COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

[Mark Rippetoe]

A good deal of the willies expressed over the "militarization" and scary look of some police officers remind me of the gun averse to the way "assault weapons" look. Good thing no bayonet lugs seem to be in place or visible on this much despised gear.

We're trying to have a serious discussion here, and you're talking about "the willies" for your typical cuteness purposes. Please contribute or go away.

[Barry Charles]

And on your own to boot.

IPB

Not entirely

[Mark Rippetoe]

Latest from Karl Denninger;
Ukraine Has LOST, And So Have We in [Market-Ticker-Nad]

Karl is harsh. I like that:

For that matter so are we. We've sequestered our inflationary deficit spending overseas via the China/US (and other nations, including India) trade deficit for the last two decades. That's over and will never come back because none of the nations that we were doing it with have any reason to allow it ever again and they don't need to. Not a single member of the Fed or other "economic punditry" has said one word about this although I sure as Hell have. At the same time Russia is shipping oil to these nations who then cross-ship it back, some refined first, and there's absolutely no way to do anything about that since we're incapable of sanctioning either without instantly detonating our supply chains, offshored labor or both. As a result we can no longer spend in deficit without it reflecting back into inflation which means the "free ride" gave has been terminated and while this was always eventually going to end we did this to ourselves and thus the inflation you're seeing and will continue to see was and is caused directly by our policies and our government.

Thus the only way to stop the inflation is to stop deficit spending -- all of it -- right now.

Biden and his vunt nutjob Nuland along with many others royally fucked up. There's nothing to be done to salvage this; you can't directly engage in armed combat with Russia without everyone glowing in the dark and everyone with 2 or more IQ points knows it.

We had better reverse course on all of our insanity with regard to energy now -- including oil, natural gas and especially coal, which has a stable long-term price structure or we're going to get fucked. The economy here will fold back into a deep, nasty inflationary recession materially worse than the Carter Stagflation, which I remind you we caused with our stupidity related to the Arab Oil Embargo.

Further, we can no longer spend, at the federal level, anything we do not first tax from someone. I do not give a wet crap what the excuse is from the left or right it all stops now or we will continue to get a wild inflationary spike, demand destruction will inevitably follow and so will severe civil unrest when the blackouts start along with the inability to fund food or even worse -- civil war.

If you're flying a Ukraine flag, assholes, you are the identified enemy right here at home, thank you very much for wearing an enemy uniform openly in public and you deserve to be forced to pay every damned dime of the economic cost to this nation for that act of STUPIDITY. You ALL deserve the worst of what is to come AND IT IS COMING, like it or not. I and many others will do our level best to make sure YOU and your entire family eat that cost -- every damn cent of it. You are the most-stupid follower of the "next shiny object" and frankly, you are too fucking stupid to consume oxygen that could and should instead be used by something like a hog that actually produces a useful end product -- tasty bacon.

__________________________________________________ ____

List of 10 Senate Republicans who are siding with Democrats on gun control… – CITIZEN FREE PRESS

The 10 Republicans Supporting Gun Deal in Senate

Cornyn
Tillis
Blunt
Burr
Cassidy
Collins
Graham
Portman
Romney
Toomey

Makes it immune to filibuster (60)

I guess Cornyn is retiring.

_______________________________________________

And this is just precious: 👀 Scientists Want to Change the Name Of Monkeypox To Make It 'Non-Discriminatory’ and ‘Non-Stigmatizing’.

Several researchers reportedly “in advanced discussion” with the World Health Organization have proposed changing the name of the monkeypox virus in order to be “non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing.”

Twenty-nine co-authors from 11 countries outlined their proposal in a preprint posted on virological.org on June 10th: “Urgent Need for a Non-discriminatory and Non-stigmatizing Nomenclature for Monkeypox Virus.”

The left, the media (redundant, I know), and the WHO associate monkeys with Africans. Not us, but them. There you have it.

[David A. Rowe]

David, I don't think you understand that since the War On Drugs was started under the Reagan Administration in an effort to keep people from getting high, the militarization of the police has made a very bad impression on the taxpayers that are paying attention. The idiots here in Wichita County have an armored assault vehicle, that they have never and cannot ever legitimately use for "law enforcement" purposes. These are the same idiots that pulled up behind Stef at 2am as she was unlocking the gate out in the county in the pitch dark without their red-and-blue lights on. You may not give a damn what it looks like, but we do, and you should try to wrap your head around why bloused black fatigues and proudly-displayed body armor are not appropriate for civilian law enforcement.

