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Want a good government? It has to hit rock bottom first.

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

Why does it seem like governments are absolutely unwilling to try freedom until they hit absolute rock bottom? Cuba recently started opening up its economy to allow more entrepreneurship, and Greece had to struggle for years before they tried freedom. The Republic of Georgia might be the best example of a country overcoming absolute Soviet rock-bottom, to rise as one of the most promising countries today, in terms of freedom and opportunity. Is the US doomed to hit rock bottom before it gets better? And what can you do to make sure you survive and thrive during the descent, and have the proper skills and resources to rebuild?

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Take The Babylon Bee’s Anti-Racism Corporate Training

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/take-the-babylon-bees-anti-racism-corporate-training

There are many anti-racism corporate training presentations out there, but it’s hard to know which one to use for your business. You want one that doesn’t take too much company time and yet distills all the information your people need to know to be anti-racist into a brief, memorable presentation.

Well, look no further. The Babylon Bee’s anti-racism corporate training is here. We’re so good at being anti-racist, in fact, that we’ve managed to condense everything we know about fighting racism into one slide. You can complete our course in seconds.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and prepare to become an anti-racist:

Congratulations! You’re an anti-racist!

Feel free to use this helpful presentation for your business. Together we can fight dangerous racist ideas.

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Japan Appoints “Minister Of Loneliness” After Disturbing Rise In ‘Social Distancing Era’ Suicides | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/japan-appoints-minister-loneliness-after-disturbing-rise-social-distancing-era-suicides

Tyler Durden's Photoby Tyler DurdenTuesday, Feb 23, 2021 – 21:05

Japan like many other developed nations witnessed an alarming rise in suicides or attempted suicides over this past year of pandemic shutdowns and social distancing measures. The country was already at crisis levels even before the pandemic (though generally on a downward trajectory the prior decade), with recent studies showing it to be “the leading cause of death in men among the ages of 20-44 and women among the ages of 15 to 34.”

To tackle the crisis, especially in the midst of this COVID-induced period of greater social isolation, Japan’s government has appointed a “Minister of Loneliness” after the UK became the first country to establish such a position in 2018.Via AFP

The most recent numbers cited in Japanese media reports say that 879 women killed themselves in the country during the month of October, a figure that marks a whopping 70% increase compared to the same month from 2019. Officials have noted that the pandemic and oftentimes mandated social distancing measures have appeared to have a harsher impact on women.

According to Japan Times, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga earlier in the month appointed as the new Minister of Loneliness a 70-year old veteran politician named Tetsushi Sakamoto. It is a cabinet level position which aims to alleviate social isolation among citizens. 

He’ll head up an ’emergency taskforce’ to battle the disturbing spike in suicides nationally as his first order of business. “With isolation tied to an array of social woes such as suicide, poverty and hikikomori (social recluses), the Cabinet Office also established a task force Friday that seeks to address the problem of loneliness across various ministries, including by investigating its impact,” Japan Times writes.

“According to preliminary figures released by the National Police Agency, 20,919 people took their own lives in 2020, up 750 from the previous year and marking the first year-on-year increase in 11 years. The surge is largely attributed to a noticeable rise in suicides among women and young people,” the report pointed out.

Suicides end 10-year decline in Japan as pandemic stress hits women harder https://t.co/s0bs6uCSV9 pic.twitter.com/boOuCnC49U — Reuters (@Reuters) January 22, 2021

Perhaps ironically, Japan also a has minister in charge of tackling Japan’s sharply declining birthrate, which has also been subject of much reporting in recent years. 

We wonder if these ministers will tackle some of the underlying problems related to both the suicide and low birthrate crisis. As an example recall that Japan has seen whole high-tech industries and supposed ‘solutions’ arise, including ‘loneliness’ bots that provide AI-based “companionship” and even sex robots. 

One UK media report recounts for example, “Experts have suggested that the popularity of love dolls and sex robots might be to blame for Japan’s declining birth rate. One even warned that Japanese people had become ‘an endangered species’ as the nation falls in love with silicon women.” These bizarre trends only look to perpetuate the problems. 

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60 Years After Eisenhower’s Warning, Distinct Signs Of A ‘Digital-Intelligence Complex’ | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/60-years-after-eisenhowers-warning-distinct-signs-digital-intelligence-complex

Tyler Durden's Photoby Tyler DurdenTuesday, Feb 23, 2021 – 23:25

Authored by Eric Felten via RealClearInvestigations.com,

In June 2019, Susan Gordon stood on a stage at the Washington Convention Center. Behind her loomed three giant letters, “AWS,” the abbreviation for Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division of the giant Internet retailer.

After three decades at the Central Intelligence Agency, Gordon had risen to one of the top jobs in the cloak-and-dagger world: principal deputy director of national intelligence. From that perch she publicly extolled the virtues of Amazon Web Services and the cloud services the tech giant provides the CIA.

She told the crowd that the intelligence community’s 2013 decision to sign a multi-year, $600 million contract with AWS for cloud computing “will stand as one of those that caused the greatest leap forward. … The investment we made so many years ago in order to be able to try and harness the power of the cloud with a partner who wanted to learn and grow with us has left us not only ready for today but positioned for tomorrow.”

The agreement was also a “real game-changer,” said André Pienaar, founder and CEO of a tech firm called C5 Capital, whose business includes reselling AWS services.

“When the CIA said they were going adopt the AWS cloud platform,” Pienaar said at another AWS event.

“People said if the U.S. intelligence community has the confidence to feel secure on the AWS cloud, why can’t we?”

