Archive for June, 2020

TBR News June 30, 2020

Jun 30 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
“In 2002, a brilliant but unstable computer code writer at a prominent university, became enraged when he failed to get a high-paying position.

Seeking revenge, he constructed a computer virus that would obliterate the hard drive in computers and also wipe out any files it connected with.

The virus was disguised in such a way as to make detection impossible.

He sent this, on a disc, to someone of his acquaintance and asked him to send it out to various entities.

The receiver was not inclined to do this but later decided it might prove interesting so he put it into his own computer and sent it to government agencies, banks, insurance companies, school systems, large businesses, religious organizations, medical facilities, NASDAQ, the NYSE, political parties, transportation systems, telephone computer systems, and other entities.

All it would take to activate this virus would be a trigger, in this case a man’s first, middle and last names plus an invented Social Security card number.

This is mathematically an impossibility to accidentally create.

If this trigger were introduced, let us say, into the computer system of the Federal Reserve, Chase bank, the Department of State, NSA, and on and on, the trigger would activate after so many days, hours and minutes.

The result?

The destruction of the computer system targeted.

This has been germinating for eighteen years and at this point has spread across the globe.

As I am sure you can see, if this happened, the results would be explosive and would be a worse global disaster since the 1917 ‘Spanish’ influenza.

The entire global business and social structures are built around the computer systems and their collapse would be monumental and without guessing, one could say that a new Dark Age would descend.

Many large systems have backups but if these post-dated 2003, they might work for a short time but then they, too, would collapse.

I would imagine if the right wing idiots clamped down on the citizenry, this would be a, fatal, response.

Eric Hoffer said, and I agree, that if you promise something to the masses, there would be a positive response but if you take something away (from the pubic) violence will erupt and the trees of the land will bear strange fruit indeed! Galatians 6:7 indeed.”

 

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 29

Newsweek

Approve     Disapprove

   39%          57%


The Table of Contents
1.Coronavirus is a breeding ground for conspiracy theories – and that has serious consequences
2.The quick guide to spotting fake news
3.The Covid-BLM Diversion; “Shock Therapy” Behind a Smokescreen of 4.Hysteria and Racial Incitement

5.The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

6.Encyclopedia of American Loons

Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 29, 2020

Jun 29 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
Like the Titanic, Trump’s ship is slowly sinking into the depths of the sea. How many people will it take with it? A schemer since he was a boy and incapable of either facing reality or telling the truth, Trump most surely is plotting some way to cheat on the presidential voting in Novembe. He did in 2016 and he will at least try in 2020. Probably, if controlling the electronic voting machines doesn’t work,he will try to stir up civil strife so he can call out the police and the military and frantically  try to stay in power, just like his idol, Adolf Hitler. Failure is a word Trump has never understood and he is capable of almost any act to keep failure and shame from him. Very soon, millions of Americans will run out of money, be unable to pay rent or utilities and be without shelter or food and when this happens, the public will not tolerate it and his defeat in November will be assured. That’s when he tries to stay in power by force, not law. Be advised.

 

Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%


The Table of Contents


1.The Encyclopedia of American Loons – Mike Pence
2.A cash cliff spells trouble for U.S. unemployed, and everyone else
3.Trump’s brother tries again to block niece’s tell-all book after failed attempt
4.Rewriting History & Rehabilitating George W Bush
5.What Law did we break?
Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 28, 2020

Jun 28 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
Here we have typical scare headlines about corona virus taken from various Internet sites:

  • President visits private golf course as US battles surge in cases
  • ObamacareRepeal could mean Covid-19 survivors lose insurance
  • ‘We opened too quickly’Texas becomes model for weak response
  • What doctors have learned about fighting COVID-19
  • Scientists just beginning to understand the many health problems caused by COVID-19
  • Australia’s Victoria state mandates coronavirus testing for travelers
  • Global COVID-19 fundraising meeting raises $6.9 billion, leaders want vaccine for all
  • Tennis: Revised ATP calendar not safe for players, says Murray

 

But we also find the reality of the corona virus scare game:

 

TOTAL COVID-19 CASES WORLDWIDE 10.01 million
                                                                       

TOTAL COVID-19 DEATHS WORLDWIDE 498,274
TOTAL RECOVERIES WORLDWIDE 5.05 million
                                                     

If these figures are correct, we note that ten million people contracted the virus and that about half a million died from it. But if the total survivors were five million, what happened to the other five million? The usual pseudo-scientists or air-head reporters will no doubt claim they were air-lifted to the planet Xenu by L.Ron Hubbard’s back-wards practitioners.
It is also of interest to note that the annual published flu deaths are far higher than the corona virus ones. Why don’t the legions of babbling “scientists” and the gibbering media discuss this published fact? There is the faint, but growing, stench of fraud here.

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%


The Table of Contents
1.Donald Trump’s re-election playbook: 25 ways he’ll lie, cheat and abuse his power
2. In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan riot in New York
3.Trump as dual personality
4. What Will It Take to Defeat Trumpism?
5.Barr creates task force focused on ‘anti-government extremists’
6.Nord Stream 2: Germany prepares defence against US over pipeline

7.Behavioral sink
8.Overpopulation, Nature’s Revenge, & Pandemic
9.The Encyclopedia of American Loons

 

Donald Trump’s re-election playbook: 25 ways he’ll lie, cheat and abuse his power
From now until November, opponents of the most lawless president in history face a fight for democracy itself
June 28, 2020
by Robert Reich
The Guardian

Donald Trump will do anything to be re-elected. His opponents are limited because they believe in democracy. Trump has no limits because he doesn’t.

Here’s Trump’s re-election playbook, in 25 simple steps:

1) Declare yourself above the law.

2) Use racist fearmongering. Demand “law and order” and describe protesters as “thugs”, “lowlife” and “rioters and looters”. Describe Covid-19 as “kung-flu”. Retweet posts from white supremacists. In your campaign ads, use a symbol associated with Nazis.

3) Appoint an attorney general more loyal to you than to America, and politicize the Department of Justice so it’s lenient on your loyalists and comes down hard on your enemies. Have it lighten the sentence of a crony convicted of lying under oath. Order investigations of industries you dislike.

4) Fire US attorneys who are investigating you.

5) Fire independent inspectors general who are looking into what you’ve done. Crush any whistleblowers you find.

6) Demean and ignore the intelligence community. Appoint a director of national intelligence more loyal to you than to America. Demand that the head of the FBI pledge loyalty to you.

7) Pack the federal courts with judges and justices more loyal to you than to the constitution.

8) Politicize the Department of Defense so generals will back whatever you order. Refer to them as “my generals”. Have them help clear out protesters. Order the military to surveil protesters. Tell governors you’ll bring in the military to stop protesters.

9) Purge your party of anyone disloyal to you and turn it into a mindless, brainless, spineless cult.

10) Get rid of accumulated experience and expertise in government. Demean career public servants. Hollow out the state department, the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and public health.

11) Reward donors and cronies with bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies, government contracts, regulatory rollbacks and plum jobs. Put their lobbyists in charge of your agencies. Distribute $500bn in pandemic assistance to corporations in secret, without any oversight.

12) Coddle dictators. Don’t criticize their human rights abuses. Refuse to work with the leaders of other democracies. Withdraw from international treaties.

13) Create scapegoats. Demonize migrants and lock up asylum seekers at the border, even if they’re children. Put a white nationalist in charge of immigration policy. Blame Muslims, Mexicans and Chinese.

14) Denigrate and ridicule all critics. Describe opponents as “human scum”. Attack the mainstream media as purveyors of “fake news” and “enemies of the people”.

15) Conjure up conspiracies supposedly led by your predecessor and your opponent in the last election. Without any evidence, accuse your predecessor of “treason”. Fabricate a “deep state” out to get you.

16) Downplay real threats to the nation, such as a rapidly spreading pandemic. Lie about your utter failure to contain it. Muzzle public health experts. Urge people to go back to work even as the pandemic worsens in parts of the country.

17) Encourage armed supporters to “liberate” states from elected officials who disagree with you.

18) Bribe other nations to investigate your electoral opponent and flood social media with lies about him.

19) Use rightwing propaganda machines like Fox News and conspiracy-theory-peddling One America News to inundate the country with your lies. Ensure that the morally bankrupt chief executive of Facebook allows you to spread your lies on the biggest media machine in the world.

20) Suppress the votes of people likely to vote against you. Intimidate voters of color. Encourage Republican governors to purge voter rolls, demand voter ID and close polling places.

21) Seek to prevent mail-in ballots during the pandemic. Claim they will cause voter fraud, without evidence. Threaten to close the US postal service.

In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan riot in New York
February 29, 2016
The Washington Post

A furor over former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke’s praise for Donald Trump has brought back into the spotlight an incident from nearly 90 years ago, in which Trump’s father was arrested at a Klan riot in New York.

In September, the technology blog Boing Boing reported that on Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York led by sympathizers of the Italian fascist movement and the Ku Klux Klan. In the fascist brawl, which took place in the Bronx, two Italian men were killed by anti-fascists. In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested.

One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Rd in Jamaica.

This is Donald Trump’s father. Trump had a brother named Fred, but he wasn’t born until more than a decade later. The Fred Trump at Devonshire Road was the Fred C. Trump who lived there with his wife, according to the 1930 Census.

The predication for the Klan to march, according to a flier passed around Jamaica beforehand, was that “Native-born Protestant Americans” were being “assaulted by Roman Catholic police of New York City.” “Liberty and Democracy have been trampled upon when native-born Protestant Americans dare to organize to protect one flag, the American flag; one school, the public school; and one language, the English language.”

It’s not clear from the context what role Fred Trump played in the brawl. The news article simply notes that seven men were arrested in the “near-riot of the parade,” all of whom were represented by the same lawyers. No doubt to the chagrin of those in the Klan, the seven faced a Roman Catholic judge.