So, what is your mission -- in the larger sense? You'll have noticed that the recently appointed Governor of New York has signed a bill that makes it illegal for civilians to own body armor. Us vs. Them, codified.

Alright, so meet me half way on this. I'll admit my biases as best I can.

1. This "I don't like the way it looks!" is common in the civilian population. And a lot of law enforcement. And the military. I have a long history of being pissed off by leadership in the military who wouldn't let me put a pouch somewhere on my kit because they didn't like the way it looked. I wear an inner carrier right now, and it's extra hot on days like today. Exactly the same reason.

2. Dudes who are gonna be assholes are gonna be assholes in an inner or outer carrier. Have you guys considered that you've had exposure to asshole cops more because the "good eggs" don't pull you over without a good reason? How often have you been victimized?

3. A lot of law enforcement agencies got MRAPs because a lot of the first generation ones were shitty, and after Iraq dropped off dramatically there wasn't a big use for them in Afghanistan. They were remarkably bad for a theater with very few passable roads when the damn things broke tie rods everytime the tires left the blacktop. These aren't militarized to me, but I actually had military experience with them. They don't even have turret mounts. Frankly, a lot of the departments can't even afford maintenance and lifecycle support on just the engines and other mechanical. Some departments can't even afford tires or the diesel to run them. They're just ballistically protected vehicles, and for as many times as they've been used by assholes... they've allowed for the extraction of wounded civilians and officers from active shooting scenes.


So, again... what's your definition of "militarized"? Maybe we're talking past each other, but the arguments I've seen so far seem like the problems we all have with gyms that think barbells, 4" belts and chalk are "too scary for the clientele."

You know, by now, that I'm not being snarky. Honest to God... I just don't see the problem. Give me some examples and solid justifications, and I'll be more than happy to listen, understand and honestly address whatever rocks we kick over.

[anticausal]

1) I don't give a damn what it looks like... it could look like a cape made out of dicks. If it's objectively better for my mission profile/patrol operations then I want at least two of it.

I think the hypothetical is silly, but would you wear one that says "Derek Chauvin was Innocent"? How about one with a picture of Daniel Shaver that says "When we say jump, you say how high."? Only if they were literally the only options you had for body armor, of course.

[UberBabs]

Back in the early 1980s I interviewed for a police officer position in Palo Alto CA. They were very proud that instead of so-called paramilitary uniforms they wore blue blazers so they could be perceived as more community friendly. Not sure what they wear now but I did not find blue blazers to be a positive.

[Yngvi]

Experience teaches us that dudes with this kind of rhetoric can hardly be counted on when the actual shooting starts.

Who do you think America will look to for help when the shooting starts?
The drugged-up street wraiths?
The Mexican cartels?
The cosmopolitan "elites" who flee to foreign lands?
The transgender anti-fa clowns who take every opportunity to curse their nation as weak and shameful?
The economic migrants who suddenly are not part of the country if their is a war? (I don't think any African migrants are actually fighting for their beloved Ukraine)
No, it will be blue-collar Americans with flags on their sleeves and unapologetic patriotism in their hearts.

The first step towards geopolitical subversion is to destroy the identity of a nation.
The first step towards destroying the identity of a nation is to efface its heritage.
When the nation's people is despondent and convinced of its weakness, they may not even attempt to fight.

I know the Christian teaching is humility, but we need pride and confidence to survive.
You Europeans etc. should take the same approach; be proud of your heritage and confident in your strength.
If you don't believe your nation is exceptional, it probably won't exist tomorrow.

This isn't about objectivity and never has been; trying to make a compromise for the perception of "fairness" is a losing strategy.

There's a deep problem with American history in that Americans really don't have a good sense of themselves, which is a very tragic and evil thing to do a people on purpose. If you boil down the American identity, it's the Aryan Barbarian, but people have been convinced otherwise. It's not for nothing that Alex Jones, for example, is extremely popular on the right, despite having so many fans who also know all the problems with him - but they still like him. I still like him. He is the quintessential American nationalist in a way. He's hot-blooded, conspiratorial, has a touch of religious madness to him, ready to throw down and do violence at a moment's notice. The American is the Aryan Barbarian and if there's going to be an American nationalism, there needs to be a lot of self re-discovery and an effort made to unapologetically tap into this spirit. This is also the reason Trump, despite not doing anything Big N Nationalistic of note, was so popular going into this crisis period.