U.S. intelligence official Susan Gordon, top photo, extolling Amazon Web Services in 2019 and, just above, at a “FedTalks” in 2015 with AWS Vice President Bill Vass. He spoke glowingly of the government-AWS partnership. She agreed: “… If you believe in the engine of a great society, you’ve just described it.” YouTube/AWS

Gordon left government in August 2019, two months after her  AWS summit talk. In November 2019  she became senior advisor to a consultancy with close Amazon connections and in April joined the board of  defense contractor with extensive AWS business.

Gordon is one of scores of former government officials who have landed lucrative work in Big Tech.

The synergy between Washington and Silicon Valley can be seen as the latest manifestation of the Beltway’s revolving door. But the size and scope of Big Tech – and the increasing dependence of government on its products and talent – suggest something more: the rise of a Digital-Intelligence Complex. Like the Military-Industrial Complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in 1961, it represents a symbiotic relationship in which the lines between one and the other are blurred.

Gordon’s history illustrates this development. Her endorsement of Amazon was important to the company: AWS touted the success of the CIA deal as a prime reason it believed the Pentagon should award the company a 10-year, $10 billion contract for cloud computing for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. That bid has been mired in litigation as competing tech companies have accused the government of insider dealing, political interference, and other improprieties in considering and awarding the contract.

The web services side of Amazon is believed to be the most profitable part of the mammoth company. Illustrating the pride of place AWS enjoys within Amazon, Jeff Bezos recently announced he is stepping aside from his role as CEO, making room for Andy Jassy, who has been in charge of the AWS subsidiary. It’s also a prime reason Amazon chose the D.C. suburbs for the company’s new HQ2: “The D.C. tech sector is one of the fastest growing in the world,” Teresa Carlson, AWS vice president for Worldwide Public Sector and Industries, told Washington Life magazine last year. That growth is “largely driven by big U.S. government projects,” she added.

As Amazon has built that government business, AWS has had no bigger cheerleader than Gordon, who has made repeated presentations praising Amazon. In 2018, she  appeared at a government/industry confab called “FedTalks.” She shared the stage with AWS Vice President for Engineering Bill Vass, who interviewed her about the work they had done together.

“Can you talk a little bit about the partnership that you’ve had with the cloud provider in this case?” Vass asked, and then added, “It’s been very tight.”

“Throughout my career, which is long, all the great advances we’ve made have been in partnership with industry,” Gordon replied.

“We’ve had a partner who is as committed to our needs as we were.”

Vass said that the work with government had made AWS more attractive to private sector companies buying cloud services: “I’ve found it very satisfying to also take input from the intelligence agencies and put that into our commercial products. So, our commercial products–”

“We’re demanding,” Gordon interjected with a laugh.

“Yes, you are demanding, and that’s a good thing because it causes us to raise the bar continuously and I think that has enabled us to put those features into our commercial products,” Vass said. “And a lot of the security requirements that you’ve had just exist on our commercial products that our commercial customers can now leverage.”

“Right,” said Gordon.

“Right,” agreed Vass. “So, they sort of had that same level of security that you have, which is pretty exciting for all of our customers. 

“Yeah,” Gordon enthused, “so, if you believe in the engine of a great society, you’ve just described it.” 

‘I Cannot Wait to See What We Do’

Gordon also appeared in a “customer spotlight” on Oct. 7, 2015, at a gathering called the AWS re:Invent conference, where she provided Amazon with a testimonial: “With the help of partners like AWS, I cannot wait to see what we do.”

A former top federal ethics official says that if he had been asked to okay Gordon’s participation in AWS events, he would have required that she explicitly tell the audience she was not endorsing Amazon. The former official told RCI that executive branch employees have to be careful not to run afoul of regulations that prohibit “the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”

RealClearInvestigations attempted to contact Gordon multiple times for comment; she did not reply. RCI also asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence whether Gordon’s speech had been approved by government lawyers. “ODNI has a process in place to ensure that all engagements … are appropriately reviewed and vetted, including by ODNI ethics officials,” an ODNI spokesperson said. ODNI did not make available any materials documenting such review or vetting.

For years, AWS has been making the same argument for its cloud services that Gordon repeatedly offered: that the intelligence community’s choice of the product showed the way forward for adoption by the public and private sector alike. But Gordon was hardly the only person connected to government with strong ties to Amazon.

Sally Donnelly is a former Time magazine reporter who left journalism and who would become director of the Washington office of U.S. Central Command. She left the Department of Defense in 2012 and formed a consulting practice called SBD Advisors. One of her first clients was C5 Capital, the tech firm founded and run by André Pienaar. Soon, SBD added Amazon Web Services to its roster of customers. Donnelly’s SBD advised AWS on how to sell its services to the Pentagon. 

Donnelly helped guide Secretary of Defense nominee James Mattis through his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017, and was offered a position as senior adviser to Mattis. To accept, she had to sell her business. Also joining Mattis, as his deputy chief of staff, was Tony DeMartino, who had worked on the Amazon account at Donnelly’s consultancy.

Donnelly found a ready buyer for her consultancy in Pienaar’s C5 Capital, which already owned 20% of SBD. Donnelly was paid $1.56 million for her remaining 80% stake. Donnelly received the payments in $390,000 chunks, the majority during  her time at the Pentagon.

While Donnelly and DeMartino were working for Defense Secretary Mattis, the Pentagon was considering and comparing the companies competing for all or part of the $10 billion JEDI contract. Among the competitors was AWS. Two of the other companies vying for JEDI business, Oracle and IBM, each complained to the Government Accountability Office that they had been cut out of a fair chance at the contract. That would lead to an investigation by the DoD’s inspector general, the details of which were published last April.

“The complaints we received alleged, among other issues, that Secretary Mattis and Ms. Donnelly provided preferential treatment to Amazon,” the IG said.