When news of the old report surfaced last year, Donald Trump vehemently denied his father’s arrest. “He was never arrested. He has nothing to do with this. This never happened. This is nonsense and it never happened,” he said to the Daily Mail. “This never happened. Never took place. He was never arrested, never convicted, never even charged. It’s a completely false, ridiculous story. He was never there! It never happened. Never took place.”

Comment: As usual, we see Trump as a congenital liar. If his father was not at a KKK rally, why was he arrested for being there? Trump and truth are distant strangers.

 

The current American President is directly descended from the German Trumpf family.

His ancestor in the direct line was Johannes Trump(f), a native of the village of Kallstadt.

The same Trumpf family also produced one Arnold Wilhelm August Trumpf.

Arnold Trumpf was Vorstand Reichsverband Deutscher Landwirtschaftlicher Genossenschaften-Raiffensene.V and Hauptabteilungsleiter III of the Reichsnahrstand, Allegemeine SS since 1934.

Trumpf was a director of the Reichsbank.

SS background of Arnold Trumpf:

SS-Oberführer / Leutnant d.R. a.D.

Born: 27. Oct. 1892 in Gifhorn

Died: 7. January 1985 in Garmish-Partenkirchen

NSDAP-Nr.: 389 920 from 1, December 1930

SS-Nr.: 187 119

Promotions:

SS-Oberfuhrer: 30. Jan. 1939

Career:

Bei dem RuS-Hauptamt: (9. Nov. 1944)

Decorations & Awards:

1914 Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse

Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse ohne Schwerter

Verwundetenabzeichen, 1918 in Schwarz

Ehrenkreuz fur Frontkampfer

Ehrendegen des RF SS

Totenkopfring der SS

The RuSHA was founded in 1931 by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler

Among their duties were:

  • Kidnapping of children suitable for Germanization
  • Population transfers
  • The persecution and liquidation of Jews

 

The RuSHA also employed Josef Mengele from November 1940 to early 1941, in Department II of its Family Office, where he was responsible for “care of genetic health” and “genetic health tests”

References

  • http://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Trumpf,_Arnold
  • Das Deutsche Führerlexikon, Otto Stollberg G.m.b.H., Berlin 1934
  • Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP 9, November 1944

 

Trump as dual personality

Trump has been a manipulative, thoroughly dishonest, businessman as evident in his methodology of non-payment of bills, planting false information, threatening those who dare to criticize him, constant boasting, chronic lying and short-term memory problems.

He has, unfortunately, brought his defects to the Oval Office and we constantly see such fictions rampant as ‘The Poisoned Russians in Britain,” “Spies in the Presidential campaign,” threats to put tariffs on various foreign imports, theats to use military force on perceived uncooperative former allies, and a host of other actions that Trump hopes will energize legions of far-right and Jewish voters to support him in the next election.

Because Trump has led an insulated life and gets what he wants by connivance and threats, he is out of touch with reality.

Trump is also a naracissist.

His negative actions are seen daily on the Internet and in the media and these build up with even the most stupid voter.

He has, often deliberately, antagonized such a large field of potential opponents that his hubris will destroy him and, in the end, cause chaos and disruption in the United States and many other countries.

Since Trump is used to having his way in the business world, he is of the opinion that his successful techniques in that field will work just as well in the political one.

The only positive aspect of the coming storm is that many disparate groups will join against Trump in a common cause and force him from the White House.

There will be many far right supporters, Jewish groups and others who will mourn his passing and as a parallel, today in Russia, who is fortunate to have a successful and effective president, there are still some who yearn for the return of the murderous Josef Stalin.

Washington has always been a city filled with rumors, speculations, gossip, and many manifestations of self-importance.

I had lunch the other day with a member of one of the alphabet agencies who told me, in strict confidence, that his agency had ‘positive proof’ that Trump had gay connections when he was younger and still lived back in the closet.

He said that Trump’s very aggressive (and blatantly crude) attitudes towards women was a sure indicator of his orientation and that his wife was keeping their attractive son as far away from his attentions as she could.

I would dismiss this as gossip save for the fact that I have been hearing the same theme from others, one of whom is a prominent psychologist who deals extensively with closeted males.

If all of this is true, my informant assured me, it would soon emerge in public via a ‘cooperative blogger’ and an even more cooperative mainline media.

Interesting times we live in.

Translation from the German

 

  • Trump is not an honest man by any stretch of imagination. He has a long record of bankruptcies, business failures, very dubious business practices and extraordinarily negative behavior to staff and other employees. To catalogue the full sweep of a flood of patently dishonest business allegations against Donald Trump would require thousands of words and lump together the trivial, the blatently criminal with the truly scandalous.
  • Certainly, the psychological personal profile of Donald Trump could hardly be better tailored to being easily turned by a hostile intelligence agency.
  • The concept of Trump taking bribes from the Russians (or the PRC) is completely understandable if one applies the concept of Occam’s Razor to the tumult and disruption he is deliberately causing both domestically and in foreign areas.
  • Russian intelligence agencies are known to have highly compromising and often bizarre sexual material on him going back more than 30 years and they have used Trump and his elaborate network of business entites as a funnel for laundering dirty money from the Russian mafia and from post-Soviet oligarchs. The Russians are well-known to have more than enough compromising material on Trump to bend him to their will.
  • Trump has constantly been engaged in bribings and manipulations and does this through second parties such as Cohen his former lawyer or Manafort, his recently convicted campaign manager during the election.
  • Following Mr.Trump’s bankruptcies in the 1990s he borrowed very large sums of operating capital from Russian sources. He also obtained large loans from the Deutsche Bank (over 640 million dollars)

Other big banks, domestic and foreign, have long refused to lend to him, coining the term “the Donald risk” to refer to his repeated bankruptcies and failures to repay loans. However, Deutsche Bank, whose real-estate division continued to lend him hundreds of millions of dollars to finance his projects, seemed to have a greater risk appetite. There is a solid connection and on-going business between this bank and two Russian-based banks.

  • 1,300 Trump condominiums have been sold to Russian-connected buyers. Even a cheap Trump condo costs over a million dollars, so there over 1,300 condos that meet all the criteria for what is normally called money laundering. Russian intelligence is using Trump real estate to launder money
  • In 2008 his son, Donald Trump Jr., said that Russia was an important source of money for the Trump businesses.
  • Trump and his entourage have made a significant number of trips to Russia in the past (a list of these along with Russian personages he was in contact with can easily be found on Google), seeking financing and permission to build luxury hotels in that country
  • Russian intelligence owns Wikileaks entirely and released the damning, and authentic, ‘Podesta papers’ concurrent with Hillary Clinton’s campaign in coordinated agreement with the Trump people. This did serious damage to her campaign and was a major contributory factor to her narrow defeat and Trump’s election to the presidency.
  • Trump’s actions, as President, are deliberate efforts to alienate both the putative allies of the US such as Germany, France, and Canada and, to a lesser degree, Mexico. Also, the tariffs suggested by Trump against China would result in retaliation by that country and many retail outlets in the United States would be forced to close because they would be unable to purchase Chinese-made goods, the bulk of their stock.
  • Trump has deliberately launched pointless, and destructive, attacks against Mexican and Muslim immigrants, as well as Canadian, Chinese and German imports. All this has done is to create a highly negative image of his persona primarily and secondarily, the global image of the United States. This is only to the benefit of Putin’s Russia, not the United States.
  • Trump’s tariffs, and threats of tariffs, have engendered counter-tariffs that will, when implemented, create serious economic problems for American businessmen and, eventually, the American public.
  • Trump’s politically foolish but calculated support of the Israeli far right has done, and is doing, serious damage to the US image in the Middle East. It should be noted that Russian influence in the Shiite areas of the Middle East, is growing. Also note that Iran, and parts of Iraq, both Shiite, have extensive oil reserves and that Saudi Arabia, a Sunni state, once America’s primary source of badly-need oil, is running dry. Further, his aggressive support of Israel is resulting in increasing antisemitism in the United States.
  • The Middle East areas where Russia now has growing influence, have oil and if Russia sets itself up as major oil merchandising source, this will give them tremendous economic leverage vis a vis the United States which is the world’s largest consumer of oil and its by-products.
  • By alienating America’s allies and disrupting that country’s social structure, Trump benefits only Russia and its interests.
  • When he is caught at this, and it is common knowledge that the FBI was deeply interested in his Russian connections long before he ran for President, either the American public will have to deal with another Dallas or Trump will suffer a fatal heart attack. Vice-President Pence, a Christian fanatic, would then have to be told to mind his manners or suffer similar terminal problems.
  • Trump is very well aware of the ongoing and growing official investigation into his denied but completely genuine Russian connections and is certainly also well aware of what they can find, and probably have already uncovered, so he initially fired the head of the FBI and even now, according to a very reliable source, is determined to replace the FBI with the cooperative CIA (their former head, Pompeo, is now Secretary of State) as the sole foreign and domestic intelligence agency. He, and his Russian intelligence handlers, want to nip any FBI revelations in the bud so that Trump can continue on his course of castrating the United States as a global power to the benefit of Putin’s Russia.
  • There was a full page ad that he took out in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post in 1988, putting forth foreign policy points that could have been dictated by Vladimir Putin. It was an assault against NATO, and the European Union, both anathema to Russia
  • In 2015, Western European intelligence agencies in France and Germany began picking up solid evidence of communications between the Russian government and people in Donald Trump’s orbit. In April 2016, one of the Baltic States shared with then–CIA director John Brennan an audio recording of Russians discussing funneling money to the Trump campaign. In the summer of 2016, Robert Hannigan, head of the U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ, flew to Washington to brief Brennan on intercepted communications between the Trump campaign and Russia.
  • During the Soviet era, Russian intelligence cast a wide net to gain leverage over influential figures abroad. (The practice continues to this day.) The Russians would lure or entrap not only prominent politicians and cultural leaders, but also people whom they saw as having the potential for gaining prominence in the future. In 1986, Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin met Trump in New York, flattered him with praise for his building exploits, and invited him to discuss a building in Moscow. Trump visited Moscow in July 1987. He stayed at the National Hotel, in the Lenin Suite, which certainly was known to be bugged
  • Throughout his career, Trump has always felt comfortable operating at or beyond the ethical boundaries that constrain typical businesses. In the 1980s, he worked with La Cosa Nostra, which controlled the New York cement trade, and later employed Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, both of whom have links to the Russian Mafia. Trump habitually refused to pay his counter parties, and if the people he burned (or any journalists) got in his way, he bullied them with threats. He also used LLCs which he created for the purpose of swindling firm who, for example, laid new carpet in one of his hotels. The vendor billed the LLC which promptly went bankrupt. This has been a favorite gambit of Trump.
  • Trump continually acts like a man with a great deal to hide: declining to testify to anything under oath, dangling Presidential pardons to keep potential witnesses and former employees from incriminating him, publicly chastising his attorney general for not quashing the whole Russian investigation, and endorsing Russia’s claims that it had nothing to do with the election. (“Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” he tweeted last month, contradicting the conclusion of every U.S. intelligence and counter-intelligence agency.) Trump’s behavior toward Russia looks exactly like that of an accessory after the fact.
  • When, and not if, it becomes public knowledge that the President of the US is an agent of a foreign power, it would be the worst scandal in American history, far surpassing Tea Pot Dome or Watergate.
  • In conclusion, it is clearly obvious that President Trump was jobbed into his office with the full cooperation of Russian intelligence and that he is currently engaged in efforts to carry out their political global programs which, if allowed to continue, will wreak economic and political havoc on the American government, business community and public.
  • And consider that the United States has been harassing Vladimir Putin’s Russia economically and causing considerable problems for that country. Mr. Putin’s reactive countermeasures aganst the United States are certainly in response to these actions and in the long view, far more effective than sanctions and hysterical threats

