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American Expat in Thailand 2: Pleasure and Reward
2020-08-24 06:58 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Yea, ridiculous screen shot, but the marginally least bad of three. Jesus, YouTube. “That’s The Best We Can Do, Folks.”

DESCRIPTION

Life should be pleasurable, but is “reward” the right way to think about that?

Links:

[Note to Pledge Peeps on Patreon and SubscribeStar: These initial videos are introductory, which is why they’re public-access for now. I’m giving a free trial period. Soon, and without notice, they will be patron early-access, until such uncertain time in the future they become open access on FreeTheAnimal.com.]

Video: Direction, Action, and Projects
2020-08-23 08:36 UTC by Richard Nikoley


American Expat in Thailand: Direction, Action, and Projects

In January, 2020, I sold everything and hopped on a plane for Thailand. Just as I was leaving for another country, Corona caught me, and I end up staying, now a permanent resident.

Now I’m on the prowl, so find out what that’s all about.

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-08-23
2020-08-23 04:00 UTC

  1. The Facebook Question
  2. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  3. The Urban and Suburban Blight
  4. Easy Fat Loss With Three Simple Things
  5. Personal Update For My Biggest Fan: The Hater

I Create Memes That Make Most People Feel Ignorant
2020-08-22 05:59 UTC by Richard Nikoley


I wake up with ideas in my head. I’m usually up between 5-6 a.m. banging on the keyboard in the semi-dark as she still sleeps.

Alcohol abstention is having quite the effect. I’m easily past the point of no return. I’ve tried life with alcohol and without and hands-down prefer the latter. It’s so easy to come up with better things to do, since almost anything is something that’s better to do. Those and many stories…for another time…on Patreon, SubscribeStar, and eventually, open-access here. Below—after my Black and White—I’ll outline a bit of what’s in store on all fronts. Don’t miss that part.

This one, above, was actually from an Ausie expat, in Thailand for the last 30 years

The last four are what I’ve settled on for my “Meming Brand.” It’s Black & White.

I’ll generally put up at east a couple in the morning, Thailand time (early evening east coast and late afternoon west, USA). They are posed identically and simultaneously on

Interestingly, I’m heavily shadow-banned on both Facebook and Twitter. How do I know? Well beyond many telling me they NEVER see my posts unless they specifically go to my post profile, I have only 800 followers on Pinterest, have never engaged there or done anything to promote it, and I have about 120,000 views monthly, dwarfing the others combined.

THE GRAND PLAN

I have three basic gigs on the burner, to be run simultaneously.

  1. A series for Patreon and SubscribeStar about Donald Trump The Cat — The nine lives of a winner and why he’ll win again…or something like that. This will wrap up prior to the election, so my conclusion is tested. Probably 12 posts or so. It will publish here, open access, beginning after the election.
  2. An ongoing series of stories, photo logs, food pics, etc., about life and lessons here in rural Thailand and how life evolved such that I’m here. Right now, I’m drafting a post about a small streetside open-air restaurant I funded in full, an how it’s going. These posts will be on the pledge support sites and will eventually publish here with no advance notice (you’ll never know).
  3. An open-access series here at FTA of 20-25 posts covering Alex Leaf’s Fat Loss Blueprint. It’s high time that I devote some time, once again, to fat loss, health, strength, and longevity now that I’ve gone a good way towards cleaning up my own life through radical changes. All you’ll have to do is sell everything and move half-way across the world. [Just kidding]

OK, that’s about all.

19
2020-08-19 00:28 UTC by Richard Nikoley


100 years ago, American males got cucked and it has been a disaster ever since. It’s now manifest fully, in abject destruction of global civilization.

The human female is not a builder of civilizations. Women are tamers of men who, in-turn, erect measures of safety and security by means of civilization.

That’s about all—whether you like it, or not.

Teaser: WHERE HAVE ALL THE SALTY EXPATS GONE?
2020-08-18 01:23 UTC by Richard Nikoley


First new post of many to come on my early-and-immediate access subscription services:

You’ll find the substantial background concerning this initiative here: PATREON REBOOT + SUBSCRIBESTAR. Plus, a bit more background here and here.

You’re welcome to wait until it’s published in full, here on Free The Animal, no hard feelings at all; or, you can sign up for immediate access to all content (podcasts, videos, video conferences coming very soon) the second it’s published. No guesswork, because you’ll never know exactly when it will be published here. In general, I will subjectively choose when, with each subscriber immediate-access post, so they will tend to be out of order chronologically, except for series posts.

Nothing will show up here less than 2 weeks from publishing on the subscription sites, or more than 3 months.

That’s about all, for now.

             

Related Posts

 

Patreon Reboot + SubscribeStar
2020-08-17 13:49 UTC by Richard Nikoley


The morning view at home. The temple is in honor and remembrance of family who have passed on. I think that’s wonderful. It’s treated by all with reverence and respect.

In November of 2003 I started this blog, named a few different names until settling on its current inception since the Paleo-Diet days of 2008 and onward. In total, as of 2020, I’ve published 5,000 posts and readers have submitted 120,000 comments.

My Patreon page—DigiCash—began in mid-2017 in order to teach the intricacies of getting into crypto: buying, trading, and safeguarding. But by early 2018 I felt like that task was complete and I didn’t wish to continually publish posts with no real value—I can’t fake it, especially if getting paid directly. Ironically, Bitcoin had just hit an end-of-year high of around $20,000 that has yet to be revisited. Had it continued, I likely would have stuck with it and who knows where I’d be.

My position on crypto is pretty simple, now: I buy and hold only Bitcoin. I liquidated all of my ~50 altcoins for Bitcoin—mostly at substantial losses—in early 2020 and I’ve never sold a bit of it. End of story. And I’ve done well, having made a substantial buy when it “crashed” to about $4,000 in mid-March (now at about $12,000).

The Patreon presence has remained mostly idle for a long time and attrited itself. Here’s how it looks, for the sake of transparency.

So…I get this totally wild-ass idea in September, 2017, whilst sitting outside on the deck at my mountain abode in the Sierras. Indian summer at 4,500 feet. Delightful, but with the knowledge that fall comes fast and furious at that elevation and you’ll soon be cold and colder.

I already knew a good bit about crypto, both the theory and the technology. I first bought Bitcoin in 2014 at $618 a pop. Plus, I’d run a company in the financial space and was an options trader for a time. I quite literally got up to speed in an afternoon, even learning about altcoins (everything but Bitcoin, though no one cares to admit that) and which handful of them were the better bets—if you hold them at all.

Within hours, I’m tapping at the keyboard and produced this: YOU CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO JUMP INTO CRYPTOCURRENCY, which doubled as my Patreon sales pitch (there’s a new pitch, now, but don’t head over just yet). I set one single subscription level: $5 per month for the whole enchilada. And I immediately began getting subscribers, over 20 in the first 24-hours. Beatrice was amazed. And it continued. Most amazing was reaching 200 subscribers by the end of October was just the beginning and subscription growth accelerated so that by the end of December, I had 565 subscribers for monthly income of $2,825, less Patreon’s small cut and minimal transaction fees.

I’ve put up only 26 posts since January 1, 2018, to now. Patrons were very good to me about it. Of course, the long-tail down began in January, the same month Beatrice and I split up, so I had two things working against my amazing bouts of enthusiasm-driven productivity and stand-out effectiveness. But I never promised to kick it back on in earnest and I never induced anyone to stay. Out of all 565 Patrons, exactly two asked for refunds of $10, which, of course, I readily granted. Many contacted me to apologize for canceling, and a number of others contacted me to say they’d keep the pledge active because of all the stuff I’ve delivered over the years.

I’ve got the fewest haters of anyone on the net—in fact, I can think of only one hater-stalker who’s still trying, after all these years, to get a comment past moderation on this blog. In reality, he’s my biggest “fan.”

There’s not much to do here in rural Isan—Sisaket Province, Khukhan District, Sano Subdistrict. No movie theaters, no substantial nice restaurants —tiny bamboo-shack-tin-roof Mom & Pop noodle and soup houses are the norm)—no shopping centers, sports arenas, fast food, pizza parlors, bars, night clubs, or any of the hosts of consumption-paraphernalia we in the urban and suburban West have come to seek as replacement for natural boredom. Until, that is, you realize that boredom is simply willful shallowness.

Boredom, in effect, is one emotional response emanating from reliance on pleasure. The problem is that our lizard brains don’t not know the difference between easy pleasure (junk food, booze, smokes, video games, Netflix bingeing, promiscuity, etc.) and hard pleasure (focussed work, shouldering responsibility, building, planning, executing, managing, cultivating love and relationships, etc.). The former is made possible by personal dishonesty and laziness while the latter, discipline, thought, and control.

During the 2 1/2 months of the home build, activity was constant and progress hard-won every day. Workers needed materials, and materials needed to be sourced for the best deals, purchased, and then delivered on-time to avoid idle time—and funds were coming from US bank accounts and the US banking system is the slowest, most archaic, most over-regulated, most crony-vermin infested banking system in the world; but I digress, and will leave it to future posts in comparisons and contrasts.

…Seven days a week, 10-12 hour days.

Finishing it up left a void, of course, and it took a while to work out what I really wanted to do next. Plus, the kids started back at school so suddenly, no workers making beautiful music, no neighborhood children creating joy through just being children at play, on display. I also stopped drinking altogether and am quite past the point of any return. And things just started falling into place and clicking as if to signal locked in, not locked down.

I’m going to revive Patreon again. The Reboot. And this time, with a SubscribeStar “mirror” option. That is, both creator sites identical down to the last bit of punctuation. Why?

  1. Some people hate Patreon, and for good reason
  2. Patreon is your typical pip-squeak and clown-run tech operation with its amusing “woke” leftist bias, strutting its “virtue” through the censorship of ideas and opinions that make them cry. I’m a #NSFSJW phenomenon, so it’s possible the commissars come for me one day

I realize how ill suited I was to do a specific thing like crypto when it’s easy to see that my biggest “shortcoming”—that I can’t devote an entire life to one single special little thing—is also my greatest asset—that I can’t devote an entire life, or even a year, to one special little thing. I have to be free to roam. Free the animal. And even inside the diet and health sphere, I always bounced around from one thing to the next and even still, managed to integrate lots of other interests into my daily posts (flying, music, philosophy, religion, travel, camping, and so on…).

I tried to think a lot about what differentiates me from most others. The foregoing is one thing: there’s almost nobody who can do such wide-scope-general, dot-connecting, synthesizing-and-integrating like I can. It’s just the truth. The other thing is that I so often like to frame what I write in stories, usually personal ones. Doing this makes lots of bloggers—really, website writers—uncomfortable and they seem awkward when they try.

So, you can get dry and stale “facts” and “commentary” in a million places. I maintain the original, true spirit of a blog: it’s about me and how others might learn from airing my laundry (clean, dirty, stylish, or mundane) within the context of lessons worth learning—successes and failures.

Plus, I’m now an expat living permanently in deep rural Thailand with a million story lessons already. Thus, the tagline:

Stories of an American expat living in deep rural Thailand

How exotic is that?

How’s it going to work, since both creator pages are about this blog? Well, simply, early access and live action. With each post I write, I’ll subjectively decide when they go public here on FTA, probably in increments of 1 week to 1 month for the really good stuff. That goes for podcasts and videos, and i intend to do a minimum of 2 of each per month.

So, it all started today, the first subscriber post, available immediately. In 2 weeks, it will be published here. So, that’s basically how things will work. i have zero issue with anyone who doesn’t mine waiting and they’ll eventually get everything. So, I’m selling ealy access is all (except for the top 2 limited subscription tiers involving one-on-one communication and formal consulting).

I’ll bet you want to read that right now!

My own on-the-scene expat photos, stories, podcasts, and video adventures, currently from exotic Thailand

Or, if you prefer, here’s the SubscribeStar mirror site

There are reasons some shouldn’t subscribe.

  1. If you don’t really like my stuff; we won’t get along

That’s about all. Except for one final note. I understand it can appear as though given my previous iteration, my trustworthiness is questionable. Valid critique. The problem in the context of the time was that I fully expected to be firing back up, and I did put up posts occasionally. Now crypto is on the move again, so why not fire back up, now? Because I accomplished what I wanted: to teach a lot of people how to get it, encourage them to keep it, and insist they safeguard it. I have nothing more to sell and if new folks want to learn that, all those crypto posts are still available on the Patreon site.

Crypto was very specialized and I’m the furthest thing from a specialist. but I am a producer of stories, insights, lesons, and integrations that run the gamut of the human experience.

And I’m good at it.

And I have a passion for it.

That’s why this blog has 5,000 posts. About just about everything.

Personal Update For My Biggest Fan: The Hater
2020-08-16 10:49 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Unfiltered. iPhone X to the left, Samsung Galaxy A51 quad-camera to the right. Yea, I went Android. I’ll get a new $400 phone every year rather than wait 2-3 years because $1,200. If it breaks or I lose it: no big, no stress…and no protective cover or “care”plan.

I snapped the photo to the left upon arrival in Chiang Mai, Thailand, January 16, 2020. I’ve been here ever since, and from then to mid-May did nothing much but seek various forms of pleasure—not much discipline, thought, or control involved.

On May 18, 2020, the girlfriend and I got up early and drove the 1,000 kilometers to her rural childhood home. Three months later, and the picture to the right was taken yesterday, August 15, 2020. So, the contrast is seven months as an expat in Thailand.

How rural?

Ban Laem Thong, Sano Subdistrict, Khukhan District, Sisaket Province—one of the Isan provinces that neighbor Cambodia and Laos. We’re about 30 km from Cambodia.

It wasn’t really culture shock at all. To my mind, the essential characteristics possessed by self-sufficient, self-guided, honest, hard-working, and productive rural country folk cross all cultural boundaries and are far more important and meaningful than are the facades that the multi-cultural left intelligentsia would highlight and emphasize; for, their aim is to conjure victims, making you inferior by inference, especially if you are of the honest, hard-working, productive salt: inferior to surface trappings of their faux narrative selection, especially of the third-world. Mud huts? Even better.

I wasn’t culture shocked. Rather, I soon took account of important, critical, and boundless aspects. Things like children, family, village, food, work, and honor. Everyone works. No exceptions. And no, this is nothing like that display of hubristic, delusional grandeur in a snide-glib screed called “It Takes a Village”—the “village,” of course, being leftism and its mind-and-probity destroying indoctrination.

