Category: Uncategorized

Excess Mortality

Whatever could be the cause of all these additional deaths? It’s such a complete mystery! How will the demographers ever be able to unwind this knotted skein?

For a while now, we’ve had a mysterious jump in excess mortality in Europe. At first, nobody really paid any attention to it, with the exception of a handful of “right-wing populist anti-science conspiracy theorists”. At this point however, experts whose job it is to study trends like this are beginning to notice it too.

You can see for yourself the excess mortality for much of the EU here. Few people realize that in 2021 we have had as much excess mortality, as we did in 2020. The difference is that the age profile has shifted: Whereas most of the excess mortality was in elderly people in 2020, in 2021 it’s increasingly showing up among younger people. The excess mortality has a peculiar characteristic, in that it starts showing up later in younger age groups, with the exception of children, in whom no excess mortality is observed.

For the 29 participating countries as a whole, we have 4000 excess deaths among people aged 15-44. These deaths are hard to explain, because young people normally don’t die from COVID-19. Just 0.9% of COVID-19 deaths in the Netherlands are people under the age of fifty. The curve of excess mortality in this age category also doesn’t fit COVID-19. This is a seasonal virus that disappear in the summer, but the excess deaths among young people mainly show up during the summer.

The problem with all of this excess mortality is that it doesn’t seem to be getting better, it seems to be getting worse. It’s now getting so bad, that even my own comparatively small country of 17 million, the Netherlands, is beginning to see the signal in its statistics. The Dutch demographic agency, the CBS, has reported that September was a month with significant excess mortality.

What we notice in the most recent week, is that the mortality is most strongly elevated among the younger age groups. Last week we had 300 more deaths than we’re supposed to have. Twenty of those are COVID-19 deaths, the rest are mysterious and unexplained.

Obviously it’s the “safe and effective” vaccines, which rather like the old saying about the Holy Roman Empire, are not safe, are not effective, and are not vaccines.

Remember, folks, vaccines are the leading cause of coincidences.

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Programming is not Communication

Bruce Charlton explains why there is no point in even listening to what the Establishment has to say:

This is why the Establishment are liars. They are not even trying to communicate information – let alone accurate information; They are always trying to affect our behaviour.

Their purpose is to get us to do what They want. All ‘communication’ is just a means to that end.

Real conversation treats ‘the other’ as a person with agency; however manipulation regards ‘the other’ as an object to be controlled. (So, for Them, agency is an obstacle to be overcome.)

They will of course mislead and lie to whatever extent they judge to be helpful to the goal of shaping us. Untruthfulness ranges from subtle distortions, through selection and exaggeration, all the way up to complete fabrication; as when a person with a false identity simulates fake emotions to tell a total lie – in order (successfully) to manipulate public opinion.

They do not regard themselves as purposive and habitual ‘liars’, because They are not even trying to tell the truth.

They are using ‘communications’ in order to manipulate other in ways They deem to be desirable – and truth simply doesn’t come into it.

The distinction between truth and untruth does not exist for Them, because their language is directed at manipulation, not communication. Lies, truths, or any mixture of them, are simply means to an end – and that end is manipulation.

This is also why one can neither debate nor even discuss things with anyone representing or serving the Establishment.

While you or I might be attempting to communicate information to Them, They are trying to change us. There is a total asymmetry of intent.

Which is why it is futile to engage with linguistic emanations from government, bureaucracy and the media. It is a category error. It is treating manipulations as if they were communications; it is treating intentional dishonesty as if it was an attempt at honesty.

Never confuse rhetoric – which is designed to emotionally manipulate – with dialectic. Both the mainstream news and government statements are not dialectic, but rather rhetoric disguised as pseudo-dialectic. And remember that there is neither truth nor falsehood in rhetoric, there is no meaningful information content whatsoever. It may point toward the truth, it may point away from the truth, but it cannot be the truth.