What Will It Take to Defeat Trumpism?
Learning Lessons from the End of the Confederacy, Nazi Germany, and Saddam’s Iraq
by John Feffer
TomDispatch

Let’s assume that Donald Trump loses the election in November.

Yes, that’s a mighty big assumption, despite all the polls currently favoring the Democrats. If the economy begins to recover and the first wave of Covid-19 subsides (without a second wave striking), Donald Trump’s reelection prospects could improve greatly. The Republican Party has a huge war chest ready to fund ads galore, massive targeted outreach, and widespread voter suppression. And if all that isn’t enough, the president could borrow a tactic from the dictators he so admires and cancel the election outright out of concern over the coronavirus or some fabricated emergency.

Playing up fears of Trump’s reelection is a useful get-out-the-vote strategy, but for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that the election happens and the president loses unambiguously. A majority of Americans will sigh with relief. Still, don’t count on Trump — and more important, Trumpism — evaporating like a nightmare at daybreak.

To begin with, there’s the president’s legendary base of support, the one-third of Americans who’d continue to back him even if he were to shoot someone on New York City’s Fifth Avenue (or, through criminal negligence, effectively murder more than 100,000 people by ignoring a pandemic for 70 days). Such Trumpists aren’t going to suddenly emigrate en masse to New Zealand, as some liberals threatened to do after the last presidential election.

For the time being, the president still has an entire party apparatus behind him, having transformed the Republicans into little more than a personality cult, banishing dissenters like former Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker to the political hinterlands, and silencing the handful of so-called moderates that remain.

Trump enjoys institutional support as well, having replaced so many putative deep-staters with civil servants prepared to unquestioningly do his bidding. He’s personally fired his perceived government enemies, chief among them six inspectors general. Minions like former body man John McEntee, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, and presidential aide Stephen Miller have all purged experts, replacing them in the government bureaucracy with loyalists. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell has done the heavy lifting in the Senate, filling the judicial system with Trump flunkies: two Supreme Court judges, more than 50 Court of Appeals judges, and 140 District Court judges so far.

Ever the money man, the president has secured a reliable cash flow, bringing the uber-wealthy class of conservative donors onto his team, a total of 80 billionaires, including Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Texas banker Andy Beal, World Wrestling Entertainment cofounder Linda McMahon, Silicon Valley guru Peter Thiel, and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Thanks to his violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, Trump has also funneled taxpayer money into his own business: millions spent on rooms at the Trump Organization’s hotels and golf clubs. Even before factoring in his money — Trump personally spent $66 million of his own dollars on the 2016 election — his campaign fund already has more than one-third of a billion dollars.

And then there’s the bulk of conservative civil society — ranging from think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and evangelicals like Franklin Graham to the anti-abortion lobby and the International Union of Police Associations — that now operates in his corner. Despite the entertainment world’s general loathing of the president, he’s even lined up a celebrity or two like rapper Kanye West and actress Roseanne Barr along with a handful of D-listers like actor Jon Voight and Barack Obama’s half-brother Malik. On the fringes roam the true “bad hombres”: white supremacists, live-free-or-die militiamen, and QAnon conspiracy theorists.

Taken together, these component parts of Trumpism form that most dangerous of creatures, a political chimera with the head of an establishment machine and the body of a radical social movement. This creature has its hands on the levers of power, its boots on the ground, and its eyes on the prize of four more years.

Are all these people and institutions true believers in Donald Trump? Probably not. Sporting more of a performative style than a coherent ideology, he is, to misquote Lenin, a “useful idiot.” When he’s no longer useful — that is, no longer in power — he’ll only be an idiot and the opportunists will move on.

While Trump may be expendable, Trumpism — which lies at the intersections of racial and sexual anxiety, hatred of government and the expert class, and opposition to cosmopolitan internationalism — is not so easily rooted out. Drawing heavily on American traditions of Know-Nothing-ism, America-First-ism, and Goldwater Republicanism, Trump’s essential worldview will survive the 2020 election.

If their candidate loses in November, Trumpists will dig in their heels just as their predecessors did after Barack Obama’s 2008 victory. Only a month after his inauguration, the Tea Party was already up and running. But the Tea Party will prove child’s play compared to the resistance the Trumpists are likely to mount if their candidate tanks on Election Day 2020. And such resistance could succeed in finishing what Trump started — disuniting the country and destroying the democratic experiment — unless, that is, the United States were to undergo a thorough de-Trumpification.

Other societies have gone through such processes, but those efforts — Reconstruction after the American Civil War, denazification in Germany after World War II, and de-Baathification after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 — have all been flawed in various ways. Reconsidering them, however, might help us avoid repeating the mistakes of history as we try to drive a stake through the heart of Trumpism.

Regime Change

The United States hasn’t recently been invaded, lost a major war in its homeland, or had its government fall to a popular uprising.

That’s usually what it takes to dislodge a deeply entrenched ruling ideology. The South lost the Civil War, the Nazis World War II, and Saddam Hussein the second Gulf War. Those defeats provided the winners with unprecedented opportunities to remake the old order, but don’t seem to apply to America in 2020. The electoral defeat of a president and party, if that’s even what happens in November, doesn’t constitute regime change. It’s just the kind of peaceful transition of power that’s the cornerstone of democratic stability.

But let’s face it: 2020 isn’t shaping up to be a normal election year. Conservative pundits, like military historian Victor Davis Hanson, believe that Barack Obama and the Democrats have brought the country to the brink of a literal civil war. During last year’s impeachment hearings, Trump himself tweeted approvingly a comment made by Robert Jeffress, an evangelical ally, that impeachment “will cause a Civil War-like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Meanwhile, typically enough, Obama’s first secretary of labor, Robert Reich, suspects that President Trump’s flagrant disregard of the Constitution will precipitate major social unrest, even as comedian Bill Maher urges Democrats to reach out to Trump supporters as part of a bid to defeat the president — or risk civil war.

Many Americans seem to agree. In a 2018 Rasmussen poll, one-third of respondents thought it likely that another civil war would break out within five years. According to a 2019 civility poll from the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, the consensus was that the country is already two-thirds of the way toward a civil war.

Nor is there much confidence that the 2020 presidential election will go smoothly. Take your pick from a menu of potential disruptions: allegations of voter fraud and Republican voter suppression, a resurgence of the coronavirus, voting machine software glitches, Russian hackers, confusion over mail-in ballots, or an authoritarian president who repeatedly jokes about serving more than two terms. A recent Georgia primary offered a warning of what might come, with fiascos aplenty, particularly for voters of color. There weren’t enough polling places, people waited in line for endless hours, absentee ballots never arrived at homes. Multiply Georgia by 50 and you’d have a full-blown crisis of political legitimacy.

Even if this country manages to pull off the 2020 presidential election, a post-election insurrection is not out of the question. During the lame-duck period, a defeated Trump might call on his supporters — gun owners, militia members, active-service military — to serve as a Praetorian guard to keep him in office. Mark Villalta, an attendee at Trumpstock in Arizona last October, was typical of some Trump supporters in confessing that he’s hoarding weapons just in case Trump loses. “Nothing less than a civil war would happen,” he told The New York Times. “I don’t believe in violence, but I’ll do what I got to do.”

It’s essential to ensure that the November 3rd election is free and fair, but if Trump loses, then the bigger problems are likely to begin.

Confederacy of Dunces

In the 1860 election, America confronted a polarized electorate, a stupendously mediocre president in James Buchanan, and a clear geographic divide between north and south, urban and rural. Not even the election of Abraham Lincoln could save the union. The attack on Fort Sumter, the opening salvo of the Civil War, took place roughly a month after his inauguration.

Donald Trump seems to have learned all the wrong lessons from the “War Between the States,” resisting as he’s done recently the removal of “beautiful” Confederate statues and the redesignation of U.S. military bases named after Confederate generals. In the last Oscar season, he even wished that Gone with the Wind had won rather than some South Korean film he’d never heard of. Such favoritism for the disgraced and vanquished should be as politically disqualifying as a Heil Hitler salute.