This isn’t perfect, of course, since it’s a current satellite image, not from the 1960s, but this was my free-roaming playground, growing up. All that green along the north bank of the Truckee river was owned by my grandfather.

Toss in the hunting trips for food, fishing trips for food, and vegetable gardens for food—the preservation through canning, freezing, and dehydrating—and the little businesses that provided dollars in trade, and it’s a far cry from the contrast of a country girl and some street-smart Brooklyn asshole or Park Street silver-spoon wanker.

So as I’ve written previously, all of this combined focussed me; and so I decided to build what was 2 small rooms of 400 square feet into 4 bedrooms, two full baths, large kitchen, and sitting room of 1,400 square feet, plus encircle the house with a wall, concrete, and tile which is serving us wonderfully during the daily heavy rains, now (90% reduction in tracked-in mud and dirt).

Lots of stuff focussed me, but none as profoundly as these three mignon objects of focus.

First day back in school.

…The new 7/11, AKA ‘sewen’, 5 km away in Lalom, has a scale. In the first few days, I stepped on it with Yui present. 93 kilo (204.6 pounds). I only wear shorts, tank-tops, and flip-flops, so I take off 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) for each weigh-in. So, call it 204-205 pounds starting. At my worst in 2008, I was 240. At my best in 2009-11, 175. So, as I said, I gained about half of it back.

That picture to the right, above: 85.2 kilo (187.5 pounds). 6.8 kilo loss (15 pounds) in three months, technically, but I really didn’t start cutting down on booze and doing much for the first month. For several weeks now, I’m alcohol free and far better across all channels. My vision, focus, and purpose is crystal clear. I have shouldered all pertinent responsibilities and am seeing to them with no excuses, no evasion, and no moral uncertainty.

Here’s what I wrote yesterday on my social-media channels when I posted the juxtaposing photo collage:

January 17, 2020 arrival in Chiang Mai, Thailand vs. August 15, 2020 rural Thailand.

No booze, daily 18:6 or more fasting, whole food always, sunshine, sleep, and boom-boom.

On fasting? I use the fantastic fastic.com app.

So, as you can see, pretty damn consistent and August 9 was only the second or third time since starting that I missed the 18:6 target, and it’s always because of familial stuff, not caving to hunger. Just today, 11yo Chili and mom made some chicken and it just happened to coincide with 19:11 hours fasted on the timer, so I ended the fast even though I wasn’t hungry and wasn’t watching the clock (I was writing this). Also, about half the time, I’m pushing to 19:5 and 20:4.

It’s so liberating. Frankly, I barely pay attention to how much I eat in the window. I focus on 2 things:

  1. Target protein, lean preferred
  2. Eschew added fat, dribbles of salad dressing are OK
A snack

So that’s that. Big changes coming up, otherwise, mostly having to do with this blog. Steps taken so far:

  1. Much planning as to topics and posts contemplating stories, expat living, online entrepreneurship, writing projects and series, lessons good and bad
  2. Set up two subscription sites for early access to all writings, podcasts, video meetings, and even one-on-one consulting
  3. Gave notice to my three Facebooks groups with over 3,000 combined subscribers that I will depreciate them in a couple of weeks to focus on this blog and my direct social media channels (personal wall and the Free The Animal page on Facebook)

That push begins next. Here are the social media outlets where you can interact with me.

Here’s what I posted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram just this morning, before drafting this, so you may be missing out if you otherwise like my style.

The way this works is that Trump as president is the greatest evil on earth. Therefore, any other evil is lesser, and thus justified if it serves to weaken him and his chances for reelection. This is how evil becomes virtue.
This is precisely the cognitive dissonance in which the Left and Democrats are operating. No exceptions.
Never buy their virtue-signalling lies about “concern” for LIVES!!!
Always approach it as “one angry mind at a time.”
From my Blurry Misanthropy file.

And with that, more details to follow within the next 24 hours. And here we go.

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-08-16
2020-08-16 04:00 UTC

  1. The Facebook Question
  2. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  3. freetheanimal.com/2013/06/dog-shit-enzymatic-pancreatic-deficiency-epi-and-old-dog-vestibular-syndrome.html
  4. Revisiting Cold Therapy With Ray Cronise: Extreme But Acute Vs. Mild But Chronic
  5. SMV4K.com

The Urban and Suburban Blight
2020-08-15 05:41 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Could you come up with a better illustration by means of juxtaposition between urban/suburban and rural?

My take: Urban/suburban is where the fear-driven grazers congregate. Grazing animals like population density because it implies the safety of the herd or flock. If everyone’s an equal grazer, then one prey target is as good as another and chances are it won’t be you. Social adherence is rule #1—you don’t want your prey-mate ratting you out to the predators. Conform, be one of the pack; solidarity, one for all and all for…well, themselves. Don’t stand above, or the herd will make sure you stand OUT. This is a prime environment for parasitism, as it can go undetected. Indeed, often, the most successful parasites go not only undetected; but most often, they are heralded as the most virtuous. Co-dependency emanates from dishonest and lazy dependency.

Conversely, rural is where the self-sufficient resource planners and managers congregate. They deal with each other as partners, traders, mutual providers in a naturally occurring division of labor—the starkest example of which is that you won’t see women doing men’s work and you won’t see men doing women’s work. From there, you have many layers and levels of self-directed cooperation. This is an impossible environment for parasitism because full-scope accounting is always in play, written or unwritten. It’s a prime environment to create real and tangible values for yourself, family, and villagers. Your virtue is rooted in what you honestly produce, and not the words, platitudes, slogans, and bromides you utter and preach. Virtue is recognized, not bestowed. Co-reliance emanates from discipline, thought, control, honesty, and hard work.

Two photos are of schools in densely urban Bangkok. Two are of last Tuesday’s Mother’s Day honoring at the rural village school, 200 meters down from where I sit.

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-08-09
2020-08-09 04:00 UTC

  1. Easy Fat Loss With Three Simple Things

Easy Fat Loss With Three Simple Things
2020-08-06 09:19 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Yea, I let myself go for a couple of years. Mostly is was about behaviors, bad habits, isolation, and other things. While I held my life together generally, it was nowhere near where I knew I wanted to be, where my blurry vision suggested. The manifestation was mostly in my appearance.

I never gained it all back—the 60 pounds I lost on Paleo back in the day— just about half of it.

Then I moved to Thailand in mid-January, thinking that would automatically fix everything. Nope. I’d been cooped up in a large house, small-town Sierras, alone, for a couple of years. You don’t fix the downstream effects of that sort of life overnight by jumping on an airplane to a tropical paradise on the other side of the world. If anything, it compounds existing issues which require focus to overcome.

Attaining focus requires, in a word: purpose. My only “purpose” was that I wanted to feel good again: physically, mentally, and spiritually. No, that’s not a purpose; that’s a desire. So, the first four months in Chiang Mai were mostly about fulfilling desires and other than a few false starts and a pound dropped here and there, nothing much changed.

Covid-19 unavoidably caused all my plans to change. I was to depart Thailand for Vietnam mid-March, then nomad-hop the world indefinitely—a new country every few months. Instead, the flight was cancelled and I got “stuck” in Thailand with no place to go except perhaps back to the U.S. But I’d just spent a year salivating about getting myself out and on the travel circuit. Plus, with things shaping down, down and downer as they were, who knew when I’d be able to depart the U.S. again for anyplace I’d want to go?

So I did something I hadn’t done meaningfully or importantly in years: I shouldered a whole lot of responsibility. And guess what happened? I attained focus.

I built a house in rural Thailand for myself, girlfriend, her two daughters, and mother. It took 2 1/2 months. People work 7 days a week, here.

I’m 14 years older than Warunee’s mom. Both think that’s hilarious.
Rural Si Saket Province, Thailand (my motorbike is the 70s Triumph look-alike)

I was my own general contractor, hiring individual labor and sourcing all materials. Consequently, my total build cost would make any “Lands of the Free” unionized tradesmen blush with embarrassment.

Of course, I had to create an amazing high-ceiling bedroom-workspace combo.

Yea, snakes in Thailand. I have so far encountered that green pit viper pictured and a baby monocled cobra right outside the back door. By the way, that’s a tile floor.

I have the full story to tell about all of this but for now, let’s get back on point.

Fat loss. See, right after I got here, being outside all day managing the build in the hot and humid tropical sun, I felt pretty miserable. So I started fasting quite a lot—hot and humid being a great appetite suppressant. The build ended, so that particular purpose ended with it; but my newly-established focus wouldn’t let me rest, so I took on additional responsibilities.

I do micro-lending to micro-businesses (think food carts and outdoor-market kiosks) through a Thai intermediary. These are very short-term loans, analogous to payday lending, but to businesses that are making money every day and making their loan payments every day. Not a penny lost, not even in jeopardy.

And I provided start-up capital for a small Isan food restaurant in Lalom, right across the street from 7/11. Location, location, location.

Call me a loan shark, I don’t care. My aim is to make money in Thailand without violating any conditions of my residency visa. On the drawing board is a home construction company, small scale. That’s the vision my focus has led me to while taking on the responsibilities keeps my sense of purpose in good health. No more effing around.

You want to know what a chief reward in all this is? Gloating. Yes. See, in “The Land of the Free,” all of the above things would be out of reach, in some way illegal, a regulatory pain in the ass—inter alia—and even if you persevere and succeed, it’s not if you’re going to be sued or investigated, it’s when. Here in deep rural? Guess how much the building permits cost? What’s a building permit? How many inspections and how did they go? What are inspections? And yet, this house is 100% built of reinforced concrete, block, and steel. The only wood is some doors. Your insanely-priced permitted-and-inspected toothpick jokes will blow down long before this place would.

So here’s the simplicity I’ve put together that has shed 4-5 kilos (9-11 pounds) in the last 2-3 months without really trying. It’s a combination of what I knew, plus just practical things along the way to make it fun and challenging. This is a basic overview. I’ll be diving deep in a series of posts starting soon.

First, drop the nonsense that it’s predominantly about what you eat [to lose fat]. What you eat can certainly contribute to helping or hurting but the truth is, most people use approved and disapproved foods to eat ad libitum, expecting magic. True fat loss is going to hurt, or you are not going to lose fat.

I did a Twitter series on this earlier. It’s actually an elegant little method, as it forces you to be concise. Like 13-points-240-characters concise.

You can read and comment directly on Twitter, or on Thread reader. Or, continue below.

1/ For all the continuing talk of best foods, best macros, stuff to avoid, and so-on, you can make it ridiculously easy with just three basic things (4-5 kilo fat lost last couple months):

  • a. SOME presence of mind about calories
  • b. Target protein (~30% of kcal)
  • c. Eating window

2/ a: Some idea of calories is, if not absolutely essential, just helpful and smart. Why ignore what’s helpful? The big takeaway is that fat is more than 2x energy dense and the least satiating in comparative studies (I don’t give a shit about your n= 1 lie).

3/ a: Calculate your general daily caloric requirement, but not at where you are, where you want to be (people “stall” because they do the opposite and reach equilibrium when BMI gets to the level they’re eating). This is not hard. It’s easy and helpful.

4/ b: Protein is essential because #1 it’s the most satiating macro comparatively and #2, it’s the least energy dense (fat=9kc/g; carb=4kc/g; protein= <4kc/g, depending on thermal effect–the more protein, the less net caloric energy from each gram). Leaner cuts are better.

5/ b: Protein is also critical because #1 it aids in spairing lean tissue in an energy deficit and #2, it can give you “lean gains,” that is, build lean tissue through resistance exercise even when in energy deficit.

6/ c: Most people eat in a 6:19 window. That is, meals and snacks over an entire 18 waking hours and this is dumb. Flip that around and you have power. Even in perfect body-comp shape, 12:12 is an excellent policy. Go at least 12 hours every day, no exceptions, no intake.

7/ c: For fat loss, I think 16-18:8-6 windows are the best, with some flexibility built in. So, no less than 16 hours *no intake* every day, 18+ being better. This means you can only eat for 8 or less hours every day. Feel free to incorporate a 24+ 1-2 times per week.

8/ Now go full circle with calories. Calculate your requirements for *your goal weight* and apply the weight loss levels from mild to extreme as you prefer and you don’t have to stick to a single one every day. Maybe mild on weekends, moderate or extreme during the week.

9/

165# goal, male, moderate activity

10/ Next, divide your calorie number into your eating window hours. For example, if my goal is 165# and I’m at 185#, then I’m using the calculator at 165# levels (goal), not 185. If I go moderate and I’m doing 18:6, that’s 300 damn calories per hour for 6 straight hours.

11/ And that’s f_cking easy. All you need is just the barest knowledge of the food-calories and sorta winging it is fine because everything is stacked in your favor if you just adhere to the eating window, target protein, and calculate from goal weight not current weight.

12/ I highly recommend a fasting app. I’ve tried a few but didn’t find any helpful until I decided to give @fastic a go. Over a week now and I haven’t missed my 18 hour goal once. It’s very encouraging. No, no affiliate link (sadly–would love to have one). The free version is adequate for most, anyway.

13/ I’ve seen and reviewed everything since blogging Paleo and being an influencer since 2008. This is the most COMPREHENSIVE thing you will ever come across. And, @AlexJLeaf is involved.

“The Fat Loss Blueprint”

Proud Affiliate Link:

https://ix316.isrefer.com/go/blueprint/rnikoley/

Now, go forth and give this the old try if you need to. Many can just wing it on general principles alone and they continually self-correct. I’ve resigned myself to needing a structured program that’s pretty easy, very effective, and actually works, never having to resort to that “stall” builshit, which is euphemism for “I’m eating on average the exact amount of energy my body requires at this weight and composition.”

Stop embarrassing yourself by believing and uttering that nonsense. Today!

Best wishes. I’ve embraced the responsibility of once again jumping back into this sphere and to be effective with it. While there’s a limit to how much responsibility you can take on if it’s responsibility in the meaningful sense, there is no limit to your purpose and vision.

