the ‘COVID-19-is-a-hoax’ tommyrot (for brevity hereafter referred to as ‘the tommyrot thesis’):
1. Why on earth would the capitalists suddenly stop all their production and profit flows in order to lock up the very people they already effectively enslave and exploit, who to produce the rulers’ fabulous wealth willingly produce all their goods and services? Has there been a major workers’ uprising or attempted revolution somewhere that the capitalists are trying to suppress that we don’t know about? Where is it happening? When was it unleashed? Yet contrary to the logic of the tommyrot thesis, the bourgeoisie is now in fact most anxious to lift the quarantine and ‘lock downs’ in order to get the workers to go back to work, to put them in harm’s way to restore the flow of profits, as the sacrificial offering on the altar of the capitalist ‘economy’.
2. Why on earth have Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia and Iran all gone along with the tommyrot thesis? After all, they have no interest in promoting this in lockstep with the very imperialists who at every turn inflict deadly harm on these countries. Why on earth would these countries suffering under US economic warfare also shut down their own economies in order to lock up their own populations, as the imperialists have and as the tommyrot thesis would have it? For any decent theory to displace the existing paradigm it needs to explain what the old paradigm can’t. Except not only does the tommyrot thesis fail to explain anything at all, it raises questions that it can’t answer, like the above, that the existing paradigm easily can.
3. Why on earth would the bourgeoisie deliberately sabotage their system of exploitation to such an extent as to bring on a potentially pre-revolutionary situation, as appears imminently possible in the well-armed but long suffering and abused US working population? In its degenerate hubris the US bourgeoisie is printing money to ‘compensate’ itself for the COVID-19 shutdown, leaving the rest of the population to twist in the wind and be prey for expropriation by these cashed-up vultures. After being thrown out of work and out of their homes, and soon to be without money and food, talk of a general strike in the US is now commonplace. But it’s not in response to being ‘locked up’ in quarantine, but the opposite, to being thrown into harm’s way to return to work in the midst of a pandemic when quarantine needs to remain until the pandemic has passed or brought under control. Workers will be striking or supporting strikes to stay in quarantine. Quarantine has been around a long time and it restricts individual freedoms to prevent individuals unknowingly killing others.
Because of imminent insolvency and nothing to eat, there’s a real prospect in the US of more than food riots, which could quickly escalate into clashes with the national guard, uprisings, perhaps civil war. There’s also a discernible economic conflict within the US bourgeoisie: one wing wants to resume production ASAP, while to finance capital it’s in its economic interests to keep the population paralysed and in lock down jsut as long as necessary to bankrupt them and snap up their assets at fire sale prices.
But this situation is a rare moment in history, an opportunity that really must be seized upon because in the midst of shutting down capitalism in response to COVID-19 the ruling class is dividing over how to get out of this predicament. And it’s realising that it will be unable to rule as before and the ruled won’t be ruled as before. A virus has changed the consciousness of the oppressed and shaken to its core their firmly inculcated belief in: (i) their own oppression, in their ‘fate’ and ‘rightful place’ in the social hierarchy; (ii) the hierarchy looking after them in their hour of need. In contrast to the US, the bourgeoisies of many countries at least saw sense to put up a pretense of ‘a duty of care’, but they’re also well aware of this change in consciousness and don’t like its portents.
In short, despite definitely living under a kakistocracy, what has happened is exactly not the way to go about imposing yet more restrictions on whole populations who up to now have been more than willing to produce the bourgeoisie’s profits and wealth for them and who now are being prevented from generating that surplus by…the very same rulers. It doesn’t compute when it’s argued that it’s somehow in the interests of the majority of capitalists to go bankrupt overnight. The kakistocracy hasn’t reached Caligula territory quite yet, but this is what the tommyrot thesis must have us believe.
Despite what left liberals, anarchists and various anarchoids might think, fascism isn’t the bourgeoisie’s preferred mode of rule. Fascism is inefficient and inconvenient for them (not least because the fascists with state power are difficult to control and often have their boots on the throat of sections of the bourgeoisie). Fascism is always used as capitalism’s last resort, not its first, usually to stave off a revolution if the military and cops fail, or more often after a revolutionary situation has been squandered. Rather, the creeping corporatism and increased state repression, accelerated since 9/11, has been the preferred mode of tightening bourgeois rule. The rulers aren’t so stupid to expose themselves in the way the tommyrot thesis would have us believe — by all of a sudden going apeshit and locking everyone up on the pretense of a ‘seasonal’ flu being malign. In reality the vast majority of the capitalist class is desperately trying to revive production to stave off a major depression.
This in no way negates the fact that the ruling class will take the greatest advantage of COVID-19 possible to further strip away fundamental rights, jack up the rate of exploitation, increase state repression and surveillance, privatise everything that moves, and otherwise fortify capitalism’s ramparts as they concentrate wealth into ever fewer hands. But you don’t go and cut your own before cutting your victim’s throat.
None of the tommyrot thesis makes any sense unless…COVID-19 is in fact real, dangerous and not a hoax. Let’s now examine COVID-19 itself, and the misconceptions of which form the rotten core of the tommyrot thesis.
1. Much has been made of ‘misattribution’ of cause of death on death certification, with Italy being the stand out example, where approximately 12% of COVID-19 attributed deaths were estimated to have definitely tested positive to COVID-19 and died of it and not with it. The tommyrot thesis also posits that because many of the decedents were older with significant comorbidities they in fact died of these, heart failure particularly, rather than COVID-19 itself. The problem with this latter is that the vast majority of COVID-19 decedents presented initially with respiratory symptoms, not with heart failure. Heart failure doesn’t present to hospital EDs in waves overwhelming them the way infectious outbreaks do, including the way COVID-19 has. CVD cases come in a steady stream with a small seasonal component. But heart failure can be an outcome of respiratory distress in both those with and without unerlying cardiovascular disease. Moreover it is well known that the inflammation response to COVID-19 when it progresses to the lungs as viral pneumonia can overwhelm a compromised cardiovascular system and other organs as well.
2. Cause-of-death certification when based on clinical assessment rather than pathology test results is very common, and raises no controversy in the medical and clinical professions. Clinicians follow a standard protocol in death certification which sequences the causes of death from the immediate proximal cause (eg, renal failure, or cardiac or respiratory arrest), to the next in the causal chain (eg, an acute respiratory condition like shortness of breath), down to the underlying cause (lung cancer, asthma, flu, emphysema/COPD, COVID-19/flu), which is then accepted as the single, ‘underlying’ cause of death as is routinely recorded in vital statistics. And guess what: morticians routinely fill out the non-medical part of the death certificate that captures the decedent’s demographics, etc.
Then follows a whole standardised, rule-based process of cause-of-death coding from death certificates which takes place according to rules stipulated by the extant edition of the International Classification of Diseases in force in the given country (ICD-10 is current in most countries). This coding is carried out in health ministries/departments or death registries by trained coders, who are steadily being replaced by automated coding systems, including in the UK — the coding rules are that rigid. So it’s not some slap-dash process at clinician level, long-established practices haven’t somehow been overthrown simultaneously in over 200 countries around the globe simultaneously also as part of a grand conspiracy. The final coding rules, albeit not perfect, are designed also to address deficiencies in death certification.
Errors of cause-of-death classification in the absence of pathology test results can occur in both directions. In the Italian example it’s also likely that among those whose death was attributed to heart failure some died because of inflammation reaction to an undiagnosed COVID-19 infection. No-one is testing these cases for COVID-19, and there’s a deafening silence from the sceptics about the need for this if they want to establish their case. The Netherlands ministry of health reported that the number of deaths from all causes occurring in the month of March was 2,000 higher than normally expected. And there is evidence that the number of COVID-19 deaths in the US is an underestimate. Just now Bernhardt from MoA has come out with monthly mortality figures from England and Wales and New York which show the huge extent they exceed the normal historic numbers [see: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/04/debunking-some-ideas-about-the-virus.html#more%5D. Look at them. Such facts ‘really should be sacred’. But also very revealingly are the cardiac arrest figures from New York, which also show huge rises against the expected historic flat trend. Clearly in those CVD events reside many uncounted COVID-19 cases.
Thus while it’s always easy to point out sources of inevitable error, the obligation is to show that the error is systematic, in one direction only, and so far the sources of error point in both directions and therefore appear more to be random. Nothing out of the ordinary there. In the end, the elephant in the room might actually weigh 4.5 tons and not 5 tons, or it might weigh 6 tons. Even if the estimates end up being biased above the true value, the elephant, like the sacred facts, stubbornly is still there.