Never Listen to the Elite

And don’t ever do what they tell you to do. They are lying hypocrites from beginning to end, starting with the US Congress:

BREAKING SCANDAL

FACT:
Between 100-200 members of Congress and their families & staffers have been treated with IVM & our I-MASK+ protocol for COVID. NO hospitalizations.

Not one of them reported that to the people.

Saved themselves & stayed silent as IVM was torched.

In other words, the US government has been trying to scare the public away from taking the “horse paste” that would have saved many Covid victims as well as all the lives sacrificed to the poison vaccines. Meanwhile, the daughter of the California governor hasn’t even received her regularly scheduled vaccines, let alone the Covid vaccine mandated for children her age by her father:

California Governor Gavin Newsom has come under fire for delaying his own teenage daugher’s Covid-19 vaccination while fuming at the lagging vaccination rate in those aged 12-17, and pushing for the broad vaccine mandate. Conservatives have been up in arms over the recent report that Newsom’s 12-year-old daughter has yet to get her Covid-19 jab despite her father publicly encouraging parents to vaccinate their children even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to fully greenlight the immunization. Newsom told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that his daughter, who turned 12 last month, has not yet received the vaccine because she was scheduled for “a series of other shots.”

Do you really think that Newsom doesn’t know that those vaccines are likely to harm his daughter’s health? It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to learn that all politicians and celebrities who are “fully-vaccinated” weren’t vaccinated at all. It’s hard not to notice how all the vaccinated people who are collapsing and dying are no-names and lower-level athletes that no one knows.

On a related note, I have been informed by a reliable source that a Chinese individual who received the CoronaVac vaccine took an antibody test that showed he had absolutely no Covid antibodies despite having being fully vaccinated, thereby raising the possibility that the Chinese Covid vaccine made by Sinovac is nothing more than harmless saline.

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They Aspire To Be Better

The Tree of Woe contemplates the ideological history of Chinese communism and considers the implications of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Read the whole thing there.

I have summarized the tenets of Xi Jinping Thought. You can find the Thoughts in Xi’s own words here.

  1. The CCP leads the government, the military, the academia, and the people.
  2. The Party must serve the interests of the public and govern the country for the people.
  3. Only socialism can save China. Only reform can develop China.
  4. Scientific development is the key to solving all the problems of the country.
  5. China’s representative institutions must develop according to the principals of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
  6. The judicial system must be reformed to enforce rule of law and improve morality.
  7. China must foster the cultural values of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
  8. Improving people’s livelihood is the primary goal of economic development, in order to maintain social harmony, ensure stability, and provide the people with contentment.
  9. China must protect its energy supplies and natural environment as it develops.
  10. China must strengthen its national security and prepare for danger.
  11. The CCP must retain absolute control over the armed forces.
  12. Achieving complete national reunification of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan into the mainland is the paramount requirement for the rejuvenation of China.
  13. China must be the builder of world peace and defender of the international order.
  14. China must have a zero-tolerance attitude for corruption and decadence within the Party.

Chinese thought is, almost inherently by virtue of its language, nuanced and delicate. Chinese writing is often susceptible to multiple interpretations, and is perhaps the diametric opposite of frank and blunt Americanism. With that caveat, here is how I believe we should understand the tenets of Xi Jinping Thought.

Points 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11 are reiterations of the Marxist-Leninist belief in the necessity of totalitarian control by a vanguard party that maintains ideological purity, organizes the people in the pursuit of communism, and maintains leadership in all facets of society. They represent the diametric opposite of our hoped-for “liberalization” of China. These points need to be understand in the context of Xi’s views on the Soviet Union, which he presented at the Eighteenth Party Congress:

Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party fall from power? An important reason was that the struggle in the field of ideology was extremely intense, completely negating the history of the Soviet Union, negating the history of the Soviet Communist Party, negating Lenin, negating Stalin, creating historical nihilism and confused thinking. Party organs at all levels had lost their functions, the military was no longer under Party leadership. In the end, the Soviet Communist Party, a great party, was scattered, the Soviet Union, a great socialist country, disintegrated. This is a cautionary tale!