One of the events Amazon’s cloud computing competitors complained about was a March 31, 2017, private dinner Mattis attended in London. Hosted by retired British general Graeme Lamb at 5 Hertford Street (a private club regularly described as “secretive”), the dinner had fewer than a dozen guests. Among them were Donnelly, Amazon Web Services V.P. Carlson, and C5 Capital’s Pienaar.

Interviewed by the inspector general about the dinner, Mattis described Pienaar as a “friend.” As for Carlson, he said he had never met her before the London gathering and was “not certain why Teresa Carlson was included,” but offered that “Sally [Donnelly] knew Teresa.”  Donnelly told the IG that she had no “insight” into why Carlson was at the dinner.

But the notion that Carlson was an unknown mystery guest is not supported by sworn testimony given to the DoD Inspector General, transcripts of which have been acquired by RealClearInvestigations. Six weeks before the London dinner, DeMartino had emailed Carlson, writing, “We obviously would like all our friends around us going forward.” Asked by the Inspector General what he had meant, DeMartino explained the Secretary had “a list of the people to fill jobs in the Department of Defense.” The White House had its own list, and “there was a negotiation” going on. “So,” DeMartino answered the I.G., “that note to Teresa was that she was on Secretary Mattis’ list for a potential job.” RCI reached out to Mattis, asking why Carlson was on his list for a “senior position” at the DoD if he did not know her and had never met her. Mattis did not respond. 

The dinner’s host, Lamb, is a partner at C5 Capital. The dinner opened the door to Amazon with Mattis. A few weeks later, someone from Amazon called Mattis’ staff and told them that at the dinner in London, the secretary of defense had “expressed interest in meeting with [Jeff] Bezos.” 

There was a question among the military bureaucrats whether Mattis should meet with Amazon’s founder. So Donnelly prepared an internal memo  listing reasons for going ahead with the proposed get-together. Among them: “Bezos owns the Washington Post.” Donnelly touted his accomplishments:

“Amazon is one of the most successful start-ups in the history of the US economy,” she wrote.

“Amazon has revolutionized delivery and consumer service.”

And then there was the product: “The Amazon cloud is the foundation of all Amazon’s businesses and allows unprecedented speed.” She also made the argument top intelligence official Sue Gordon repeated at Amazon sales conventions — that the CIA uses Amazon’s cloud. 

Mattis met with various tech executives, including Bezos, on a West Coast trip. But he also met privately again with Bezos, over dinner in Washington the evening of Jan. 17, 2018. The only others at the dinner were Carlson and Donnelly.

The inspector general concluded in April 2020 that, even with their connections to Amazon, neither Donnelly nor DeMartino had acted unethically. The IG seemed more persuaded that illegitimate influence, if there had been any, had come from a Bezos-hating President Trump, who reportedly told Mattis to “screw Amazon.”

By the time the IG report came out, Mattis was no longer secretary of defense. And Sally Donnelly and Tony DeMartino had already left the Pentagon to start up a new consulting firm, Pallas Advisors. Teresa Carlson subsequently married André Pienaar.

The JEDI contract was eventually awarded to Microsoft. Amazon is asking a federal court to overturn the Pentagon’s decision. An AWS spokesperson told RealClearInvestigations that the DoD is attempting “to avoid a meaningful and transparent review of the JEDI contract award.” 

In August 2019, Sue Gordon resigned as principal deputy director of national intelligence. Her private sector career has flourished. Last April, she joined the board of defense contractor CACI. According to its website, “CACI is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partner, Public Sector Partner, and Authorized Reseller.” The company brags of its “healthy revenue-generating consulting business on AWS.”

It’s arguable that, given the far reach of AWS in Washington, it would be hard for Gordon to find post-government employment without there being some connection with Amazon or AWS. That said, Gordon is not entirely in the AWS orbit. She consults with Microsoft. Still, the most interesting private company Gordon has gone to work for is one founded by “consultants” with longstanding AWS connections. Gordon is now a senior adviser for the company Sally Donnelly and Tony DeMartino formed after they left the Pentagon: Pallas Advisors.

If it appears there is a steadily revolving door between tech companies and national security workers and officials, it may be because Gordon is in favor of exactly that. In an interview with Wired magazine when she was still in office, Gordon advocated what Wired described as “more of a revolving door.” Gordon was characterized as envisioning “a new paradigm for sharing talented workers between the government and the private sector.” According to Wired, she claimed that techies should start in government where they can learn what the problems and challenges are. They should move over to the private sector where they will have more freedom to innovate. “And then when they are ready to slow down and leave the rat race,” Wired quotes her as saying, “they can return to government.”

Gordon calls this “cross-pollination” and “talent-sharing.”

Critics of tech industry power and influence point out that Big Tech is now among the biggest employers of lobbyists, hiring primarily those who formerly worked for government. In 2010 Amazon fielded eight lobbyists. Last year the company flooded the zone with 118, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

This may or may not be good for government, which can’t afford to fall behind on the latest technologies. But it is clearly good for government workers who leave for the private sector, especially those who had been vocal “partners” and advocates of tech.

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Beyond Parody: The World Of Mike Judge’s Idiocracy Is Better Than Joe Biden’s America – Revolver

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/beyond-parody-the-world-of-mike-judges-idiocracy-is-better-than-joe-bidens-america/

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When Idiocracy came out in 2006, it bombed. Frightened of angering advertisers who were ridiculed in the film, Fox suppressed the movie’s release, and it grossed less than a million dollars. But Mike Judge’s satire on civilizational and genetic decay has become more popular every year, mainly because, to many, its predictions are coming true right in front of us.

