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Watch Australia closely – by Alex Berenson

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

It is what happens when Omicron hits a highly vaccinated population with little preexisting natural immunity; the early returns are not promising

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/watch-australia-closely?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozMTczNjk0NywicG9zdF9pZCI6NDcyMzA3MjgsIl8iOiJPYzUvbSIsImlhdCI6MTY0MjQ0NDA3NSwiZXhwIjoxNjQyNDQ3Njc1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzYzMDgwIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.Rvj-ILBeJTM0ASIa6vWpEK2jBMPtpmcZj3LqLMfa2yM

Alex Berenson

Australia has deported Novak Djokovic for the crime of being unvaccinated.

Sending the world’s top tennis player home may make the Karens of the South feel better. Too bad it won’t solve their Omicron crisis.

Australia now averages more than 100,000 new Covid cases per day – equal to about 1.5 million in the United States. One fine day last week, it reported 175,000, the equivalent of about 2.5 million, maybe the highest per-capita total any country has ever reported.

Not even six months ago, Australia was still chasing zero Covid and patting itself on the back for “Doughnut Days” – with no new Covid infections. (Because a doughnut is shaped like a zero, see?)

Yeah, about that:

By the way, Australia is among the world’s most Covid vaccinated counties.

Its policy of open coercion and discrimination against the unvaccinated has “succeeded” – more than 95 percent of Australians 16 and over have received at least one vaccine dose, and 93 percent two doses. Those figures effectively represent full vaccination – many of the people left are probably simply too frail to tolerate Covid vaccines.

Yet, as this headline explains:

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For Leftists, Your Freedom Is Their Misery – Your Slavery Is Their Joy | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

WordPress is not Zerohedge friendly yet again. Hit the link.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/leftists-your-freedom-their-misery-your-slavery-their-joy

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

by Tyler DurdenSaturday, Jan 15, 2022 – 11:30 PM

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Is it Time for Intellectuals to Talk about God?

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

But I do think we are at an unheard-of moment in human history — globally — in which I personally believe we have no other choice but to ask for assistance from beings — or a Being — better armed to fight true darkness, than ourselves alone. We’ll find out if they exist, if He or She exists, perhaps, if we ask for God’s help.

https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/is-it-time-for-intellectuals-to-talk

Naomi Wolf
Author, 7 nonfiction bestsellers. Cofounder/CEO, DailyClout.io – which lets everyone draft, pass and share legislation. Oxford D Phil, Victorian poetry. SubscribeWritesOutspoken with Dr Naomi WolfReadsOn Substack		Naomi Wolf

I recently spoke at a gathering for medical freedom advocates in a little community center in the Hudson River Valley. I cherish this group of activists: they had steadfastly continued to gather throughout the depths of the “lockdown,” that evil time in history — an evil time not yet behind us — and they kept on gathering in human spaces, undaunted. And by joining their relaxed pot-luck dinners around unidentifiable but delicious salads and chewy homemade breads, I was able to continue to remember what it meant to be part of a sane human community.

Children played — as normal — frolicking around, and speaking and laughing and breathing freely; not suffocating in masks like little zombies, or warned by terrified adults to keep from touching other human children. Dogs were petted. Neighbors spoke to one another at normal ranges, without fear or phobias. Bands played much-loved folk songs or cool little indie rock numbers they had written themselves, and no one, graceful or awkward, feared dancing. People sat on the house’s steps shoulder to shoulder, in human warmth, and chatted over glasses of wine or homemade cider. No one asked anyone personal medical questions.

(While I believe that all decisions about how you live your life vis a vis an infectious disease are intensely personal, and I would never recommend to others to assume any specific level of risk or to pursue any specific strategy of risk reduction; I think it’s worth noting, by the way, that to my knowledge, they had gone through the last two years without having lost a soul to COVID.)

Meanwhile, what had been human community outside of that little group, and outside other isolated normal communities — and outside of a handful of normal states in America — became more and more surreal, terrifying and unrecognizable.