              

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The Covid Con Mass Delusion: Is Germany The Stupidest Country On Earth?
2020-08-05 04:02 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Simple question.⁠
⁠
What few hundred thousand people ought to be arrested, prosecuted, sentenced to death, and summarily executed over this?⁠
⁠
The average fucktard-moron, abject idiot with a “smart” phone believes case numbers are 4 to 46 times what they actually are, and deaths 100 to 300 times what they actually are.⁠
⁠
Who’s responsible?⁠ Who should pay with their lives?

In case you have trouble making it out:

People think coronavirus is much more prevalent than it is — and that many more have died that in reality.

Respondents across all countries were asked to enter a % for each category. the mean percentage is shown for each. Comparisons are shown on confirmed cases/deaths or, in the case of the UK, best modelled estimates of total COVID cases.

How many people in your country have had coronavirus?

  1. UK: 22% (4x modelled cases)
  2. US: 20% (20x confirmed cases)
  3. DE: 11% (46x confirmed cases)
  4. SE: 16% (20x confirmed cases)
  5. FR: 12% (46x confirmed cases)

How many people in your country have died from coronavirus?

  1. UK: 7% (100x confirmed deaths)
  2. US: 9% (225x confirmed deaths)
  3. DE: 3% (300x confirmed deaths)
  4. SE: 6% (100x confirmed deaths)
  5. FR: 5% (100x confirmed deaths)

To put this in perspective, let’s talk about the stupidest population, the Germans. The population of Germany is 83 million. So, these dumb Krauts believe that 9.1 Million people got the ‘Rona and of those, 2.5 Million people died.

(Note: I’m half German, my dad immigrated in 1952. Use the term ‘Kraut’ all you like ’cause, see, I’m actually an adult. Plus, I do love my Sauerkraut & pork ribs!)

212,331 Actual Total Cases (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/)
9,232 Actual Total Deaths (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/)

So, go right ahead and try to tell me that the average Kraut-Karen or Kraut-Ken with their “smart” phones aren’t the stupidest person on earth.

Back on April 23, 2020, I penned CORONAVIRUS #4: QUESTION THE PREMISE.

But here’s the thing. Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the original premise that justified a near global house arrest (I don’t use euphemisms like “distancing” and “shelter”) go from MILLIONS DIE DEATH KILL!!! to, well, less. Then less. Then less and less to where, combined with the asymptomatic and those who have antibodies, starts to looks a lot like the flu—although the faux numbers so far are showing a pretty pathetic flu year. What an apparent wimp, by some comparisons.

But the original premise still remains. You see it all over. Everywhere. From the POTUS to every single talking head on TEEVEE.

Nobody questions the premise. They talk out both sides of their mouths because nobody is willing—from POTUS on down all the way—to simply say that we got fucked and pawned. Which is exactly what happened.

https://www.freetheanimal.com/2020/04/coronavirus-4-question-the-premise.html

…Blog commenter John writes:

Richard, the other day I wrote out 20 unlikely assumptions that the whole “COVID 19” story and official response has been based on. This was in response to someone that claimed the idea that lockdowns might have resulted in extra deaths was based on “unlikely assumptions.” In response to that, I wrote the following-

That is RICH.

The official narrative of “COVID 19” itself relies on too many unlikely assumptions.

Including-

1. The assumption that scientists “discovered” a “new virus” right as it jumped from some sort of animal to a human.

2. That this new virus didn’t circulate in any humans prior to December 1st, 2019.

3. That these same scientists somehow “knew” this virus would turn into a pandemic, just by looking at it.

4. That there was no need for any other scientists, organizations, or countries to verify this discovery in infected patients.

5. That a so called “novel” coronavirus wouldn’t act like other coronaviruses discovered in humans, dating back to at least 1966.

6. That researchers could come up with an accurate test for the virus, without a live sample of said virus.

7. That a PCR test is a good diagnostic for this virus, despite the fact that it’s inventor (Kary Mullis) disputes this. As do manufacturers of the test, and even the CDC.

8. That the original Case Fatality Rate of 3.4% was the same as the Infection Fatality Rate.

9. The idea that both above rates would never change.

10. That “The Virus” only shows up in countries when they start testing for it, or institute lockdowns.

11. That radical experiments like lockdowns, mass layoffs, and forced masking are the only was to deal with this “novel virus.”

12. That masks only became effective when health officials reversed themselves and said they were.

13. That studies that show that COVID was circulating as early as March 2019 are incorrect, as they rely on the same tests used to diagnose the virus, but (those same tests are) perfectly okay as a diagnostic otherwise.

14. That healthy people need to be rebranded as “Asymptomatic Patients.”

15. That doctors, healthcare workers and hospitals would not respond to social and financial pressure to liberally apply the COVID label on death certificates.

16. The idea that COVID can be a pandemic when Tuberculous or the Flu are never considered as such.

17. That lockdowns should continue even after the models used to justify them turned out to be insanely wrong.

18. That this novel virus somehow gets around basic laws of physics. And people’s immune systems.

19. That somehow laying off tens of thousands of doctors and nurses during a pandemic is in any way a good idea.

20. That things like heart disease, cancer, suicides, food shortages, famine, stress, isolation, and massive unemployment are of no concern whatsoever.

https://www.freetheanimal.com/2020/08/covidscam-unravels-backlash-grows-and-intensifies.html#comment-891174

In the same vein, here’s someone named Bachman on Twitter.

1\ What follows is a thread summarizing what we know about COVID-19

Others more knowledgeable than I will continue to hash out the details, but at this point the data speaks clearly, and I see no point in continuing to tweet about it

Summary: COVID-19 is not a big deal

2\ COVID-19 is harmless to children. Many countries have not had a single death among the young. And even in large countries like the US, COVID-19 killed fewer kids this year than the flu did

If you support keeping schools closed, you’re a moron. It’s that simple.

3\ Lockdowns do not work. We have data from ~200 countries and even more sub-regions, and there is no link between the timing and stringency of lockdowns and subsequent disease progression

If you support lockdowns, you are just superstitious and afraid

4\ Lockdowns killed more than COVID-19 killed. In the developed world, this happened through suicides, overdoses, murders, missed cancer screenings, and stroke victims not seeking care

In the 3rd world, through malnutrition and skipping vaccinations

Karen was the real killer

5\ Herd immunity happens when 10-30% of the population has been infected, not the 60% that you’d expect from an R0 of 2.5

This is probably due to the fact that we have cross reactive antibodies and T cells from past common cold Coronaviruses

6\ Much of the COVID-19 death toll was due to the northern hemisphere having had two back-to-back mild flu seasons

In many places, the average COVID-19 victim had already lived beyond his country’s life expectancy

Had the media not named it, you’d never have heard of COVID-19

7\ The data on mask usage is crummy, but the best data probably suggests that masks do nothing.

If masks make you feel good, congrats. You should also sleep with a garlic wreath and a silver dagger to ward off vampires

8\ Despite lockdowns definitely not working, and masks probably not working, the COVID-19 death toll will be a bit worse than an average “bad” flu year, but much less than a really bad flu year

We all just panicked.

9\ COVID-19 being “novel” does not make panicking wise

Every flu is novel–that’s why we keep getting them–and some flus kill tens of millions. Yet we don’t lock down for flus.

So locking down for COVID-19 was inexcusable

10\ Hydroxychloroquine may or may not work. But the studies claiming it doesn’t work were literal frauds, committed by people who cared more about seeing Trump be wrong than about savings lives.

I’m very curious to see real data on *early* dosing with HCQ

11\ Acquired resistance to COVID-19 is long lasting; at least 10 months based on the lack of relapses so far

And given the evidence for common Coronavirus T cell and antibody cross resistance, probably much longer than 10 months

12\ We still don’t know about long term side effects, but 90% of the hobgoblins you hear about (Kawasaki Like Disease, Ground Glass Opacities) will turn out to be nonsense

Most people would be equally surprised to learn about long term flu complications

13\ Test-and-trace is a fantasy in any large, pluralistic society. It probably does more harm, through stoking panic, than it does good

It only works in small, culturally homogeneous places like Sweden, Iceland, South Korea

14\ Journos sell you clicks, they don’t sell the truth. Public health officials have their jobs because they didn’t have the brains to work at Subway. Epidemiologists are terrible at stats and yearn for a real pandemic. Politicians feed on crisis the way Popeye feeds on spinach

15\15 Civilization is skin deep. The second your neighbors get scared, 80% of them revert to a primal conformity.

Take note of who around you kept their head, and make them part of your mental family.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290800671168634881.html

Had enough? Now, how many dumb Kraut-Karens and Kraut-Kens are even aware of any of this above shit?

My Entire Corona-COVID Con Collection to Date—Where You can Easily Verify That I Was Right All Along and You Were Wrong:

Check out Elixa Probiotic for a Bulletproof Gut. It’s 80% of your immune system.

CovidCon in Philippines: A Case Study of the Dumb
2020-08-04 11:58 UTC by Richard Nikoley


https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/philippines/

I’ll make this quick, because it’s so outrageously and obviously fucktarded that more than a few sentences is a waste of time on a Whole Dumb World.

The facts about the Philippines (CovidCon):

  1. Population: 107 Million
  2. Covid-19 deaths so far: 2,115
  3. Deaths per 100K population: 0.5 (1 out of 200,000 for the dummies)

The facts about the Philippines (Influenza and Pneumonia):

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/philippines-influenza-pneumonia
  1. Population: 107 Million (same)
  2. Influenza and pneumoia deaths 2018: 75,843 (not the same as CovidCon)
  3. Deaths per 100k population: 127 (254x more than CovidCon; only 73,728 more deaths to go; for the dummies)

(Before you object to combining flu and pneumonia, that’s how it should be done because it’s usually pneumonia that kills after flu has compromised the mucosa, not the flu itself. That’s why you give antibiotics early.)

…And yet, I’m listening to fucking France 24 on free Satellite-to-Air TV here in Thailand today and they’re gushing, just gushing over the new lockdowns coming in the PI because “SPIKE!!!”

(France 24 is just every bit as laughable as BBC. Pretentious as fuck, same agenda as overtly biased CNN, just veiled for the PBS leftie sophist-icky. No wonder why nearly every Frenchie I encounter on the innerwebs is a socialist / commie fucktard sporting curiously funny delusions of grandeur with hubris—especially for what has become such a thoroughly fucked up country in the 28 years since I left. …But I know a good couple dozen really good Frenchies, now. Expats in Thailand. A French expat bar was my daily haunt.)

You know, watching TV here, I get the distinct impression that a huge percentage of common southeast Asia folks have never heard of a virus before, have zero clue what it is—but even people who make $10 per day have “smart” phones and unlimited cheapo data, all relevant Social Media accounts, and CovidCon is the most breathtakingly serious, ominous thing that has ever befallen humanity.

I said in my first post, MY MUSINGS ON THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19), March 16, 2020:

I’ve been in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand since right before public knowledge. At the time, it was just prior to Chinese New Year and there were tens of thousands of Chinese tourists here. Yet, I’ve never been concerned about it and to my mind, the only truly new strain of “virus” is a confluence of three general things:

1. A fully developed Internet and its chief manifestation, social media

2. The global, politicized leftist/socialist media

3. Trump Derangement Syndrome

WasIright?

UPDATE:

Simple question.:
⁠
What few hundred thousand people ought to be arrested, prosecuted, sentenced to death, and summarily executed over this?⁠
⁠
The average fucktard-moron, abject idiot with a “smart” phone believes case numbers are 4 to 46 times what they actually are, and deaths 100 to 300 times what they actually are.⁠
⁠
Who’s responsible?⁠ Who should pay with their lives for this?

…Hey, very soon I’m going to be blogging, in part, about how I’ve easily lost over 4 kilograms the last couple of months here in rural Thailand. You can get a jump start by checking out The Energy Blueprint.

But, I’ll give you a hint: I eat Thai food, except when I make my occasional dish my loved Thai family and their friends say “very good” to, but don’t eat once tasted (that’s not to say they are taste wizards; not, but I ought not digress). The only fast food here in deep rural within hundreds of miles is a few KFC (and they fry in palm oil, not industrial machinery oil). Here’s my rule of thumb: half the rice, twice the protein.

Again: The Energy Blueprint.

CovidScam Unravels. Backlash Grows and Intensifies.
2020-08-03 07:47 UTC by Richard Nikoley


It was always a scam. Never was it more important than the flu we’ve dealt with forever. That’s easy to verify—from thousands upon thousands of learned voices—so long as you aren’t getting your information from the same sorts of mouthpieces for the global corporatism that logged over 600 billion in net worth during the scam to devastate all the little guys globally.

I’ve seen it all about Covid-19, going way back, and I looked for the contrarians early on, too, because it all smelled very fishy. I’ve also seen everything the CovidTards regurgitate, in the same way DietTards did for decades over the horror of fat in food.

It’s pointless. Truth does not matter and it’s seemly a greater delusion every day to harbor any notion that it does. Some of the greatest, most renowned medical and research minds on earth—not whores in the pay—have been speaking out about this for months and all have been ignored, and that’s the most charitable treatment some have received. For most, it has been far worse for them.

Here’s about the most pristine truth you can get on this matter. On the ground truth.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/

No lockdown. No business was closed. No business was dictated to how to operate. No mask mandate. No house arrest. No nothing like that.

The Nordic state didn’t impose strict lockdown measures, instead asking citizens to stay home if they were sick and to practice social distancing in public. Bars, restaurants, and shops stayed open, even when cases peaked in the country.

Its relaxed coronavirus strategy, relying on personal responsibility and willful obedience, has been both praised and criticized. And while the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the country’s public-health approach, there is growing evidence that, economically speaking, the loose rules seem to have worked.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/sweden-coronavirus-economy-relaxed-lockdown-stronger-rest-of-europe-2020-7-1029415101#

But nobody cares. This is the truth, because its plain-fact nature renders every other State action around the entire globe—including every action by Trump—as the lies. All of them. Lies. No exceptions.

Everyone has been lied to by everyone else. Worse, everyone has encouraged being lied to by everyone else, clamored for it, begged for it, and in the end, was thankful for being lied to.

So, this too, is pointless:

Protests in Berlin this weekend over the renewed lockdown measures.

Why is it pointless?

So they’re just all Nazis…

I’m fucking tired. The world has literally gone to hell, and it’s being cheered.