The reason that Trump can get away with his Confederate nostalgia comes, at least in part, from the failure of the Reconstruction era after the Civil War to extirpate racism and its associated economic inequality from American society. In fact, as historian Allen Guelzo points out, “Reconstruction did not fail so much as it was overthrown. Southern whites played the most obvious role in this overthrow, but they would never have succeeded without the consent of the Northern Democrats, who had never been in favor of an equitable Reconstruction.”

The Democrats of the time, in other words, became a party of resistance — to Reconstruction, civil rights, and the radical Republicans of that moment. So the Confederacy continued to live on not only in the hearts and minds of defeated Southern whites but also in the racist policies that elected officials in both parts of the country would resurrect.

Here, then, is a lesson of the Civil War’s aftermath for this moment. Today’s Republicans, the equivalent of the northern Democrats of the post-Civil War era and a true confederacy of dunces, cannot be allowed to persist in their current incarnation as a vehicle for Trumpism. A thorough thumping at the polls in November is a necessary but insufficient response to what they’ve become.

Gaining a congressional majority, in other words, is not enough. The Democrats and chastened Republicans would have to work to make that party a far less extreme force in American politics, abandoning Trump and reclaiming Lincoln.

“We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” Barack Obama insisted as he entered office in 2009, sidestepping efforts to investigate the wrongdoing of the George W. Bush administration. He was convinced that such forward thinking would unite the country. He was wrong.

To avoid a Reconstruction-like fiasco, the next administration would have to drain the swamp Trump created, bring criminal charges against the former president and his key followers, and launch a serious campaign to change the hearts and minds of Americans who have been drawn to this president’s agenda.

Detoxifying Government

When Saddam Hussein fell and American troops took Baghdad, the United States established an occupation authority that attempted to expunge all traces of the former Iraqi autocrat’s Baath Party from that society. At the time, the State Department considered three basic positions on what came to be known as de-Baathification: focus just on Saddam’s inner circle of about 50 top-ranking officials, expand that circle to include a larger number of top politicians, or eradicate Baathism altogether because “democratization is simply not possible unless and until the entire apparatus of control and authority is uprooted.”

Thanks to Paul Bremer, the head of that Coalition Provisional Authority, the third option became its very first directive, which led to the ejection of between 35,000 and 50,000 Iraqi civil servants onto the streets of their country. “In effect, the United States dismantled the Iraqi state, leaving a deep security vacuum, administrative chaos, and soaring unemployment,” wrote pundit Fareed Zakaria in 2007. “We summarily deposed not just Saddam Hussein but a centuries-old ruling elite and then were stunned that they reacted poorly.”

That thoroughgoing purge, along with the literal dismantling of the Iraqi army, generated a deep distrust of the American occupation and provided an instant pool of recruits for any militant resistance, fueling an all-out war.

The good news is that since Trumpism has only been a governing ideology for three years, it hasn’t (yet) penetrated the civil service or the military to the degree that Baathism dominated the Iraqi government and armed forces. Since Trump appointees don’t form a particularly deep state, however much Trump would have liked to create one of his own, no Iraq-style resistance is on the horizon.

The judiciary is another matter. The roughly 200 judges that Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have already managed to appoint for life will do their best to block all attempts to deconstruct Trumpism. If it can be shown that any of these judges engaged in serious ethical or criminal misconduct, then impeachment would be an option. However, you can’t impeach judges just because you don’t like their rulings (though some Republican legislators did try to do just that in Pennsylvania a couple of years ago).

Instead of attempting to remove individual judges, it would be more strategic to go after their ideological backer, the Federalist Society, an uber-conservative legal organization that has functioned as a judicial matchmaker for Trump, providing him with a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. All but eight of his federal appellate court picks have been members of the society.

You can’t outlaw a legal society, however lunatic its interpretation of the Constitution may be. However, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who’s on the Judiciary Committee, proposes to make it illegal for judges to be members of the Federalist Society. An added benefit: such a move would also go after the big money behind the attempted right-wing takeover of the court system because, as Whitehouse points out, “the Federalist Society is at the center of a network of dark-money-funded conservative organizations whose purpose is to influence court composition and outcomes.”

Detoxifying the court system is crucial not only for reversing Trump’s regressive policies but for clearing the way to prosecute him for his wrongdoing.

Hauling Them into Court

At Nuremberg after World War II, the Allied victors put nearly 200 Nazis on trial for various crimes: 161 were convicted and 37 sentenced to death. The precedents established there and at other war crimes trials have guided contemporary tribunals culminating in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It would be satisfying if the U.S. government could give Donald Trump and some of his top aides to the ICC for their violations of international law at the U.S.-Mexico border, the assassination of the head of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and similar actions. But that’s unimaginable even for a government led by President Joe Biden in which the Democrats had a veto-proof majority in the Senate. So it will be up to the American courts to charge and convict Trump, which has so far failed to happen, despite some cases related to his tax returns and allegations of sexual assault still inching forward.

The Nuremberg process developed new standards to prosecute the Nazis. Since the barriers have grown high indeed, the Trumpian opposition would have to get more creative to make sure that Trump goes to jail.

As soon as he is no longer president, federal prosecutors should label Donald Trump and his top associates an ongoing criminal organization and begin the process of bringing them to justice under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. For years, after all, the president has been acting like a mafia godfather, demanding loyalty, bullying competitors, and scorning “rats.” Last year, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee laid out in graphic detail ways in which the president and his gang were guilty of racketeering: bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice, and the like.

The House of Representatives impeached the president, but with the help of his Republican enablers, he managed to avoid removal from office. Getting read the RICO Act, on the other hand, could leave him facing years in prison and the Trump Organization would be liable for treble damages as compensation for victims. As Forbes contributor Steve Denning concluded during the impeachment proceedings:

“While impeachment would obviously be a severe personal sanction for Donald Trump, convicting the Trump Organization as a RICO enterprise could be far worse. If Trump is ‘only’ impeached, he could always go back to his family business, sadder but perhaps wiser. But if the Trump Organization were to be convicted as a criminal enterprise under the RICO Act, there might be no business for Trump to go back to.”

U.S. diplomat Herbert Pell, instrumental in bringing war-crimes charges against the Nazis during World War II, saw “how Confederate veterans in the South had created for themselves a misty-eyed mythology about the U.S. Civil War and was determined that the Nazis would not do the same.” As Dan Plesch explained in his study of international war crimes tribunals, “Pell’s motivation was to prevent postwar nostalgia for the Nazis breeding more war.”

Putting Trump on trial would not only remove him from the political equation but could effectively delegitimize Trumpism and prevent a second round of it from occurring.

The Popularity of Trumpism

Nazism didn’t die with Adolf Hitler’s suicide, the collapse of his regime, or those convictions at Nuremberg. More than 10% of the German population had belonged to the Nazi Party. Early efforts at denazification sputtered out largely because the United States and its allies needed a stable, prosperous Germany at the heart of Cold War Europe — and Germany quietly allowed former Nazis to remain in every echelon of society. Seven years after the war, for instance, 60% of the civil servants in Bavaria were former Nazis.

Nazi ideology was even more difficult to root out. According to a public opinion survey conducted in West Germany in 1947, 55% percent of those living under the U.S. occupation believed that “National Socialism was a good idea badly carried out.” Worse yet, the majority of those in this category were under 30, not just the old guard.

As bizarre as Donald Trump might be, Trumpism itself is not a new American phenomenon. The difference is that the far right never before had such access to power, not during the George W. Bush era, not even during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It always remained on the margins, kept alive by the likes of the John Birch Society, the occasional extreme member of Congress, and weirdo talk show hosts like Alex Jones of InfoWars.

The danger of Trump lies in his remarkable capacity to mainstream views that previously had been beyond the pale (at least in official Washington). A significant number of Americans feel liberated, thanks to his imprimatur, to give voice to the worst angels of their nature. Transforming such deep-seated belief systems represents quite a different challenge than changing the guard in the Oval Office and beyond. After all, democratic societies don’t send people off to reeducation camps. Certain communities, like universities, can legislate against hate speech, but it’s people’s hearts and minds, not just their tongues, that must be reached.

To do so, it’s imperative to separate the legitimate grievances of Trump supporters from the illegitimate ones. Yes, “bad hombres” are attracted to Trump’s racism, misogyny, and xenophobia, but many of the disenfranchised who voted for him were motivated by a disgust at political elites and the raging economic inequality they produced in this land. After the triple whammy of the coronavirus pandemic (and its disproportionate impact on the working poor), the economic semi-collapse that followed its spread (and the disproportionate benefits Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and other billionaires drew from it), and an epidemic of police violence (visited on people of color), more and more Americans are coming to feel that the status quo is simply unacceptable. They’re disgusted by Republican duplicity but also by the Democrats’ version of business as usual.

Because Trumpism is a cancer on the body politic, the treatment will require radical interventions, including the transformation of the Republican Party, a purge of Trumpists from government, and the indictment of the president and his top cronies as a criminal enterprise. To avoid a second Civil War, however, a second American Revolution would need to address the root causes of Trumpism, especially political corruption, deep-seated racism, and extreme economic inequality.

Otherwise, even if The Donald loses this election, the political creature he represents will rise from the ashes and eventually return to power (President Tom Cotton? President Ivanka?!). America can’t survive another civil war, but neither can it afford another failed Reconstruction, a half-hearted de-Trumpification of America, and a return to the previous status quo.

Barr creates task force focused on ‘anti-government extremists’
July 26, 2020
by Tal Axelrod
The Hill

Attorney General William Barr on Friday directed the Justice Department to form a task force dedicated to combating “anti-government extremists,” according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post, raising the stakes in the government’s response to nationwide protests.

Barr argued in the memo that anti-government agitators had infiltrated peaceful demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism and “engaged in indefensible acts of violence designed to undermine public order.”