The rest of the world, at least on the progressive side in the United States, became increasingly cult-like and insular in its thinking, since March of 2020. As the months passed, friends and colleagues of mine who were highly educated, and who had been lifelong critical thinkers, journalists, editors, researchers, doctors, philanthropists, teachers, psychologists — all began to repeat only talking points from MSNBC and CNN, and soon overtly refused to look at any sources – even peer-reviewed sources in medical journals — even CDC data — that contradicted those talking points. These people literally said to me, “I don’t want to see that; don’t show it to me.” It became clear soon enough that if they absorbed information contradictory to “the narrative” that was consolidating, they risked losing social status, maybe even jobs; doors would close, opportunities would be lost. One well-educated woman told me she did not want to see any unsanctioned information because she was afraid of being disinvited from her bridge group. Hence the refrain: “I don’t want to see that; don’t show it to me.”

Friends and colleagues of mine who had been skeptical their whole adult lives of Big Agriculture — who only shopped at Whole Foods, who would never let their kids eat sugar or processed meat, or ingest a hint of Red Dye No 2 in candy, or eat candy itself for that matter in some cases — these same people lined up to inject into their bodies, and then offered up the bodies of their dependent minor children for the same purpose, an MRNA gene-therapy injection whose trials would not end for two more years. These parents announced on social media proudly that they had done this with their children. When I pointed out gently that the trials would not end til 2023, they yelled at me.

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If Austria and Switzerland Are Exempt From NATO Then Why Not Ukraine? — Strategic Culture

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/01/15/if-austria-and-switzerland-are-exempt-from-nato-then-why-not-ukraine/

Finian Cunningham

Moscow insists that its demand for halting NATO expansionism is inviolable. Washington insists on rejecting that. The gap in diplomacy is becoming a dangerous abyss.

American and NATO officials contend that Russia has no right to demand that Ukraine be excluded from membership of the military alliance. Such a demand is a non-starter, they say.

Meanwhile, Russia insists that it is an “absolute imperative” that Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics such as Georgia are not admitted to NATO. And Moscow wants a legal treaty stating this exclusion.

A quick reality-check amusingly reminds us that Moscow has precedent on its side of the argument. The talks between U.S., NATO and Russian officials this week are being conducted in Geneva and Vienna, the cities of two European countries, Switzerland and Austria, that are obliged to remain neutral from any military alliance.

That non-aligned status is part of the Swiss and Austrian constitutions. But part of the neutrality also stems from international consensus based on the sensitive geopolitical position of both countries in the aftermath of wars in Europe.

It is therefore not unprecedented that Russia is asking for a legal assurance that Ukraine, Georgia, or other neighboring states remain outside of the NATO military bloc.

However, the way the U.S. and NATO officials present things, it sounds as if Russia’s demands are an outrageous ultimatum that violates sovereignty and freedom. Wendy Sherman, the American Deputy Secretary of State who met with Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov in Geneva on Monday said Moscow’s demands were “a non-starter”.

“We will not allow anyone to slam closed NATO’s open-door policy, which has always been central to the alliance. We will not forgo bilateral cooperation with sovereign states that wish to work with the United States,” Sherman told reporters following her 7-hour meeting with Ryabkov.

Similar self-righteous statements were issued by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who claimed the prerogative for the alliance to include any nation to its by-now 30-member ranks. Over half of those members were added since the end of the Cold War.

Such a high-handed view is hopelessly naive or historically ignorant. American and Western European officials may be deluded in their pretense of NATO’s “peaceful” purpose. They seem ignorant of how the alliance was set up in 1949 as a military opponent of the Soviet Union and for the projection of American imperial power.

Since the supposed end of the Cold War in 1991, the warmongering record of NATO is a vividly bloodstained one of destroying nations. For NATO officials to profess peaceful credentials in the aftermath of Afghanistan’s 20-year destruction is a shocking example of their cognitive dissonance.

Ukraine is a classic case for why NATO expansion must be halted. A change of regime in Kiev in 2014 brought to power a Neo-Nazi cabal whose hatred for Russia knows no bounds. To permit such a regime to join NATO is tantamount to allowing a dagger to be pointed at Russia’s throat.

How is Moscow expected to believe peaceful declarations whenever Washington and NATO have plied the Kiev regime with over $2.5 billion in lethal weaponry over the past eight years? The Biden administration is planning to increase the military support, even further emboldening the Ukrainian armed forces to push the civil war in that country on Russia’s doorstep.

