Here in the wilder west, while the weather is nice it’s fairly easy to distance oneself from the propaganda mills of the BBC and RTE etc. Like Canadian media, they’re all in the pocket of the state because the traditional media business model has been in financial decline for over a decade now. So they end up taking taxpayer dollar to publish propaganda. Frankly, most of the mainstream output is liberally spiced with some rather strange assertions, particularly about ‘science’.
Yet what is ‘the science’? Are we to believe professors with decades of experience in a subject, or some media ‘fact checker’ with qualifications (and an agenda) from a wholly different discipline? How much credence can be given to their interpretation of the IPCC’s annual reports, which, as presented to the world at large, predict disaster if a certain course is pursued? Notwithstanding being chock full of ‘could’, might’ and ‘if, conditional statements making wild predictions of weather disasters. Disasters I might add (Sea level rise, increases in storms etc.) which have, over the last fifty years, never come. These sources are more political screeds and urban myth than ‘the science’.
The problem is that ‘the science’ as presented is more a mythic belief system than actual scientific enquiry. ‘The science’ from what I hear from certain people is little better than a compendium of narrative wishful thinking. Proper science by contrast, is all about asking questions and finding answers, no matter where the evidence leads, ‘the science’ is no better than the opinion of a new class of pseudo-intellectuals who think that spouting a lot of fashionable buzzwords makes them the source of all truth and wisdom.
However, here’s a source, which is by no means ‘official’ that tries to make some sense of a complex topic in plain language.
On the same topic I was quite amused to see an attempt by the rent-an-activist crowd to disrupt a rugby match, getting sprayed with beer (What a waste!) and roughly handled by the stewards. It’s rather ironic, as the activists in question are known to get the largest wedge of their funding from the ‘climate emergency fund’, which is in turn funded by ‘big oil’ in the shape of the Rockefeller foundation.
This begs the question; why is an oil fortune funding these eejits? Is it some desperate ‘eat me last’ ploy, or as the more cynical side of my brain suspects, that the disruptions are part of a series of ploys to manipulate markets. Won’t work, as the eejits in question are having an effect, but it’s not the one, I strongly suspect, intended. The law of unforeseen consequences last seen giggling in the stands.
I leave my reader with the opinion of a frog when forced to listen to this litany of urban climate mythology.
Watch this video about ‘disinformation’, malinformation’ etc..
The ‘truth’ is being decided from on high, and you may not have any other opinion, or else you are automatically the ‘Other’. If for example you are anti-war, for what you feel are good reasons, then you might be marked down as a ‘Putin apologist’. If you have doubts about just one aspect of the new mRNA ‘vaccines’, no matter that you will happily roll up your sleeve for a more traditional inoculation, you are ‘anti-vax’. If you don’t like the idea of perverts parading around inside schools and public buildings in front of six year olds and say so, there are now laws to have you arrested for ‘hate speech’. Then there are the fake labels of ‘far-right’, ‘alt-right’, and ‘conspiracy theorist’ which are just so much collectivist ‘blah’.
All of these labels prove only one thing; the political and media classes are trying to lock down public opinion and punish those who disagree. Yet those who disagree, even mildly, or voice honest doubt, backed by data, are being accused of ‘destroying our democracy’. Even if they are demonstrably of the Demos (population) in question. The expulsion of Andrew Bridgen MP from the UK Parliamentary conservative party being a case in point.
Yet who are the people pushing these labels? The pro-war muzzlers of real science. Those corporate entities with vested interests and massive lobbying power. Infecting reality with their own twisted lust for unjustified political power. The parasite class. The serial liars and their fellow travellers who look down on those outside their bubbles, even if these bubble dwellers are really no better (and probably much, much worse) than the average Mk 1 human like you and me.
They are also the ones pushing things like ‘hate speech’, which is the most toxic of constructs because it can be used to outlaw even the most mild disagreement. Especially if the complainer has the emotional maturity of a thwarted toddler, something which seems all too common these days.
Besides, ‘hate speech’ laws suppress opinions which allow for a ‘clearing of the air’ conversations, and therefore such legislation is going to be highly toxic to social interaction and (I hope you’ll see the irony here) incredibly divisive. Because, oddly enough, it’s good to talk and negotiate instead of whining to some authority figure that pwecious ickle fi-fi’s have been hurt.