3. So the bodies (the elephant), keep piling up. In the US, freezer trucks have been commandeered as mobile morgues, and mass graves are being dug in New Jersey and New York parks. In Italy over 100 doctors have already died of this supposedly garden-variety ‘seasonal’ flu, as have surgeons in the UK. The original Chinese whistleblower, a young clinician, died of it. In Spain, parking stations are being converted into temporary morgues. In Italy the military are collecting bodies from residences. In Ecuador huge spikes in unexplained deaths aren’t being included in any COVID-19 statistics from there. Is this ‘seasonal’ flu? If all this excess mortality isn’t coming from COVID-19, then where are all the extra bodies coming from? That’s a rather severe form of ‘seasonal’ flu, in springtime to boot, following a reportedly mild flu season in most of Europe last winter.
Finally, it’s unfortunate that apparently innumerate pol-sci and English literature majors who appear to not understand or remember their first form/Year 7 exponential growth maths lessons; and it’s unfortunate that they cherry-pick public health officials and academics, who raise some valid methodological issues, to then render these side issues as central reasons to discount completely the elephant in the room.
Sometimes it really is possible to have a genuine crisis present itself and it not always be a false flag for the ruling class to inevitably increase its repression on the rest of us.
1. Important question. There’s no way we can answer it definitively though, because, in my view, the shutdown makes no sense even as a protective measure. A partial explanation for the draconian measures is the moribund global economy that can only be reinvigorated by a total reset / managed collapse (I assert). If that reset occurs without a suitable scapegoat (e.g. covid-19), the Powers That Be risk too many unintended consequences that would flow from popular anger blaming them for incompetence. The shutdown precipitates what was going to happen anyway, but affords them perhaps sufficient control of events to stay in the driving seat. As for calls to get the shutdown lifted, they are going to increase as the economy suffers more and more, that’s to be expected. The proof will be how damaged the economy is once the shutdowns are lifted and whether or not a severe depression ensues, and how severe it proves.
2. That’s a very good question. But why haven’t Sweden and Mexico, and others? The picture is confused, not clear. Perhaps the corrupt WHO, CDC and others have been sufficiently convincing in their manipulations / clever wielding of the data to convince them. Or perhaps the virus is unusually deadly for reasons that are not being shared. Or perhaps there are other reasons. But for the tommyrot thesis to be true, we are talking about globalists rather than imperialists/capitalists. Much of the conflict we see between the US, Russia and China, etc. may well be staged. Logically, globalist interests are shared by ruling classes in almost all nations, definitely all the major nations. The cultural tension between, say, East and West, or socialism/communism and free-market economics could largely be a distraction. What matters to rulers (hidden and apparent) of a globalist bent is not that this or that ideology reigns supreme, but that they stay rulers, with increasing power, global governance, global currency, etc. How effective they will prove to be in their ambitions remains to be seen. But those ambitions exist and are necessarily fascistic in nature. What we see rolling out in front of our eyes is fascism.
3. See my answer to 2. above. I would say the pre-revolutionary situation would be far more explosive if the globalists were to delay much longer, and thereby risk an unplanned black-swan event whose consequent turbulence they cannot control. You could thus call this affair a pre-emptive strike that causes sufficient destruction to roll out measures that would be unthinkable in normal circumstances, measures that will lead to other measures such as a very conditional basic income, total monitoring of the population, a ban on cash, new money system that suits the globalists, etc (see the latest Corbett Report). This is not about protecting ‘free’ market economics or the so-called bourgeoisie. That’s a sham. I disagree that the bourgeoisie are in control. No one orchestrating or exploiting whatever this is, is cutting their own throats. If the tommyrot thesis is in some way on the money, it will be because globalists could not give two hoots about the bourgeoisie or capitalism. See the machinations across the planet by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Clinton Foundation, and their various projects. If the tommyrot thesis holds any water at all, it will be because the globalists have been inching towards de-facto global government etc. for a long time, are running out of time because the global economy is on the verge of catastrophic collapse, and have either manufactured this thing, or have seized the day and are riding it as best they can. They are now fully committed one way or the other, and will have a very hard time backing out. If the tommyrot thesis is accurate to some degree, it does not mean the globalists are guaranteed to succeed. I hope they fail and are exposed. Or, I hope you are right and I and all others who have any skin in the tommyrot-thesis game are wrong. That would make my day (sort of).
1a. The Covid-19 mortality rate (not case fatality rate) is low, perhaps as low as an ordinary flu, certainly in that ballpark. To properly understand what is happening here, we need to know what percentage of hospitals worldwide have been overrun, exactly why they have been overrun, whether or not appropriate treatment protocols are being observed (a number of NYC doctors are questioning the guidelines on intubation, for example, and there’s growing evidence that intubation exacerbates the problems), and to what degree fear and panic are influencing said overruns, among many other factors such as insufficient funding and capacity.
2a. NYC numbers are indeed odd. Perhaps Northern Italy’s also. Elsewhere that is not the case, e.g. Germany, China, Sweden, Iceland, Mexico, S Korea, etc. Why? Could it be the way doctors are being asked to record deaths in conjunction with clever/tricksy data manipulation? The UK’s ONS has come under pressure to explain their unusual statistics, especially the term “involving” covid for recorded deaths, but also for an odd technique of bunching weeks together to produce data spikes. Recent UK Column episodes have looked at this, and it does appear suspicious. Many eminent doctors are speaking out about this in Germany, and increasingly in the US. One critical German doctor has been placed against his will in a psychiatric hospital (as has a lawyer in Heidelberg – Beate Bahner– who days before her sectioning had brought suit against the state of Baden-Württenberg). Much to be concerned about.
3a. Freezer trucks etc. may be ‘necessary’ for any number of reasons, all flowing from how the epidemic has been politicised. Cuomo has committed loudly to the official narrative. He therefore really needs it to be disastrous. Anyone who shut down their economy and/or is publicly in support of that decision really needs that decision to have been the right decision. What lengths might they go to, to ensure their decision or support of such a decision was sound?
Whatever the truth here – and for me there are too many anomalies to discount the assertion that there is a very heavy globalist component in all this – the world has changed forever. Will there be such shutdowns from now on every time a novel corona virus makes an appearance, just in case? How many times a decade can we afford this? Does flattening the curve really work? How effective will it be to ignore the potential resilience of our bodily immune systems in favour of (forced) vaccines, forever? How disastrous would such a course prove to be for our species? How can functioning health systems be afforded if humanity cannot handle viruses and bacteria economically? If we have to rely on Big Pharma because global policy says so, won’t that make Big Pharma even more overly powerful than they already are? Can nationalisation of Big Pharma be the way out? That would still be too much power in the hands of a few. Is centralisation the problem? And there are many other questions besides, to do with society as a whole, community, work, wealth and health, sanity, power, authority, speaking truth to power, democracy… The list seems endless. Because of this, we need as much open discussion as possible. I doubt the future has ever been as uncertain as it is now, not to mention the present.
Protection? If it’s protection from a potentially deadly and highly contagious virus with no cure or vaccine, then quarantine is the only responsible counter-measure. The problem is that most, especially younger people living in first-world countries, have never experienced a quarantine. The closest some (not so young) in the first world may have come to experiencing one would be the ‘draconian’ measures taken against HIV transmission, when bathhouses in gay districts were shut down in the 1980s and all manner of changes to sexual mores were strongly advocated and some enforced (eg, brothel patrons forced to wear condoms). In Asia, on the other hand, populations are used to quarantines (eg, Singapore) and they’ve been somehow been freed after the outbreak passed. As is occurring in China today.
It’s now known that the virus responsible for COVID-19: (i) is highly contagious for 2-3 days before symptoms appear and for up to 14 days after symptoms have resolved; (ii) is infectious from corpses; (iii) appears to confer only partial immunity, where second infections have been documented already and where antibody counts appear to be lower with younger, not older, age; (iv) can produce a viral pneumonia that can cause massive immune and inflammatory responses leading to death. This is indeed a very nasty (retro)virus.
It’s easy to confuse or conflate a mortality rate with a case fatality rate (CFR). COVID’s mortality rate, being deaths per population (infected plus non-infected, or cases plus non cases) would be low because the number of cases is relatively low (but growing rapidly). When people want to use mortality rates to make a point they often forget that these depend also on the underlying incidence and/or prevalence of the given disease in the population. This is easier to see with cancer: no-one questions the high case fatality rate of ovarian cancer, nor the fact that cancer usually is diagnosed only when symptomatic and not when the person is first ‘infected’ with it. Ovarian cancer’s incidence is quite low and its population mortality rate consequently is extremely low. If COVID-19 is 10 times more lethal but only one tenth of cases occur in the population compared to ordinary flu, then its mortality rate would be approximately the same as ordinary flu (that is, the infected part of the denominator is small compared to flu). The whole point of quarantine is to prevent the incidence of a disease as lethal as COVID-19 from becoming as high as ordinary flu and therefore produce a much higher mortality rate.
The CFR for garden-variety seasonal flu is about 0.1%. For COVID-19 it ranges between 1% and 10+% depending on the age, sex and health profile of the population, and on the health system. It’s not yet well established except that it’s high. The CFR isn’t a perfect measure either (because there’s always lack of follow-up time from the latest cases, and because of errors in case definition, in both directions) but it’s still an easily obtained estimate of a disease’s lethality. There’s no getting around that by this measure COVID-19 is far more lethal than ordinary seasonal flu and apparently more contagious too. And there’s no getting round the need to stop it spreading, in keeping its incidence low to prevent its mortality rate becoming high as it inevitably will if its spread isn’t stomped on.