The tumultuous events in Kazakhstan also show how regime change can be fomented by external forces in a country sharing a border with Russia. The attempt to destabilize Kazakhstan seems to have failed on this occasion. But who is to say a very different result could not happen in the future, as in the case of Ukraine where a rabid Russophobic regime was installed with the help of the CIA in 2014?

Russia is right to insist on a neutral zone of countries on its border which are excluded from NATO membership. This is not about Russia stamping on others’ sovereignty or setting up a “sphere of influence”. It is about respecting vital security interests. The non-NATO status of Austria and Switzerland are important and obvious precedents.

It is rather disconcerting that American and NATO officials have become so arrogant in their presumptions. Their lack of historical awareness and recognition of Russia’s legitimate concerns are also deeply troubling.

The cynicism shown by America’s so-called top diplomats is breathtaking. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his deputy Wendy Sherman have mooted that Moscow is not serious about diplomacy. They contend that Russia wants talks to fail so that it can proceed with an alleged invasion plan for Ukraine. That is in spite of repeated assurances from Moscow that it has no intention of attacking anyone or that troops on its soil are not a subject for “de-escalation”.

It is virtually impossible to dialogue with such contorted thinking shown by U.S. and NATO officials. American diplomacy, it seems, is finally dead, having succumbed to arrogance, cynicism and irrational Russophobia as well as the outright denial of basic reality.

Moscow insists that its demand for halting NATO expansionism is inviolable. Washington insists on rejecting that. The gap in diplomacy is becoming a dangerous abyss.

Strategic Culture Foundation | Republishing is welcomed with reference to Strategic Culture online journal www.strategic-culture.org.

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American Students Organize Classroom “Walk Outs” To Demand Return To Remote Learning | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

The Erie PA school district allocated part of their free gov’t covid money for remedial classes so remote schooled students could catch up.

Oh ya, one year of remote school may take 3 years of remediation. Epic fail.

These protests are an epic win for the NEA.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/american-students-organize-classroom-walk-outs-demand-return-remote-learning

by Tyler Durden

This is only the latest indication of just how easily influenced young people are by their teachers.Even though young Americans are perhaps the least susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 as a group, the ever-rebellious young people of America have decided once again to follow their teacher and protest by staging classroom “walkouts” intended to disrupt the school day.

Just when their parents could finally breathe a sigh of relief now that in-person classes had finally resumed, the “long-suffering” young people have America have taken it upon themselves to mimic the bad behavior of their elders (in this case, the teachers who function as de facto babysitters for millions of young people today). In Chicago, where a teacher’s strike had only just ended, a small group of protesting students staged a walkout, complaining that they were dissatisfied with the additional health protocols the teachers union agreed to earlier this week, ending its standoff with the Chicago Public Schools district and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“I think CPS is listening, but I’m not sure they’ll make a change,” said Jaden Horten, a junior at Jones College Prep High School, during a rally at district headquarters that was attended by roughly 1,000 students, according to Reuters.

Student walkouts have occurred at schools across Chicago, and in scattered areas across the country.For example, about 600 young people from 11 Boston schools participated in student walkouts there, according to the school district, which serves nearly 52K pupils. Many protesting students returned to classrooms later, while others went home following “peaceful” demonstrations. Fortunately for the district, it looks like these protests have petered out as the city’s climate-focused Mayor Michelle Wu, who rose to prominence as a public education activist, praised the young people for letting their voices be heard.Amusingly, an online petition started by one Boston high school senior branded schools a “COVID-19 breeding ground” and called for a remote learning option. This had collected more than 8K signatures as of Friday morning.Echoing the Chicago Teacher’s Union, the Boston Student Advisory Council, a group representing students that claims to have organized the walkout posted a series of “demands” on Twitter, including two weeks of online instruction and more stringent COVID-19 testing for teachers and students. The kids are even holding their own press conferences now.

At least one student who spoke with a Reuters reporter said they no longer feel safe in school on account of them living with vulnerable grandparents.

Ash O’Brien, a 10th-grade student at Boston Latin School who left the building with about a dozen others on Friday, said he didn’t feel safe staying in school.“I live with two grandparents who are immune-compromised,” he said. “So I don’t want to go to school, risk getting sick and come home to them.”In a statement, Boston Public Schools said it supports students advocating for their beliefs and vowed to listen to their concerns.