Hate speech laws will be (and are already being) abused to simply shut down necessary but uncomfortable debate (and even comedy) across a range of topics. Name calling hasn’t worked, so attempting to shut down non mainstream opinions with hate speech’ laws won’t either. The immutable law of unintended consequences is already waiting in the wings to make another hilarious appearance.
My mobile phone is having a sulk. It says I’m not playing with it enough and it keeps sending me plaintive little messages to say that I used it less than last week.
Even now it sits neglected on my desk while I go outside to work in my garden or up the meadows. I’ve even left it at home while I pop out to the shops, which doesn’t help. I swear it’s taken to glowering at me when I finally get back in the house.
To be honest there’s too much to do outside while the weather is nice. I can even take a break in the shade and watch the world go by from a Laurel shielded corner of the garden with a mug of tea, a book and a few rich tea biscuits.
My mobile phone and I are becoming more and more alienated. No one’s calling me at the moment anyway, so the intrusive little thing can stay wherever I last put it. If anyone wants to call or message me they can always leave a message and I’ll call them back. Maybe.
Mike Rowe reporting on a real environmentalist who has devoted his life to cleaning up rivers. Now if only people like those over educated morons of a certain road blocking and snooker disrupting faction would get together to really do something useful about real pollution, not the imaginary kind.
But that would involve them getting their delicate little handy pandies dirty, wouldn’t it?
Busy fixing storm damage and trying to get rid of broken glass. Had to happen. Some of the glass set by for my greenhouse project got smashed. Nothing important, but it’s going to cost me to get rid of all the shards. I’ve got spare panes, so I’m not really worried.
Then there’s the septic system. I’ve had my head and shoulders inside ours with a camera recently, trying to work out why it isn’t working properly. Not a happy situation. Yuk and double yuk.
But I’d rather be doing that than bother to go see a US president who is currently trying to con us all that he’s more Irish than Cú Chulainn. Fecking senile auld eejit.
Or rather not. About those little tin boxes powered by electrickery that the powers that be insist we will all be driving in the next ten years. Err, no. Geoff buys cars explains what is happening to the condition and second hand value of EV’s which aren’t all sparkly and brand new.
The law of unintended consequences is strong here.
Update: who would want a vehicle where even a minor shunt, resulting in little damage to the vehicle, is enough for your insurers to write off the entire car? Mostly to do with an increased fire risk.
Mrs S and I periodically discuss the wider world over the dinner table, and she often has a slightly different take on things, some of which I agree with, some not. But these sometimes heated discussions clear the air and let each of us know where the other stands. We’re grown up enough to respect the others opinion without it hurting our relationship. Well, it’s worked for the last couple of decades. So far so good.
However, what we both have in common is sympathy for those commentators who initially followed the party line and are having their illusions and cherished beliefs razed to the ground. Two such people, Dr John Campbell and Neil Oliver sometimes have an expression on their faces that they can’t quite believe the words coming out of their own mouths. Or as Mrs S colourfully put it, “Sometimes it’s like watching the clocks in their heads exploding, sending springs and cogwheels all over the place.”
Watch John Campbells expression as he listens to this US congressional evidence.
As for poor old Neil. I’ve watched him eloquently recite his misgivings time and again as the expression on his face clearly says; “I can’t believe I’m saying this!”
I suspect there are a lot of people out there that feel exactly as these two gentlemen do. Myself included. We have been betrayed. Mass murder may have been committed by the very people we pay our taxes for.
Which begs the question; “When are the arrests going to start?” Because there are people whose role in the last three years means that they are well overdue for being thrown under the bus. The evidence is all public domain, and the number of pointing fingers is growing. Now I’m beginning to think that Fauci et al will be hauled off to the jug to save the bacon of their more rich and powerful backers.
There has to be a reckoning. Or else we are faced with the naked truth that the social contract between rulers and ruled lies shattered on the ground like a billion broken windows. Who else feels this way?
Update; and in case you haven’t seen it, there is the latest Andrew Bridgen MP parliamentary question aboutvaccine harms.
For my part, when I heard certain people describe these mRNA vaccines as ‘death jabs’ back in 2021 I was sceptical. The evidence changed my mind. Now, like Andrew Bridgen, I believe the much touted mRNA treatments are a far bigger risk than the disease they are supposed to protect against.