Some have also attempted to introduce the red herring of the ‘infective fatality rate’ (IFR) as a more ‘accurate’ measure of disease lethality. However, the IFR assumes that everyone is screened and therefore an accurate denominator of all those infected can be established. Hence no-one with a smidgeon of knowledge is so deluded as to think that obtaining the IFR is practically possible since whole populations can’t be screened for many infectious diseases, let alone for ordinary flu or even COVID-19. And most ordinary flu occurs without any interaction with the health system. But even if the IFR for ordinary flu and COVID-19 could be established, the IFR for COVD-19 would very likely be at least an order of magnitude higher than that for ordinary flu (eg, 0.1% compared to 0.01%). Although there are many corona-type varieties which are common and prevalent, the SARS type isn’t. In the end, the IFR is a different denomination, or currency, of death than the CFR — and harder to measure. There don’t appear to be any reliable estimates of the IFR of ordinary flu partly because ordinary flu viruses change all the time and outbreaks occur frequently. Populations would have to be repeatedly screened and screening participation would fall away. But the CFR of ordinary flu, and any disease, is more readily established.
It should also be remembered that classic mathematical disease modelling was developed in the 1920s and has proven to be quite effective and useful in projecting disease outcomes — just so long as the models are updated with changes to the underlying model parameters and assumptions (especially Ro). There was no technology in the 1920s to determine the IFR, but the CFR was always easy to define and measure, and the disease models worked just fine using the CFR. The IFR isn’t needed.
As for the ‘odd’ New York numbers. They aren’t ‘odd’ at all (nor are those for England and Wales, despite allegations of ‘bunching’, etc). Those kinds of numbers easily can’t be ‘unbunched’ away. In most other countries, the overall, all-cause mortality numbers aren’t affected as much (yet) because COVID’s population incidence/prevalence are low and hence overall population mortality rates are also relatively low. Either they’ve got things under control (China) or they’re still in the early stage of the exponential part of the disease progression curve. Without a cure, vaccine or an effective quarantine, give it time: in a few more weeks there’ll be a lot more such ‘odd’ numbers popping up that even the most innumerate and obtuse could hardly fail to recognise.
The notion that the capitalist class would shut down their economy to somehow ‘pre-empt’ its imminent collapse is not only nonsensical, but presupposes a fundamental change in the laws of the capitalism itself. No economist, bourgeois or ‘Marxist’, has ever posited such extreme ‘pre-emptive’ behaviour in the whole business class previously, and no such preemptive action has ever occurred in history. As a rule, crashes and economic downturns take the bourgeoisie by surprise, although there’s always some who get the first inklings of a crash or downturn before the rest. The ruling class as a whole responds to crises reactively, and is very adept at it, but it doesn’t proactively commit economic suicide as the conspiracists would have it.
The ‘pre-emption’ notion also presumes economic ‘planning’ and that the bourgeoisie is somehow ‘united’ and ‘global’ which it isn’t. Each national bourgeoisie still has its own interests, and its own state machine and armed forces to protect them. A recent example: the German bourgeoisie deeply resents attempts by US oil/gas oligarchs, through the Trump regime, to force them into to buying expensive LPG when they can get much cheaper gas from the Russian oligarchs. And the French military is constantly intervening in Africa to protect French investments.
Over the last century or so, all manner of ‘super’ imperialism and ‘global cabal’ economic theories have arisen, especially since the advent of the League of Nations. But all have been blown up by inter-imperialist rivalries, trade wars and shooting wars. The only thing that’s really been ‘globalised’ of late, that currently unites the bourgeoisies worldwide, is the free flow of capital and their ‘neoliberal’ prescriptions for the populations they exploit. And they’ve always ‘conspired’ in their religious faith the primacy of the ‘market’ and private property.
It’s thus such a nonsense to believe this current crisis is some kind of ‘global’ conspiracy carried out by some united ‘global’ cabal. It’s hard enough getting capitalists from the different countries and rival trading blocs to agree on anything, let alone to suck out of thin air this deadly flu that ‘really doesn’t exist’ as an a priori pretext to shut everything down.
Yes, economies have been disrupted and forced to shut down to one extent or another before, both as part of the inherent boom-bust cycle of capitalism and in response to an external crisis. Forced, in response to. Such external crises have ranged from war, sanctions, blockades and other actions (most of which today are being perpetrated by the imperialists against countries like Iran, Cuba, North Korea, China, Russia or Venezuela), to tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanos, earthquakes, other natural disasters, and pandemics. Quarantine stifles not only personal but economic activity, and the capitalist class, especially those involved in the real economy as distinct from the coupon clippers, deeply resents having their businesses shut down or being forced into bankruptcy as a result. They want quarantine restrictions to end ASAP as well.
And yet all the spoilt ‘anti-authoritarian’ petty bourgeois children whinging and whining about being locked up in their rooms because of this virus, and equating their necessary quarantine with ‘repression’ by a ‘conspiracy’ of the rulers who somehow fear their online ‘dangerousness’, must feel obliged in their overblown self importance to invent this bizarre fevered ‘globalist’ conspiracy fantasy which seems to be a part of a ‘COVID-19 derangement syndrome’. Their fantasies explain nothing, and increasingly elaborate desperate ‘explanations’ and bizarre motives must be invented to feed the syndrome and avoid the reality. Cuomo using freezer trucks to advance the ‘conspiracy’. Ye gods. Where does it all end? Are the overworked nurses in the hospitals in on the conspiracy too? The dead ones as well?
Occam’s razor tells us that the simpler explanation of COVID-19 being real explains far more than the unfalsifiable and increasingly elaborate, childish, and desperate occult motives now being bandied about ever could. The bourgeoisie might be powerful but they’re not as omnipotent as the conspiracists would like to have us believe.
And when a vaccine is developed for this virus, it should be compulsory for everyone, as should the triple vaccine for measles, mumps and chicken pox.
The data on which you base your analysis is unreliable. This makes your analysis equally unreliable. Doctors, one a US Senator, are saying they are being asked to falsify death certificates. German doctors have drawn attention to similar shenanigans in Germany. I understand there are potential whistleblowers within the NHS afraid to speak out. There was a recent study in Germany by Professor Püschel that involved the autopsy of 35 bodies claimed by death certificates to have died of covid-19. The results showed that not one of them died of covid-19. A quote from Professor Püschel:
Germany’s AfD party are now calling for all deaths in Germany to be autopsied. This, and so much else besides, says there is far too much smoke to dismiss as “childish” the possibility that some sort of conspiracy is afoot. Conspiracies do happen. Much is planned behind closed doors. And the planners always believe they are right to do so, even if laws are broken. I shall never forget Tony Blair saying that if the Iraq war was illegal, it should have been legal. The very powerful often think they are above the law, this is not controversial.
As for your assertion that there is “no cure”, a healthy immune system is the cure. The overwhelming majority survive this, without even noticing they had it. It may well be that the vast majority of those who died “involving” covid-19 – an ONS term – died with, not of, covid-19. The solid evidence we have strongly points in this direction. As such, there is no need for a vaccine, let alone a forced vaccine. Oh but how Big Pharma and Bill Gates are pushing for presicely that!
It looks like we shall have to agree to disagree.
First, you can’t discount what’s going on all round the world based on anecdote, hearsay, one autopsy study of 35 decedents or the opinion of one academic with side issues.
Second, yes conspiracies exist, but none have ever occurred, nor are achievable, on the grand scale alleged by all the children infected by the ‘COVID-19 derangement syndrome’.
Occam’s razor is less ambitious than that. Occam’s razor tells us (assuming acceptance of your analysis so far) that the ‘official narrative thesis’ is the best candidate (vis-a-vis the ‘tommyrot thesis’) for directing initial, limited resources towards the (considerable) further effort required to formulate either thesis as a falsifiable (specifically predictive) hypothesis (which has, clearly, not yet been done). In itself, Occam’s razor tells us nothing about the validity of either thesis. Only failing to falsify the falsifiable predictions of one or both theses when a corresponding valid hypothesis has been formulated for one or both will inch that one or the other or both closer to being valid. It can happen that the one of two (or more) competing theses initially favoured by Occams razor becomes in the testing phase so weighed down with caveats and additional ‘entities’ that, if Occam’s razor were then again to be applied, its favoured position would be reversed. When properly applied, Occam’s razor is a tool for, usually but not always, most efficiently directing the strategy of valid hypothesis formulation in light of the frequent limitations on intellectual (logic) or experimental (scientific) resources.
MMR: Measles, mumps and rubella. Rubella is also known as “German measles”.