The walkouts started in NYC, and have so far pushed Mayor Adams to consider a “temporary” remote learning option. But that’s about all of the “progress” the students can claim so far.So far, it appears that the omicron wave in the US might just be peaking, as cities, typically the locus of spread, have seen cases start to turn over.Earlier this week, students at several New York City schools staged a walkout to protest what they said were inadequate safety measures. Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday his administration was considering a temporary remote learning option for a significant number of students who were staying home.So far, roughly 5K public schools across the country have closed for at least one day due to the pandemic according to one website that tracks school closures.

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The Martin Luther King Jr. Speech You Need to Hear Today | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on January 17, 2022

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-martin-luther-king-jr-speech-you-need-to-hear-today/

by Hunter DeRensis

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The Lab Leak: The Plots & Schemes Of Jeremy Farrar, Anthony Fauci, And Francis Collins | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on January 16, 2022

Well, there we go. Was there ever a doubt that Fauci and so on were consumed by fear that this was a lab leak from their own colleagues and friends in Wuhan? Has he denied this? I’m not sure but this account from Farrar is pretty extraordinary proof that discovering the virus’s origins was the major concern from these official and influential scientists for the last part of January through February. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/lab-leak-plots-schemes-jeremy-farrar-anthony-fauci-and-francis-collins

by Tyler DurdenSaturday, Jan 15, 2022 – 10:30 PM

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

Jeremy Farrar is a former professor at Oxford University and the head of the Wellcome Trust, an extremely influential non-government funder of medical research in the UK and a big investor in vaccine companies. Some people regard Farrar as the UK’s Anthony Fauci. He had much to do with the pandemic response, including the lockdowns and mandates in the UK. For the entire pandemic ordeal, he has been in touch with his colleagues around the world. He has written a book (it appeared July 2021 but was probably written in the Spring) on his experience with the pandemic. 

I reviewed already. In general, the book is chaotic, strongly backing lockdowns without ever presenting a clear rationale for why, much less a road map for how to get out of lockdowns. I swear you could read this book carefully front to back and not know anything more about pandemics and their course than you had at the beginning. In this sense, the book is an abysmal failure, which probably explains why it is so little talked about. That said, the book is revealing in other ways, some of which I did not cover in my review. He carefully presents the scene at the beginning of the pandemic, including the great fear that he, Fauci, and others had that the virus was not of natural origin. It might have been created in a lab and leaked, accidentally or deliberately. This awesome prospect is behind some of the strangest sentences in the book, which I quote here:

By the second week of January, I was beginning to realise the scale of what was happening. I was also getting the uncomfortable feeling that some of the information needed by scientists all around the world to detect and fight this new disease was not being disclosed as fast as it could be. I did not know it then, but a fraught few weeks lay ahead.In those weeks, I became exhausted and scared. I felt as if I was living a different person’s life. During that period, I would do things I had never done before: acquire a burner phone, hold clandestine meetings, keep difficult secrets. I would have surreal conversations with my wife, Christiane, who persuaded me we should let the people closest to us know what was going on. I phoned my brother and best friend to give them my temporary number. In hushed conversations, I sketched out the possibility of a looming global health crisis that had the potential to be read as bioterrorism.‘If anything happens to me in the next few weeks,’ I told them nervously, ‘this is what you need to know.’

Sounds like a thriller movie! A burner phone? Clandestine meetings? What the heck is going on here? If there really was a virus on the loose and a looming crisis of public health, why would your first impulse be, as a famous guy and so on, to write about it, tell the public everything you know, inform every public health official, open up and prepare people, and get to work finding therapeutics that can save lives? Why would you not immediately investigate the demographics of risk and inform people and institutions of the best-possible response?What the heck is all this cloak-and-dagger about? Seems like a bad start for a responsible public policy. The next chapter reveals some of the background to all this high dudgeon:

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Leaked Fauci Financials Expose How Millionaire Doctor Profited From Pandemic | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on January 16, 2022

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fauci-financials-expose-how-millionaire-doctor-profited-pandemic

by Tyler Durden

Finally, after a handful of organizations tried suing Dr. Anthony Fauci in order to have them released, the good doctor’s financials – along with those of his wife, who is the NIH’s top bioethicist – have been disclosed in detail. And they were leaked by the same Senator who Fauci called a “moron” last week during a hot-mic moment.We already knew that Dr. Fauci is the highest-paid federal government employee, earning an annual salary of more than $400K. His wife, Christine Grady, earns $176K as Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the NIH.