In Idiocracy, Army corporal Joe Bauers, the “most average” man in the U.S. Armed Forces, is placed in suspended animation for five hundred years. When Bauers awakes, he finds Earth on the brink of collapse — for 500 years, stupid people have relentlessly out-reproduced intelligent people, creating a society where the average IQ has plummeted. https://www.youtube.com/embed/sP2tUW0HDHA?feature=oembed

Idiocracy is particularly popular with liberals, who like to imagine that President Trump’s election, and red state culture more generally, represents the real-life rise of Idiocracy. In fact, even Mike Judge agrees with them:

I called the people who made Idiocracy to see how they so accurately predicted the future. “I’m no prophet,” Judge told me. “I was off by 490 years.” He too is shocked at how eerily similar the world has become to the one his movie depicted. He and Idiocracy co-writer Etan Cohen have been working on fake campaign ads for Camacho to be used as anti-Trump web videos, but they’re having a hard time. “Our jokes would be like, ‘I’m going to build a wall around the earth.’ They were only incrementally stupider,” says Cohen. “Writing Idiocracy was just following your id. Now unfortunately our id has become our candidate for President.” [Time]

Idiocracy is hilarious. But Judge and Cohen are off the mark. America isn’t becoming Idiocracy. It’s becoming something worse. Fifteen years after the film’s release, the future portrayed in Idiocracy is indisputably superior to the present liberals are creating right now in America. 

Insane? Not remotely. And we’re here to tell you how.

1. Idiocracy has better art

In the Idiocracy-verse, the most popular movie in America is Ass. The film is exactly what it sounds like: An ass, with occasional farting.

Stupid? Certainly. But it isn’t actively, in-your-face hideous, like the “art” that progressive America routinely foists onto the public. In 2020, NPR declared Cardi B.’s pornographic song “W.A.P.” to be song of the year.

“A pair of women honoring their own ladyparts and the pleasures they dish out and expect returned in spades drew the ire of the insecure,” the taxpayer-backed news outlet wrote.

Revolver would, without any irony at all, much rather watch Ass than listen to “W.A.P.”

2. Idiocracy has a better health care system.

Early in the film, Joe visits a hospital, where he discovers to his dismay that America’s health care system has degenerated to passing people through a machine, the Healthmaster Inferno, that informs them (possibly at random) whether their ailment is a tumor, hepatitis, tapeworm, “e-boli,” or “just gas.” https://www.youtube.com/embed/hmUVo0xVAqE?feature=oembed

Sure, that’s pretty bad. Then again, in America right now medical errors killed a quarter-million people a year even before Governor Cuomo’s catastrophic nursing home coverup. And in Idiocracy, medical care is being provided fairly to people of all races. There isn’t even a hint of doling out health care based on skin color, which has now become the overt preference of American elites.

3. Idiocracy is a genuine meritocracy

The America of 2505 is run by President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, five-time wrestling champ and pornography superstar. President Camacho is dumb…but he’s also clearly one of the smartest people in 2505. He is literate, and smart enough to know that the best way to salvage his decaying country is to find the most capable person and give him immense authority: https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGUNPMPrxvA?feature=oembed

In contrast, absolute nobody is under the illusion that Joe Biden is president because he’s the best America has to offer:

See the rest here

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Judicial Review? No. Nullification | Abbeville Institute

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/judicial-review-no-nullification/

By Earl Starbuck

“Acts of congress, to be binding, must be made pursuant to the constitution; otherwise they are not laws, but a mere nullity.” -St. George Tucker

“There is no danger I apprehend so much as the consolidation of our government by the noiseless, and therefore unalarming instrumentality of the Supreme Court.” -Thomas Jefferson

As a pro-life Jeffersonian, I am constantly frustrated by the endless line of pro-life activists who talk about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.[1] There are multiple reasons this irks me. For one thing, the Supreme Court will never overturn Roe because its members are dedicated to the preservation of precedent. Add on top of that the absurd kangaroo courts that Senate confirmation hearings have become, with their character assassinations and incessant prattling about the vital importance of Roe, and it’s clear that the potential Justices are being reminded not to tread on that particular landmine if they wish to be confirmed. The brutal character assassination of Robert Bork is ample evidence of this, as are the farcical witch-hunts against Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

My other objections to this pro-life reliance on Federal Courts are constitutional and practical. To begin with, accepting the Incorporation Doctrine (the legal justification for Roe and its descendants) means accepting the idea that the 14th Amendment incorporates the Bill of Rights against the State governments, including the implied right to privacy and the subsequent right to obtain an abortion. The legal and historical problem with this is that the Bill of Rights was never intended by the Founding Fathers to be applied to the States.[2] There were two primary arguments against the Bill of Rights. The first of these (advanced by men like Roger Sherman, Hugh Williamson, and Theophilus Parsons) was that, since the States already had their declarations/bills of Rights, and since Congress had been given no authority to infringe upon them, a Federal Bill of Rights would be redundant and unnecessary, and might even undermine the sovereignty and authority of the States. 

The second reason for objecting to the Bill of Rights had to do with its length and scope. Enumerating all of the rights protected would be impossible, and therefore would result in an implied surrender of whichever rights they forgot to explicitly protect in the Bill of Rights. Moreover, why say that the government can’t do something (like restrict freedom of speech or the press) if the government hasn’t been granted that power to begin with? (James Wilson and Alexander Hamilton presented these arguments; Hamilton’s is easily found in Federalist Essay #84).

See the rest here

About Earl Starbuck

A native of East Tennessee, Jake Starbuck is an independent historian and a descendant of soldiers on both sides of The Late Unpleasantness and of Governor John Sevier. His father, who was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, taught him to love history and the South. Starbuck holds a BA in History and Political Science from Carson-Newman University and an MA in History from Liberty University. He has no connection to the coffee company. More from Earl Starbuck

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Liberation by Unplugging? – OffGuardian

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that perhaps we’ve reached a crossroad, maybe gone past it. That digital addiction has become the real lockdown, hiding in plain sight, weaponized on behalf of the ruling class. And as I stated in the beginning, their agenda relies heavily on pumping up the drug.

https://off-guardian.org/2021/02/22/liberation-by-unplugging/

David Perez

Two dangerous things are happening simultaneously.