I used to take great satisfaction in fighting for the truth and what’s right—always, always grounded in what’s best for the individual, family, etc., which is guided by a philosophy of general individual autonomy—that individuals are best positioned to see to their own decisions, learning from their own fuck-ups. Never have I fought for the interests of institutions, and that includes businesses, telling everyone what to do. That’s why the Paleo gig was so good for me. I worked for individual readers and commenters against institutional grant-whore dogma, and I saw good results daily for them; and often, for their loved ones. That gave me great satisfaction.

But now, I’m in that awful place where I cannot honestly say that the world needs saving. Because maybe it doesn’t. Because maybe it’s beyond hope and the best you can do is just find a corner of the world largely unaffected, tune the fuck out, and let nature run its course. I don’t care anymore. I honestly don’t, which makes this sort of blogging an awful, tedious chore. On the one hand, I feel compelled to point out the such obvious bullshit, but immediately on the other, if it’s obvious, then why bother pointing it out? Wouldn’t it be a lot better if the billions who swallow it just suffer the consequences?

Well, enough of this crap. I have a long post in draft about Thai Life, including building a house I just completed. Living a Thai family life.

CovidCon has zero impact here in the village of Laem Thong, over in the micro-town of Lalom, town of Khukhan, city of Surin, or anywhere else near here that I frequent. Nothing is closed, the idiotic “social distancing” stickers on the floors are nearly worn off, the laughable table dividers in some eating places have been discarded, and fewer and fewer people are wearing masks. Nobody says a word or gives a sideways glance if you don’t.

I was over in the Khukhan “county” hospital yesterday, and a good 30% of the employees were not wearing masks and no patients I saw were wearing them.

I guess they’re just too stupid to be scammed and conned like all you geniuses out there, especially the most brilliant genius of all: the political leftist.

Elixa Probiotic is a British biotech manufacturer in Oxford, UK. U.S. Demand is now so high they’ve established distribution centers in Illinois, Nevada, and New Jersey.

Still, sell-outs happen regularly, so order now to avoid a waiting list.

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-08-02
2020-08-02 04:00 UTC

  1. Anthony Colpo is Correct About Yet Another Con: The Covid-19 Con
  2. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber

Anthony Colpo is Correct About Yet Another Con: The Covid-19 Con
2020-07-28 13:39 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Scraped from a site alerting people to business scams surrounding the virus scam. But such scams are very valuable…fools and their money soon parted & all. Bring on the scamming, as it’s so deliciously ironic! Of course, those who believe in and are scared of the Coronascam are going to easily fall for corollary sub-scams, why they’re targets. It’s baked in the cake. They’re fucking stupid. Good riddance. I’m tired of stupid people.

For those who know, Anthony Colpo is renowned for his diligent research and resulting book, The Great Cholesterol Con. So, yea, he has a nose, ear, and eye for bullshit. He never shies away from controversy but that’s not an end in itself for him. I believe—that perhaps like me—he needs to make people who believe in, act on, agitate, and activate for abject fucking bullshit that limits free inquiry, knowledge, choices, freedoms, and basic humanity feel like morons and fools. With any luck, they lose sleep over the glaring hints everywhere pointing to their own hopeless stupidity.

I do not seek redemption for these parasite humanoids. I seek ostracism: no quarter, no mercy. No exceptions.

I’ve posted a number of times recently about the scamdemic pandercon; just scroll down the home page; or search, if, by the time you’re seeing this, the bullshit is in the head-shaking memory hole, which is the only place for it.

In short, I called this right from the get-go because my focussed misanthropy has trained me to regard over 99% of so-called people on earth as ignorant fucking morons unworthy of the classification human being: they were—all of them, virtually to a humanoid form (not man)—cowering in a dark corner of fear over the prospect of getting a bad cold, if even.

It’s a truly pathetic spectacle, and that’s the real underlying value in all of this. I’ve been saying for decades that “everyone” is fucking stupid. Well fucking look! The whole world has gone stark raving insane with fear like 4-year-old petrified boys & girls; and then, to top it off, the very same people agitate and advocate for the scam of “peaceful protests” of yet another conscam, #BLM: the wanton, nihilistic destruction of businesses, sacred symbols, edifice in general, and even homes and the public commons. It isn’t even veiled anymore. They just show you burning buildings and defaced statues on the “news” and tell you it’s peaceful. And it’s not surprising how many people embrace the cognitive dissonance. Because: everyone is fucking stupid! There. Full circle.

I cannot emphasize that—which is in clear, stark evidence—enough.

You know, back when this started and I became aware—just a few weeks after arriving in Thailand where I now live, via China in mid-January 2020—I imagined who in the largely contrarian health sphere might also not be buying this. Anthony Colpo was on that list, as were a few others. One of them is my friend Dr. Michael Eades. And sure enough, when we took it up in email correspondence in February, he was pretty damn skeptical privately but was withholding public comment until more info/data, which is an entirely reasonable and prudent call for a licensed MD in America—particularly if you consider that sitting State Senator Scott Jensen is under investigation. If he was a US Senator, he’d be safe.

State Sen. Scott Jensen, a physician and Republican from Chaska, said Sunday that he is being investigated by the Minnesota State Board of Medical Practice for public statements he’s made about COVID-19.

Jensen criticized the state Department of Health in April for following federal guidance stipulating when doctors should characterize deaths as due to COVID-19. He said he feared that the death toll might be inflated if each state’s allocation of federal funds depended on the number of COVID-19 deaths.

“Might be.” LOL.

If you see Mike’s Twitter Feed now, not so shy. For those who know, Anthony and Mike had a years long internet feud that in light of what’s happened to the world now, seems trivial and it’s heartwarming that both are on the right side of this one.

And so Anthony penned a blog post which you shall read in its entirety and that’s not a request: The Great Coronavirus Con: Why the Lockdown is Killing More People than COVID-19.

The lunacy continues.

The world is still soiling its pants over a relatively harmless flu virus.

Amidst constant rumblings about a “second wave,” many countries around the world are still in various states of lockdown, and many still have travel bans in place.

The wholly unwarranted COVID-19 hysteria has been used to impose unprecedented human rights restrictions upon much of the world’s population – including draconian restrictions on freedom of movement, removal of the right to assembly, even the right to gather with one’s friends and family for culturally important events such as weddings and funerals.

Homo sapiens are inherently social and interactive creatures, but are now being forced and fined into an utterly unnatural and inhuman state of isolation, as “social distancing” becomes the “new normal.”

The indisputable fact is that gathering with friends and family, and interacting peacefully with fellow citizens, is a perfectly normal, healthy and essential activity, but people in many countries are now being harshly scolded and fined for doing so.

That’s the first few paragraphs and I’ll not take away any more of Anthony’s thunder; and, I so appreciate that thunder because it makes me feel like I have a brother from a different mother. Take it from this misanthrope: there are far too few people to love in this world, anymore. Just look around you! Nobody wearing a mask even qualifies as someone to talk to. Global society is more divisive than ever, over this. No, I have no interest in making amends. Litmus test. This is beyond the pale and I will not associate with anyone who ever fell for this shit. Life sentence. Go and do likewise. Ostracize. Associate with the few others. I do, even here in Thailand with my expat friends.

I’ll highlight a couple of very unique aspects of Anthony’s post.

  1. No human on earth has done even 10% of the dot-connecting as to the actual human costs of the Covid Scam as Anthony has done. I mean human costs. The economic costs are the economic costs but where those economic costs are truly accounted for is in lives lost. That’s yet to be accounted for in terms of downstream. The direct costs we already account for are astounding and no media outlet I’m aware of cares.
  2. At the end, Anthony spends a good deal of ink on Australia itself which is interesting, informative, and unique. I used to say that America is proof you never let a bunch of Puritans get in boats. Perhaps Oz is that you don’t let criminals form a country. Or something… I digress.

Well, this is certainly an astounding thing. I was reading something obscure the other day and it’s a quite weird thing to read. That is, you keep having to check when it was written.

Reconstruction of a Mass Hysteria: The Swine Flu Panic of 2009

Swine flu kept the world in suspense for almost a year. A massive vaccination campaign was mounted to put a stop to the anticipated pandemic. But, as it turned out, it was a relatively harmless strain of the flu virus. How, and why, did the world overreact? A reconstruction. By SPIEGEL staff.

They published that in December of 2010, nearly 10 years ago.

Read it and weep. My take? This nonsense could have happened 10 years ago but for one thing. The Savior of the Universe, Black Jesus, had just been elected President of the United States. If you doubt that underlying meta-at-play, you’re a fucking Demokrat. O-fucking-bama is distinct: the first neo-racist, America-hating president. All he did, though, was make a lot more people stupid than they already were.

He pulled good black folk down, but not all. Dare they make it on their own.

A final quote from Anthony’s post, in view of the fact that in mid-March, seeing what was going on—after just witnessing Impeachment 2.0 over the Heads of States phone call, and all after the go-nowhere Impeachment 1.0 over the contrived “Russia Collusion”—I dubbed this whole Coronascam as Impeachment 3.0.

Ironically, Trump himself warned back in March that the lockdown would cause “suicide by the thousands,” only to be pooh-poohed by his own CDC and mocked by the establishment-run media, which has been rabidly obsessed with undermining his Presidency from the moment he was elected.

Yep, Anthony sees it too. Perhaps he’s in a better position to explain why Australia and so much of the rest of the world are such bitches in heat when it comes to global billionaires and their sycophants wanting Trump out, and how that works by making so-called independent countries such whoring bitches when it comes to who’s the POTUS.

…I was initially greatly disappointed in Trump. While I knew he was a pragmatic operator far more than a principled one, I didn’t expect him to suborn what is, and continues—tantamount to house arrest and proprietorship annihilation (mom & pop) whilst mega business took up the slack, because big lower prices; and Americans would kill their own mother for a better deal. If it were up to me, I’d seize all large consumer direct companies in the US, liquidate them, and distribute the proceeds to Main Street America (businesses, not crack whores in Demokrat projects). That’s not socialism, it’s payback for decades of rent seeking, an economic term 99.9% of the earth is wholly ignorant of, yet is the operating principle of mega business and always has been.

A final shot: what I dubbed The Mao Uniform early on. Yea. Masks, the great equalizer: narrowing the perception between the beautiful, ugly, and downright hideous.

I eschew all the science about whether masks are effective or not. I suspect they’re not only not very effective, especially in untrained hands, but harmful to the wearers. They are not about health, they are about control, power, uniformity, and an easily identifying badge of “virtue.”

Girls they wanna
Girls they wanna
Girls, they wanna be lo-o-ved
They jus wanna

It’s a hill I would die on. Sure, I’d wear one in an appropriate professional setting like a hospital, appropriate circumstances, with instructions from professionals—though I never have, in dozens of visits to see loved ones in my 59 years. None died at my breath.

They are dehumanizing, and that’s the point. It’s like a bit in a horse’s mouth. It’s a taming, subjugating influence, far more symbolic than it is for any real protection.

But protection—for myself or others—doesn’t matter to me. They restrict your natural breathing. This means a reduction in blood oxygen and concomitant increase in blood CO2, the inverse being the whole point of breathing as a natural human.

Moreover: we exhale, cough, sneeze, exude mucous via runny nose, clear our throats, etc., for a fundamental reason: we are decreasing both bacterial and viral loads. Masks force you to re-breathe bacteria and viruses your evolved body and immune system has seen fit to expel without regard to anyone else.

That is too much of a price to pay for any stranger in the world and they are simply on their own. Decent hygiene like washing clothes, your body, your hands more often, turning away, and covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing is the best us opposable-thumb hominoids can do and it’s enough and let viruses just run their courses, Darwin style, while taking extra measures to protect the truly—and not contrived—vulnerable.

And stay home (when you are actually sick…even school children know this and you don’t have to shut down the school).

Onward. The Play Button has been pressed.

              

Related Posts

 

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-07-26
2020-07-26 04:00 UTC

The Covid-19 indictment Of Christians and Jews
2020-07-22 14:38 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Feel free to imagine any question. My question is, WTF?

I came across a fantastic essay the other day, a long one, and I was compelled to tweet:

No. Never in my 59 years have I read such a complete and comprehensive masterpiece. It’s quite long and ought not be one word shorter.

I’m referring to a piece in the journal, The American Mind, a publication of The Claremont Institute — Recovering The American Idea. The essay: The COVID Coup — And how to unlock ourselves. It’s by Angelo Codevilla.

Angelo M. Codevilla (born May 25, 1943) is an Italian-US professor emeritus of international relations at what is now the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He served as a U.S. Navy officer, a foreign service officer, and professional staff member of the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate.[3] Codevilla’s books and articles range from French and Italian politics to the thoughts of Machiavelli and Montesquieu to arms control, war, the technology of ballistic missile defenses, and a broad range of international topics. Articles by Codevilla have appeared in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, National Review, and The New Republic. His op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.[4] He has also been published in Political Science Reviewer, Intercollegiate Review, Politica.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Codevilla

The essay covers much ground, but does not so much debate the science as it does indict America in general and some elements of American society in its wholly un-American response to a viral scare; and yea, that’s a double entendre.

Panicked by fears manufactured by the ruling class, the American people assented to being put essentially under house arrest until further notice, effectively suspending the habits, preferences, and liberties that had defined our way of life. Most Americans have suffered economic damage. Many who do not enjoy protected status have had careers ended and been reduced to penury. Social strains and suicides multiplied. Forcibly deferring all manner of medical care is sure to impose needless suffering and death. In sum, the lockdowns’ medical and economic dysfunctions make for multiples of the deaths and miseries of the COVID-19 virus itself.

Bad judgments and usurpations—the scam, not the germs—define this disaster’s dimensions. The COVID-19’s devastating effect on the U.S. body politic is analogous to what diseases do to persons whom age (senectus ipsa est morbus) and various debilities and corruptions had already placed on death’s slippery slope.

Outside of the few who have gained (and are still gaining) power and wealth from the panic, Americans are asking what it will take to end this outrage—not to modify it with any “new normal” decided by who knows whom, on who knows what authority. Since no one in authority is leading those who want to end it, Americans also wonder who may lead that cause. What follows suggests answers.

What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class’s junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America’s Christian churches—supposedly society’s guardians of truth.

That’s the intro in full. From there, its sections are: Truth, Falsehood, Politics, Intersectionality, Regime of Fear, Power, Default and Consequences, Who Will Lead Us, Truth Commission, Exemplary Leadership, and Perspective. Whew!