The records, published by Republican Roger Marshall, himself a doctor and also the junior US senator from Kansas, showed that the Faucis’ have a combined net worth of more than $10MM.

As the Daily Mail explains, Fauci, 80, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and, if he continues until the end of Biden’s term in 2024, will have made roughly $2.5MM as the president’s chief medical advisor. When he retires, Fauci’s pension will be the largest in US history, exceeding $350,000 per year.As a reminder, Dr. Fauci lied to Congress yet again by insisting that his financials were public, when they very much weren’t (before being leaked by the Senator from Kansas, that is).While the doctor has insisted he hasn’t profited from the pandemic, his paperwork showed that he and his wife were paid $14,000 to “virtually” attend a series of galas directly related to his position as the nation’s de facto COVID czar. Perhaps the most entertaining disclosure from Dr. Fauci’s financials is the revelation that the couple owns a restaurant in tony San Francisco. It’s called Jackson Fillmore Trattoria. Unfortunately for them, the restaurant didn’t make any money last year.

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : The Failure Of This Week’s US-NATO-Russia Meetings Make War More Likely

Posted by M. C. on January 16, 2022

The first is the US desire for universal hegemony, including the right to dictate other countries’ political systems and what influence they will be allowed to possess beyond their own borders.

The second is the European elites’ belief in the European Union of as a kind of moral superpower, expanding to embrace the whole of Europe (without Russia of course), and setting a liberal internationalist example to the world; but a militarily impotent superpower that relies for security on the United States, via NATO.

These projects have now manifestly failed.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2022/january/15/the-failure-of-this-weeks-us-nato-russia-meetings-make-war-more-likely/

Written by Moon of Alabama

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In the late 1990s the US military-industrial-media complex lobbied the Clinton administration to extend NATO. The sole purpose was to win more customers for US weapons. Russia protested. It had offered to integrate itself into a new European security architecture but on equal terms with the US The US rejected that. It wanted Russia to subordinate itself to US whims.

Since then NATO has been extended five times and moved closer and closer to Russia’s border. Leaving Russia, a large country with many resources, outside of Europe’s security structure guaranteed that Russia would try to come back from the miserable 1990s and regain its former power.

In 2014 the US sponsored a coup against the democratically elected government of the Ukraine, Russia’s neighbor and relative, and installed its proxies. To prevent an eventual integration of the Ukraine into NATO Russia arranged for an uprising against the coup in the eastern Ukraine. As long as the Ukraine has an internal conflict it can not join NATO.

In 2018 the Trump administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force Treaty which had been created under the Presidents Gorbachev and Reagan to eliminate nuclear missiles in Europe. Now the US made plans to station new nuclear missiles in Europe which would threaten Russia. These required a Russian response.

Meanwhile the US and other NATO states have deployed significant ‘training’ units to the Ukraine and continue to send weapons to it. This is a sneaking integration of the Ukraine into NATO structures without the formal guarantees.

In late 2021 the US started to make noise about alleged Russian military concentrations at its western border. There were groundless allegations that Russia was threatening to invade the Ukraine which was begging to enter NATO. The purpose was to justify a further extension of NATO and more NATO deployments near Russia.

Russia has had enough of such nonsense. It moved to press the US for a new security architecture in Europe that would not threaten Russia. The rumors about Russian action in the Ukraine helped to press President Joe Biden into agreeing to talks.

After Russia had detailed its security demands towards the US and NATO a series of talks were held.

I had warned that these would likely not be successful as the US had shown no signs to move on core Russian demands. As expected the talks with the US on Monday failed. The US made some remarks that it would like to negotiate some side issues but not on the core of Russia’s request to end the extension of NATO and to stop new missile deployments.

Wednesday’s talks with NATO had similar results as had today’s talks with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

As Russia had previously announced it will not consider further talks as there is nothing to expect from them:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he saw ‘no grounds’ to continue the talks, in a blow to the efforts to ease tensions. His comments came as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe met in Vienna in the latest attempt to avert a major European crisis as Russia masses troops on Ukraine’s border.