First, the official COVID narratives are mutating in ways that threaten to make it a forever phenomenon—unsurprisingly to anyone who’s been paying attention. Second, the titans of Hi-Tech, in league with the Deep State and its political lapdogs—are hell-bent on eliminating voices of dissent on various Internet platforms.

It seems to me that we have to fight extreme with extreme. But our extreme might be simple. Hard, yes, but a very direct action. Might we, for instance, begin our resistance by ditching our smartphones? In the ones and twos? Or in rallies where we dump them en masse? Might this make the agenda of the corporate and political elite harder to implement, particularly all the surveillance apps supposedly for our health?

While we’re at it, can we consider that the digital world in general has now reached the point (perhaps long past the point) where it serves the oppressors far more than it serves us? Has our habit of evaluating the benefits of technology in strictly personal terms been trumped by its use by empire for economic, political, social and militarized rule?

Can we overcome the feeling that high tech is a runaway juggernaut we’re helpless to control? Re-imagine an old normal independent of behemoths like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter, free from the tyranny of algorithms, our self-worth measured in digital likes and shares?

When does acceptance become surrender?

I realize, of course, that because of COVID, millions of people are now more dependent on the Internet and apps like Zoom for their bread-and-butter, and only for the grace does my income situation enable me to opt-out. Nevertheless, it’s a real question: Is our being forced to spend more time online potentially another health hazard? To quote that 1985 Aretha Franklin song: “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”

It could very well be that the Luddite Might-Wannabe inside me has fed over the years by my job at Op Cit Bookshop in Taos, New Mexico. Formerly known as Moby Dickens, the store has been operating in the same location for over 30 years as a time machine to the past, some might say an ancient past.

Our Point of Sales (POS) system still runs on MS-Dos, the precursor to Windows built in 1977 and too old to be linked to the Internet. The computer monitor is a CRT with green lettering and the keyboard functions with F keys. We also use an Okidata Dot Matrix Printer. The only thing missing is Pong.

Alas, we do have a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection, which allows us to order inventory from distributors like Ingram, as well as checking emails and doing research on bookstore-related news. But, by and large, Op Cit operates very old school. We even use index cards and scrap paper to take special orders and leave each other notes.

When customers, a steady mix of locals and tourists, discover how low-tech we are, they invariably respond with something like, “Oh my God, that’s so awesome!” Many of them, youth in particular, wonder how such an old operating system could have lasted this long. We wonder the same thing.

Personally, the Op Cit experience has caused me to examine just what it is that I truly need. As science author Nicholas Carr wrote in The Glass Cage: Automation and Us (W.W. Norton 1994):

We assume that anyone who rejects a new tool in favor of an older one is guilty of nostalgia, of making choices sentimentally rather than rationally. But the real sentimental fallacy is the assumption that the new thing is always better. What makes a one tool superior to another has nothing to do with how new it is. What matters is how it enlarges or diminishes us, how it shapes our experiences with nature and culture and one another.”

Writer and reporter David Sax makes a similar point in The Revenge of Analog (Public Affairs 2016), a detailed book that shows how youth are at the forefront of getting unplugged from a relentlessly digitized world. Sax writes:

There’s an argument that the world has fundamentally changed and we should just get used to it. That the amount of time spent on computers, smartphones and so forth is because the young love it, it’s their way of communication. To deny that is to deny reality. Moreover, the technology is good; it is liberating and has opened vast new frontiers.”

The book shows how it’s the exact opposite. It is the younger generation that has become less enamored with digital technology, and warier of its effects. Sax explains:

These were the teenagers and twentysomethings out buying turntables, film cameras, and novels in paperback. They were the students who told me how they would rather be constrained by the borders of a page than the limits of word processors.”

Good to know, right?

Hey, I totally get the challenges. The Internet is a vast resource with enormous benefits. This very article for this very website demonstrates its use and value, and I’ve been clicking and scrolling for decades.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that perhaps we’ve reached a crossroad, maybe gone past it. That digital addiction has become the real lockdown, hiding in plain sight, weaponized on behalf of the ruling class. And as I stated in the beginning, their agenda relies heavily on pumping up the drug.

So, might our ultimate liberation depend on getting unplugged, or at least moving in that direction? Extreme measures that lead us back to community and to love?

David Perez is a writer, journalist, activist, and actor living in Taos, New Mexico

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The Cleansing of the American People – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s not your oppressor’s fault that you are so oppressable. It is not the oppressor’s fault that you have so little fortitude to hold the line, to storm the breach, to impose your will, to defend your values.

If you do not fill that space as a righteous and steel-spined leader, it will be filled by those who mean to do you harm. Grave harm will befall that person. Children know no better than to be children.

What is your excuse?

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/02/allan-stevo/the-cleansing-of-the-american-people/

By Allan Stevo

40 years he walked them through the desert, this Moses. 40 years. Two generations. Until a nation of slaves who knew how to abide, and perhaps even prosper, under Egyptian slavery, had become a people hardened by the trials of the wilderness and eager for prospering in a land of their own, and to live lives of faith.

Lives of faith. Not lives of fear. 40 years he walked them through the desert feeding them manna as they moaned about how wonderful the agriculture of Egypt was, how pleasant the servitude was, how easy it would be to just turn back. 40 years, until the moaning generations were replaced by those who couldn’t stand the thought of slavery.

41 years they lived under the communist yoke in Czechoslovakia. 41 years, two generations, until the people had become a people able to cast off that government and live lives without that government’s every totalitarian input in every aspect of their lives.