I wanted to focus on one aspect because it’s the first time I’ve seen this in any of the many articles that have passed before me. From the section Default and Consequences.

Fairness requires noting that, regardless of whatever America’s ruling Left has done, whatever its hopes, plans, or coordination, what actually happened to the United States of America consequent to COVID could not have happened had President Donald Trump, much of the Republican Party, and America’s religious establishment not concurred in its happening.

This is another way of saying that the ruling class rules by size and seduction, as well as by intimidation. It did not rush into imposing the shutdowns, or even into making too big a deal of COVID. Its parts and personages did not fully commit themselves until after they had convinced president Trump to give them the preclusion of opposition without which inflicting so much pain on so many would have exposed them to official and popular retribution.

And here’s the big punchline. Let me preface it by saying that I am not a believer in things religious in literal terms. That is, I do not believe in some physical of spiritual being outside of our own consciousness. God, heaven, hell…all those sorts of things are what humans make of them individually, meditatively, socially, and culturally. I also believe that attempting to ascribe literal status is to weaken the potential power of the ideas and ideals.

The biggest and most significant default however, has been that of America’s Christian churches—all of them—from their hierarchs to their priests, pastors, and ministers. Their complaisance with the lockdowns set aside a truth far more important to human dignity than anything having to do with any physical ailment—the one truth that puts all human power in proper perspective, the truth on which our civilization itself rests: that no human power can manufacture true and false, right and wrong, any more than we can make ourselves, and that, therefore, we are obliged to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”  

Jewish congregations have been similarly craven.

The churches’ agreement to suspend public worship and the distribution of sacraments also contradicted their duty. Until 2020, Christian clergy felt obliged not just to offer public worship to whomever, but also to search out the sick, to offer sacraments to the dying, especially in places where victims of plagues lay between life and death—regardless of consequences. Because surrendering to secular dictates concerning how congregants should behave, even in church cannot be justified in Christian terms it would not have crossed previous generations of churchmen’s minds.

Had this generation of church leaders simply practiced their faith, even by merely keeping silent about the ruling class’s claims about the COVID-19 rather than ignorantly, submissively endorsing them, they would have preserved their intellectual and moral credit to help the general population to deal with the growing realization that they had been duped. Instead, they chose to be complicit with tinpot Caesars. Hence, as Americans face the bitter fact that we have been hurt worse than for nought, the churches have largely disqualified themselves as arbiters of truth.

Truth and clarity about what history will record as the 2020 COVID coup is the necessary condition for the American people to overcome its effects. Overcoming those effects must begin with discrediting those pretenses and the reputations of those who made them.

To put it in my terms, the manipulation of public fear over this viral scare (double entendre), made possible only by the global advent of internet access, ubiquitous “smart” phones, and obsessive social media, has, in the case of the religious, literally scared the Christ out of them!

And then there’s TV…

Again: The COVID Coup — And how to unlock ourselves.

…Hey, very soon I’m going to be blogging, in part, about how I’ve easily lost over 4 kilograms the last couple of months here in rural Thailand. You can get a jump start by checking out The Energy Blueprint.

But, I’ll give you a hint: I eat Thai food, except when I make my occasional dish my loved Thai family and their friends say “very good” to, but don’t eat once tasted (that’s not to say they are taste wizards; not, but I ought not digress). The only fast food here in deep rural within hundreds of miles is a few KFC (and they fry in palm oil, not industrial machinery oil). Here’s my rule of thumb: half the rice, twice the protein.

Again: The Energy Blueprint.

            

The Artful Character of President Donald Trump
2020-07-19 18:01 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

I never had any illusions about Trump being a principled person to an extreme or uncompromising level. I knew that he was pragmatic, but also that to the extent he was, his driving motivations were largely pure. That is, I sensed that his heart was in the right place. And this, I believe, is why he was generally liked by folks of all walks, both sides of isles, and from floors to ceilings all of his life—until he took on the establishment…the Swamp, Cabal, Deep State…whatever you wish to call it.

Up to then, he was known for getting things done, helping people, helping his community, and generally being a remarkable value producer, humanitarian, and business-driven philanthropist—meaning: the kind who creates jobs and opportunities, as opposed to politically-driven philanthropist, the kind who does it for show.

Then Covid-19 happened and I became disappointed in him, because though he’s not primarily operating from classically liberal principles I expected at least some adherence to core American basics, which were being trashed. I laid out some of those frustrations here: CORONAVIRUS #5: AMERICA IS TOAST.

At this point, I would be all for a peaceful military coup, organized and carried out by conservative generals and admirals—and not only of the federal government, but each state government as well.

Understand: we have come to the point where “America” is a distinction with little to no difference from just about any authoritarian regime that operates out of political and state interest only, not from a founding document of separations, rules, and limits on the state.

https://www.freetheanimal.com/2020/05/coronavirus-5-america-is-toast.html

Harsh.

Now comes Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, a man I’ve been aware of since the early ’90s and with whom I’ve since become friends. You can see a video interview Andy Curzon and I did with him about 6 month ago; ironically, the day before I left the USA: DISCUSSIONS 9: YASUHIKO GENKU KIMURA TALKS ABOUT CULTURE, BEING, AND OMNICENTRICITY.

Yasuhiko has penned two essays about President Trump’s artfulnes.

Trump and The Art of War

This I have said and written many times since late 2016. Those who have not studied Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (孫子兵法) can never fully understand Trump and his way. Richard Feynman said, “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Trump’s understanding of (military) strategy is on the level of its original creator. That is the reason that Trump has consistently outwitted the Chinese elite in the art of (political and trade) war. All of them studied and are adept at 孫子兵法 and The Thirty-Six Stratagem (三十六計) but Trump has been consistently more creative and innovative in the application of the art.

“Warfare is one thing. It is a Philosophy/Tao of Deception (情者詭道也).” Trump characterizes himself as “wartime president”, and he applies the “Philosophy/Tao of Deception (詭道)” extremely skillfully and effectively. This means that nothing is what it appears to be. He reveals neither his strategy beforehand nor his strategic execution while a strategy is executed. The only people who really know are those who are actually involved in the execution of his strategy. Even then, they only know the part in which they are directly involved.

Virtually everyone looks at the surface appearances and criticizes him for this or that, not knowing or forgetting that Trump is strategically far smarter than they and that he has the intelligence/information which they do not and cannot have due to its classified nature. […]

Trump’s war is against the globalist elite cabal that has run the world for a long time. He has made no secret about his intention. What remains secret is his strategy. At his inaugural address, in front of the national and international audience he expressly declared a war against the Deep State with the corrupt DS dwellers sitting right behind him. At his first UN speech, he asserted (in effect) that the reign of the globalists was coming to an end. That required tremendous courage, valor, clarity, and confidence.

More: https://www.facebook.com/notes/yasuhiko-genku-kimura/trump-and-the-art-of-war/10157715288169856/

Trump and The Art of Happiness

The Living Philosophy of Donald J. Trump and its Historical Origin

“No dream is too big. No challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. —Donald J. Trump […]

President Trump is a happy warrior and he is, by his own account, a wartime president. In “Trump and The Art of War” I asserted that Trump was a strategic genius and a master of the art of war (兵法, literally “military strategic principles”). It requires another article to explicate what constitutes that genius. In this article, I will focus on the “happy” part of the happy warrior.

President Trump is indeed a happy man. For him happiness is the state of being, independent of any external condition or circumstance. For four plus years, in spite of all the nefarious attacks unceasingly directed at him from every possible direction, he has remained jovial, jocular, and jocund. He has been calumniated, maligned, aspersed, traduced, vilified, and harassed, relentlessly and mercilessly, via the media by his political enemies, of which there are legions around the world, and yet he has remained usually cheerful and good-humored.

Furthermore, astonishingly, undeterred by all the impediments and obstructions cast before him by his foes and adversaries within the U.S. government, he has consistently produced the results he promised, and led the American people on the revolutionary and evolutionary path of “Make America Great Again”.

What is his secret? In the United States of America where the pursuit of happiness is affirmed to be one of the God-given unalienable human rights, we can learn valuable lessons from our nation’s CEO in the Art of Happiness. What follows is my articulation and explication of Trump’s living philosophy (philosophy that he lives) which constitutes the substance of his Art of Happiness.

Before we can criticize or praise the man, we must first understand him. Much of the criticism directed at the president lacks this fundamental prerequisite. Therefore, this article can be titled “Understanding Donald J. Trump”, because understanding the philosophy which the person lives, not merely professes, is altogether vital to understanding him.

More: https://www.facebook.com/notes/yasuhiko-genku-kimura/trump-and-the-art-of-happiness/10157529606374856/

There’s an epilogue to the second essay which announces a third.

There are other aspects to President Trump’s Living Philosophy, most notably “common sense realism” and “pragmatism” (which the originator of pragmatism, Charles Sanders Peirce, called “critical common sensism”). In fact, the draft of this article contained a section on common sense realism and pragmatism. However, I omitted that entire section and decided to include it in my third entry to The Trump Trilogy, “Trump and the Remaking of America”, because common sense realism was the Living Philosophy of the Founders and Framers, upon the principles of which the United States of America was established and developed.

I’ll update this post when that comes out.

…Hey, very soon I’m going to be blogging, in part, about how I’ve easily lost over 4 kilograms the last couple of months here in rural Thailand. You can get a jump start by checking out The Energy Blueprint.

But, I’ll give you a hint: I eat Thai food, except when I make my occasional dish my loved Thai family and their friends say “very good” to, but don’t eat once tasted (that’s not to say they are taste wizards; not, but I ought not digress). The only fast food here in deep rural within hundreds of miles is a few KFC (and they fry in palm oil, not industrial machinery oil). Here’s my rule of thumb: half the rice, twice the protein.

a few recent meals at the homestead, where I now have a proper work station.⁠
⁠
#Thaifood #BaconIsThaiFoodToo

Again: The Energy Blueprint.

            

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-07-19
2020-07-19 04:00 UTC

  1. Instant Pot Hearty Chicken, Vegetable, Pasta Soup
  2. Coronavirus #5: America is Toast

Covid-19 Is Impeachment 3.0; BLM Riots, 4.0; Re-Lockdown, 5.0
2020-07-18 13:51 UTC by Richard Nikoley


The Russia Hoax was 1.0 and the Ukrainian Phone-Call Hoax, 2.0.

In early March I had a knee-jerk reaction as I witnessed the whole world going nuts over Covid-19—a global panic phenomenon—made possible by easy mass dissemination of child-like fear via “smart” phone to even the poorest, most ignorant, and most remote places on earth: like where I live in deep rural Thailand, 20 kilometers from anywhere (with 115 down and 60 up Internet for $20 per month). That, in-turn, combined with Social [manipulation] Media—which is driven by Neo-Media—liars: creators of narrative—who pass it off as “news” to ignorant people who don’t know the difference—created the political justification to Just Do Something.

As I’ve written previously in various channels many times, I never had a gram of fear of this thing, even though I flew to Thailand via a Chinese airline full of Chinese on January 14 and spent a half day of layovers in two Chinese airports, then did the final leg on another Chinese airline. And then, it so happened my apartment in Chiang Mai was in the heart of the Chinese tourist area with tens of thousands of them, still, just as fear was becoming unbridled. I didn’t even have any fear for my family. Not even my dad and mom, who are 82 and 79, but very healthy, avid and active travelers who eat well.

My mother sheds respiratory infections like a duck sheds back water.

The entire world has become exposed as primarily fear driven above all other motivations and western civilization seems impotent to assuage it after all accomplishment, and I suppose the modern manifestations of news media are as they are because of some, whose inner voices of conscience went silent long ago—so they can’t even hear it—fully understood that and integrated that understanding fully.

What a job. I’m not so sanguine, anymore. I long held faith—when not banking on empirical evidence, reason, logic, argument—that truth and the proportionality that ought to come with it would always rise to the surface, eventually. It seems to turn out that such a disposition is valid for only a tiny minority of people; and the rest go from something to be afraid of to the next thing to be afraid of—as though not being afraid of something is boring, or something to fear, in itself.

We are living in an age of mass global fear unlike all others, even trumping world wars: we have the least of reasons to be fearful of any humans who ever lived. You’re afraid to send your kids to school? Try sending your teenage boys off to fight Krauts and Japs. What exactly are you afraid of?

How about a baby Monocled Cobra out your back porch; the scene here, this morning? We killed it. One of my Thai workers said, “It can kill you; big head,” and he showed me a mangled finger joint where he was bitten by a baby one as a child.

And people all over the globe wear masks in abject fear of what they cannot see.

…I don’t do conspiracies. Never have. I’ve laughed at them all, you name it. Even the Pearl Harbor one. Euphemism is how people communicate, now. Communication used to be by skilled, thoughtful use of language, crafted further by metaphor. “I follow the science” is now euphemism for ‘I’m a sucker for the popular narrative, propped up by credentialed authorities in the pay of the creators of narrative.’ Here’s another: “conspiracy” is euphemism for ‘any ideas, no matter how well integrated, that go against the popular narrative.”

I don’t do conspiracies primarily because Occam’s Razor. Beyond that, conspiracies are quintessential secrets too big to keep.

You don’t need conspiracies. You have fear and panic on your side if you’re the sort of unconscious humanoid who would exploit that. But, basically, this is all just values in play, combined with trade. No conspiracy needed.

…I like this video because it doesn’t smell of conspiracies and dark rooms with single malt scotch, cigars, and women sporting garter belts doing the extra entertaining.

It’s only 10 minutes and I could have just popped it off as a share, but it’s tightly integrated enough, low on my conspiracy threshold, and succinct about exactly why I have called this Impeachment 3.0, 4.0, and now, 5.0.

On the money

…Hey, very soon I’m going to be blogging, in part, about how I’ve easily lost over 4 kilograms the last couple of months here in rural Thailand. You can get a jump start by checking out The Energy Blueprint.

But, I’ll give you a hint: I eat Thai food, except when I make my occasional dish my loved Thai family and their friends say “very good” to, but don’t eat once tasted (that’s not to say they are taste wizards; not, but I ought not digress). The only fast food here in deep rural within hundreds of miles is a few KFC (and they fry in palm oil, not industrial machinery oil). Here’s my rule of thumb: half the rice, twice the protein.