“Among other lawless conduct, these extremists have violently attacked police officers and other government officials, destroyed public and private property, and threatened innocent people,” Barr wrote. “Although these extremists profess a variety of ideologies, they are united in their opposition to the core constitutional values of a democratic society governed by law. … Some pretend to profess a message of freedom and progress, but they are in fact forces of anarchy, destruction and coercion.”

In the memo, Barr identified members of the right-wing “Boogaloo” movement and the anti-fascist movement known as antifa as the top targets of the task force.

Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, and Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, will head the task force, which will also include representatives from the FBI and other prosecutors’ offices.

The task force’s mission will be to develop information about “extremist individuals, networks, and movements,” share data with local authorities and provide training to local prosecutors on how to wage cases against anti-government extremists.

“The ultimate goal of the task force will be not only to enable prosecutions of extremists who engage in violence, but to understand these groups well enough that we can stop such violence before it occurs and ultimately eliminate it as a threat to public safety and the rule of law,” Barr wrote.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill regarding the memo.

Barr said in an interview with NPR on Thursday that the Department of Justice has launched “approximately 300 investigations” nationwide, including into some people associated with antifa.

Barr has sought to take a tough posture on anti-government groups since some early protests over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis turned violent.

“There are some groups that don’t have a particular ideology, other than anarchy. There are some groups that want to bring about a civil war — the Boogaloo group has been on the margin of this as well,” he said earlier this month, adding that the Justice Department would find “constructive solutioms.”

Nord Stream 2: Germany prepares defence against US over pipeline
Trump has already imposed sanctions against firms involved in Russia-Germany gas pipeline, and is now threatening more.
June 26, 2020
by Patrick Donahue and Brian Parkin
Bloomberg

Germany is preparing to strike back against the U.S. if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to kill off the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with additional sanctions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration is considering pressing for coordinated European Union action, according to two German officials familiar with the discussions. An economy ministry paper seen by Bloomberg News said such measures by the U.S. would be new and could hit significantly more German and European companies and banks as well as state agencies.

The 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) pipeline under the Baltic Sea, designed to pump Russian gas directly to Germany, has triggered deep division between EU member states. But the prospect of a direct U.S. intervention in the 27-member bloc’s energy interests should prompt a collective response, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.

The new German strategy adds the possibility of further escalation between the transatlantic allies, with the U.S. this week announcing potential tariffs on $3.1 billion of products from Germany and other European countries. Trump has also reiterated his intention to cut the number of U.S. troops in Germany and renewed a threat to hit the German auto industry with a new set of levies.

Flashpoints between the two sides are multiplying as Trump’s reelection campaign runs into trouble and the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to get out of control in the U.S.

On Friday, EU diplomats are holding talks over whether to maintain a ban on U.S. travelers when external border controls begin to lift last week. The officials are aiming to draw up a list of which countries’ nationals will be allowed in and may use infection rates as one of their criteria, which would potentially see the U.S. excluded.

In a Twitter post, German Health Minister Jens Spahn pointed to new infections in the U.S. as a sign that the pandemic has yet to peak.

The Europeans though are trying to ease the friction over digital taxes after the U.S. pulled out of talks aimed at finding a global agreement on how to tax internet giants like Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin seen by Bloomberg News, France, the U.K., Italy and Spain offered to initially limit the tax to automated digital services like search and social media, while excluding retailers like Amazon.

Trump has been ramping up his attacks on Germany since Merkel helped to derail his plans for a Group of Seven summit at Camp David this month and Nord Stream, owned by Gazprom PJSC, is a longstanding target. He told a rally last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma that Germany is “delinquent” on defense spending and dispatching “billions” to Vladimir Putin.

“We’re supposed to protect Germany from Russia, but Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for energy coming from a pipeline,” Trump said. “Excuse me, how does that work?”

U.S. sanctions signed by Trump that targeted pipe-laying vessels in December threw the pipeline’s completion into disarray. While German officials said the project would merely be delayed, new measures proposed by U.S. senators could put Nord Stream in permanent danger, the German officials said.

But any response, including sanctions, would have to be weighed carefully, one official said. With Trump’s poll numbers sagging four months ahead of the U.S. presidential election, he could follow through on previous tariff threats — notably on German autos, the official said.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier issued a warning over the legality of the new measures earlier this month, signaling that imposing them could bring a new low to transatlantic relations.

“The German government has long had the view that sanctions with extraterritorial effects are in conflict with international law and that they’re not a contribution to advancing international cooperation,” Altmaier told reporters in Berlin on June 12. “This position hasn’t changed.”

Bundestag lawmakers on the economic affairs committee discussed potential retaliation in a June 17 meeting. The committee chairman, Klaus Ernst of the anti-capitalist Left Party, said parties were in agreement that such measures violated international law.

“The government is called upon to develop and put forward proposals for a measured, clear reaction on behalf of Germany and the European Union,” Ernst said in a statement after the closed-door meeting.

Pipeline Timing

German industry is concerned that the new raft of sanctions may prompt counter sanctions in Europe, which it opposes on the strength of U.S.-EU trade ties and traditional allegiances, Michael Harms, the managing director of the BDI lobby’s East European Committee, told reporters last week. Some 670 companies from 25 nations have worked on the pipeline, according to Harms.

Gazprom, which has vessels docked off Germany’s Baltic coast, is set on completing the pipeline in the face of U.S. resistance. It made a request with authorities in Copenhagen to operate so-called DP3-class vessels in Danish waters.

The Akademik Cherskiy, a vessel that Russia could use to build the remaining stretch of the gas-export link, arrived at a German Baltic port last month after a two-month voyage from the Sea of Japan.

The German ministry paper said it was unclear how the Russians planned to proceed with some 150 kilometers remaining for the pipeline but it would need to resume work this summer to complete the work by early 2021.

Behavioral sink
Wikipedia

“Behavioral sink” is a term invented by ethologist John B. Calhoun to describe a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding. The term and concept derive from a series of over-population experiments Calhoun conducted on Norway rats between 1958 and 1962. In the experiments, Calhoun and his researchers created a series of “rat utopias” – enclosed spaces in which rats were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling unfettered population growth. Calhoun coined the term “behavioral sink” in his February 1, 1962 report in an article titled “Population Density and Social Pathology” in Scientific American on the rat experiment. He would later perform similar experiments on mice, from 1968 to 1972.

Calhoun’s work became used as an animal model of societal collapse, and his study has become a touchstone of urban sociology and psychology in general

In the 1962 study, Calhoun described the behavior as follows:

Many [female rats] were unable to carry pregnancy to full term or to survive delivery of their litters if they did. An even greater number, after successfully giving birth, fell short in their maternal functions. Among the males the behavior disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic overactivity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep. The social organization of the animals showed equal disruption. …

The common source of these disturbances became most dramatically apparent in the populations of our first series of three experiments, in which we observed the development of what we called a behavioral sink. The animals would crowd together in greatest number in one of the four interconnecting pens in which the colony was maintained. As many as 60 of the 80 rats in each experimental population would assemble in one pen during periods of feeding. Individual rats would rarely eat except in the company of other rats. As a result extreme population densities developed in the pen adopted for eating, leaving the others with sparse populations.

… In the experiments in which the behavioral sink developed, infant mortality ran as high as 96 percent among the most disoriented groups in the population.

Calhoun retired from NIMH in 1984, but continued to work on his research results until his death on September 7, 1995.

Overpopulation, Nature’s Revenge, & Pandemic
Don’t Dismiss the Design Option
April 23, 2020
by Jonathon Engels
.permaculturenews.

Has the planet simply had enough of people? Are there are too many of us, and this pandemic is the paramount example? It’s easy to let our minds meander this way, but we have likely had more serious pandemics (Let’s see this one reach its conclusion before we declare that). In just gross number of deaths, and certainly in percentage of population infected and lost, there are similar, perhaps even more frightening, catastrophes littered through our history.

The Spanish Flu happened in 1918, infected approximately 500 million people with an estimated 50 million deaths. The world population was a little under two billion, roughly a quarter of where it stands today. Humanity decreased by 10%

The Black Death, or the second coming of the Bubonic Plague, is estimated to have accounted for 75 million deaths in the 1300s, when the population was less than half a billion. That’s less than one-tenth of today’s population.

Eight hundred years prior to The Black Death, in the 500s, The Justinian Plague, is believed to have taken 50 million, just over a quarter of the planet’s population at the time. That was less than 2.5 percent of the current population.

To avoid belabouring the point further, pandemics are certainly tied to big numbers of people, in particular tightly packed populations, but to sum them up as a result of overpopulation alone is just not the case. We are 1500 years removed (and 7.6 billion people amplified) from the Justinian Plague, which was 1000 years after the first recorded plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

As many millions, perhaps billions, of us survive in isolation and practice social distancing when we go out in public, it is certainly worth pondering what may have caused this situation. Nevertheless, our current population is not unique to the pandemic. Overpopulation is a real problem. We might even be able to link it to the spread of COVID-19 in a myriad of ways, but in doing so, it’s important to remember pandemics are not new to the world. We’ve moved from an estimated 4 million in 10,000 BCE (when agriculture begins) to 7.8 billion in 2020. The last 100 years have given us an increase of 6 billion, but pandemics happened long before that.

Nature’s Retaliation

While this coronavirus might have been traced back to a bat via wet market or a black market pangolin in Wuhan, that hardly explains why I’m now sitting sequestered in a forest in North Carolina. Some have said that nature, i.e. the planet, is letting us know who’s boss via pandemic. Because certain Chinese eaters have a taste for exotic animals (so did Charles Darwin, or check out the Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York), now the rest of us are feeling the wrath of Mother Nature. She has grounded us all, sent us to our rooms to think about what we’ve done.