One thing that has always puzzled me (not) is that it was clear that a significant proportion of those objecting to vaccination for any of those diseases at the time of the Wakefield controversy were not objecting to vaccination to any of them, just to all of them in one shot (or more exactly in two shots at least six weeks apart). As the aim of vaccination is partly personal protection but, more crucially, the ‘herd immunity’ that is supposed to ensue (with different proportions of the vaccinated v whole population required to achieve that for different diseases with different degrees of infectivity, etc) then, given that vaccinations for all three diseases could and can be administered separately, if herd immunity was such an important goal why were separate vaccinations not made available (even at additional private cost) to those parents who withheld permission for the combined vaccine. (Answers on the back of a £10 note, please).
“When a vaccine is available…” →”if a safe, persistent vaccine is ever available, then…”
If a safe, persistent vaccine is ever available then hopefully the proportion of the vaccinated population v total population required to provide herd immunity will be low enough to accomodate any ATL refusers (so to speak) without coercion.
Thanks for a good, extensive (and above-all rational) post and replies. FWthat’sW.
Sorry, you’re absolutely right. I shouldn’t have been so sloppy.
Guys I am sorry for the ignorance. And feel free to point me in the right direction but I never know what to think when it comes to the Mr Trump, is he one of the good guys or one of the bad guys? The MSM enjoy slaughtering him, but I must say I struggle to find anything that makes him one of the good guys.
Trump is Trump’s guy.
And he’s not Hillary! Got to be a plus. 😀
Will
Where to begin…!
As you can imagine everyone has their own opinion of him and he is so unpredictable (either by his own making or being manipulated by others, who knows?) it is difficult to bracket him as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
But you might like to see this OffG article from February this year about Trump, his tenure and his opponents and read the reader comments below it to get a broad idea of opinions.
https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/23/the-devils-comb-over/
Trump is Trump. Quite possibly, a real human. Like him-hate him-he’s still Trump. He is knowable. It won’t get any better than this. ‘They’ will never let it happen again.
“Quite possibly, a real human.”
This. But only possibly 😉
Hope, I believe , is ones admitting their powerlessness, and then lazily attaching to warm and fuzzy wishes. Politicians like that word. They know it relaxes us and makes us feel empowered while napping.
Optimism, I find, employs our inherent powers of visualization which cut through the crust of reality to see optimistic possibilities. Sadly, we seem to be in a world run by psychopaths who are in conflict with them selves and we are irrelevant other than to pay for their convoluted exploits.
I don’t agree with Trump on many things, but he hasn’t changed. That is amazing to me. So…what is a ‘Real Human?’ It could be that the value of being one’s self is the greatest contribution we can make here. Just being real. Trump seems to be that. This makes me optimistic.I have no problem if I am wrong. I’m optimistic.
I’m an eternal optimist, Axis..it’s funny because I’m also very grumpy 😀
I also agree about Trump. (insert obligatory “I’m no fan, but…” ) I get slated for it regularly…
“‘They’ will never let it happen again.”
You got that right. They’re going to try hard to never let *anything* happen again
You guys are courageous and essential. Thanks for all you do! You have become a “go to” place in a world a swirl with fake new, hysteria and dodgy agendas
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing what you do, Off-G. Your hard work is more important now than ever. Keep fighting the good fight!
Peace and love,
Gwyn.
Lol.
And the sheep bleated and ran from the sheepdog thinking they had cleverly outfoxed their hunter.
And went exactly where the Shepherd wanted.
——–
Have a good year Off-G and hope that you can use sime of the funds in installing a better commentor database and other improvements on content and layout. Things can always be improved.
I thought you were done groanin’ . . . or perhaps I should take your “lol” as good-humoured…? In any case, sheep going where the shepherd wanted is generally considered to be a good thing – for the sheep – and always assuming we’re talking about a “good shepherd” of course. But since we are not sheep here, and I personally find sentimentality repelling, one might consider what is being said in the current context to be a sincere expression of solidarity amongst people who clearly prefer cold truth to warm, fuzzy falsehood and who know what they are talking about. Relaxing enough to spend a little time expressing heartfelt support does not have to entail switching off one’s critical faculties. It’s not an either/or thing.
Have a good year too, Dun.
Thanks to the off-Guardian also, for all their good work.
For not only do we have a political system in which worldwide few can get politicians whom they feel actually represent them, the ones we have are tending to be ever more threatening of what remains of our free speech. And the off-G appears to be one of the very few places where anyone is still allowed to have much of that, and this virus crisis has shown more than ever how desperately such lacunae of freedom and reason are needed.
Though I don’t agree with everything that David Icke says (as the world’s best known conspiracy theorist) what he did say that I think was right, it it’s not the people who all think and act the same who change the world (for better or worse bear in mind) but those who dare to think and act differently.
Which the off-G is certainly doing and allowing the voices of others who dare to think differently to be heard, in what is otherwise largely a most pernicious and shameless global attack on freedom of speech and expression.
We are the few thinkers left!
I’d still allow for the probability that there are countless excellent thinkers out there who have never heard of OffG. After all, it is not reported in the media too much, is it? : ) I certainly came upon it purely by accident myself (or perhaps karma?).
Thank you, Off-Guardian! We need sites like this more than ever…
A while back, I drew attention to a report in a German newspaper about medical lawyer Beate Bahner attempting to try the BRD for violating. Germany’s constitution. Here’s an excerpt (translation):
But sadly it has not gone well for Frau Bahner. Here’s some excerpts from the latest news on her case from a KenFM report:
The stakes could hardly be higher. It seems that whatever and whoever is behind this global coup has committed entirely to this gambit. If they quit now they risk full exposure.
Very dangerous times. The new Corona laws in the UK now makes it possible for only one doctor (where previously it was two, in agreement) to ‘section’ a person under the Mental Health Act (ie. have them committed to a psychiatric unit, which are secure units, and very likely also forcibly ‘medicated’). A bent doctor, one acting under the influence of a government agency for example, and your freedom (or what passes for freedom) can be taken away just like that.
Happily, there appears to have been some Chinese whispers involved in the creation of the article I excerpted from above. It seems Beate Bahner is not undergoing psychiatric treatment, she recently announced her withdrawal from public activity to recover her equilibrium. Prior to announcing this temporary retreat, she issued a satirical set of ‘new laws’ that are the inverse of the Shutdown Laws, which include articles such as these:
Fighting words!
And here is a timetable of recent activity concerning Bahner:
7 April: Bahner publishes her opinion that the Shutdown is unconstitutional; the biggest legal scandal in Germany’s (BRD’s) history.
8 April: Bahner submits expedited appeal (“Eilantrag”) to the Federal Constitutional Court, and the VGH Baden-Württenberg
9 April: Preliminary proceedings begun against Bahner due to her public incitement to criminal activity in the form of an invitation to “Corona Virus 2020: Never again with us!” Bahner’s homepage locked by Mannheim Police
10 April: Federal Constitutional Court denies Bahner’s expedited appeal
Source
This is both embarrassing and troubling, but things are moving so fast and I’m juggling personal and professional duties from moment to moment… My original comment is in fact correct. Apologies for this back and forth!!
This is from the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung (RNZ):
Sad and grave times for Germany and the world! My thoughts go out to Beate Bahner, her friends and her loved ones.
She’s probably a shill. All a bit too obvious and overburdened.
Thank you very much Off Guardian! Your website and articles have been a beacon of light in these pan-demonic times. We’ve just been locked up, 1.3 billion of us, in India for an additional 19 days after 21 days of brutal lockdown. I’ve pointed many to your website and you have a small “following” here in rural south India. Keep up the brave work!
And I make things worse in India the police only allow certain chosen people to go get necessities! Caste system still alive and well in India
I can’t thank you enough for being the voice of rational reason and a guiding light of the fundamental practices of journalism.
Off Guardian:
Where REAL journalism happens.
Truly appreciate everything you have done on this Covid19 story, and all the other stories you’ve published OffG.
Have only been coming here 1.5 years or so, but this site here, right now, is one of the few remaining sane rational hangouts on the Internet. Thru these articles, have discovered other sites and blogs I never knew about (like wrenchinthegears)
Thank you for being here✌️
No. Thank You Off Guardian.
I’ve been a long time reader, but only occasional commenter. Maybe it’s the isolation, the insanity of events (or my own), but commenting here right now is highly cathartic.
On top of that, I must applaud your cadence of high quality articles.
Also, I must thank the excellent commenters here. It’s like being stuck together virtually on an island that makes less sense than the one in Lost.
Thank you OffG, you’re reporting during this time is keeping me sane.
Pretty well exactly what I feel
Also reminds me of what sanity actually is.
Crisis Actress
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8213971/Woman-caught-coronavirus-despite-self-isolating-believes-passed-bag-groceries.html
https://twitter.com/rachel_brummert?lang=en
http://rachelbrummert.com/media/
To feature Rachel in a media story, please contact her at [email protected]
In the movie The Eagle has landed Churchill had a doppelganger ( a crisis actor?) which begs the question as to whether Johnson ( who thinks he’s Churchill – he’s but not fat enough ) had a Doppelganger ( crisis actor) as a decoy to the virus?