41 years in East Germany (1949-1990). – Details)

40 years in Hungry (1949-1989).

42 years in Poland (1947-1989).

41 years in Romania (1948-1989).

44 years in Bulgaria (1946-1990).

47 years in Yugoslavia (1945-1992).

Some places were worse and longer.

74 years in the USSR (1917-1991).

Other places continue that trial.

62 years in Cuba (1959-present).

72 years in China (1949–present).

73 years in North Korea (1948–present).

There is no intrinsic limit to how long it goes. The limit is on how long it is allowed to go. When a backstop exists, it will come to an end, a backstop of people who refuse to act like a slave any longer, who demand better.

40 years they walked through the desert until a nation of slaves turned into a nation of people who wanted more and would strive for that, doing whatever it took to get it.

How long will the American people walk through the desert?

How long will you walk through the desert?

Because your decision to live a free life is not dependent on anyone else’s decision.

Are you ready for a better life or are you eager to continue the childish antics, the self-infantilizing ways of the slave?

In slavery, yes, you labor under another man’s command, but you need never worry from whence your daily bread comes. You need never concern yourself with that worry or with that risk. You need only grumble from time to time when the bread ration gets too small. The grumble may cause you to risk being whipped. Those are the great risks in life: That you go beg for more crumbs from the table and might take a whipping.

Anyone who has walked a day in the shoes of a free man knows that the risks of life are much greater than taking a whipping from master.

In slavery, you long not for greatness. That’s part of the deal. Master protects you from the pitfalls of wanting greatness. He reminds you, yes, once in a while, an entrepreneur succeeds, but oh how they fail and in such plentiful numbers. 95% of all small businesses go under within 7 years, master reminds you. Is that the kind of failure you want to return to? Or do you want the riskless existence of working in community and having your daily bread guaranteed?

Master reminds you how good it is to fear risk, how liberating it is to not trouble the mind with the possibilities of risk and reward.

You may also have the slave hobbies: Those that feel good and do not edify. The more vile and debasing, the more titillating and corrupting, the more demoralizing and destructive to you, the better it is for master. Be ye children all your days. Laugh and play like children, only with adult bodies. Bodies that can do adult things. Enjoy your lives. You only live once. Life is short. Try anything once. Be ye children and the better it is for master, because children cannot rise up. The demoralized cannot rise up. They have no strength, no fortitude. Demoralization is the process of dispiriting a people by removing morals, customs, ways, traditions.

Oh, how good it is for master.

You might also trade in slave money — that controlled and debased fiat currency, devised to pay all the bills in the most conniving of ways, that lends itself not only to the debasing of the currency, but debasing of all aspects of life. Use the slave money child. It comes with no risk to you.

At least two generations have known nothing but slave money.

Just sit back and act like a child for as much of life as you can, is what master wants you to accept. And so many people confuse that with freedom, but at some point, it stops being possible to blame master for your decisions.  Maybe at 10-years-old, maybe at 15-years-old, maybe at 20-years-old, you can’t blame master or anyone else anymore, by that point, your decisions are on you.

By that point “confusion,” “influence,” “deceit,” “oppression,” “control,” words like these carry little weight when spoken by a person with agency trying to convince others that he is not to blame for his own choices.

Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s not your oppressor’s fault that you are so oppressable. It is not the oppressor’s fault that you have so little fortitude to hold the line, to storm the breach, to impose your will, to defend your values.

If you do not fill that space as a righteous and steel-spined leader, it will be filled by those who mean to do you harm. Grave harm will befall that person. Children know no better than to be children.

What is your excuse?

America is headed towards slavery and can barely find a single righteous man who will rise to lead otherwise.

The allure of carefree daily bread, the allure of childlike nights and weekends of childlike carefree splendor, and in exchange for mere obedience. This is too great an allure for the man who has been demoralized.

And that is why master likes it when you have no morality, no tradition, no customs. That is why master likes it when you won’t commit. That is why master likes it when you have no responsibility, when you have no spouse, when you have no children, when you have endless joy and little more.

Master wants you to have endless joy. What’s so bad about that?

If that sound pretty good to you, perhaps you’re part of the problem.

But the choice is yours.

All you need to do is to take a knee.

You might love the next 40 years. 400 years. 4000 years.

Master will welcome you with open arms.

And if you simply commit to never taking that knee, if you simply commit to never being a man’s slave, then so much more is possible.

Stop that obedience now. The bestselling “Face Masks in One Lesson” by Allan Stevo plots a different course. Read Stevo’s LRC writings, sign up at RealStevo.com, and drop Stevo a note if you need help plotting a different course, but of greatest importance is that you demand better of yourself than the life of a slave. It starts with the face mask. It ends with you being the finest example of human freedom that anyone has ever known. So many need that of you. The only question then is: Will you demand that of yourself? 

Allan Stevo [send him mail] writes about international politics and culture from a free market perspective at 52 Weeks in Slovakia (www.52inSk.com). He is the author of How to Win America, The Bitcoin Manifesto, and numerous other books.

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Some Coloradoans Want to Break Off and Join Wyoming. They Should at Least Get to Vote On It. | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://mises.org/wire/some-coloradoans-want-break-and-join-wyoming-they-should-least-get-vote-it

Ryan McMaken

Last month, a group of activists in Weld County, Colorado, began floating the idea that the county should leave Colorado and be annexed by the State of Wyoming.

Weld County borders Wyoming on the north and runs southward to the northern part of the Denver metro area. It is the ninth-largest county in Colorado by population, containing more than 252,000 residents. Were it to join Wyoming, it would become the largest Wyoming county—by far—in terms of population. With a population of only 580,000, Wyoming’s overall population would increase by 43 percent were the state to annex Weld County.