Xi Jinping, Eighteenth Party Congress

Xi Jinping Thought is making a clear statement that China will not become “liberalized” like the Soviet Union; it will not engage in glasnost and perestroika and develop into a multi-party parliamentary democracy in the Western style. Xi Jinping Thought is also making it clear that China in the New Era hasn’t progressed to that stage of communism when the state will wither away, either. It will maintain its ideological commitment to Communism and it will do so under one-party rule.

Point 8 re-emphasizes that the goal of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to eliminate poverty and create prosperity. The means by which this is to be accomplished are explained as scientific development (point 4) in conjunction with sustainable environmental and ecological practices (point 9). The latter point must be understood in a pragmatic context – the CCP are not deep ecologists or Gaia worshippers. When Europe was poor, it tolerated pollution (“London fog”) to achieve wealth; when it became rich, it could afford clean air and clean water. China, as it gets richer, will want clean air and clean water, too. If it can make the West pay for that because of our commitment to “climate justice”, so much the better!

Points 6 and 14 emphasize anti-corruption. Confucianism, with its emphasis on each person’s particular duty to their family, can lead to endemic nepotism, which in turn can lead to corruption and self-dealing. Like Deng Xiaoping before him, Xi is emphasizing anti-corruption as a means of ensuring domestic harmony and stability. Purging “corruption” is also a useful tool for consolidating one-party rule in the face of oligarchic wealth, as uppity billionaires and their crony politicians are inevitably corrupt…

Finally, Points 10, 12, and 13 explain China’s place in the world. Point 12 emphasizes that China is a civilization-state: All that is Chinese (culturally) must be part of China (politically). Particular emphasis is given to Taiwan. Left unsaid is Taiwan’s incredible strategic importance to point 4, scientific development, because of its world leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.

Point 13 positions China as the world’s new hegemon. Conventionally, we identify a hegemon at any point in time by speaking of its pax, the peace it imposes through its power — hence, the Pax Romana, Pax Britannica, and Pax Americana. For China to be builder of world peace and defender of the international order is for China to impose the Pax Sinica.

Point 10 acknowledges that achieving all these other points puts China at risk from those who would prevents its rise (the unstated foe is, of course, the United States). The implacable tendency towards war that occurs anytime a new hegemon arises against an old is called a Thucydides Trap (named for the Greek historian Thucydides and his account of the Peloponnesian War between mighty Sparta and rising Athens). Xi here is codifying the need to prepare for this war to come.

Taken as a whole, Xi Jinping Thought is an ambitious and confident doctrine meant to make the 21st century the Chinese Century.

Until recently, the West has been oblivious to this. Instead, it has taken comfort in pretty lies. “The Chinese don’t really believe in Communism!” They really do. “If China doesn’t become a capitalist democracy, it’ll collapse into poverty.” They won’t. “As the Chinese become more prosperous, they’ll become more like us!” They won’t.

This last delusion is utterly laughable — our Western intelligentsia hates Western culture, Western history, and Western civilization. The Chinese intelligentsia loves Chinese culture, Chinese history, and Chinese civilization. Can you imagine a Chinese scholar denouncing Mao or Confucius as irrelevant because they’re just dead Chinese males? No, they don’t aspire to be like us. They aspire to be better than us.

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Shut ‘Em Down

The Jacksonville air traffic controllers walk over the vaccine mandate:

Jacksonville Center ATC controllers walked out last night over the vaccine mandate. Shut the whole thing down. Total disaster for us and other airlines. Total news blackout, be sure you spread the word.

650 flights canceled so far. Our operation is still unraveling.

The pilots haven’t started to fight yet. That’s coming.

Meanwhile, in the media:

  • JUST IN: Airports across Florida are experiencing delays due to bad weather conditions.
  • Due to a combination of severe weather, active military training in the airspace, and unexpected limited staff at the Jacksonville facility that handles high-altitude, en route traffic, the FAA took steps to safely manage air traffic the evening of Oct. 8. Normal operations returned at approximately 10 p.m.