You know the problem with inveterate liars is that when they are actually telling the truth – no one believes them Mr Aaronovitch.
There’s a book to be written about that:
” Truths that Amazingly really were Truths! ”
Or one of those Top Twenty things you never knew about on on Youtube.
Did you know that wearing a gaudy and loud cardigan or jumper formerly worn by ex Tory Whip Gyles Brandreth really does keep Covid at Bay.
You live and learn.
Particularly from the BBC output.
Sometimes I think Jackanory has been revived – particularly 24 hour news.
BoJo hasn’t yet matched the EVIL Churchill wreaked in India, but then he’s just beginning his UGLY reign of HUBRIS.
Dinkum I see you pissed off the Churchill fans! Good he was a evil bastard who hated his own people and preferred being half french and half American a lot more than he actively liked English people
This is important, and blatant. Thanks for spotting this fraudster. This woman claimed to have been sexually assaulted while making a film on that topic last year. She created a career out of a terrible drug reaction several years ago, which seems to have led to a job as writer for the US Food and Drug Administration. Now she claims to have gotten COVID from her grocery bag. She’s available for interviews, she tells us.
Sounds dangerously unhinged.
Or, what used to be known as “a dishonest person”…
Quarantine her. It might be catching.
Crisis actors have been exposed before, paid for and employed by the government.
If my wife can find out what she is in two clicks, you’d think a squad of journalists in the UK and US would have. How much exposure has this shill had in the media…
Are you a shill too?
I was joking, Jay. I could not be further away from being a shill, and of course the main point of your comment is quite true. By saying, “Quarantine her”, I was precisely supporting what you say by indicating what the media should have done with her, instead of giving her their stamp of approval – as well as the time of day.
Don’t be too ready to accuse. There are not many OffG readers and regular commenters here who would be daft enough to expect to get away with shilling.
We are here to expose that, but not to try and find it where it is least likely to exist.
That said, many have mentioned how easy it is to misunderstand text when there is no facial expression or personal familiarity with the writer to go along with it. We all have to do our best to cope in that respect.
MoA mentioned the following yesterday
‘Off-Guardian creates an army of strawmen. Then launches a war against them.
Why are some respected alt-media embracing a permanent police state?
Is anyone aware of any alt-media which are doing what Off-Guardian alleges? I haven’t seen any.’
Since I didn’t see the strawman, I decided to plough through the comments and see if I had missed something. Of the first 150 comments that I went through, I found none that showed what type of strawmen OffG had allegedly created to fight a war with. I did find some ad hominems and some strawmen towards offG which I will not repeat here. Lots of statistics too (in the terms of lies, damned lies and statistics). Their stronghold, it appeared to me, is that in the absence of evidence you should impose martial law (never mind Sweden, Germany, and the fact that the moment Spring sets in, coronadeaths start to plummet in a country or region, independent of how long a country or region was in lockdown). It was as like they didn’t have an argument, which is bad enough as I used to value the commenters there, similar as to b, quite a lot.
From a psychological point of view (crude maybe from a non-psychologist like me, but still), it occurred to me that many want to be saved by someone who does the saving for them. As in that way they don’t have to save themselves . Perhaps this explains part of the puzzle of why so many alt media (with their commenters) fall in line with the state? Do they want to be protected by the state, so that they do not have to protect themselves? So that when the state says, ‘do this’, people will do that under the assumption that it will save them from disaster?
For example, there are a number of commenters there who, even though they do not like Bill Gates (see the cognitive dissonance there), like Bill Gates with his mass vaccination and microchipping plans. There are also many who talk about chloroquine and zinc as treatment. And then of course, they also gloat about all the self isolating and mask wearing that is adviced by ‘experts’ and or governments.
And this is interesting as Bill Gates’ dreams, chloroquine/ zinc treatments, wearing masks and lockdown measures are completely unfounded theories and just beliefs in how Covid19 should be prevented/treated, and which is therefore just as good as any advice from a witchdoctor or fraud. Mindboggling at the least…
It was not all bad though and I did find some sentences (that I copy-pasted below) that I found encouraging. Here you go:
‘I agree very much with the Off-Guardian article, some alt-media bloggers or are missing ( exhausted or on yearly long Easter celebrations when there is nowhere to go to do that…) or are not denouncing the obvious.’
‘I actually find OffG quite rational compared to the relentless bombardment of fear being generated by the corporate media.’
‘I cannot disagree that many so-called leftists seem to be as eager to accept the MSM covid narrative (in particular the questionable reporting of death figures, the fear mongering, and the quick acceptance of authoritarian measures) as they were to accept the Russiagate nonsense.’
‘The thing is that Off-G and others of similar opinion have just as valid reason to voice concern about the actions that govts across the world have taken to cimbat COVID-19 which have the effect of destroying working class jobs and putting millions into poverty while preserving middle and upper class jobs which can be done online and remotely. For MoA to criticise Off-G in the way it has looks like a cheap shot.’
‘Does anyone here actually read the NYT or WAPO? Why would anyone, they have a long history of being proven liars? It does not take very much imagination to see what is happening here. A fragile system that has been on the edge of breakdown for decades has finally met the crisis that is going to take it down.’
Anyway, it remains kind of a mystery to me why so many interesting alt media have completely bought the story about this deadly virus that can only be eradicated by introducing the police-state. Maybe it is because they all went simultaneously mad because ‘men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one’
If so, even more Kudos for OffG to keep rationality on track, as a candle in the dark.
We should, however, take into account the scenario where the virus is not the crisis at all, but the excuse behind which the real crisis – Deliberate, Greed-Engendered World Banking Crisis, Mk II – is hiding, until it has no alternative but to come out into the daylight for air. And when that happens, we must not be shy about naming names, and shaming them out of a job, because what they have done, and are now doing, is nothing less criminal or treasonous than sabotaging civilization.
While some of us can still recognize intelligence and decency, we have to pave the way for those qualities to regain their logical status as the basic requirements for any person wanting to be considered worthy of calling themselves representatives of a nation.
The bumpkins and halfwits currently governing us, dullards who fancy themselves as “alpha males” or suffer from some other such narcissistic delusions, have to be made, bluntly, by a non-politically correct society of the near future, to realize the error of their ways, and to pay a price high enough to act as a serious deterrent to all egomaniacs who presume to wreck the world “for our own good”.
Agree with everything that has been said. This site has been an oasis of rational and critical thought among a desert of hysteria and manipulation. Well done.
I can’t thank you enough for your diligent reporting of the truth.
So many posts to give the thumbs up to here 🙂
Just gave you a thumbs-up Reg.
Thanks, Off-G. Love you guys.
Thanx you guys. Will go back to monthly donation. Can spare a couple of quid now. It means a lot having the OG. Up until recently I still went the very odd time to the Guardian. Cannot bear it now, it’s a singularly unpleasant experience.
Agree! The Guardian that is.
An average day…nearly boxing with a covid clown lecturing me in Farmfoods, class.
I was going in to my local Farmfoods and was holding the door for a man just behind me. He declined and was waiting the approved 2m. I said something like: “it’s fine if you don’t believe this crap, I don’t”.
He didn’t seem too pleased and proceeded to lecture me on my “irresponsibility”. I replied that I didn’t believe the “hype”.
The clown got more upset and accused me of being a “conspiracy theorist”, I told Him I expect He’d believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The smart arse said He didn’t, I replied “sure you didn’t”. He then hissed at me, “I have just came in to my shopping”. I replied, “so have I, but don’t expect me to believe all the lies”. He was going redder in the face and he started to swear at me. I told Him, swear at me again and it will be the last thing you do.
He marched out the door to meet His little wife at the Aldi next door.
Later on,
Drove past a massive car smash, talked to a lady jogging nearby who said that the traffic lights at the junction had been out of commision.
Oh Joy, she turned out to be a nurse and we had a ‘nice’ little chat about the statistics of this pandemic which don’t seem to add up…I was easily able to destroy her arguments.
Yesterday
The Lord seems to be providing these happy little opertunities…I was able to grill a local pastor. Just why, the churches had simply slunk away without a challenge…Was it Christian to follow government advice. Did Christ self isolate from the leper, don’t visit the sick and the old etc…
He said we should obey our government, I said so if the government orders us to implant a mark on our hand or forehead that would enable us to buy an sell, we should do so…?
Anyway, He slunk away…
He did say He was going to deliver Easter Eggs…I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Easter Eggs are pagan, I know weans like chocolate and I am not a covidiser.
so if the government orders us to implant a mark on our hand or forehead that would enable us to buy an sell, we should do so…?
good catch.
for those who would like to try this argument for themselves, here’s the reference:
Really makes you wonder about the brazenness of some of the corruption in our midst…
It’s as if there were a small percentage of human beings – even children – who have such a deep urge to be contrary (Satan = the Resister) that it becomes a defining characteristic of theirs.