With “exotic” (aka: foreign) animals as the culprits behind the virus, there has also been a rash of claims that “exotic” humans are getting closer to wild spaces, and that may be the root cause of pandemics. Apparently, people are now in contact with more wildlife, the sources of many deadly viruses of late: Sars, Mers, West Nile, Zika, bird flu, Ebola… Lyme disease, which is commonplace here, is spread by ticks (deer and mice), but never the fault of people living in the countryside or nature’s wrath. Yellow fever, malaria, AIDS—are these all revenge?

Climate change is something different than COVID-19 and those other pandemics, though both have revealed just what nature is capable of in terms of human fatality at any point. But, that’s certainly not to say this pandemic is a result of human development newly expanding into natural environments, where the wild animals are. We have been doing that for centuries now, not to mention the fact that we once lived as hunter-gatherers in nature itself, so to call this retribution for interacting with nature is possibly misdirected.

COVID-19, according to many experts, is nature firing a “clear warning shot”. We are damaging the environment, so the environment is retaliating. As much as I believe that the planet will eventually bare the negative effects of industrial development—overconsumption, air pollution, ocean plastics, deforestation, and so on—in dramatic fashion, is an animal-derived pandemic really that? Read beyond the headlines and the real point is not what nature is doing to cause this crisis so much as it is what humans are doing.

The Pandemic

This pandemic has spread across the planet in but a few months (the first case was November 2019). It is not as lethal as Ebola (a fatality rate of 50%) or SARS (15%); on the other hand, it is potentially more contagious than the flu with a fatality rate several times more severe. In other words, COVID-19 has been so difficult and domineering because it has a notably high fatality rate and it is transmitted so easily, particularly within the modern lifestyle.

We are increasingly urban and further elbowing our way into the most crowded places. COVID-19 is passed from human to human very easily: cough, sneeze, breath, touch, talk, etc. To make matters worse, urban lifestyles are largely reliant on human-to-human interaction or being close to others, including getting food, getting to work, entering a building, or even going for a walk.

We ship just about everything, from cotton to cantaloupes to computers to cars. COVID-19 can survive for hours on boxes, days on plastic and metal surfaces. Whether its international shipping or domestic, the virus can spread via a uninfected person touching surfaces where an infected person have recently touched. This virus can get place to place without an actual infected person carrying it there.

Most of us buy stuff on a daily basis, so how many boxes, bags, and screens do we touch in 24 hours? Modern living is wrought with take-out coffees, to-go lunches, on-demand shopping, one-day delivery, touchscreens, and countless other technologies and luxuries that are perfect for transmitting COVID-19. Many of us, at least until recently, couldn’t imagine life without these things.

Cheap, leisure air travel has become commonplace. Weekend getaways to international destinations or even just across the country means one infected person could create a plane full of carriers from one trip, with each new person creating a wake of infection as they move on. Rapid mobility has made spreading anything that’s contagious much faster.

Perhaps the biggest problem this time, however, is the fact COVID-19 can easily go undetected in an infected person. Four out of five people carrying COVID-19 are asymptomatic or only show mild symptoms, so it’s easy for an infected person to unknowingly move amongst unsuspected crowds. The ripple effect of that in today’s world is staggering, somewhat unimaginably so, although the unimaginable has certainly become much more tangible in the last 60 days.

Bad Design

Our annihilation of natural spaces for human development has certainly become more severe as we’ve embraced pavement, suburbia, and fossil fuels. Our overconsumption of the planet’s resources has helped to power serious population growth. Nevertheless, the human condition as we know it in the age of COVID-19 is not the result of nature’s revenge or the number of people but, more so, of the careful construct of global capitalism. Because the world has become increasingly dependent on international and industrialised everything, we are much more susceptible to new contagions, despite advancements in medicine.

The social structures now in play—economy, politics, medicine, job markets—have not been designed for resilience but rather exploitation. In pursuit of profit, companies and governments have continually hidden their sins (upon labourers, upon the environment, upon their customers and voters, upon the greater good) so that consumers can participate in the economy without guilt or worry for the future. However, the almighty dollar/financial market, as many have recognised before now, is a fickle thing with only a veneer value. Here we sit, many of us feeling helpless, because the frameworks which have governed our lives, both literally and economically, have continued failing us, now at the most crucial moment.

The economy is collapsing because people are only buying what they “need”. What does that say about the normal state of things, when the moment frivolity is largely taken out of the mix, titans of the economy can’t survive?

The medical infrastructure is failing on multiple levels. The very people who are working to save our lives are doing so without the PPE they need to be safe. Hospitals are under-equipped and somehow under-funded when, at the same time, conglomerate companies are being bailed out.

Old prejudices are once again emerging as we find racial, educational, and economic disparities in the percentage of victims. Nonetheless, it’s these vulnerable among us who continue to work jobs that put them at greater risk because they can’t afford to do otherwise.

Our global systems are threatening to fail because countries no longer have got the wherewithal to produce what is needed. What irony is it that China’s Hubei Province, with Wuhan as its capital, is a centre for producing the world’s medical PPE and respirators.

Our governments, those business, and us as consumers have had plenty of warning about this and time to prepare ourselves. We could have taken better caution after SARS, MERS, West Nile virus, Ebola, H1N1, Zika… all in the last 20 years. We could have learned to better prepare for emergencies from Haiti’s earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, Tohoku’s tsunami, the 2003 European heat wave, Hurricane Maria, and dozens of other natural disasters of the 21st century. Somehow, it seems that hasn’t happened.

The Option

The proven COVID-19 antidote—social distancing/isolation—is being called into question because of the economic consequences. Officials are now literally deciding between the potential deaths of thousands (millions?) of people versus the economic collapse of those people not spending enough money for the next couple of months. Which do we value more as a society, health (preparation, prevention, protection) or wealth (exploitation, expedience, excess)? The truth is that things could be very different, and it’s a change we can all be part of it.

From our observations, we know governments and corporations have not looked after our collective interests; rather, the establishment has been built to work on behalf of capital gains. Here in a time of need, states and countries are bidding against each other for medical equipment in short supply, and companies are driving up the price while they can rather than looking out for the greater good. Meanwhile, tax dollars are sent to save ill-prepared billion-dollar industries that have been destroying the planet. While it would be wonderful to have a centralised system that looks after its citizens and workers, we would be bad designers to continually sow our seeds the same way. We have to adjust based on the results, the same we’ve seen again and again and again.

Luckily, we as individual consumers do have a voice in this, but we have to start using it. Individually, in small groups, as cooperative villages, even as connected countries, we can create a different way of living. We can produce, buy, and store food at home, in and from our communities. We can renewably generate our own energy and, equally as important, lessen our energy demands. We can collect and clean freshwater. We can build comfortable, energy-efficient homes from local materials (or retrofit what we’ve got). We can create mutually beneficial relationships with neighbours and local people, joining with others to meet our basic necessities. We can be kind to people half a world away, not exploiting their impoverishment to buy our t-shirts or cellphones at a better deal but rather sharing in the common goal to make life stable and sustainable for all. We can pool our knowledge and our resources, and we can protect our planet.

What if we lived in a world where we work tangibly for what we need—food, water, shelter, community—and assign appropriate value to what we don’t? What if we built up resilience and stability through preparation, planning, and cooperation rather than gambling on stock market figures? What if we bought what was good for us, others, and the planet instead of contributing to exploitative accumulations of wealth because its trendy, easy, or “affordable”? What if there were another option? What if we could help others get there, too? What if together we just decided to make these things happen ourselves?

Comment: There is no question that the world is overpopulated and the problem is growing daily. As soon as articles appeared about this, a flood of hysterical refutations appeared, claiming there was no overpopulation. The glaciers of Antarctica are melting at an accelerated rate but the same types, pseudo-scientists and individuals seeking public attention, loudly proclaimed that the ice caps, both in Antarctica, the Himalayas and Greenland, are not melting at all but getting larger on a daily basis. The same pin-heads are also claiming that the sea levels are not rising but falling and that the so-called ‘Bermuda Triangle’ is actually part of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. In the same vein there are also air heads who claim that Donald Trump is sane and brilliant or that Bitcoin is a wonderful investment program. Here are some bizarre headlines about overpopulation found on the Internet:

  • Overpopulation: Not a Problem Now, and Never Will Be .
  • Overpopulation is a myth – Fear leads to dangerous policy
  • The Myth That Our Planet Faces an Overpopulation Crisis 
  • Debunking the Myth of Overpopulation

 


The Encyclopedia of American Loons

Caroline Leaf

Oh, good grief!

Caroline Leaf is a religious fundamentalist who combines religious extremism with incoherent altmed pseudoscience, woo and fluffy new age word salads – it’s not just religious woo, but religious quantum woo. According to Leaf, “There is growing evidence that biological systems operate at the level of quantum physics. When applied to neuroscience, the Quantum Zeno Effect indicates that the brain becomes what you focus on [yeah: read that again]. Focus is directed attention and is a function of the mind. Thus, quantum physics supports the notion of mind over matter.” Calling this attempt at technobabble “not even wrong” would be an insult to incoherent nonsense. Leaf has managed to gain a relatively impressively sized audience, though, and is a staple on predatory shows targeted at the gullible and/or desperate, like Kenneth and Gloria Copeland’s Believer’s Voice of Victory and her own Dr. Leaf Show.