Speaking on Russian television, Ryabkov said the United States and its allies have rejected Russia’s key demands — including its call for an end to NATO’s open-door policy for new members — offering to negotiate only on topics of secondary interest to Moscow.

‘There is, to a certain extent, a dead end or a difference in approaches,’ he said. Without some sign of flexibility from the United States, ‘I do not see reasons to sit down in the coming days, to gather again and start these same discussions.’

Other Russian government officials made similar points:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who described the Western position as ‘arrogant, unyielding and uncompromising,’ said that President Vladimir Putin would decide on further action after receiving written responses to Moscow’s demands next week.
…
In addition to calling the talks unsuccessful, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday highlighted a bill announced the day before by US Democratic senators for tough new sanctions against Russians, including Putin, if there is military action against Ukraine.

Peskov called it ‘extremely negative, especially against the background of the ongoing series of negotiations, albeit unsuccessful, but negotiations.’ Sanctioning a head of state ‘is an outrageous measure that is comparable to breaking off relations,’ he said.

Peskov also accused the United States and NATO of escalating the conflict with efforts to ‘entice’ new countries to join NATO.

Peskov’s last remarks relate to recent noise from Finland and Sweden that they may consider to join NATO.

The US had promised to send a written response to Russia’s demands by next week. NATO has likewise said that it would dispatch a letter within a week’s time frame. If those letters do not include substantial concessions to Russia it will have to act.

The Washington Post piece quoted above is headlined Russia ratchets up pressure on Europe, says ‘no grounds’ for further talks on security amid heightened tensions. The Post tries to frame the issues as an European and NATO problem.

However, Russia does not even talk with Europe as it is no longer relevant. The security demands are made towards the US and the issues can only be solved by the White House.

Russia has spoken of “military-technical measures” it would have to take should all talks fail.

It has now started to hint at some of the possibilities:

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Of Two Minds – The Real Revolution Is Underway But Nobody Recognizes It

Posted by M. C. on January 15, 2022

American ingenuity is increasingly turned to playing the players via individual initiative. While the financial elite focuses on stripmining the next rigged game, the workers are focusing on bailing out in one form or another.

Revolutions have a funny characteristic: they’re unpredictable.

https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan22/real-revolution1-22.html

Charles Hugh Smith

Revolutions have a funny characteristic: they’re unpredictable.

The general assumption is that revolutions are political. The revolution some foresee in the U.S. is the classic armed insurrection, or a coup or the fragmentation of the nation as states or regions declare their independence from the federal government.

By focusing on the compelling drama of political upheaval we’re missing the real revolution, which is social and economic: the Great Resignation, a global movement which in the U.S. has largely unrecognized American characteristics.

The Great Resignation is the real revolution which few if any recognize. The status quo is going to great lengths to dismiss it, for example, The Great Resignation: Historical Data and a Deeper Analysis Show It’s Not as Great as Screaming Headlines Suggest, because this revolution is not controllable with force and is therefore unstoppable.

The sources of the revolution are in plain sight: you rig the economy to enrich the already-rich top 10% and super-size the already bloated wealth of the top 0.1%, and then you wonder why the bottom 90% are indebted, broke, burned out and disgruntled? The hubris of the ruling elites and their lackeys is off the scale, as this structural exploitation is presumed to be not just acceptable but delightful to the bottom 90%.

Alternatively, the more cynical view of those at the top looking down is: they have to work at the wages we pay in inhuman conditions because they have to: all the debt-serfs and tax donkeys must accept our pay and conditions or starve.

This is neoliberal neofeudalism with the kid gloves of PR removed.

Secondly, it’s rather obvious what happens to public protests against systemic exploitation and disempowerment of the bottom 90%: they go nowhere. Anyone remember Occupy Wall Street? This is the fate of any quasi-political movement: co-option, suppression, etc., and then benign neglect as the full-court press eventually wears out the peasants.

So the real revolution takes place out of the spotlight, as one person at a time opts out. They opt out of the unwinnable rat-race, of burnout, of debt-serfdom, of powerlessness, of accepting exploitive work conditions and all the tiresome trappings of neofeudalism.

After 45 years of losing power, the workforce finally has a bit of leverage. Some of the leverage results from demographics–the Baby Boom generation is retiring en masse and so the workforce is shrinking–and from the revolution of opting out, as millions of individuals quit, creating a labor shortage unlike any in living memory.

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