I mean, imagine going to see Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”, his full-length feature cartoon from the 1950s… Imagine watching the mesmerizingly evil witch, Maleficent, doing her horrid best against the princess and her prince, and thinking, “Yes! That’s the life for me!”
Or maybe reading the Book of Revelation, and thinking, “Hey, what a good idea! Let’s have a society where nobody can buy or sell anything without having a mark on their hand or forehead. I’ll be the one to apply the mark, and I’ll get a fat commission for every specimen I process! I’ll be okay, and nobody will notice that this was prophesied in one of the books in the Bible, since people don’t read that serious stuff these days …”
If this doesn’t reawaken Christians, nothing will…
Parole may be closing, sources of information are drying up….
2 Thessalonians 2:10 -11
Sorry jay but most western Christians are very bad at being Christians
Gandhi, when asked what he thought of our western religion: “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians; your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I too have been wondering about that verse over this past week as various announcements are made as to how post-COVID life will be like. I’m very encouraged I was not alone in the OffG community.
We’ll surely be tracked via our phones, even chipped like dogs and linked to a database showing our COVID immunity status and therefore our rights of access to the rest of the controlled community.
Perhaps now is the time to head off into the wilderness and escape this madness, and evil. It may be too late already though.
No wildernesses left, I’m afraid… All bought and sold. Apart from the worlds we can create in our own souls, we seem to be rather trapped. Yet who would have thought, fifty years ago, that a British person could write such a thing about his society?
But I find it most interesting, and very encouraging, that the critical thinking and industrious digging which obviously goes on amongst many of the commenters here at OffG should also lead occasionally into serious contemplation of religious wisdom. I am far from being a religious freak myself, so I would not welcome OffG becoming a Bible study group, but, at least philosophically speaking, perhaps soon we’ll even succeed in reuniting religion and science as the inseparable components of education which they used to be in ancient times.
It seems that one of the devil’s favourite tricks is to separate things which are essentially one, and encourage people to lose themselves in the intricacies of the broken bits… It would be a great thing to encourage those who have more interest in healing than in dissecting to redress the balance in that respect – to remember what the whole once was from which the broken bits fell. Suddenly H.C. Andersen’s story of The Snow Queen comes vividly to mind…
I recommend reading it rather than looking for a Hollywood movie version. Reading is such a stimulus for the imagination, while Hollywood just wants to show us their box-office names and their computer technology. No mental stimulus at all.
“…serious contemplation of religious wisdom. I am far from being a religious freak myself…at least philosophically speaking, perhaps soon we’ll even succeed in reuniting religion and science as the inseparable components of education which they used to be in ancient times..”
I see that trend too Wardropper and hope it will continue. Our brightest minds and their biggest and most expensive machines have, just down the road from me, now ground to a halt in their search for the “God Particle” and their “theory of everything”. They don’t know which way to turn now, there’s no way in the foreseeable future that governments will find yet more countless tens of billions to sink into this bottomless research pit with very questionable ROI.
It seems that the more we discover, the less we know as to how and why we are here in the first place. I think that ultimately physics and metaphysics are inseperable, and only by considering both will we ever begin to understand the “big questions”, but I doubt CERN scientists will ever take that route, so it’ll need to be another team who can combine the physical findings with metaphysics.
Yes indeed. I can’t see “wisdom” ever becoming a popular pursuit among mankind, but I think a great number of people do, nevertheless, privately wonder how and why we are here in the first place.
I am also modestly aware that people are at many different levels of spiritual, moral and intellectual development. It’s just a fact, and it makes perfect sense to me that this should be the case. Learning and creativity could hardly flourish if we were ALL like Buddha and Jesus – or like Atila the Hun and Donald Trump for that matter…
What matters is that people are striving to achieve something which they cannot yet manage. What Nietzsche called the “wretched comfort”, which most people spend their lives trying to acquire, is a great enemy of human development.
Where have you been for the last decade and a half?
That section of The Apocalypse needs to be advertised more widely. I find it impossible any longer not to see the parallels in modern western life. In normal times, I might have thought you were rather hard on the pastor, but today, I’d say he really needs to wake up and take the Scriptures a bit more seriously. You probably saved his soul.
Incidentally, it’s not just the wee’uns that like chocolate…
I remember being disappointed when I was 13 and, for the first time, didn’t get an Easter Egg from my favourite aunt. Sufficiently disappointed even to mention it to her… Slightly tongue-in-cheek, I teased her and told her I was devastated.
She said, “You’re not a bairn any more, what do you want an Easter Egg for?”
I replied, “Well, I still like chocolate, don’t I?” She face-palmed, of course.
Religious considerations didn’t enter into the matter at all, and they still don’t when I’m eating chocolate – egg-shaped or not…
As children, we used to roll an egg on Easter Sunday as in rolling away the stone…
It seems from your account of the extended interaction that followed that you were prepared to be courteous to him until he showed some sign of not being of your religion, whereupon you delayed his entry into the shop by continuing to hold the door open in order to lecture him on his stupidity, instead of shrugging, letting the door go and entering so he and you both could get on with his shopping and you with yours.
Tell me, you aren’t the guy I saw in the deli section are you? The one who saw an orthodox Jew with some matzos in his cart picking up some smoked salmon and shouted at him that you don’t believe any of the kosher crap his sort believe, before grabbing a bacon and cheese salami, knocking him to the floor and shoving it down his throat till he choked?
What do you do when your bitch says she wants a kiss? Drop your trousers and sit on her face?
Certainly can relate to “We’ve been attacked, sometimes in pretty unscrupulous ways, by some we used to call friends and colleagues.”
Those “others” are still asleep and are not ready or unwilling to see truth. It’s too scary. It threatens their belief systems. But your readers are here because we believe in a singular purpose: stand in your truth and do not be afraid to yield that sword of Light.
Beautiful comment and I love your empathy
I’ve been at this for a few decades now (documenting and disseminating information to combat the US corporate government lies) and I must say that as insane as things have been in the past during the days of GHW Bush war crimes and lies, 9/11, WMD’s, Yellow Cake, Avian Flu hysteria, Judith Miller, Gaddafi rape camp lies, White Helmet lies, Swine Flu panic, Chavez as brutal dictator and on and on…this is quantitatively far more insane than any of those other media/government/corporate lies.
I am fastidious in steering clear of hyperbole and any sort of emotional appeals. I will break that rule here and say that your reportage here is nothing less than heroic not only in light of the madness surrounding us but also given the immense pressures that are being placed on individuals to conform to the official narrative.
Now on to this little tidbit from across the pond.
No doubt everyone is hearing of the horrid conditions in NYC but first keep in mind that in NYC alone there is a death every 9.1 minutes in the “best” of times.
Now over the last two weeks, the city’s fire officials said more than 2,192 New York City residents died in their homes, compared to 453 during the same time period last year. On average there are 25 deaths in home per week in NYC- last Tuesday for example there was 256. The reason? People are afraid to go to the hospitals, cardiologists are confirming this, lest they get infected with the “killer virus.” This means when they are in the early stages of cardiac arrest, for example, they stay at home and some don’t make it.
NYC officials stated that they WILL NOT be conducting tests on these at home deaths nor will they be doing any diagnostics on the cadavers.
NYC officials also confirmed that they will begin to count suspected COVID-19 deaths in addition to cases confirmed by a laboratory.
Stephanie Buhle, a spokeswoman for the New York City’s Health Department, confirmed the change in protocol.
“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and the NYC Health Department are working together to include into their reports deaths that may be linked to COVID but not lab confirmed that occur at home.”
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in his infinite wisdom acknowledged that the vast majority of deaths taking place at home were likely also due to COVID-19. No tests, no diagnosis but the mayor with his crystal ball stated:
“We do want to know the truth about every death at home, but it’s safe to assume that the vast majority are coronavirus related.”
That’s his exact quote.
What will this do to the COVID death count? What will this also do to the excess mortality rate as people are fearful of getting immediate treatment for very serious life or death conditions?
The same thing is happening in the UK. People scared to go to hospital and then dying at home of either their underlying health conditions or heart attack, etc. Death certificate issued without a doctor seeing the body or any autopsy. Death certificate – ‘Coronavirus’. Until about 2 months ago, doctor had to see the body, two doctors to sign death certificate and autopsy performed. Children’s doctors also reporting seeing very ill children (finally) because everyone has been told not to present at Accident and Emergency, not to phone for an ambulance, not to phone 111 and not to bother their General Practitioner.
In addition, anyone dying in a ‘care’ home (older People) is counted as having ‘Coronvirus’. People usually die in these homes anyway because they are very elderly and usually ill with health conditions.
Hi Country Girl
I know this is off topic here, but I wanted to respond to you as you raise the matter of care home deaths.
I posted a detailed comment on one of the other threads specifically about this matter. Putting it bluntly, Covid-19 is being used as a means to cull elderly and frail people.
