The days are rainy and dark, but this feels natural to me, which proves that I’m a man from the North.
North-East of Europe precisely, with my heavy accent that I will never loose – you know, like in: “my English better today…” Strangely, with time I like the winter more and more, although I can’t ski for the life of me and I used to be really good at that - like double black diamond ski slopes fast good. Now, you don’t want to watch me try it anymore - after a trip to Zermatt with my boys I decided to put the skiing equipment away for good. Moving forward. Living by myself in Suisse for a long time I wouldn’t turn on the TV for weeks. In Canada quite often I’m forced to (its called wife in the room) and in the process I have gathered better understanding how the media machine works. Forget the news, they’re focused on criminal affairs, covid and politics, so nothing really impacting the viewers in the immediate future. Important part is that the people delivering the news are perceived as having the prestige, be it success in business, rewards for whatever and they look good. Then you have the talk shows, which are really the opinion makers; this is where the wood hits the ball. This is where the message to the watching public is sent. Not that I care, I always thought that to understand what is going on in the world you need to read books, not watch TV. I make one exception – the South American women weather forecasters on TV, starting from Mexico down, make me not to notice the temperature numbers on the screen behind. What did you just say, lady? Rain or sunshine tomorrow? Got distracted by the looks. And there is the ridiculous news coming in, that makes life fun, like – John Kerry, the Davos climate czar, is a guy with six houses, 12 cars, 2 yachts and a private jet and he is lecturing people to take a bus to stop pollution. Good news is, according to NASA the CO2 levels in the atmosphere haven’t changed since the measurements historically began, so we’re likely okay and the whole emission debacle is pointless. The planet will take care of itself, we’re only passing by, don’t think too much of yourself. One word about the elections in the US at the end. I’m starting to think I got it wrong all along. What if the “deep state” (government administration, who are in their jobs 30 – 35 years, versus the president a fraction of it) supported the election of president Trump to his surprise. I think he was shocked to be elected. He was just marketing himself, like in the TV show of his. You need to have a fall guy for the great reset in the society and they got one just in time.
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A story about Elon Musk is making rounds, him being tested for covid four times during the day, same testing kits, same personnel, and two of these tests came positive and two negative. It would take a lot to unpack this story, but I will focus on one aspect only – how could Pfizer recently announce positive results from phase 3 clinical trial for the vaccine if its impossible to say who is sick and who is not.
Naturally, Pfizer’s stock jumped up on the news and the CEO unloaded his shares immediately. Guess his trust in the product had some limitations. Now, bear with me for a moment as I go scientific - positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have been used as the justification for keeping large portions of the world locked down for the better part of 2020. This, despite the fact that PCR tests cannot distinguish between inactive viruses and “live” or reproductive ones. Hear that? Restaurant owners, hotel guys, airlines, cruise ship companies? The inventor of the PCR test, the late Kary Mullis, stressed that this test should not be used as a diagnostic tool for the reason that it’s incapable of diagnosing disease. A person is only infectious if the virus is replicating, as long as the virus is inactive, it’s completely harmless both to the host and others. So, a number of scientists are saying that what we have is not a COVID-19 pandemic but a PCR test pandemic. Which brings up the logical question – why do we need a test that doesn’t tell us anything important, really. But that’s an engineer speaking. Fact is, we have a huge drop in flu cases, so we’re likely confusing these two. Government payments for anything covid sure help the charade. Let’s keep it simple. Health authorities recommend that you wash your hands often and vigorously, like after chopping jalapeños, and they don’t want to discourage sex, but they want to remind you that the safest sex partner is always yourself. Happy winter, everybody. On a more serious note, gun sales are through the roof, did you know that? And ammo is on back orders. What does it say about people’s trust in the government to keep order in the society? And there are solid reasons for the distrust, like the action of the Swiss health economist Willy Oggier, who proposed to register the names of Covid-19 skeptics and if they are infected with the virus not to grant them a bed in hospital. Just one example what idiots walk the earth. News TV are not consistent and the message is not clear. I’ve been through this spectacle before, back when the communism was folding. You simply didn’t know what is coming next. It is impossible to trust the news, because they make little sense. It's as clear as day - that is why a man walks into a gun store and buys a Desert Eagle, he needs to protect family from the craziness. I think I’m about done commenting on the world affairs. Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, said - when you get to my age, and if you do, you will realize that life is not over, but the story is. The US election result is far from being finalized, the Electoral College of the United States will vote on December 14th. Joe Biden is wrong to celebrate so quickly and president Trump is not a quitter. The Biden’s campaign was utterly bereft of ideas and policy issues. He has been in politics for 47 years and I never heard of any of his achievements. I guess the biggest one is this - he woke up this morning. Fyodor Dostoevsky, the writer, saw the behavior of Russia’s useless leftist class at the end of the 19th century as presaging a period of unrest. The main character in his Notes From Underground carries the ideas of liberalism to their logical extreme. He is rational, he says that it is even impossible for an intelligent man to become anything, and only fools become something. Whatever the results of the US election will be, the other side will not accept it, in the sense that the confidence in the government will not be the same. And confidence of the people is the key. In a marriage it is called love, in public life its confidence, this is what keeps the society together. Example is – about 70% of dollars are circulating outside of the US, be it paper or electronic currency. And there is a reason for it – people have higher confidence in the US government that in any other on the planet, this may be in the process of changing. We may be looking at a gradual switch from deflation to inflation, which means higher interest rates in societies that took on lots of debt. You can cancel the debt, of course, but there is always someone on the other side, the pension funds that bought it, for example. The covid panic only accelerates change. Give you an example - for several years now there is a push for cashless society, all money would be electronic. There is a huge advantage in it for the government (ALL transactions will be visible and taxable, you won't be able to pay cash the guy who removes snow from your driveway, for example). With covid, most people will not touch banknotes that were touched by who knows who before. So there you go - bad idea made easy to implement. There are more examples of how the covid panic increases the government control and more players in the game profit from it - just consider tech firms like PayPal or Apple looking at the increase of the number of transactions on their platform in the cashless environment. It will cost us all another piece of freedom. Consider this - in 1999 there were a million patents digitalized by IBM and this was when the patents on corona virus started showing up. In 2003 the Centre for Disease Control wanted to make sure that they control proprietary rights to the disease (patent US 7279327), the detection and all the measurement of it (patent US 7776521). Now, nature is prohibited from being patented. Either corona virus was being manufactured, therefore meaning the patent on them legal, or it was nature, therefore making a patent on it illegal. I wish to live in a place where media would ask this simple question. I’m a square headed civil engineer, goddamn; my mind is into concrete and steel beams and its me who brings it up?? Well, I'm also into motorcycles - so into things that move extremely fast, or are solid and don't move at all. I like the extremes, the middle is boring. Working from home I started watching TV in the background, which is new for me.
I alternate from series like “Harry Bosch” (and this guy has strong screen presence) to the news. And then I usually regret that I switched the channels. I realized that the core problem in any country is the limited relevance of its president’s intentions. And then his actions are intentions diluted. I don’t know who is calling the shots anymore on a national and international scale and this makes me uncomfortable. When, and if, the covid scandal clears, it will be like the Nuremberg Trial for the government and media officials – “I was just following orders.” Thing is, I don’t understand from whom. The government’s handling of the covid issue is erratic, and the absence of logic is bothering people more and more. Example is - flying back to Switzerland I need to quarantine for 10 days at home – how do I get food during that time? Plus I need to report to the authorities within two days of arrival – so, stay home or not? If I travel from there to Belgium for less than 48 hours I don’t need to quarantine after return. 49 hours I do. In Austria, they introduced a curfew during the night, when the traffic on the street is the lightest. How that this make sense? Introduce curfew during the day to limit people interactions, if that’s the goal. Klaus Schwab, who was a longtime professor at the University of Geneva, and is the founder of the World Economic Forum, has said – “in 10 years you will own nothing, and you will be happy about it.” He is advocating the covid story as an opportunity for a “great reset” in our societies. You may call him the new Karl Marx, but he takes care of himself – the WEF sold all its investments just before the covid news hit. A good question is - who is doing the thinking in our societies? Communists like Schwab or Thomas Piketty, the French mad man? Perhaps each government should have a Minister of Thinking, as it seems to be a unique skill. This can’t be a lawyer, can’t be an academic but a person with real life experience. Engineers don’t need to apply - we simplify things, meaning we will give you a black and white answer. At least this one will, and I’m still going to say it – if you own nothing, you have no freedom. Some people start showing signs of desperation, as in the long running France – Turkish feud, president Erdogan said that president Macron needs some mental treatment. In response France recalled its ambassador to Turkey and the EU elites issued a communiqué that Erdogan should behave. I can almost hear his laughter from the 2000 rooms mansion in Ankara. We’re all losing something because of the covid scandal, businesses going bust and people getting poor. Salaries get cut in half or better, making people slaves of the system. The governments are coming down hard on the doubters of the official line. In Canada you could be fined up to $750,000 for not following the rules. I think I am hearing another laughter, this time from the grave of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. What I know for sure is that in the end reality always has the final say. As Guy McPherson said: Nature bats last. And it will be a good shot, cleansing us of this nonsense. Let the Canadian artist Robbie Robertson take it from here: “Struck by lightning, the fire is dying And she called out your name Sudden thunder, the sky is crying Can't tell the tears from the rain.” |
AuthorTom Kubiak is the author of The Traveler Archives
February 2021
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