Again: The Energy Blueprint.

            

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-07-12
2020-07-12 04:00 UTC

  1. Jimmy Moore the Menace To Health and Diet
  2. Englishman Pat Condell Righteously Judges Dutch Neighbors For Being Limp Dicks

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-07-05
2020-07-05 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber
  4. I’ve Gone and “Cyberbullied” Poor Jimmy Moore
  5. Kitchen: Air Fryer Streak Frites

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-06-28
2020-06-28 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber
  4. Coronavirus #1: The Innocent and the Guilty
  5. freetheanimal.com/2016/11/keep-crazy-hours.html

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-06-21
2020-06-21 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=198040928
  4. www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=198040928%20and%201%3D1
  5. I’m Old Enough to Remember When COVID-19 Was a Thing

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-06-14
2020-06-14 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. I’m Old Enough to Remember When COVID-19 Was a Thing
  4. Discussions 9: Yasuhiko Genku Kimura talks about culture, being, and omnicentricity
  5. Discussions 7: Curt Doolittle Talks About the State of the World

I’m Old Enough to Remember When COVID-19 Was a Thing
2020-06-12 07:06 UTC by Richard Nikoley


That’s all.
            

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-06-07
2020-06-07 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #5: America is Toast
  4. freetheanimal.com/2016/11/keep-crazy-hours.html
  5. I’ve Gone and “Cyberbullied” Poor Jimmy Moore

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-05-31
2020-05-31 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #5: America is Toast
  4. Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
  5. Coronavirus #1: The Innocent and the Guilty

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-05-24
2020-05-24 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. freetheanimal.com/2016/11/keep-crazy-hours.html
  4. Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
  5. Chiang Mai, Thailand Early 2020 Nomading Update

Coronavirus #5: America is Toast
2020-05-24 03:23 UTC by Richard Nikoley


600 Physicians Say Lockdowns Are A ‘Mass Casualty Incident’

I’ll tell you what. As I read this piece in Forbes, my inner RAGE just grew and magnified. It didn’t subside.

I vow to never again in my life pay a scintilla of homage to the vaunted “constitutional republic” touted as uniquely American. The only thing worth a shit at all is American Culture and American Spirit, and even that has taken a huge hit; albeit, identifying the rabbits from the wolves (r/K Selection Theory*).

The U.S. Constitution? Not worth a roll of shit paper. Separation of powers? You jest. Representation? An abject fraud.

America’s system of government is toast: fully and unequivocally exposed for the fraud that it is and has been for a long time. It’s not even unique anymore; where once, it was the shining light on the world. …Look at the rest of the world. Since when does America lead the entire planet in authoritarian house arrest, imprisoning its citizens; rather than inspiring a yearning sense of liberty that has motivated hundreds of thousands of young American men to die trying to liberate others around the world?

This entire fiasco of a disaster is a figurative taking-a-shit on the graves of every soldier who ever died in the spirit of freeing other people from state oppression.

At this point, I would be all for a peaceful military coup, organized and carried out by conservative generals and admirals—and not only of the federal government, but each state government as well.

Understand: we have come to the point where “America” is a distinction with little to no difference from just about any authoritarian regime that operates out of political and state interest only, not from a founding document of separations, rules, and limits on the state.

May you examine yourselves and follow your own conscience.

Previously on Free The Animal:

* r/K Selection Theory

A concept in biology which postulates that nature will tend to produce two different psychologies, each adapted to a specific environment. It states that animals which are competitive and protective of family, sexually selective and monogamous, imbued with regard for two parent family life, desirous that offspring wait until mature to mate, and loyal to in-group are designed to produce highly fit and competitive offspring, designed to compete in an environment of resource scarcity.

Animals that exhibit a cowardly nature, promiscuous mating strategy, single parenting style, early sexualization of young, and no loyalty to in-group are designed to exploit a resource glut by producing as many offspring as possible, as fast as possible, without regard to offspring quality.

Rabbits

Rabbits are quintessential r-strategists. Rabbits live in fields of grass they never fully exhaust. Their goal is to produce as many offspring as quickly as possible. They flee from danger, because to fight for food that they can get elsewhere is an unnecessary risk. They mate promiscuously with any mate, because their goal is solely to reproduce, absent concerns for genetic quality – when resources are everywhere, even the most defective offspring can find food, mate, and pass genes forward. While males are off mating as often as possible, females raise offspring alone, and quickly send them on their way to whelp a new litter. Offspring begin having sex early, to maximize numbers of their own offspring. Loyalty to in-group is unknown to the rabbit, because there is no competition for resources, since resources are everywhere. Among r-stategists, males will tend to exhibit smaller, more feminine, less robust physical qualities, to better facilitate fleeing and showy displays of flash and beauty, to facilitate mate attraction, and mating. r-strategist females, by contrast will tend to grow big, assertive, and ill-tempered, to better occupy a more masculine family role, provisioning and protecting the offspring they raise alone.

Wolves

Wolves are a quintessential K-strategist species. Wolves are competitive and protective, because they must fight for food to survive. They carefully select the fittest mate, and monopolize that fit mate, so that their offspring will be as genetically fit as possible, relative to peers. They embrace two-parent family values, as offspring are reared carefully in a loving and supportive pack/family environment, so they will have the best chance of succeeding themselves in their own competitions. They do not allow offspring to mate until mature and proven in competition, so any immaturity will not lead to their offspring securing sub-par monogamous mates. Finally, they develop a strong pack-loyaly to maximize the chances of their pack’s competitive success, and by extension, their own. Males evolve to be courageous and strong as they set out to provision the famly and absorb any risk, while females carefully nurture offspring back at the den.

            

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-05-17
2020-05-17 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #1: The Innocent and the Guilty
  4. Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
  5. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-05-10
2020-05-10 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
  4. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber
  5. Coronavirus #1: The Innocent and the Guilty

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-05-03
2020-05-03 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
  4. Coronavirus #2: The Dumb and the Dumber
  5. Coronavirus #1: The Innocent and the Guilty

Weekly Top Posts: 2020-04-26
2020-04-26 04:00 UTC

  1. Discussions 10: A Ramble Fest About Coronavirus Hysteria and My Crazy Life in Thailand
  2. The Facebook Question
  3. Chiang Mai, Thailand Early 2020 Nomading Update
  4. I Met A Dry Fasting Nut
  5. At Long Last I’m a “Homeless” Nomad

Coronavirus #4: Question The Premise
2020-04-23 07:01 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Previously on Free The Animal:

I’m a fan of Ayn Rand. No, not of those whom I’ve called Randroids (think #NPC droids for Rand) since I first encountered the devout in forums circa 1992 on the Internet.

“What would Rand do?” That’s what those “atheists” say, now.

The context in which I always regarded that woman is that she was Russian, from St. Petersburg, got to America in its heyday, and with English as a second language, managed to craft herself into a New York intellectual who loathed both the left and the right of the day.

Impressive, in my personal book. She had a ton of faults. Who doesn’t?

I’ve read everything she ever wrote and I did it in about a year, 1991, and have read not a word in the 31 ensuing years, unlike her sycophants who’ve read Atlas Shrugged 10+ times. That includes reading all the syndicated columns and newsletters. I’ve read every book about her, owing to my curiosity. I have many quibbles but the VERY ONE THING that hit me and always stayed with me was something she said and wrote all the damn time.

“Check your premises.”

And this is exactly what we are not seeing now, and it ought to stick out like a sore thumb to you; but in fact, almost nobody notices—including those you ought to think should (Fox News, for example? The White House? For example?)

Here’s an actually true premise for you that you can functionally work from and not seem fucktarded: about a half a million people die of the flu globally each and every year, and upwards of 4 million of pneumonia, 2 million, children under 5. It’s the chief cause of death in babies.

…Still not a single death from the ‘rona of a child under 10, globally. Do you fucking understand that? Does this at all affirm what I have said: that old, fat, lazy, TV-rerun-watching old-ass fucks with suck-ass health are the most entitled people on the planet and no number of deaths in service of their “lives” is enough?

Who in their right mind wouldn’t kinda want to see the worst of them kicked down the stairs, finally? Be honest (with yourselves, at the very least). I maintain that you can still celebrate all survivors without any cognitive dissonance express or implied.

Ironically, I’m finding that it’s largely the good women who’re waking up the most. The low-T male-chromosome types are still busy white-knighting and virtue signaling, channeling some sorts of desires I care not think about.

When this is over, old folk are going to be held in lower esteem than they probably should be. Justice has its way. It’s too bad that they fell wholly for the panic narrative engineered by means of Impeachment 3.0. You know what I mean.

But here’s the thing. Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the original premise that justified a near global house arrest (I don’t use euphemisms like “distancing” and “shelter”) go from MILLIONS DIE DEATH KILL!!! to, well, less. Then less. Then less and less to where, combined with the asymptomatic and those who have antibodies, starts to looks a lot like the flu—although the faux numbers so far are showing a pretty pathetic flu year. What an apparent wimp, by some comparisons.

But the original premise still remains. You see it all over. Everywhere. From the POTUS to every single talking head on TEEVEE.

Nobody questions the premise. They talk out both sides of their mouths because nobody is willing—from POTUS on down all the way—to simply say that we got fucked and pawned. Which is exactly what happened.

Here’s a good example, this piece in the Los Angeles Times: Hundreds of thousands in L.A. County may have been infected with coronavirus, study finds

The initial results from the first large-scale study tracking the spread of the coronavirus in the county found that 4.1% of adults have antibodies to the virus in their blood, an indication of past exposure.

That translates to roughly 221,000 to 442,000 adults who have recovered from an infection, once margin of error is taken into account, according to the researchers conducting the study. The county had reported fewer than 8,000 cases at that time.

The findings suggest the fatality rate may be much lower than previously thought. But although the virus may be more widespread, the infection rate still falls far short of herd immunity that, absent a vaccine, would be key to return to normal life. (emphasis mine)

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-20/coronavirus-serology-testing-la-county

In other words, as more data comes in, it’s looking more and more like the fatality from flu, BUT, we don’t have herd immunity so stay under house arrest.

Well …

  1. You don’t get herd immunity by containing the spread with house arrest of everyone, especially those at little to no quantifiable risk.
  2. Where is the so-called herd immunity for the flu? If it exists, it’s very short-term because a strain just different enough pops up every year.

So do you see how deeply the unquestioned premise is embedded in the psyche? That is the real virus, and it’s quite a killer, as, over time, reality will get its comeuppance and the number of deaths from the downstream consequences of not checking the original premise come home to roost.

Just a couple of examples. Here is Thailand, they’ve outlawed all alcohol sales, even private sales. Now 2 weeks in, and the news reports start popping up of those with long-term alcohol dependency dying of the DTs (delirium tremens). This, in a country of 70 million population, 2,839 cases, 2,430 recoveries, and 50 deaths (23/04/2020). How long will it take for the down-streams of shutting down a modest economy with a paper-thin survive and thrive margins already, to far outpace the “pitiful” death toll from the ‘rona?

Or, in The New York Times: ‘Instead of Coronavirus, the Hunger Will Kill Us.’ A Global Food Crisis Looms. We should question this premise too, but for now…

The world has never faced a hunger emergency like this, experts say. It could double the number of people facing acute hunger to 265 million by the end of this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/world/africa/coronavirus-hunger-crisis.html

You can imagine Paul Ehrlich and his anti-civilization sycos getting a long-overdue hardon from that! The’ve been waiting for 52 years!

We know that hunger in the third world is already a thing forever now. But it has also been getting better per capita for a long time. How far is it going to be set back by the agricultural and supply-chain destruction now taking place in order to protect entitled, 1st world old people with so many co-morbidities they’ll be dead inside of a year anyway?

Sorry to be so harsh and crass, and no, I don’t wish ill on your loved ones. But everyone dies of something. Death is a part of life, and this child-like aversion to it at all costs is unbecoming of a truly living human being.

In that vein, notice how, rather than trash the original premise—the fear, panic, and hysterical narrative of mass death and destruction—they’re just mutating it, like a virus. Now, because it’s hard to justify it given the constant degrading of EXPERT PREDICTIONS!!! it just needs touch-up. You have to stay under house arrest until NOVEMBER!!! (coincidence?) because if we don’t we’ll get a SECOND WAVE!!! and by damn, according to THE EXPERTS!!! it’s going to be A LOT WORSE!!! than the 1st wave.

One hopes we’re entering ‘fool me once shame on you; twice, shame on me’ territory.

… I’ve been having an ongoing email-thread discussion with a handful of very smart people (he/she, him/her, they/them). One of them posed a question.

So, given those three examples [Diamond Princess, Theodore Roosevelt, and a pork processing plant in South Dakota…all similar numbers], it looks to me like the infection rate runs at about 15-20 percent of those exposed. (Probably will end up being a lot higher once antibody tests are readily available,) And half who are infected are asymptomatic. And of the half who are symptomatic, the death rate varies with age and co-morbidities. The stat I would like to see is the risk to a, say, 75 yo male with no co-morbidities. The risk factors are always stratified by age, with those in the oldest categories being the most likely to die. But people typically accumulate co-morbidities along with age. So how much risk due to the co-morbidities and how much for simply the age? I’ve seen no accounting for that in any stats I’ve seen. Have you?

And the answer from someone else was so spot on that I got permission to share it, anonymously.

….yes, it seems we have enough raw data now to fairly accurately stratify risks and assign some number to those so we can sequester or protect accordingly. Here’s what I would look at:

1) What is the “actual” rate of infection in a community that has been fully exposed? (see both ships)

2) How many of the infected are asymptomatic? (see both ships and Santa Clara County/Stanford testing) [now, LA County testing as well]

3) Of those with symptoms, how many are serious enough to truly warrant a hospital visit?

4) Of those who visit the hospital, how many warrant admission?

5) Of those, how many warrant ICU beds?

6) Of those, how many warrant a ventilator? Note that the actual ventilator success rate could be pegged at 7%: 80% of those ventilated die after average 20 days in an induced coma. Of those who live, most come off after 3-5 days, often with severe and possibly permanent lung damage. So if we look at “ventilator days” we see 100 successful days (success defined as surviving, often not unscathed) for every 1600 unsuccessful days (defined as death), making it the worst medical intervention in history. Casting out of demons was more effective.