Leaf is the kind of person who says that thoughts can change your DNA. Indeed, according to Leaf, “… whatever reaction we have changes the DNA and the DNA then expresses and it builds either that which is what our bodies are wired for, so whether you’re Born Again or not, your body’s wired for love because that’s the design that God has made, and if we make a wrong choice, we build that.” Well, no, that’s not remotely how this works. But according to Leaf, not only does it work that way, but your current thoughts, by altering your DNA, are “affecting the future generations as well because the thoughts from your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather … and your mother has come through the sperm and the ova. So whatever thoughts we have as we go through life that we build into our heads basically passes through the sperm and the ova to the next four generations.” Just think about it, but keep in mind that Leaf probably assumes that you won’t; yes, your thoughts are “affecting the cells. It actually gets captured inside. Exactly … 75–100 trillion cells in our body are impacted by every single thought that we think. So it’s captured as a physical thing, it’s passed through the generations.” And yes, she is, indeed, alluding to epigenetics, which she doesn’t remotely understand but neither does her audience (so perhaps she might understand it,* which doesn’t really make any of this any better): “… we’re not bound by the sins of our fathers, We call that epigenetics. It’s actually called the science of epigenetics. Epi – over and above the genes – the fact that our mind controls genetic expression” (something that does sound suspiciously like it contradicts a rather central tenet of mainstream Christianity; better not think too hard about it – there’s no danger that Leaf ever did.) And for the grand finale, Leaf is going to tell us what thoughts are made of: “… we are speaking from physical thoughts made of proteins and all kinds of chemical structures inside of our brain that look like trees.”

Apparently Leaf has a degree in topics related to neuroscience; one imagines some interesting exchanges between her and her advisors. (Her website tells us that “The main coordinating center of the nervous system is the brain, which is located in the skull.” At least she got that part right – it’s more or less the only part she got right – and we can sort of imagine the aforementioned advisors breathing a sigh of relief.)

Leaf is the author of Switch On Your Brain and Think and Eat Yourself Smart, which you can safely pass over. Also, “[s]ince 1981, she has researched the science of thought as it relates to thinking, learning, renewing the mind, gifting, and potential,” which is an awfully strange way of putting it if you have been involved in, you know, actual scientific research on the brain or on psychology.

According to Leaf’s website (random capitalization abounds), “75% to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life,” and if you wonder where she got those numbers you are probably not in the target audience for her website (she does have testimonials, though). Also, “[m]edical research increasingly points to the fact that thinking and consciously controlling your thought life is one of the best ways, if not the best way of detoxing your brain.” No, she doesn’t provide any references here either, for rather obvious reasons (“detoxing your brain” means removing “toxic thoughts and emotions”.) But it is indeed a fine example of “deepity”. We’ll grant her that, and wonder in dread what her books read like.

Her website has a “scientific FAQs” section (which must really be seen to be believed) and a “Scriptural FAQs” section, which are more or less interchangeable and have nothing to do with science (“Man is a triune being consisting of a spirit, soul and body. The mind is synonymous to the soul. The mind operates in the spirit and, by extension, in the spiritual realm” – that’s the Science section). The “Scientific FAQs” section does, however, push anti-GMO conspiracies and complementarianism (“Mankind is created in the image of God – both male and female. The male and the female are different from, and yet complementary to, one another. God’s image is reflected in both men and women” – yes, that’s also from the Science section), and contains a substantial section on how speaking in tongues is good for your mental health as well as the general health benefits of prayer and worship (“Interestingly a number of scientific studies indicate that we are wired for God, that is, our brains have been designed to commune with God,” says Leaf, and cites this one; the part after “that is” is what we might call her “interpretation” of the research discussed in said article). There is a very tentative critique of some of her claims here.

Diagnosis: If you fall for this idiocy, you are really, really stupid. There’s really no way around it. No, seriously: this is among the dumbest New Age fluff we’ve yet encountered, and we’ve encountered a fair amount.

Greg Lawton

 

Greg Lawton is the founder of Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences, where you can exchange your money for help to “change not only your career but also your lifestyle and that of others, through a variety of programs in medical massage therapy, holistic health care, acupuncture, personal training, nutrition, and herbal medicine.” They even offer things like Holistic Health Practitioner Certification Programs, where you “learn the philosophy and methods of contemporary Asian medicine, as well as, acupressure, shiatsu, tuina, and Asian bodywork.” That is, the kind of certificate you should be willing to pay to get rid of if you were ever saddled with it; apparently it’s a “fast-track state licensed educational program” (Blue Heron Academy is licensed by the Michigan Office of Secondary Education), but “state licensed” does not mean “accredited”. One of Blue Heron’s programs promises you a certificate as a phlebotomy technician, which does not require certification in most US states (they don’t mention whether the certification is issued by an agency accepted by the four states that do require certification).

Lawton himself “is a graduate of the four year naprapathic medicine program at the National College of Naprapathic Medicine and a licensed Naprapath in Illinois [one of two states that licenses them].” Naprapthy is quackery. He is also “nationally board certified in Chiropractic, Radiology, Acupuncture (Diplomat), and Physical Therapy.” Indeed, Lawton has also “trained in Aikido, Judo, Kenpo, Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua, Hsing Yi, Hap Do Sool, and Shorin Ryu,” which certainly boosts his orientalist credentials.

If you ever encounter Lawton outside of the context of his Academy, it will probably be through one of his many books, leaflets and similar promoting an impressive range of pseudoscience and bullshit, from hydrotherapy to naturopathy.

Diagnosis: Bullshit. Methinks anyone with an illness ought to avoid Lawton as she or he would avoid a charlatan trying to sell them snake oil and Hulda Clark devices.

Angela Lanfranchi

Angela Lanfranchi is an anti-abortion activist and cofounder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute. She is currently one of the most vocal defenders on the utterly discredited idea, based on ridiculous junk science, that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer – a central tenet of her institute – and probably the most important defender of that particularly who actually should have some formal competence in the field and who actually takes care of breast cancer patients for a living (she is not a scientist, though). Lanfranchi has herself published arguments in favor of such a link in the pseudojournal JPANDS, the house journal of the deranged conspiracy theory group The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which should relieve her of all assumptions of minimal credibility with regard to the issue. She is nevertheless somewhat influential, insofar as many of those unable or unwilling to look at the science are attracted to her conclusions for political reasons.

According to Lanfranchi, “[i]t amounts to child abuse to take a teenager in a crisis pregnancy for an abortion. At best, it will give her a 30% risk of breast cancer in her lifetime. At worst, if she also has a family history of breast cancer, it will nearly guarantee this.” The numbers are effectively PIDOOMA (discussed in detail here). Then she appeals to the Semmelweis gambit and asserts that doctors don’t dare tell you this because they’re afraid of their reputations, which they honestly should be if they said this since the claim has been completely debunked.

Conclusion: Crank who shamelessly pushes pseudoscience for ideological reasons. As such, she also has a certain influence among those who, for non-evidence-based reasons, agree with her conclusions. Sad.

 

No responses yet

TBR News June 27, 2020

Jun 27 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder

  1. Grandiose sense of self-importance: Grandiosity is the defining characteristic of narcissism. More than just arrogance or vanity, grandiosity is an unrealistic sense of superiority. Narcissists believe they are unique or “special” and can only be understood by other special people. What’s more, they are too good for anything average or ordinary. They only want to associate and be associated with other high-status people, places, and things.

2.Narcissists also believe that they’re better than everyone else and expect recognition as such—even when they’ve done nothing to earn it. They will often exaggerate or outright lie about their achievements and talents. And when they talk about work or relationships, all you’ll hear is how much they contribute, how great they are, and how lucky the people in their lives are to have them. They are the undisputed star and everyone else is at best a bit player.

3.Lives in a fantasy world that supports their delusions of grandeur.Since reality doesn’t support their grandiose view of themselves, narcissists live in a fantasy world propped up by distortion, self-deception, and magical thinking. They spin self-glorifying fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, attractiveness, and ideal love that make them feel special and in control. These fantasies protect them from feelings of inner emptiness and shame, so facts and opinions that contradict them are ignored or rationalized away. Anything that threatens to burst the fantasy bubble is met with extreme defensiveness and even rage, so those around the narcissist learn to tread carefully around their denial of reality.

4.Needs constant praise and admiration. A narcissist’s sense of superiority is like a balloon that gradually loses air without a steady stream of applause and recognition to keep it inflated. The occasional compliment is not enough. Narcissists need constant food for their ego, so they surround themselves with people who are willing to cater to their obsessive craving for affirmation. These relationships are very one-sided. It’s all about what the admirer can do for the narcissist, never the other way around. And if there is ever an interruption or diminishment in the admirer’s attention and praise, the narcissist treats it as a betrayal.

5.Sense of entitlement. Because they consider themselves special, narcissists expect favorable treatment as their due. They truly believe that whatever they want, they should get. They also expect the people around them to automatically comply with their every wish and whim. That is their only value. If you don’t anticipate and meet their every need, then you’re useless. And if you have the nerve to defy their will or “selfishly” ask for something in return, prepare yourself for aggression, outrage, or the cold shoulder.

6.Exploits others without guilt or shame.Narcissists never develop the ability to identify with the feelings of others—to put themselves in other people’s shoes. In other words, they lack empathy. In many ways, they view the people in their lives as objects—there to serve their needs. As a consequence, they don’t think twice about taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends. Sometimes this interpersonal exploitation is malicious, but often it is simply oblivious. Narcissists simply don’t think about how their behavior affects others. And if you point it out, they still won’t truly get it. The only thing they understand is their own needs.

7.Frequently demeans, intimidates, bullies, or belittles others.Narcissists feel threatened whenever they encounter someone who appears to have something they lack—especially those who are confident and popular. They’re also threatened by people who don’t kowtow to them or who challenge them in any way. Their defense mechanism is contempt. The only way to neutralize the threat and prop up their own sagging ego is to put those people down. They may do it in a patronizing or dismissive way as if to demonstrate how little the other person means to them. Or they may go on the attack with insults, name-calling, bullying, and threats to force the other person back into line.

A perfect analysis of our Beloved Trump!