The Weld County secessionists are now pushing a ballot measure that would instruct Weld County commissioners to explore the annexation with Wyoming. Even with the success of a very weak ballot measure like this, the county would still be a long, long way from an effective secession and annexation. Nonetheless, the governor of Wyoming, Mark Gordon, has already expressed jumped on the bandwagon, telling a Denver-based radio station that he supports the idea.

The response from opponents has been a predictable mixture of mockery and hostility. The Colorado governor, Jared Polis, told Gordon to keep his “hands off Weld County.” One local resident called the effort “ridiculous.” But hostilities between county residents and the state government are sure to remain. One prosecession activist contended the state government “is at war with three major economic drivers for Weld County: small businesses, agriculture, and oil and gas.”

These comments stem from fights between county residents and the state government over stay-at-home orders, water use, and resource extraction.

During the stay-at-home order imposed by the governor last spring, Weld County was among the few counties that refused to enforce state mandates on business closures. Governor Polis responded by threatening to withhold emergency funds from the county. The county quickly brushed off his threat and noted that it had already received its emergency funds and wasn’t planning to request any more. The county has also declared that it will not enforce state orders regarding the wearing of masks indoors.

On top of this, the administration has clashed with county officials and residents over matters of water use and environmental regulation related to oil and gas extraction, which comprises a major part of the county’s economy and employment.

What Is the Moral Argument against Secession?

Legally, a region of a state must jump through many hoops to leave one state and join another. Indeed, the US government and state governments have built up quite a legal edifice to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen. The consensus appears to be that such a move requires approval from all states directly affected, plus, approval from Congress. Clearly, unless the US is thrown into political disarray by a major destabilizing event—like a serious depression, a precipitous decline in the regime’s perceived legitimacy, or a sovereign debt crisis—efforts at redrawing state lines are unlikely to succeed.

Nonetheless, until at least one of these major crises occur—which is, of course, virtually guaranteed with a long enough time horizon—it is helpful to ask: What is the moral case, if any, against secession?

Opponents tend to scoff at the idea because they know that in the short term the political and legal obstacles are many.

But because of this, they tend to ignore the problems that come with their position.

Denying Self-Determination

One problem arises from the fact that opposing secession on principle requires the negation of the idea of self-determination. Naturally, counties, regions, and districts do not in themselves have rights to “self-determination.” These rights are only enjoyed by individuals. However, in order for self-determination to exist on a practical level, individuals must be free to assert self-governance through local institutions in opposition to the powers of a central government. Mises was careful to make this distinction in his 1927 book Liberalism:

To call this right of self-determination the “right of self-determination of nations” is to misunderstand it. It is not the right of self-determination of a delimited national unit, but the right of the inhabitants of every territory to decide on the state to which they wish to belong…. [T]he right of self-determination of which we speak is not the right of self-determination of nations, but rather the right of self-determination of the inhabitants of every territory large enough to form an independent administrative unit. 

Mises imagined this could be accomplished through plebiscites at the level of a “single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts.”

In other words, in order to provide opportunities for persons to exercise their rights to political self-determination, it is necessary to allow them to join political jurisdictions that reflect their own needs and personal views.

Those who oppose secession, however, in effect insist that it is necessary that a person move himself and his property—possibly hundreds of miles—to another jurisdiction if he is not pleased with the status quo. 

But how does this make sense in a region where the overwhelming majority of residents seek to exit a particular state? Should not these people be allowed to live under a state and local government that reflects their values?

What about the Minority That Prefers the Status Quo?

This brings us to a common objection among antisecessionists: What about those people who are against secession and support the status quo?

This is a common strategy employed to disparage secession, such as with the Catalonian secession in Spain or the notion of Californian secession. The Loyalists of American history, of course, opposed the American secession from the British Empire. The argument goes like this: the secessionist regions must never be allowed to leave. This is because the antisecessionist minority populations will be deprived of their right to self-determination. 

Note the inherent contradiction in the antisecessionist position, however. Antisecessionists are apparently only concerned with minority rights when it helps their political position. In our example, if 70 percent of the county seeks secession, that means 30 percent of the Weld County population wishes to remain part of Colorado. Antisecessionists naturally tell us we’re supposed to be deeply concerned about that. But at the same time, the antisecessionists look the other way when it’s a minority group that seeks secession. In other words, if a minority of Coloradoans concentrated in a particular area wish to break off from Colorado, we’ll that’s just tough luck. In this way of thinking, the antisecessionist regional minority always trumps the secessionist statewide minority. 

Secessionists, on the other hand—if they are ideologically consistent—do not have this problem. A consistent secessionist will not object if one portion of the proposed secessionist district votes to remain part of the old jurisdiction. In our Weld County scenario, a secessionist would not object if the county were partitioned to make it easier for antisecessionists to remain part of Colorado.

This doesn’t give everyone exactly what they want, of course. But it goes a long way toward expanding self-determination without forcing residents to relocate to a distant community. That is, under the status quo, a secessionist denied self-determination would be forced to completely relocate outside the community. But if the secessionist district is partitioned, then those who wish to retain the status quo are likely to find themselves needing to relocate only a few miles, or even just down the street.

Democracy Doesn’t Solve These Problems

A third big mistake made by the secessionists is their thinking that “democracy” somehow solves all these problems. The claim goes something like this: “If people in Weld County are unhappy with policies in Colorado, they should contact their elected representatives and run legislation to change things!” This is the old “vote harder” claim—the idea that a group that’s hopelessly outnumbered by another group could possibly prevail in a democratic setting by voting. 