Americans have many great (yet complicated) historical figures to draw from. Just dive into their history, but realise the official "Great Figures" of American history, which are given to Americans, were the elites - and as such, they were self-serving. You can go and point out the Free Masonic aspects of these elites, etc. The important thing to notice is the average American is taught that these elites were just like them and they should identify with them and their ideas, but that is not their rich history or their rich heritage at all. American history and heritage is the common folk. The pioneer people who were fighting Indians and pushing frontiers. People who sang folk songs. People who rebelled constantly and fought to the death against what the elites imposed upon them. Fighting against oppression, and even desgregregation and busing. It is the history of a people who rebelled against the patriotic Founding Fathers, even!

Shay's Rebellion is a historical footnote, but if you want American nationalism, to me, Shay's Rebellion is the starting point for American nationalism. "Listen, we fought for you - now we want what's due to us. Die.". Thomas Jefferson, despite his own problems, was the only one who was on their side. This is the problem with talking about America, and with American history - heritage Americans are given a history which doesn't resonate with them as a people. If they have to destroy these elite and oligarchical historical idols, they will need new Great Man figures to draw inspiration from and it will have to come from within themselves.

A half-baked analogy for America's rise and fall would be Conor McGregor. The UFC has the bad repuation of putting the roster through the meat-grinder and shortening their athletes' careers by terrible matchmaking. America is Conor McGregor. Climbed the mountain. Oversaw this vast empire - then lost it. There wasn't a single, decisive moment where people said "Okay, this is not the same thing it used to be" but fast foward many years, and everyone can clearly see the decline. People hypothesize about where the critical turning-point moment was, where everything changed suddenly. It's obvious and palpable. Americans are history-less, and identity-less. America now needs to figure out where its real sphere of influence lies. So, when people (the media, politicians, academia..) talk about "American" interests in Taiwan, or the Middle East, or Ukraine, or wherever... there needs to be a headscratching moment and people need to ask "Which "America"? Which interests?". We're not talking about the opiod addiction-addled Appalachian, or the down-on-his-luck middle class N.E ethnic Catholic. We're talking about Big money interests, and military interests.



People are subconsciously waking up to the realisation of the limits of what liberalism claims to offer. When they can no longer fudge the numbers and the markets do finally melt, and it all comes tumbling down, what will be left for people? All this trans stuff, for example, is actually is consistent with the founding liberal principles of the modern West. Since conservatives accept individual rights, they have no principles to oppose it. People are realising there's no future in being rootless wanderers without an ancestral homeland. Every prominent moderate or centrist you can think of, the kind that “just hates those gosh-darn Wokes dontchaknow” ultimately has no problem at all with homophilia, miscegenation, or societally suicidal decadence in any way/shape. You don't have to agree with my principles to accept that. Literally, all that liberalism has to offer, long term, is economics. When you push a liberal fanatic to the point of argument, all they can appeal to is economics - and when they no longer have that, something else has to take its place. There's nothing else waiting in the wings, and that's optimistic for me. Nationalism can give these people a path forward.

Now that peoples' standards of living are starting to take a hit, I think we're going to hear more people people ask these questions out loud. It's not just the economic side causing people to question the direction of things, but it's all sorts of experiences - the political rot, the pandemic, the race riots of the last few years, the hollow social media experience and a general dissatisfaction with life. Heritage Americans are waking up to the idea that they're under the spell of another influence, and this ain't your empire. These ain't your interests. You're birthed from the most enterprising peoples the White race ever produced, and you thought you could rule the world with this Atlanticist empire. Similar to McGregor, well, then the fight with Dustin Poirier happens and you break your leg - you're suddenly forced to experience this harsh confrontation with reality. This wasn't in your best interests. You weren't ready for this. Your soaring success is partly to blame, as were deleterious and subversive factors which eroded the will and weakened Americans' ability to be a single people.

For Americans to live, this America really has to die. By that, I mean this symbolic order, other "America" which is out there imposing itself on us all.

Good post.

[David A. Rowe]

The wife finally broke down an went to the OB/GYN due to long term menstrual cycle disruption post COVID.

Key takeaways:
Every menstruating client has started their period both upon infection and after receiving the shot.

