he declares that we lucky duckies in the US have had the mildest COVID winter yet!
I guess for the fascists that run our democracy (US) culling us with viruses is a cost saving over using machine guns. Send those bullets to Israel instead!
Let me say this in conclusion: Trump is the culmination of a long slide into fascism. This country fetishes the projection of lethal force and indulges in the myth of exceptionalism. The Powell Memo written in 1971, the year of my high school graduation, laid the template for the right wing takeover of our discourse and governing principles. Corporate whims became ascendant and any protection for mere individuals like unions, for example were demolished.
Tracking these jackasses is an intractable and exhausting task! I'm thinking of starting a database of these rhetorical gems to ensure shaming for posterity.
Love the new digest format, although I'd like to see more of your long form pieces too.
There's something in the USAID segment that caught my eye. Venezuelan elections - I'm very sceptical of the mainstream narrative. I heard an interesting take from Red Nation, who went out to Venezuela during the election campaign, and they said you only have to attend a Socialist rally to see that the Western media reports are wrong. I know Venezuela has an exemplary system of checks and balances on its elections, but I've not been able to find any concrete evidence contradicting the MSM narrative. Even Al Jazeera is going along with it. Progressive International election monitors say the election was free and fair, but they don't cite any evidence. Do you have any sources I can follow up?
Thinking about people in Nazi Germany from watching those old movie reels where Jews are pulled out of their homes, and are lining up to get into the trains. Or standing in front of a ditch, naked, waiting to be shot. And I always wondered, why didn’t they run? They knew death was imminent. Why wasn’t fight or flight kicking in? Why was “freeze” the response? Of course, running or fighting meant you would still die, but at least your last thought would be “I tried to save myself.” Now….now….I get it. And it scares the hell out of me.
So, something just occurred to me, re-reading this piece... These oligarchical techno-fascists are committed to their Network State project BS, and a part of that is the longer-term project of transhumanism ("augmenting" humans so that bodies are integrated with machines) and eventually the ability to upload one's consciousness to the cloud, supposedly making "eternal life" possible. They are going to need a lot of people willing to undergo "augmentation" and neurological experimentation (at least until they get to a point where they feel they don't need the "willing" part anymore) -- where are all those guinea pigs going to come from?
Entirely unrelatedly -- what do we think the oligarchical techno-fascists are envisioning as the function or societal place for the millions and millions of people disabled by Long Covid desperately in search of whatever will give them their old lives and selves back?
Those are two thoughts that hadn't crossed paths in my head before. They are now.
I bought a Zero water filter because it was good at removing the arsenic and something else that’s naturally occurring in our water in the northeast.
Then I paid for a consumer labs subscription and I found out that that specific water filter adds micro plastics to the water the first few fills. Ew. It claims you don’t have to soak it or flush it when you replace the filter but I always have just in case, and after reading that I’m glad I do.
covid seemed to affect her brain too. with unusual sadness. but it helped her to know that this can be from covid physically. and can be very short term. as it went away the same day in her case
My child had to wake me with strong respiratory distress. I am lucky that she is vaccinated. It would likely have been even worse without the boosters.
Give Michael Mina, MD, PhD his due as he did not allow his child's misfortune to interfere with his professed allegiance to minimizing COVID. In this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/upshot/covid-illnesses-mild-winter.html
he declares that we lucky duckies in the US have had the mildest COVID winter yet!
I guess for the fascists that run our democracy (US) culling us with viruses is a cost saving over using machine guns. Send those bullets to Israel instead!
Let me say this in conclusion: Trump is the culmination of a long slide into fascism. This country fetishes the projection of lethal force and indulges in the myth of exceptionalism. The Powell Memo written in 1971, the year of my high school graduation, laid the template for the right wing takeover of our discourse and governing principles. Corporate whims became ascendant and any protection for mere individuals like unions, for example were demolished.
Missed that. He just loves doing PR for covid!
Tracking these jackasses is an intractable and exhausting task! I'm thinking of starting a database of these rhetorical gems to ensure shaming for posterity.
Love the new digest format, although I'd like to see more of your long form pieces too.
There's something in the USAID segment that caught my eye. Venezuelan elections - I'm very sceptical of the mainstream narrative. I heard an interesting take from Red Nation, who went out to Venezuela during the election campaign, and they said you only have to attend a Socialist rally to see that the Western media reports are wrong. I know Venezuela has an exemplary system of checks and balances on its elections, but I've not been able to find any concrete evidence contradicting the MSM narrative. Even Al Jazeera is going along with it. Progressive International election monitors say the election was free and fair, but they don't cite any evidence. Do you have any sources I can follow up?
Nate, you're one of a handful of writers who's every post I read. I particularly enjoy your concise to the point format. Keep up the great work!!
Thanks. Will do!
Thinking about people in Nazi Germany from watching those old movie reels where Jews are pulled out of their homes, and are lining up to get into the trains. Or standing in front of a ditch, naked, waiting to be shot. And I always wondered, why didn’t they run? They knew death was imminent. Why wasn’t fight or flight kicking in? Why was “freeze” the response? Of course, running or fighting meant you would still die, but at least your last thought would be “I tried to save myself.” Now….now….I get it. And it scares the hell out of me.
So, something just occurred to me, re-reading this piece... These oligarchical techno-fascists are committed to their Network State project BS, and a part of that is the longer-term project of transhumanism ("augmenting" humans so that bodies are integrated with machines) and eventually the ability to upload one's consciousness to the cloud, supposedly making "eternal life" possible. They are going to need a lot of people willing to undergo "augmentation" and neurological experimentation (at least until they get to a point where they feel they don't need the "willing" part anymore) -- where are all those guinea pigs going to come from?
Entirely unrelatedly -- what do we think the oligarchical techno-fascists are envisioning as the function or societal place for the millions and millions of people disabled by Long Covid desperately in search of whatever will give them their old lives and selves back?
Those are two thoughts that hadn't crossed paths in my head before. They are now.
I bought a Zero water filter because it was good at removing the arsenic and something else that’s naturally occurring in our water in the northeast.
Then I paid for a consumer labs subscription and I found out that that specific water filter adds micro plastics to the water the first few fills. Ew. It claims you don’t have to soak it or flush it when you replace the filter but I always have just in case, and after reading that I’m glad I do.
she had swollen cheecks after covid but her doc allowed us to give her antihistamines which helped
covid seemed to affect her brain too. with unusual sadness. but it helped her to know that this can be from covid physically. and can be very short term. as it went away the same day in her case
My child had to wake me with strong respiratory distress. I am lucky that she is vaccinated. It would likely have been even worse without the boosters.
her test was positive