The social distancing measures have undoubtedly led to residents in care homes becoming confused and isolated, leading to vulnerability and losing the will to live and more prone to infection. No medical staff visit care homes and it is left to care home staff to report, remotely, what they suspect might be coronavirus infection to GPs which could be based on a high temperature reading alone; they might in fact be dealing with a routine and common UTI which could in normal circumstances be sorted out with an antibiotic.
Still without any GP or nurse in attendance, a decision is made as to next steps. That decision is based on a NICE Covid-19 frailty flowchart. The upshot is that, by the nature of the patients, the majority of cases will automatically be placed on an ‘end of life’ protocol i.e. no hospitalisation or treatment, palliative care only. Many elderly people are being consigned to a premature death because of the protocol for treating suspect cases, not because of the infection itself.
Good be why our death rates are looking worse than some countries. I suspect some countries (Scandinavians?) are much more humane to their older persons.
To be fair, didn’t the two doctors thing only come in after Shipman?
Also, you didn’t always need an autopsy. Depended on circumstances. I’d think autopsies relatively unusual actually, unless “foul play” was suspected.
Been an education and a sanctuary to keep on the sane path.
Is there any other mode of payment asides online transactions?
I emailed re this question, Arse. Hoping for bank details, or sending a cheque, or even handing over cash if nearby.
No response yet, but I guess they’re all quite busy. 🙂
Use a prepay credit card if you don’t want Off-Guardian admins to know your real surname is (also) Biscuits, you don’t have or don’t want to use regular credit card/s, you don’t have a VISA or similar stamped debit card or don’t want to use it, or you don’t want to open a PayPal account. Note that prepay cards won’t do recurring payments.
*Numerous Internet sites offer free temporary (some even permanent) anonymous email addresses: search on Google or whatever.
Social Isolation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4890253/
Snippets:
“Isolation involves both the restriction of environmental stimuli and the reduction in the quantity and the quality of stimuli that are psychologically and socially meaningful. Often it is the reduction in social interaction that is the more problematic.”
….
“As human beings we rely on social contact to inform our perception of the world, the environment, ourselves and of reality. Social connectedness is a pre-requisite to long-term social adjustment and a lack of social contact makes it difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not or what is external to what is internal [17]. We often assess and maintain our own personality and sense of self and identity by seeing how we are reflected in the behaviour and responses towards us of other people, a process termed in 1902 the ‘looking glass self’ [18]. Social cognition would also suggest that our minds are in part comprised from other minds; consequently, isolation from other people can lead to cognitive dysfunction, mental withdrawal and in some cases complete psychological dissolution [19].”
………
“Complete isolation degrades cognitive function and coupled with social isolation can destroy the personality [29]. The effects are difficult, although not impossible, to resist and rapidly produce psychopathology even in healthy people. Almost every study of non-voluntary isolation has found negative psychological effects from confinement that lasted 10 days or more consistent with general signs of maladjustment ”
…..
” regression. This period of anxiety and adjustment to the isolation routine lasts from 1 to 3 weeks. Further isolation of 4–6 weeks leads to a feeling of dejection and increasing dependency, loss of initiative and spontaneous activity, lack of interest in personal appearance, immobility and vacant gaze. The process suggests that inactivity and lack of social contact leads to a loss of meaning which in turn leads to despair. The victim then focuses on this despair, which becomes self-perpetuating. It is this loss of meaning that seems to trigger a failure to adapt to an isolated environment. The initial onset of severe apathy and lethargy leads to an inability to concentrate, to think cogently and to initiate behaviour suggesting impairment in executive function “
Thank you for this, clickkid.
Every evening at 7:00pm when the pot bangers make their appearance on the local balconies I’m reminded of those old prison movies where the inmates showed their anger by knocking their tin cups on the bars.
— except in this case they’re celebrating their imprisonment. The people who are angry are not participating in this festival of conformity and obedience.
True, milosevic. But I did see several grocery shoppers pushing their carts up the down aisle today. So there’s hope.
Oh yes, there were also the guys in the parking lot talking about brain washing.
OffGaurdian is such a critical resource – I’ll be doubling my patreon contribution – wish I could contribute more
Sitting next to the wife as goes through all the facebook posts of Her friends and family singing happy covid captive songs, people making tasty “disgusting foods”, children doing things, animals…..arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jean-Paul Sartre said Hell was being locked forever in a room with your friends.
We owe it to all at Off G for maintaining its stance on the panic virus and for keeping us all informed of the real research being carried out. Thank you and well done
So pleased Off G getting a significant increase in readership. Looking at the huge number of different comments I can see many new voices.
Two things spring to mind also. One, aside from the great discussion of the issues here, I think alot of people are very anxious in many ways and posting here and listening has helped many in dark times. Ive read some great stories from people I can relate to. So hope everyone will continue being supportive to fellow posters and when hopefully this resolves newer readers will continue here.
Secondly my mum was saying to me over dinner that Julian Assange (commenting on him apparently fathering children) has had years of his life wasted in embassy and prison etc. I thought for a moment and replied that I dont think Assange would see it like this. He is in a fight for the human race and his sacrifice a necessary part of it.
Like other heroes from history who fought tyranny.
I guess in a smaller way similar to this site and its readers fighting to spread news of many of the scandals Assange uncovered. I told my mum if Assange and others like us dont fight, there will be nothing left for our children and grandchildren. So sacrifice is necessary. My mum was quite impressed by that. But worth keeping in mind during dark days – and if we emerge intact and humanity stronger we will be part of those who achieved that.
Thank you Loverat. This morning I read this article and the commenters posts. I came back to it this evening. I wanted more. Bless you Off G and all you brilliant passionate people who participate.
Like you, I am sure Assange is aware that what he is doing is making a sacrifice, but I still worry greatly that his general awareness will suffer as a result of his unheard-of treatment at the hands of these usurping “authorities”, and he may end up simply perishing, not aware of anything at all. If any of us has a glimpse of an idea of anything we could do to end his torture, I hope they will let us know as soon as possible. It’s just unbearable to think that this could actually happen in 21st Century Britain. The people who have made it possible are sub-human. Sub-animal, in fact: After all, what animal chooses to torture one of its own kind?
These are the people who are the viruses in our society – and they are far worse than any corona variety. Just look at the fatalities they cause!
Great respect and solidarity, Off-G people. I’ve argued quite a bit with some of the conclusions being aired here about the crisis – still think it’s all rather uncertain, but the ‘no pandemic’ hypothesis still seems to be a credible contender to me, despite the equally persuasive opposing indications. I”ll stick with ‘wait and see’ for now. But in any case, this outfit is doing a vital job, and gets my continuing support regardless. Keep sluggin’ friends! 🙂
I second that, it’s freedom of speech and non-censorship that make Off-G outstanding. Even more so in these dark times. Much respect and long may it last.
https://youtu.be/HMiHoI5d8Po
The Promentory: the last of the mochicans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ryJDVuZ6k
They even cutt off the coments on this one, even when there isnt an spoken word in it.
When I go for battle, this one reverberates in every cell in my body.
Its an good time to die in.
An true warrior isnt afraid or hates whats infront of Him, because the love of this behind Him.
peace
The complete soundtrack is one of my all time favourites and Promentory gives me goosebumps 🙂 As you say, if you were going into a battle, this is a fitting accompaniment ! It also brings a great sense of calm when all about you is losing theres.
One might presume that many people who visit this site live in a system that has been called “democracy”. Has anyone of you ever attempted, as a civilian, to ask for permission to read the report, hopefully based on solid empirical evidence, that justifies the current measures of social isolation? Does one have the right to really know why one is imprisoned? Would a civilian have the right to do so in a so-called democracy or is it all more about being an obedient consumer and preferably not a too smart one?
Suppose you had real power: would you share your actual knowledge with the populace, realizing that actual true knowledge is power?
Why do the mainstream media never report about the infamous “germ theory”?
Why is Bill Gates so eager to inoculate EVERYONE on the planet? Is one allowed to know exactly what they are injecting into your body? Can scientists really understand the complexity of that which we call “reality”? Only 4% of this reality consists of matter: what happens if one simply ignores the other 96%? Forced inoculation will soon be introduced in Denmark. Several different companies in Sweden already require RFID chips (the size of a rice grain) to be implanted in the hands of their employees so that they can enter a building or use a copier. The project of chipping the entire population in India is well underway …
Hello to Off Guardian
You’ve all done a great job presenting additional information.
Though it may seem a lonely battle, you’ve not been alone.
There have been other questioners out there
My latest of many questions is as follows
2017/2018 the US had an unprecedented flu season and the country kept chugging along.
What I’m wondering is why the entire nation didn’t shut down during that “pandemic”
And I’ve posed a few questions at my own blog..
I’m just asking why?
*Was it because the stock market wasn’t on the verge of collapse?
*The derivative bubble was still expanding?
* Liquidity wasn’t an issue?
* Was it due to the fact that since a vaccine was widely available the powers that shouldn’t be didn’t want to draw attention to the fact their vaccine was a fail?