Hormonal cycles seem to stay permanently disrupted.

They're using a protocol of 10 days of progesterone per month for three months to regulate. This is borrowed from a protocol for PCOS treatment.

PCOS rates seem to be increasing based on clinical observation.

Women seem to not ovulate on irregular cycle months, but the incidence rate of multiple consecutive and concurrent ovulations has increased.

When asked "Have you taken a COVID vaccine?" And receiving a polite but firm "No." The reply was "Okay, good! You don't need one since you were naturally exposed, anyway."


I think my wife has found a keeper.

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. This "I don't like the way it looks!" is common in the civilian population. And a lot of law enforcement. And the military. I have a long history of being pissed off by leadership in the military who wouldn't let me put a pouch somewhere on my kit because they didn't like the way it looked. I wear an inner carrier right now, and it's extra hot on days like today. Exactly the same reason.

Right. Just because it's stupid doesn't mean that you can ignore it.

2. Dudes who are gonna be assholes are gonna be assholes in an inner or outer carrier. Have you guys considered that you've had exposure to asshole cops more because the "good eggs" don't pull you over without a good reason? How often have you been victimized?

An obvious point. But consider that we taxpayers are not in a position to do anything about the assholes, whereas you guys are. And nothing gets done.

3. A lot of law enforcement agencies got MRAPs because a lot of the first generation ones were shitty, and after Iraq dropped off dramatically there wasn't a big use for them in Afghanistan. They were remarkably bad for a theater with very few passable roads when the damn things broke tie rods everytime the tires left the blacktop. These aren't militarized to me, but I actually had military experience with them. They don't even have turret mounts. Frankly, a lot of the departments can't even afford maintenance and lifecycle support on just the engines and other mechanical. Some departments can't even afford tires or the diesel to run them.

I don't give a shit what they are supposed to be used for, or how shitty they are. I just care about the fact that they are designed as offensive weapons, and that the guys using them have no business constructing the us-versus-them scenario these things are designed for.

They're just ballistically protected vehicles, and for as many times as they've been used by assholes... they've allowed for the extraction of wounded civilians and officers from active shooting scenes.

I seem to have missed the rescue part, as well as their need to be ballistically protected.

So, again... what's your definition of "militarized"? Maybe we're talking past each other, but the arguments I've seen so far seem like the problems we all have with gyms that think barbells, 4" belts and chalk are "too scary for the clientele."

"Militarized" means designed and purposed to attack the enemy. Police cannot be police if their purpose is to attack the enemy, because civilians cannot become the enemy. When civilians become the enemy, we're done.

[Jovan Dragisic]

Who do you think America will look to for help when the shooting starts?
The drugged-up street wraiths?
The Mexican cartels?
The cosmopolitan "elites" who flee to foreign lands?
The transgender anti-fa clowns who take every opportunity to curse their nation as weak and shameful?
The economic migrants who suddenly are not part of the country if their is a war? (I don't think any African migrants are actually fighting for their beloved Ukraine)
No, it will be blue-collar Americans with flags on their sleeves and unapologetic patriotism in their hearts.

The first step towards geopolitical subversion is to destroy the identity of a nation.
The first step towards destroying the identity of a nation is to efface its heritage.
When the nation's people is despondent and convinced of its weakness, they may not even attempt to fight.

I know the Christian teaching is humility, but we need pride and confidence to survive.
You Europeans etc. should take the same approach; be proud of your heritage and confident in your strength.
If you don't believe your nation is exceptional, it probably won't exist tomorrow.

This isn't about objectivity and never has been; trying to make a compromise for the perception of "fairness" is a losing strategy.

I don't mind the national exceptionalism or whatever you are into. I just found it funny that you had to turn the whole thing into some kind of conflict which you are pre-LARP-ing yourself into. Again, it is a matter of experience, exactly none of the dudes I know who actually fought the last war 30 years ago were into big speeches, they just took up arms when the time was due. The big word guys all stayed home or developed a sudden medical condition and so on. Btw, I find America quite exceptional. Off the top of my head, Doc Watson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, John Lee Hooker (let's just say the blues), Woody Guthrie, Chuck Palahniuk, David Mamet, Jackson Pollock, William Faulkner, the banjo, the Appalachian fiddle... There is some decent culture in Europe in modern times, but America blows it out of the water. I just don't happen to think that victories in battles make a nation anything other than good at fighting.