7) Now we look at risk by age and co-morbidity. Age has been shown to be a major factor. Age usually has at least one comorb, but even in those who don’t have comorbs, there is a general linear loss of organ reserve, such that any insult like a flu puts extra pressure on organs that haven’t operated at anywhere near full capacity for decades. Many simply succumb to the weakest link: liver failure, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, aneurysm, etc. Regular flu does this every year. Not saying we should ignore these people, but we don’t shut the economy down over the flu every year.

8) I think the lipidology should not be overlooked in the aged population. How many infections or deaths might be linked to artificial suppression of LDL cholesterol. LDL levels have been shown to have an inverse correlation with infection in some studies. This connection should be examined in all deaths.

9) Of the “younger” people dying, we see two major groups: those with comorbidities, obesity appearing to be the most significant, but diabetes, HBP, asthma, etc. also implicated; and HCWs who have incurred massive viral loads, the likes of which most people walking down the street would never encounter (unless, for example, they rode the NYC subways and didn’t cover up). These people were getting 100X or 1,000X the initial exposure. (not so much now that PPE effectiveness has improved). As is the case with a poison, the dose makes a huge difference. A small viral load and a healthy immune system can cope. A massive viral load and all bets are off.

10) Then we see a few anomalous deaths among younger people. Endurance athletes (did they overtrain to the point of immune compromise?). Vapers (would love to see that identified here). Leaky gut with systemic inflammation as a precursor to cytokine storm? I bet it’s a significant factor.

As you can see, I believe there’s an explanation for 99% of the deaths here (and I’ll allow for the occasional anomaly). Knowing that, I think we could risk stratify and assign particular measures for everyone, from “go about your business as usual and don’t worry about getting infected” to “stay inside for several months until we have achieved herd immunity.”

I have also come to the conclusion that herd immunity through massive exposure is the only way out of this. Both epidemiologically and economically. There is no other way that doesn’t implode the economy for a long time. Waiting for a vaccine? Not going to happen in time to avoid a full-tilt decade(s)-long depression. Until then, find a few meds (remdesivir?) that reduce the death rate among the severely infected. Probably the best defense against foreign insults in this emergent New World Order is herd immunity. This would also allow us to open borders without fear of reigniting the whole thing all over again.

So there you have it. And, more study is required.

… I’ll plug something that makes me boozing money for once that certainly can’t hurt, but perhaps could help should you get the ‘rona and encounter symptoms. The gut makes up 70-80% of our immune system. I’ve been convinced for a long time that Karl Seddon’s unique, patented probiotic (the true magic is in the encapsulation) is truly gut therapeutic and my reason for that is a 5-year history of a 65% reorder rate from customers.

Elixa Probiotic is a British biotech manufacturer in Oxford, UK. U.S. Demand is now so high they’ve established distribution centers in Illinois, Nevada, and New Jersey.

Still, sell-outs happen regularly, so order now to avoid a waiting list.

            

Coronavirus #3: Denise Minger is Thorough But Misses the Boats
2020-04-19 14:37 UTC by Richard Nikoley


Previously on Free The Animal:

For those unaware of Denise Minger, she’s an English major who moonlights as a statistics geek-nerd.

Laugh all you like, but she’s to be taken seriously. She splashed on the diet and health scene in the summer of 2010 (wow, 10 years already!) by, of all things, reaching out to me. She had zero audience and had done the most unlikely thing. She took on T. Colin Campbell and his The China Study in a thorough post using the same raw data Campbell himself used (it’s not a book review): THE CHINA STUDY: FACT OR FALLACY? So, I promoted the hell out of it, this blog being much more popular back then. And, I induced many others to do so as well. All together, we helped to elevate her to paleo Superstar of the Universe for a while. Well deserved it was and shall be. That’s how universals work.

As a result of her newfound fame, youth, adorableness, and geek-extraordinaireiness, she got a number of speaking gigs for some years, as well as a book deal, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health. Good for her. Nothing to take away from that whatsoever.

After some years out of the scene and limelight—assuming there’s any such thing, anymore—the ‘rona has motivated her to once again come forth with a shiny new blog post: SOME THOUGHTS ON THINKING CRITICALLY IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY, AND THE TRAP OF LOPSIDED SKEPTICISM: CORONASPIRACY THEORY EDITION.

But then COVID-19 happened, and if that isn’t the biggest cosmic plan-changer that ever did plan-change, then I don’t know what is. So we’re gonna roll with it. And at the risk of writing something that’ll already be outdated by the time I hit publish (such is the nature of current events), I’m hoping this post will stay evergreen (or at least ever-chartreuse) by sheer virtue of its universal core theme: navigating conflicting, emotionally charged narratives in which objectivity behooves us but doesn’t come easy. (emphasis added)

I said it was thorough. What I mean by that, though, is that as thorough as it is, I find it quite pedantic, the formal word for mental masturbation. Sorry, Denise. Her post is essentially an exercise in debunking the debunking. But, no debunking of debunking supports the original premise (that COVID-19 is a big deal, that it’s necessarily worse than a typical flu season—that kills 300,000 – 650,000 annually—that it’s containable—unlike the thoroughly uncontainable: common rhinovirus or coronavirus head colds, influenza, or pneumonia—a vicious, contagious killer of 2.5 – 4 million annually … including children under 5 … 2 million per year … the chief killer of kids under 5 in the world … 15 – 20% of deaths of under-5 are from pneumonia. Did I mention it’s contagious? How many of you wear masks around young children TO SAVE LIVES, DAMMIT!!!???). You know the bromide. “You can’t put a price on a human life.”

Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Over 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 under five deaths worldwide. Yet, little attention is paid to this disease.

https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/9280640489/en/

Let me cover my critique in two general parts. But first, my development of the gut feel causing me to dismiss the panic and hysteria early on that was the result of kind of being “near the action.” I think it’s important to have my perspective that’s not simply anger over all that’s going on. Frankly, there’s no place I’d rather be to endure this than where I am, in the company I keep.

… I left the USA one bright morning of January 14, 2020, bound for Qindao, China from SFO on a wide-body flight full of Chinese people. After a 15-hr flight and 3-hr layover in an airport crowded with Chinese people, onto the same plane … full of Chinese people … for a 4-hr flight to Kunming where I would spend 9-hrs just walking around an airport crowded with … Chinese people.

The final leg, a flight from Kunming to Chiang Mai, Thailand in the north was on … you guessed it … a plane full of Chinese people. And if that’s not Chinese enough for you, it so happens that the apartment I’d rented for a month was in the Nimmanhemin district of Chaing Mai and guess where all the Chinese hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and other such stuff is, packed with tens of thousands of … Chinese people? Yep, Nimman.

By this point, no mask wearing was going on in terms of widespread adoption. It was a few days, maybe a week, before I heard of this “novel” coronavirus, and my spidey sense went up. I already had awareness that corona viruses had been with us forever (discovered in the 1930s), just like rhino viruses (both cause common colds—you’ve all had the ‘rona, probably a bunch of times). Then I see people on social media, people IRL, and news media beginning to give great attention to it, and then I see it almost immediately become politicized and I went, ‘uh, oh, Impeachment 3.0‘. And that’s still my view. Politicization, combined with a mature social media that almost everyone participates in, along with global access to smartphones, even amongst poor people.

Here was the first thing I said about it, January 25, 2020.

So the CDC info I looked at says around 97% of those who contract this Corona virus will recover without medical attention. Given the symptoms, I can’t see how it would be distinguishable from the common cold for most.

The ones (few) dying are the same as it always is. The old and otherwise highly health compromised.

So what’s the hand wringing hysteria all about?

Almost three months later, I’m still asking essentially the same question, and plus, the numbers keep revising downward. Ironically, this was about the same time as, in retrospect and learning its symptoms, I’m quite confident—though not certain—that I had it. Weirdest “cold” ever, since there was no nasal issues. Fever, ache, mucous cough 2-3 days morphing into dry cough. I sought no medical treatment, just used some OTCs. I got a test here at the international hospital a couple of weeks back, which came back “undetected” for COVID-19. I’ll sure be anxious to get an antibody test when available.

It would take two months from my arrival in Thailand on January 16 for the shit to hit the fan in Southeast Asia at about the time I sensed the hysteria waning—which I had chalked up to the tens of thousands of Chinese being in town, but who had all since departed. My visa expired March 15, I had a visa for Vietnam, and my flight got cancelled. I did some scrambling which didn’t work, so checked back into the same hotel room from which I’d checked out of 2 hours prior.

Went to the immigration office the next day where a 4-hr wait and a $60 fee got me a 7-day extension, no additional penalty for an overstay. The next day, I rented a car, loaded up the Thai-GF-Unit, and did the 4 1/2 hour drive straight north to Mae Sai, right on the Myanmar border with Tachileik. There’s a provision there where Myanmar will give you a 1-day entry permit so you can do what’s called a “visa run.” You get your Thai exit stamp, enter Myanmar, mill about, shop, eat, and re-enter Thailand with a new 30-day visa (which can be extended for another 30 days—4-hr wait, $60).

But the shit has only begun to hit the fan. ONE HOUR before I arrived at the border, Myanmar suspended entry permits—everyone has to have an official visa. But finally something went right. I’m a clever fuck. I sit in a cafe, start searching about on my iPhone, and voilà, there’s a nicely functioning Burmese website for e-visas, plus an expedite service for 24-hr processing. Takes about 20 minutes to get through it, $56 fee, and I wait, intending to stay the night if need be. But I had the visa within 1 1/2 hours, got it printed, and to the shock and amazement of both Thai and Burmese border agents, I got the job done. I was the first to circumvent intensions. Clever fuck.

The next day, Myanmar eliminated Tachileik as a point of entry for the e-visa.

Then the next day, the cascading shutdown shitstorm saga in Thailand begins. First it was the bars, massage parlors, nightclubs, boxing arenas movie theaters, etc. Essentially, anyplace where people congregate and have fun. For about a week, that was the extent of it. Restaurants were still open, but tourists were leaving in droves…

I grabbed a flight to Koh Samui. Word was there was still life happening there, and there was—until the next day after arrival when all alcohol service in service establishments was suspended. And people were leaving in droves. By day eight, I was one of two rooms occupied in a 200-room beach resort. At least the beach was still open, the pools as well.

So I said effit, if I’m going to suffer Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, then I might as well be back in Chiang Mai and ride it out with the TGFU (Thai girlfriend unit) and others I know, including those at the French expat bar next to the hotel.

So I came back, barely scooting in a day or two prior to the institution of a mandatory 14-day lockdown quarantine for all arrivals to Chiang Mai, and rented a very nice modern apartment of Swiss design next to the hotel, to sit out the madness. By then, all restaurants were take-out only. Then, a few days later, no alcohol by any service establishments—though still available in stores, from 11:00 – 14:00 and 17:00 – midnight. Then, the curfew, 22:00 – 04:00, otherwise one can walk around at will. There’s still no legal requirement to wear the Mao Uniform … uh … mask, and I’ve yet to catch shit from Thais who are about 99.99% duped into doing that. Some stores require it to enter, so I have other people buy my stuff for me.

And since then … let’s see … a total ban on all sales of alcohol anywhere, including package stores, 7/11, and supermarkets. Fortunately, I have #ThaiConnectons, so I can get #PriceGouged by 50%, a gouging I’m more than happy to pay.

Now, in addition to the 2 million babies dead of pneumonia annually—an ignorance that afflicts most everyone—let’s put this in further perspective. For one, respiratory-infection viruses do not seem to fair all that well in sub-tropical regions. So, Thailand, if you will, seems to enjoy both a reprieve on that score, as well as malaria not being too big of a concern. For the former, I understand that it could be both a function of the year-round heat, as well as lots of sunshine and a likely good average vitamin D status.

In Thailand, 8 people per 1,000 die every year. The population is 70 million. So, 560K die every year, 1,534 per day. The very first COVID-19 case was January 12, about 97 days ago. 149,000 Thais have died since the worisome “outbreak.”

Who cares? It literally happens every day. But, there’s an extraordinary popular delusion, fueled by the madness of crowds with smartphones and real-time social media where everyone 1) scares the shit out of everyone else and 2) puts all their virtue on display for everyone to see. Notice how so many social media profile pics are now with the Mao Uniform on display?

Understand. Those 47 deaths in 97 days come out to about a half death per day, or one death every two days. That half death per day is 0.03% (0.00032) of the daily deaths from all-cause, and the damn world is shut down and children video conference their mommies and daddies in tears (I’ve seen it first hand—my GF has 10 and 9 yo daughters), afraid they’re going to die of Corona. Well, they see the whole world around them acting like abject duped fools, what are they to think? They’re children.

And you’re not [children, supposedly]. At least you’re not supposed to be. Here, get a dose of adult.

So let’s move on to Denise’s post. I’d didn’t expect the introduction to be that long, but there’s a lot of unique context surrounding how I regard this mess. I’m not just some bed-wetter dwelling in mommy’s basement yelling at people on the internet to JUST STAY HOME!!!

Don’t Take Knives to Gunfights

Denise’s prémisse évidente—“objectivity behooves us”—deserves scrutiny.

Like, why does such virtue behoove us when it’s an unobtainable panacea?

Few people are ever objective and what’s more, what’s objective in the slightest surrounding politics when this bastard of a global mess has surely been politicized? Sure, there’s the aura—or stench—of “objectivity” but when you peel it away, it’s just faux authority, the kind based on political power and not objectivity.

Objectivity might happen in a chemistry lab, but the raw data isn’t understood by most, so the results are filtered through lenses of interest, from corporate, to media, to ruling elites—and everybody wants some thing.

It’s the first time a medical crisis has been politicized since HIV/AIDS that I’m aware of (I didn’t look hard, because it’s rather irrelevant … this one is … a sort of Impeachment 3.0 since the other versions failed). The Swine or H1N1 flu of 2009/10 did quite a number, infecting an estimated 1 billion globally and taking out a half million. But Black Jesus was president. No politicization needed.

The world was gaga in love. No number of lives could have been worth all the Social Justice(tm) coming down the pike any second now.

Denise picked four principal debunks of the political, media, social media, and smartphone epidemiology narrative to counter-debunk, because it’s apparently very important that we tell truth to lies. Or something.