 

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%


The Table of Contents

1.Facebook, Twitter shares drop as European consumer giant pulls ads
2. Judge orders Trump adviser Roger Stone to report to prison by July 14
3. Trump says he is staying in Washington to protect law and order
4.”He’s going to broom Kushner and Prscale” Malignantly crazy about bad poll numbers, Trump is thinking of replacing his son-in-law 5.Washington’s Farewell Address 1796 .
6. A comedy of errors
7. What are the End Days? A study in deception
8.. The Neo-Confederate Movement
9. The Encyclopedia of American Loons
Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 26, 2020

Jun 26 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

 

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
“The downward drop of Trump’s national approval ratings (35%) is causing spastic colon in the White House. Trump believes that he is the most important man extant and to have such a drop in ratings is something impossible for him to acknowledge. He also is frantic to stop main-in election ballots because he can’t tamper with the voting as he did last time. Trump will see this negative as an evil plot against him, probably by George Soros, and we will hear him to threaten anyone in his way with a charge of treason. Donald would be much happier, as would the rest of the country, if he moved to Slovena to be with his wife and youngest child.”

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%


The Table of Contents

  • The secretive government agency planting ‘cyanide bombs’ across the US
  • Trump Suggests Navy Sent $5 Billion to Wisconsin Firm to Help Him Win Election
  • Trump’s spending for border wall rejected by U.S. appeals court
  • Trump approval on handling of coronavirus hits new low: poll
  • Trump criticizes Black Lives Matter leader, blasts de Blasio over mural plans
  • Germany Weighs Measures Against U.S. Over Nord Stream Threat
  • US House passes Democratic police reform bill
  • Israel’s planned West Bank annexation is a ‘declaration of war,’ says Hamas
  • Hezbollah: The Responder
  • Looming global water problems
  • The Encyclopedia of American Loons

Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 25, 2020

Jun 25 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
“Here we have today’s headlines in The Guardian about the dread Covic-19

  • Covid-19 Trump plan to cut federal support for testing sites sparks alarm
  • Trump: President and his health officials diverge on Covid-19
  • Video explainer How Trump has defied science on coronavirus
  • California State sees 69% rise in two days as LA has most US cases
  • 48m more Americans file for unemployment as pandemic takes toll
  • California sees 69% Covid-19 rise in two days as LA county has most cases in US
  • Texas Covid-19 cases hit all-time daily high as Houston hospitals near capacity
  • Europe’s cases surge since lockdowns eased; 1,100 Qatar World Cup workers test positive
  • World should build ‘new normal’ post-pandemic – WHO chief; World Cup worker dies from Covid-19; Europe sees increase in weekly cases for first time in months
  • Israel brings back tracking system after surge in Covid-19 cases
  • England: major incident declared as people flock to south coast
  • Air cooling systems in abattoirs could heighten Covid-19 risk
  • How Trump and his officials diverge on coronavirus
  • Revealed: data shows 10 countries risking coronavirus second wave as lockdown relaxed
  • Of the 45 countries to have recorded more than 25,000 coronavirus cases to date, 21 currently have relaxed responses to the pandemic. Of these, 10 are reporting a rising number of cases

Why not add:

  • Everyone in Norway dead of Covid-19
  • Can peanut butter spread Covid-19?
  • Does Covid-19 cause involuntary bowel movements?
  • Do crocodiles spread Covid-19?

 

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%

The Table of Contents

  • FBI Expands ability to collect cellphone location data, monitor social media, recent contracts show
  • The Poor Man’s Air Force: A History of the Car Bomb
  • Is AIPAC Finished?
  • Israeli Spying in US, Part 1 1947-2009
  • Jesus: Fact and Fiction
  • The Encyclopedia of American Loons

Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 24, 2020

Jun 24 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

 

The Voice of the White House
Comments:
“The Internet has proven to be the greatest source of information since lunatic Christians burnt down the library of Alexandria. Anything being sought, be it an address or an in-depth analysis of Dead Sea scrolls, is there and is the main reason that the famous Encyclopedia Britannica has gone out of business.

At the same time, because it is open to one and all, the Internet is also a breeding ground for a legion of strange persons with a frantic desire to air their pet theses, themselves and their friends.

We see earnest discussions about the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy by mutant dwarves, the Sinister Truth about Hurricane Katrina, Tesla Death Rays used to bring down the buildings of the WTC, balanced with other information proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Russian bombers were used. We also discover the evil plottings of the Illuminiati, a group that has been long gone, or that the Rothschild banking house had taken over the whole world. And from one source, now long  vanished, we discover that Houston was destroyed by a nuclear bomb set off by Jewish radicals or that the Fukishima disaster was really caused by an Israeli submarine, using German-made nuclear torpedos! And today the breathless media informs the world that a horrible plague is sweeping China, killing at least three people, and threatening the planet with population extinctions

Yes, the Internet can entertain as well as inform.

But the fact that the Internet has many independent news sites means the diminution of the print media and the television news stations. Since these are the propaganda control for the oligarchy, there is great distress in board rooms and from them to the halls of Congress. They would like to shut off the Internet so that the stupid, and tax-paying public can only see what they are supposed to and not what might be the truth.

Obama and Cass Sunstein tried to shut down anyone who dared to interfere with the propaganda machinery but they were not successful. Even a furious and highly delusional eccentric, Trump and his decaying machinery, can’t do it and if they continue to try, there will be very serious public reactions indeed.”

 

Trump’s Approval Rating

June 20

USA Rating

Approve     Disapprove

35%          65%

 

The Table of Contents

  • Huge Pandemic sweeps nation, millions dead!
  • New Claim That Enemies of U.S. Developed Trump in Lab
  • America’s Teachers Urge Trump to Use Time at Home to Repeat First Grade
  • The CIA Can’t Protect Its Own Hacking Tools. Why Should We Trust Government Privacy and Security Proposals?
  • The CIA undercover
    Approval of Trump’s coronavirus response sinks to lowest on record amid surge in cases: Reuters/Ipsos poll
  • Exclusive: Dozens of Republican former U.S. national security officials to back Biden
  • The Encyclopedia of American Loons

Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 23, 2020

Jun 23 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments: “Trump is highly agitated over the concept of main-in voting ballots for the next Presidential election in November. Why is this? Because it is possible, very possible because it has happened before, to tamper with electronic voting machines. But tampering with mail-in ballots is virtually impossible. So whenever you see an article about Trump’s fury at the concept of mail-in voting, consider his reason.”

Trump’s Approval Rating
June 20
USA Rating
Approve Disapprove
35%      65%

The Table of Contents
• Smart Society, Stupid People
• Do masks protect from Coronavirus?
• William Barr Has Turned the Justice Department Into a Law Firm With One Client: Donald Trump
• ‘Everybody hurts’: Trump’s sad ‘walk of shame’ after Tulsa rally delights critics
• Trump faces pressure to reset campaign after Tulsa rally caps gloomy week
• Poll: Democrats, Independents, GOP All Turning on Trump Amid Coronavirus, Protests
• Trump attacks mail-in voting with new series of false claims
• WANTED: SPIES. CIA turns to online streaming for new recruits
• Innovation Should Be Made in the U.S.A.
• The Encyclopedia of American Loons Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 22, 2020

Jun 22 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments: “”Wild, entirely fictional, stories about Antifa groups armed with Chinese tanks, rockets and flame throwers savagely attacking pro-Trump groups who are in churches and synagogues across America, praying that Donald gets re-elected in November.
One hears that soon, George Soros will equip them with jet fighters and a submarine or two to further try to frustrate the Messenger of the Lord in his mission to remove all dark-skinned people from American soil and fill the churches with true believers.
Next week, we will learn that evil Mexican illegals have raped the entire female population of Colorado Springs and killed all the men with Chinese spears.
Oh we must rise up and smite the Satanists with diligence and dispatch!”

Trump’s Approval Rating
June 20
USA Rating
Approve Disapprove
35%         65%

The Table of Contents
• Republican dark money groups set sights on taking control of 2020 district maps
• The Caged Ballot
• John Bolton says he won’t vote for Trump and hopes he is a one-term president
• Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine
• False Claims of Antifa Protesters Plague Small US Cities
• The Age of Disappointment?
• The Encyclopedia of American Loons Continue Reading »

No responses yet

TBR News June 21, 2020

Jun 21 2020 Published by under Uncategorized

The Voice of the White House
Comments: “Some years ago we had an interesting, and instructive, episode in American financial life. It was later called the “dot-com’ episode.
A collection of American stock brokers got together, set up a number of sham companies, one of which we will call ‘deadrabbit.com’. These brokers would then contact certain customers and request permission to purchase ‘dead rabbit’ at ten and sell it at twenty. This they did and the stock shot up in value. They sold out at twenty but the stock continued on upwards.
Eventually, it stopped at a hundred and fifty, waffled for a few days and then started downwards. The bots joined in and soon enough, ‘deadrabbit’ got so low in trade value, it was delisted on the Stock Exchange.
As it was with ‘deadrabbit’ so it has been with Donald Trump.
He excited the very far right, the racists and the bigots as well as the very far right evangelical Christians and for a time, his stock was high.
But because Trump suffers from narcissism, he has continued to make gaffe after gaffe until his stock has begun to topple.
The problem is that Trump will level hysterical blame at everyone else; communists, aliens, and other lurking enemies. His decline and fall will be marked with shrill cries of rage, more cries for help and threats against a society that does not realize his uniqueness and brilliance. It will not be an easy or civilized exit but it will come as surely as the sun rises in the east.”

Trump’s Approval Rating
June 20
USA Rating
Approve Disapprove
35%            65%

The Table of Contents

Donald Trump sows division and promises ‘greatness’ at Tulsa rally flop
• Trump campaign raised $74 million in May, short of Biden’s haul
• Don’t call it a comeback: Trump’s Tulsa rally was just another sad farce
• TikTok users say they helped sabotage Trump rally with false registrations
• Colorado’s Progressive Governor and Legislature Just Ended
• Qualified Immunity for Police Officers
• Dirty Tricks: Eight Falsehoods that Could Undermine the 2020 Election
• The Weissensee Gold
• The Encyclopedia of American Loons
Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Next »