Regardless, it is confirmed that there were 10,028 worldwide flight delays and 2,428 cancellations yesterday. The normal daily number of the latter is 329. And check out the Jacksonville weather report for October 8th. No precipitation, 72 degrees, 5.1 MPH wind. What sort of “severe weather” is that?

UPDATE: Yeah, it’s totally the weather. The so-called “news” is literally worse than worseless these days.

Southwest has cancelled more than 1,800 flights over the weekend so far. The Dallas-based airline blamed the disruptions on air traffic control issues in Florida and bad weather. Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights, 27% of its schedule, on Sunday as disruptions that the airline blamed on air traffic control issues and bad weather affected the travel plans of thousands of customers.

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The Monks of the Next Dark Age

John Derbyshire laments the death of the book:

Some years ago New Yorker magazine ran a cover picture of a guy sitting in an armchair working a laptop, with behind him a whole wall full of books. Every one of the books had, on its spine, a little face drawn. The faces were sad, angry, or plaintive.

That came to mind this month when I heard that Book Revue, my village’s independent bookstore, was closing. In their last week, the week of September 6th, they marked down all of their huge inventory. I went in to pick up some bargains, but for some reason felt no urge to buy and left empty-handed.

The following Tuesday, when I passed by, they had already cleared out the whole place. The empty shelves were a melancholy sight.

When we settled here thirty years ago the village had Book Revue and two second-hand bookstores, with a couple of the big chain retailers in nearby shopping centers. Now the nearest place to buy a book, or just browse, is in the mega-mall fifteen miles away. At any rate, there was a Barnes & Noble there when I last went, a couple of years ago …

“Oh, people just buy their books online—lots of books!” That’s what you hear if you raise the topic. I call it whistling through the graveyard, and think of that New Yorker cover. Books are dying a slow death, going the way that cuneiform on clay tablets went when papyrus came up.

It’s geezerish to grumble about it, and anyway futile. History stumbles on, and the old gives way to the new. For someone of my generation, though, for whom books have been a solace and a delight from childhood onward, it is sad, sad.

I feel exactly the opposite way. When I recall my childhood library filled with ephemeral paperbacks, and contrast that with the glorious image of my office library filled with beautiful leatherbound books by Franklin Library, Easton, and, of course, Castalia Library, I feel encouraged and restored.

Anyhow, you’ll definitely want to subscribe just so you can get the Landmark Thucydides at what will almost certainly be a break-even price from us. It’s going to be an incredible edition, unquestionably the best ever published of the 2,000-year-old book, but due to the unusually large width required for the maps and footnotes, it is going to be even more expensive to produce than the Plutarchs were. But nevertheless, it will be a subscription book because we want our subscribers to know that we appreciate them and want them to have the best books we produce.

In any event, the book will not die any century soon. It is considerably more likely that the lights will go out and the ebook will disappear, quite possibly before the end of the 21st century. We are the monks of the next literary Dark Age.

So don’t be sad, sub-scribe.

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“Reunification Must Be Realized”

Xi Xinping doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for any misinterpretation of his intentions concerning Taiwan.

China harbours ambitions of a ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan, the country’s leader Xi Jinping said ahead of the island’s National Day of celebration on Sunday.

The president’s renewed call for the island to be integrated into China comes amid a rise in aggressive threats and provocative military action over Taiwanese airspace in recent days.

Mr Xi was speaking at an official celebration in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People that focused largely on the need for the ruling Communist Party to continue to lead China as the country rises in power and influence.

‘Reunification of the nation must be realised, and will definitely be realised,’ he warned. ‘Reunification through a peaceful manner is the most in line with the overall interest of the Chinese nation, including Taiwan compatriots.’

I’ve written an analysis of why I don’t believe the US will interfere with Chinese reunification and submitted it for publication. It will be interesting to see if it is published or not. If not, I will publish it here.

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