#1 The CDC has literally issued guidelines telling doctors and medical examiners to classify deaths as COVID-19 if they “presume” the patient has it—no test results needed.

But they have, and probably it’s not a conspiracy, but where else does that happen? I believe the answer is: nowhere, at least not like this. Yes, many good docs were quick to point out that indeed, without autopsy, it’s tricky to establish cause of death (sometimes with autopsy as well).

But what many of those same docs pointed out was the specific naming and coding that’s really unusual. Apparently, there’s no such thing to this extent for the flu. Why? It kills a very lot every year.

Perhaps it’s because that over many decades of experience, flu-like (and isn’t COVID “flu like?”) seems a better call. Or, maybe it’s because that on autopsy and lung biopsy, they often find several viral and bacterial respiratory infections in a single elderly subject.

In an autopsy series that tested for respiratory viruses in specimens from 57 elderly persons who died during the 2016 to 2017 influenza season, influenza viruses were detected in 18% of the specimens, while any kind of respiratory virus was found in 47%. In some people who die from viral respiratory pathogens, more than one virus is found upon autopsy and bacteria are often superimposed. A positive test for coronavirus does not mean necessarily that this virus is always primarily responsible for a patient’s demise.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

So what I’m groking out of all of this is that even though there’s decades of experience and tens of millions of deaths surrounding “flu-like” respiratory infections, it’s still a guessing game sometimes, which is why they don’t put “Influenza [type xyz]” on a death certificate. So ask, why are they doing that for COVID-19, a very specific infection down to the whatever?

Could there be any un-objective political motivations for doing so?

#2 CDC data shows a precipitous drop in pneumonia deaths right around the same time COVID-19 became a thing—suggesting pneumonia deaths have been getting reclassified as COVID-19 deaths, and creating the illusion of a pandemic.

Well, yes, many got taken in by the data lag on that one, me included.

But I find it almost hilarious that there’s a BIG QUIBBLE over the non-objectivity there—and in the midst of going out of our way to classify deaths as specific COVID-19 when we don’t even do that for specific influenza viruses—but absolutely zero ever is said in terms of proportionality, that upwards of 4 million die of pneumonia and 2 million of them children under the age of 5!

For me, I was not the slightest bit aware of that proportionality. Moreover, exactly ZERO children have died globally under the age of 10 from the great and “novel” COVID-19, all the while sniveling, low-T, white-knight beta-boys on the Internet admonish you to JUST STAY HOME!!! and DON’T KILL MY GRANDMA!!!

#3 People who die with coronavirus, but not from coronavirus, are getting counted as COVID-19 deaths—again inflating the body count.

I think that’s adequately dealt with in #1. The issue is not that. The issue is that COVID-19 is a flu-like illness and unlike other flu-like illnesses, it enjoys top status as a very specific cause of death, down to the damn RNA of the thing. That’s never been done before.

So why the compelling need to do it now? From my light Googling, the H1N1, for example, was all estimated as the probable cause way after the fact. In other words, they used death certificates as part of the analysis, death certs that did not have H1N1 specifically on them, because none did. Noodle that.

#4 Despite COVID-19 mortality skyrocketing, total mortality is staying the same (or even dropping)—suggesting a “cause of death” shuffle, if you will, and betraying the idea that we’re seeing additional deaths from a new disease. (Alternatively: “Only people with preexisting medical conditions are dying and they were gonna keel over any minute anyhow.”)

There are any number of ways to approach this but my favorite is who the fuck cares? I don’t, and neither should you. Everyone dies of something and old people die more frequently than most and for more family members than you care to think about, it’s a relief in their heart of hearts.

There is a very silver lining to this specific one. It is almost exclusively culling the herd from the top down in age; whereas, previous infections like H1N1 hit the young very hard. Even still, 4 out of 5 of the elderly survive anyway, and good for them.

This sounds harsh and callous I know, but c’mon, everything—owing to shaming media and social media—has been a non-stop emperor-esque no-clothes parade of faux concern, faux moralizing, and faux virtue signaling for months.

Please let me off the clown carousel. And CockZucker has taught so many so well, where it’s not enough to just troll social media for opportunities to cajole and admonish, you now get to call the HOTLINE!!! and report those neighbors you didn’t like so much anyway. And you get thanked, rather than like in the old days when astute mommies told you to stop being a pathetic little tattletale (#asshole).

Let’s just kill this pedantic nonsense that’s touted as The big Big One. Here’s a chart from EuroMomo.eu, a site that tracks all mortality in 24 participating European countries and territories on a weekly basis. It’s updated every Thursday, we’re on week 15.

A brief explanation should suffice.

  • First peak, 2016; Nobody noticed anything unusual.⁠
  • ⁠Second peak 2018; Nobody noticed anything unusual.⁠
  • ⁠Third peak 2019; Nobody noticed anything unusual.⁠
  • ⁠Fourth peak 2020; Absolute mayhem, non-stop news coverage. General public exposed to non-stop images of grim horror, sickness, and death in ICU wards; images of coffins and mass burials. Global markets slumped. Mass house arrest of global workforce. Mass unemployment claims. All leading to total devastation for possibly a decade to come.⁠
  • ⁠Anybody looking at this graph might care to wonder why (devastating) peak four represents fewer cumulative excess deaths than peaks one and two.⁠ In other words, while the peak itself is comparable, the time under the bell-like-curve is way wider in the first and especially, the second.
  • Ironically, by the time 2020 is done, we’re very likely to see significantly lower total-year mortality compared to past years, even without adjusting for population growth. Why? Because billions worldwide are under house arrest (I don’t use euphemisms like “social distancing”) and not out engaging in the quotidian risky things living a life of liberty is all about. We’re in self-fulfilling prophesy territory.

You don’t suppose there’s anything afoot here, any sort of motivation where you’d want to shut down the whole world over this, do you? Of course locking everyone up saves lives. Duh. So, why not just lock everyone up for all time, then? Isn’t that your prime and fundamental standard, to save lives, without any other considerations?

Let me see if I can drive home my point for you. Sure, ok, if we’re in a laboratory pure science setting you’re likely to find very good objectivity, intellectual honesty, and proper science. But we’re not. We’re all in the very messy lab of human endeavor where lies, dishonesty, anything-but-objectivity, politics, agendas, and every other nefarious thing under the sun prevail.

So, would you rather play Pollyanna with Rose Colored Glasses, or be effective?

You do not counter congenital liars and manipulators with your bright shining, objective truths. Did Denise convince T. Collin Campbell of a single damn thing, even though she exposed The China Study—as no one else ever did—as a general pack of fucking lies to fit a vegan agenda?

So, as very good as that was, it was largely an exercise of preaching to the choir. But who knows? I’d like to think its main force is in helping the objectively, science-minded over time to better evaluate, since the whole rest of the world is against them.

Sometimes, the pragmatic approach, especially in a literal emergency—and I don’t mean the virus—is to wing it. You don’t need a China Study Exhaustive Takedown when so many are trying to make sense of the insanity, questioning their gut instincts because everyone on a smartphone is #NPCing them.

Liars are no more interested in the truth than are predators interested in your gun laws. You don’t defeat them with laws … or knives. You defeat them with bigger and better guns.

Or, how do you deal with a liar? Lie better, especially in an emergency … like … the world just came to a complete screeching halt because no number of lives or any amount of financial ruin is too much if you can just rid the world of Trump. I saw you Trump-hating leftists and Democrats coming a million miles away in this never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste, third impeachment attempt. And Trump hating isn’t just an American thing, it’s a global thing; because he so effectively FUCKS with you better than all of you put together can ever hope to fuck with him.

Rather Than Criticize The Criticisms, Offer Better

Whereas, Denise’s China-Study takedown was an exercise in negation, falsification, and people should just revert to the default omnivore narrative once convinced enough that veganism sucks Soy Balls, this is an in-your-face immediate emergency. No, again, not the whimpering virus that can’t even manage a decent tough flu-year.

There is no time to evergreen a post so as to be idle for another three years.

Shit, or get off the pot.

So let me do what Denise ought to have done, which is to offer better critiques, proposals, and analysis than those four that have already swayed millions into doing an about-face on this insanity. Now, were we to do this exercise independently, the results would be quite different. Women would tend to like Denise’s proscriptions better, and men, mine.

Make your own judgments as to what that might portend in reflection of the 19th Amendment.

In no particular order.

#1 Don’t you find it odd, or at least curious, that this biological viral pandemic falls into general party lines, left and right, so meticulously? I’ve already said that it’s politicized, but this isn’t a point to be overlooked. Why is it so steeped in left-right politics this time, not since HIV/AIDS?

It’s said that everything is politics, and that’s probably true, but there are times when even individual politicians seemingly set it aside in order to see if better political use of the event can be had later—or it just fades away into the memory hole anyway.

This one went highly political almost immediately and had Trump gone it alone on this house arrest lockdown thing, there would be hell to pay, rightly so. For whatever reasons (I know if you don’t), the entire modern world went in lock step, except Belarus and Sweden. So they can’t get Trump on that, because, y’know, lefties and their internationals. On the other hand, had Trump said fuck you! to all the dire predictions and done little to nothing, he’d be sitting pretty right about now.

Instead, he’s chosen, politically, to believe the crazy computer models and I saw him on TV yesterday say twice or three times that his administration’s and states’ actions saved 2 million lives. That’s bullshit, but politics is politics.

#2 The COMPUTER MODELS!!! as though computers are still a novel thing. This again touches on the general political antagonisms, but have you noticed that the same people who have touted global warming … no … climate change computer models for decades—that are ALWAYS way wrong, often by orders of magnitude—touted the grossly and insanely wrong COMPUTER MODELS!!! for this particular bastard just the same?

I don’t know whether it’s a 1-1 correspondence, but it’s got to be within a c-hair.

#3 This will ruffle feathers, but no, I don’t care about your grandma. You do. I don’t. And, news flash: neither does anyone else who doesn’t know you, social media virtue signaling and comment threads of pray-praying-prayers notwithstanding.

Consider, for a second, the practical efficacy of this virus. I mean, since we’re not talking principles of liberty or anything, or its trade-away for feelings of safety and security. It’s killing 1 of 5 very expensive people who don’t produce any longer. It’s leaving the productive and potentially productive alone. Unscathed. Not a single infected under age 10 death on the planet. That’s something big.

Sounds callous, but given the cradle to grave health maintenance plan you want, that even pays for oil changes and flat tires in order to bolster the illusion that it’s FREE!!! I ask you what a few more months of “life” is worth—at a cost to your diamond-level healthcare membership of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars—when the money pit can just be over with right now?

How many have thought of the upside to their National Health Care Systems, having now been culled of so much costly dead weight quickly—especially for you Euros with your sécurité sociale, plus développé du mond?

#4 While on the subject of principle dump, how about a different mix of lockdown? Why not just be pragmatic as fuck? The data is rolling in still, but it’s pretty clear that obesity and all the down streams of that play an important role.

How about close and liquidate all junk food producers, fast food, pizza, Starbucks Sugar Coffee Company, et al?

No?

Why, politically untenable?

But I thought we’re in it to win it…

Let me get this right. You have the political and “ethical” gumption to destroy the financial lives of billions around the world, but the various and sundry boards of directors and and a few million shareholders are gonna have a hissy fit so no? Ok then.

#5 The thing nobody gave a shit about because it wholly contradicted (falsified, really) the convenient panic-and-hysteria narrative that was just accelerating, gaining speed, and attaining critical-mass momentum. The cruise ship Diamond Princess.

On 20 January 2020, an 80-year-old passenger from Hong Kong embarked in Yokohama, sailed one segment of the itinerary, and disembarked in Hong Kong on 25 January. He visited a local Hong Kong hospital, six days after leaving the ship, where he later tested positive for COVID-19 on 1 February. On its next voyage, 4 February, the ship was in Japanese waters when 10 passengers were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the early stages of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

The ship was quarantined on 4 February in the Port of Yokohama in Japan.

[…]

As of 16 March, at least 712 out of the 3,711 passengers and crew had tested positive for the virus. As of 24 March, twelve of those who were on board have died from the disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_on_Diamond_Princess

Well isn’t that cute, Wikipedia. What’s wrong with the whole context?

  • The infection rate of 712 infections of 3,711 passengers and crew is only 20% in a damn controlled, tin-can petri dish.
  • Of the 712 infections, 60% were asymptomatic. They carried and spread it, didn’t know they had it.
  • The passengers were heavily weighted toward the elderly.
  • All who died were old (I believe old men).
  • Of the other 700 infected, 97%, survived. Of generally elderly people.

#6 Ah, but wait! we have another ship where Denise missed the boat. This just in. The USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71).

USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71)

Now, of course, I’m an ex-Navy officer, ship driver variety (SWO). Before I explain the results of their COVID!!! OUTBREAK!!! (it’s very novel) let me make a couple of distinctions between this tin-can petri dish and the other one.

  • There are no passengers. Crew only, 100% essential personnel.
  • I don’t know what the age distribution of the military is, but at a WAG, 90% are probably under 40 years old.

So what happened in a quite different controlled “experiment,” but with quite an inverse age-population makeup (this means: good)?

  • The infection rate is 600 out of about 4,500 tested (crew of 4,800, testing ongoing).
  • That’s an infection rate of 13.5% in an enclosed environment.
  • But just like the Diamond Princess, 60% had no symptoms. Had it. Didn’t know it.
  • A single sailor has died, I don’t know any details.
  • That’s 0.16% (0.0016).

Denise darling, you missed the boats.

While it’s true I used my gut and no data initially to place my all-in bet on how this plays out, the Diamond Princess was a perfect revelation. I found almost zero interest in it while at the same time, I then knew with absolute certainty how this plays out.

And now we have another boat. Different day, different boat, same essential result and even more pristine, an inverse age-population and the number that matters in the end, death, just about what you would expect given the age distributions.

So, now, Denise, feel free to take on my 6 tries, above. Otherwise, I shall wait by my email inbox waiting for the eventual though infrequent missive from you, “do you ever get tired of being right?” as you sent on November 4, 2015, knowing I’d said in 1992 that Hillary will never be president and in November, 2015, went all in with Trump to take the whole thing. And I never wavered.

Well, it’s been fun. This post only took 8 hours.

            

 

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