Just wanted to share this information. Perhaps others may be interested in this info?
Or perhaps others can suggest reasons as to why this flu season rated no notice while the Covid 1984 has resulted in lockdowns and tyranny
Hi OffG, is it possible to post bank details like Craig Murray does for those who don’t (want to) use paypal or bitcoin, or do you need us to email the admins for this?
Murray and his goons er.. ‘mods’ buy totally into the MSM narrative, and get vicious with anyone who disagrees. They appear to have mental health issues there. I would not give them another penny, never mind look at his blog.
Use a prepay credit card if you don’t want Off-Guardian admins to know your real name, you don’t have or don’t want to use regular credit card/s, you don’t have a VISA or similar stamped debit card or don’t want to use it, or you don’t want to open a PayPal account. Note that prepay cards won’t do recurring payments.
– Hit the PayPal button at the end of each article.
– Type in the amount
-Leave the ‘Make this a monthly donation’ box UNticked (recurring payments need a PayPal account)
-Hit “Donate with a card“
-Fill in the details. Use the ‘name’ printed on the card. ‘Billing address’ details may not be needed. Try it and see. If they insist and you want anonymity, get inventive*. Same with ‘Contact info’ details
-Leave the ‘save information’ box UNticked
-Hit ‘Agree and donate now’.
*Numerous Internet sites offer free temporary (some even permanent) anonymous email addresses: search on Google or whatever.
Recipients don’t have access to any bank details or anything else about the people who donate to them through PayPal or Patreon. All we see is a name and email address.
I’m aware of that re PayPal. I know nothing about Patreon, but PayPal states it clearly on their payments page. In my first (ordered list) post I was more into giving myself a private laugh at the notion of donations arriving from Mr A. Biscuit and Mr J. Biscuit (a.k.a. Arse and John) and not much into explaining that the name on the card is not transmitted over the card operator’s networks (VISA, Mastercard, etc.) between the card processor and the card acquirer or the card issuer: it stops at the card processor’s system and is mostly just discarded but may be used by some to feed the various cardholder detection and tracking services that are on offer, primarily to reduce the incidence of fraud and charge backs. So while the Off-Guardian might not see any more detail than a name and an email address that does not mean somebody of the tracking sort doesn’t, if only in a minority of instances. In a couple of subsequent cut and pastes (no ol) I made the quickest patch I could manage to bury the reference to the Biscuit brothers. As an advanced retiree I sometimes allow myself the indulgence of being a bit less than boringly business-literal about that sort of thing and substitute a private joke or two in lieu of strict accuracy. My bad.
Incidentally, many card processors/acquirers are now offering a direct bank to bank transfer option for those who don’t want to use plastic. This is electronically equivalent to doing an ordinary bank counter transfer from a reader’s bank account to Off-Guardian’s (analogous to writing a cheque). It uses the interbanking system network, not one of the credit card system networks. Only the two banks concerned get any information about the transaction. Instant clearance/rejection. It’s a one-off process: readers don’t have to have ‘internet banking’ enabled on their account. Don’t know if recurring payments are possible, nor if PayPal offers it yet or ever. Not all banks are signed up yet. Of those signed up already, not all handle multicurrency transactions. Usually called something like ‘Bank-to-Bank’ or similar. It’s a online hosted service, not locally installable: use an API to package up a request and send it off to a portal where the webform and software lives. Reader ‘experience’ is similar to that of an ordinary online plastic transaction. That’s all I know about it. Never used it personally or as a business. Ask PayPal or your bank?
And that, only what an ordinary bank counter transfer or cheque (after cashing) transaction gets: bank names, account numbers and names, amount, merchant reference (e.g. invoice number); nothing else.
Presumably just the merchant reference and merchant password and/or some related security data…
You are very welcome, all @ Off-Guardian.
The ‘territory’ of holding in and for true witness against all manner of errors and deceits is that of transformation. We either deepen our faith of lose it. (More accurately we lose awareness of where we are giving it under fear). My sense is that hanging in with life works a different outcome than letting fear shut us down – even though it rises and can – if we could then bear to live with a sense of self-betrayal.
That so many are so easily triggered to hate and to destructive agenda under flimsy premise aggressively asserted is likely a symptom of such a sense of self-betrayal NOT finding articulation or understanding and thus already primed to WANT to unload onto or target ‘someone or something tangible’.
Self-hate underlies ‘humans are the virus’ etc.
When receiving the hate of others – for not supporting their beliefs or being seen to undermine or attack a war they believe in, we have an opportunity to choose not to be infected by by accepting guilt, choosing not to join in the error by hating them for their current choices, and extending a willingness for their freedom to make other choices from a recognition that they are making a choice with outcomes that may not serve them well or as they at first believed.
Fear can shut our awareness down and in those who have begun to open to a more conscious acceptance rather than simply constructing argument, that will bring undercurrents of self-betrayal that then seek escape under some other narrative attempt at justification.
I see that we can also learn by mistakes – and that blaming people for not fulfilling our desires and expectations can work against them recognising and releasing mistakes.
One of the signature characteristic of our loss of free speech and even loss of capacity to think – (asking and seeking answer as a process of thought, reflection, imagination, insight and alignment in decision and experience) – is the invitation and support for blame culture.
Any willing to engage in dialogue of both listening and speaking is still in the realm of extending human worth even if completely disagreeing. The ‘post truth’ works the blanking of the ‘invalidated’ such as to deny a voice. In a polarised battle of ‘wills’ the power to control food and energy supply may force a compliance but hardly establish anything true or therefore truly workable.
The unworkable strain of a corrupt system is a managed crash in which insiders bring it on by plundering the very process of destruction.
#Corona: The Collapse of the System (Ernst Wolff)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LYjOEib9iI&feature=emb_logo
Fear leverages funding and support for ‘new markets’ and regulatory controls to lock them in. Paying off the terrorist does not make it go away except to come for more another day.
But also to operate from integrity can oblige others to up their game- so to speak – as well as encourage solidarity in something worthy in its own right. Freedom can be confused with loveless and blind acts – but without it, we are loveless and blind.
My gratitude also extends to you.
Live this day well!
Brian
Thanks Brian. Just watched it. Brilliant – a must watch for everyone. It had to be something as big as this to cause this world-wide scam.
ICELAND REPORT: According to the Daily Mail, the tiny North Atlantic country has randomly tested 10% of its entire population, in order to get a more accurate picture of the COVID-19 situation:
The article goes on to remind the reader that Iceland is not under lockdown.
And – see Brian’s video link above. Iceland actually jailed their crooked bankers, so their no lockdown likely means that they know what is going on and thus have no need of it.
well done, Off-G
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”
Q.E.D.
Thank you too offg. This and one or two other places has been an island of sanity in an ocean of madness. I enjoy many of the thought provoking and informative articles, but I find also that it is good to be able to write openly. I find it helpful to be able to put out in public and in writing some of my thoughts and ideas.
I had the weirdest dream last night. I was outside with a group of maybe fifteen or so people and I was walking alongside Julian Assange who was on my right and wearing dark clothing. He’s quite tall of course. He was telling me he had three children. “Oh, I thought you only had two?” I replied. His mother who was also in the group, then piped in enthusiastically to say, “Oh yes, he has three!” (I don’t actually know how many children he has).
It was a very strange, but in a way quite pleasant dream. Nice, of course that all in the group were free and relaxed (and outside!) I have written to Julian twice and received a reply to my first letter, though I only sent the second after the first part of the extradition hearing that is currently taking place.
His letter sent last year was short, but the message was surprisingly positive. The last time I wrote I said, “Never give up on your freedom, my friend!” A message we all perhaps at the moment need to hear.
Jeez Off-G, you nearly gave me a heart attack there! I saw the truncated title of this piece on your mainpage, “Thank You to all Our Readers and…” I thought the rest was going to say “it’s goodnight Vienna”!
All I have to say, is that without Off-G, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for me to keep going!
Snap!
Thanks OffG for your consistent laser-like focus on the data and the truth, and your opposition to hype and hysteria.
I have to admit that I was a very irregular visitor before this virus thing blew up, but that was my loss.
Bless you too and keep it up.
“Truth is a lonely warrior.”
Thank you for fighting the good fight, Off Guardian.
Keep fighting the good fight guys!
Even if I might disagree with the content of some articles and some commentators here, I don’t disagree with our rights of freedom of thought and speech.
OffG is one of the rays of sunshine that disinfects the virus of fascist propaganda. In so doing I hope you don’t swing too far in the opposite direction and alienate the many moderates here.
At the end of the day OffG is essential to keep funding and maintain against the totalitarian curtain coming down upon our world, and I will continue to donate for as long as I am able to, even as my livelihood disappears due to these unprecedented times.
Have a thumbs up.
Thank you Off Guardian and the amazing community you have for being an oasis of sanity and reason throughout a very dark period.
Just don’t start to delete comments like the Guardian!
oh, shucks :0)