It requires a high degree of naïveté to think that just running legislation, voting, or calling one’s political representatives is enough to get a fair shake through a statewide political process where minority groups are generally powerless. After all, people in Weld County are likely to have very different ideological views, different economic needs, and different cultural backgrounds than people in other parts of the state. Often, differing views and needs will be mutually exclusive or even in direct conflict with each other. If most residents of Weld County favor widespread gun ownership—but a majority in the rest of the state is against it—Weld County residents can’t hope for any political victories in this regard no matter how many bills they run or how many calls they make to the governor’s office. 

Unfortunately, these problems are likely to persist in the short and medium term, because Americans have grown accustomed to regarding state and national boundaries as immovable and very nearly sacrosanct. In practice, however, a state’s borders should change over time to reflect demographic and ideological realities. By denying this, political leaders are effectively saying that the rights of minority populations don’t matter.  Author:

Contact Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken (@ryanmcmaken) is a senior editor at the Mises Institute. Send him your article submissions for the Mises Wire and The Austrian, but read article guidelines first. Ryan has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado and was a housing economist for the State of Colorado. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre.

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Almost a Year Later, There’s Still No Evidence Showing Governments Can Control the Spread of Covid-19 | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on February 24, 2021

https://mises.org/wire/almost-year-later-theres-still-no-evidence-showing-governments-can-control-spread-covid-19

Anthony Rozmajzl

As we approach the one-year anniversary of fifteen days to flatten the curve, we have yet to acquire any data suggesting that the past year of life-destroying lockdowns and politicized behavioral mandates has done anything to keep us safe from covid-19. While discussions surrounding the reintroduction of nationwide lockdowns seem to have ceased—it’s impossible to ignore the lockdowns’ disproportionately deadly effects and the numerous studies demonstrating their futility—the media still retain their grip on the narrative that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as mask mandates, curfews, capacity restrictions, gathering restrictions, and others remain necessary to prevail in our fight against covid-19.

Government officials, in lockstep with big tech and nearly all major news outlets, have controlled the NPI narrative to such an extent that its proponents have simply sidestepped the burden of proof naturally arising from the introduction and continued support of novel virus mitigation strategies, happily pointing to the fact that their ideas enjoy unanimous support from the corporate media and government officials all over the world. This seemingly impenetrable narrative rests, of course, on the critical assumption that NPIs, or behavioral mandates, have protected us from covid-19.

The One Chart That Covid Doomsdayers Can’t Explain

If there is one visualization the reader should become familiar with to highlight the ineffectiveness of a nearly a year’s worth of NPIs, it would be the following chart comparing hospitalizations and deaths per million in Florida with those in New York and California, however we will be focusing solely on the comparison between Florida and California.

In light of everything our officials have taught us about how this virus spreads, it defies reality that Florida, a fully open and popular travel destination with one of the oldest populations in the country, currently has lower hospitalizations and deaths per million than California, a state with much heavier restrictions and one of the youngest populations in the country. While it is true that, overall, California does slightly better than Florida in deaths per million, simply accounting for California’s much younger population tips the scales in Florida’s favor.

Florida has zero restrictions on bars, breweries, indoor dining, gyms, places of worship, gathering sizes, and almost all schools are offering in-person instruction. California, on the other hand, retains heavy restrictions in each of these areas. At the very least, Florida’s hospitalizations and deaths per million should be substantially worse than California’s. Those who predicted death and destruction as a consequence of Florida’s September reopening simply cannot see these results as anything other than utterly remarkable. Even White House covid advisor Andy Slavitt, much to the establishment’s embarrassment, had no explanation for Florida’s success relative to California. Slavitt was reduced to parroting establishment talking points after admitting that Florida’s surprisingly great numbers were “just a little beyond our explanation.”

Does Compliance Explain the Discrepancy?

Invariably, the above graph will invoke responses pointing to Californians’ supposed lack of compliance relative to Floridians as justification for their poor numbers. On its face, this claim is patently absurd given that Florida has been fully open since September. But if we dig into the data a bit more, we find some relevant metrics that shed light on how frequently Floridians and Californians are engaging in behaviors that allegedly fuel covid-19 transmission. The following survey data—California is shown in blue, Florida in gray—is taken from Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi Research Group. Beyond the red vertical line, Florida has had consistently lower hospitalizations and deaths per million than California.

Mask Compliance

Bar Visits

Traveling

Restaurant Visits

We can see that, relative to Floridians, Californians have consistently been doing a better job of avoiding social behaviors that allegedly fuel the spread of covid-19. Moreover, at no point was there a drastic change in behavioral patterns after December 17 indicating that Floridians had suddenly begun avoiding activities purportedly linked to covid transmission.

A quick glance at each state’s “social distancing score” also indicates, yet again, that Californians have been doing a better job avoiding activities meant to facilitate the spread of covid-19. Additionally, Google’s covid mobility reports, as of February 16, 2021, show that Californians partake in fewer retail and recreational visits—restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters—as well as fewer grocery store and pharmacy visits, which include farmers markets, food warehouses, and speciality food shops. Evidently, the whole “noncompliance” schtick is nothing more than a fraudulent excuse for explaining away undesirable trends.

More Metrics Rebutting the Mainstream Covid-19 Narrative

Moving on from the Florida-California comparison, national metrics also highlight the lack of correlation between the intensity of states’ NPIs—methodology for determining this can be found here—and deaths per million.

In fact, if we visualize case trends across all fifty diverse states, each state having varying levels of restrictions, you’ll quickly notice a pattern that presents itself quite similarly across all fifty states: a bump in cases early to midway through the year followed by a much bigger surge in cases during winter months. The following data was retrieved from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

See the rest here

Anthony Rozmajzl

Anthony graduated from Grove City College in 2018 with a B.A. in Economics. He has been a student of the Austrian School of Economics for over 8 years and a champion of Rothbardian libertarianism. During the day, Anthony works as a Software Quality Analyst for an ERP software company.

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