Soaked to the skin planting fruit trees yesterday. The fruit bushes will have to wait until dryer weather arrives because there’s too much water in the ground. Then there are the rest of the seeds to finish, but I can do those in pots indoors in the area I’ve set by for germination. Just warm enough, with the temperature above ten Celsius. Not too damp.
So that’s fourteen trees this month, with an option of propagating another three. All fourteen look in good nick, with nice waxy buds filling out ready to break into leaf later in the month. Each of my new fruit trees have been planted in the middle of excavator tyres left behind by the last owner to keep the wildlife at bay. Not that we have many rabbits in the neighbourhood, the ground is too wet and rocky for them.
Then there’s the state of our investments. Fortunately we’ve no exposure in the collapsing part of the banking sector. Unless our broker has done something without telling us. I’ve already had words with my bank and telecoms today, and really don’t want any more fuss. Although with Credit Suisse and several other European banks falling on their arses over the last 24 hours, I’m sure consequences will be coming for those who have racked up large credit card bills and overdrafts. I don’t envy them.
Here at chez sticker we’ve managed to clear all our debts and managed to keep a reasonable cash reserve. Although Mrs S and I are carefully looking at our budgets and setting strict limits upon what we’ll be spending over the next twelve months. We’re not yet up to our necks in muck and bullets, but we can hear the implosions getting closer and are trying to keep well out of it. The credit cards have been put in locked boxes from where they will not emerge for a good while. I’ve even cancelled one, just so that I’m not hit by any unexpected charges.
The people I feel sorry for are the ones who will not only lose the roof over their head, but the shirt off their back and a fair bit of skin beside. But there is nothing we can do for them but keep our own little part of the world ticking over, so that when things do improve, there will be something left. Because despite what is being said in the media, the West is already in a recession and looks like heading into a long cold depression akin to that of the 1930’s.
Of course I could be talking out of an orifice not specifically designed for that purpose, but I’m not the only one who thinks the jig might be up. See this economist interviewed by big Nige over the UK’s latest budget. And you can’t effectively shut down the economies of much of the world for over two years and expect everything to go back to normal in the blink of an eye.
And everything is connected economically, because nothing in financial circles happens in isolation. It’s like that old song, the one I have bowdlerised below.
Dem banks, dem banks, dem broke banks, Dem banks, dem banks, dem broke banks, Dem banks, dem banks, dem broke banks, Now hear the word of the Lord!
Ezekiel cried, “Dem broke banks! Ezekiel cried, “Dem broke banks! Ezekiel cried, “Dem broke banks! Now hear the word of the Lord.
The Dollar connected to the Euro, The Euro connected to Sterling, Sterling connected to the Yuan, The Yuan connected to the Ruble, The Ruble connected to the Kroner, The Kroner connected to the Swiss Franc, Oh, hear the word of the Lord!
Dem banks, dem banks gonna print the cash Dem banks, dem banks, gonna print the cash Dem banks, dem banks, gonna print the cash Now hear the word of the Lord!
There’s a new garden path to set out and supper to cook. So the current banking crisis will do what the pandemic response did. Disrupt businesses, slow the economy even further, and screw us Peons over whilst protecting those who can afford lobbyists and have the ear of the powers that be. For the rest of us it’s business as usual. Up to our necks in muck and bullets.
Sunday, and I was kicking back with a glass or two, and just generally mulling the insanity of the Western world, when a YouTube vid about Artificial Intelligence caught my eye. The one below.
Now I’ve heard that there are plans afoot to implement AI systems to manage us mere mortals for things like ‘Social credit’ scores etc. The machines will decide whether what you, a Mark 1 human are allowed to do and believe. Or else. Got that?
Now, some might say, this is all well and good isn’t it? The machines will implement the rules equally and no one will be privileged. All will be fair. Our lives will be governed by machine logic, ushering in a new era of world peace and fairness for all. Well huzzah for that and half hols for everyone, right?
The only problem with that (At least to my free ranging mind) is that our idea of what is ‘fair’ may not appear even handed to any given managing AI. Indeed, a putative AI system governing human conduct will function according to the data inputs from messy old Homo Sapiens (Or Pan Narrans, if you follow the doctrines of St Terry of the Pratchett), and respond accordingly following the rules of machine logic and causality.
Take for example the taxation system. Put an AI in charge of that why don’t we? To which I say oooh yes, let’s do that, pretty please with sugar on it. Pause here and imagine a system where there can be no avoidance or evasion. For anyone. Think about that for a few minutes.
All done?
What would happen to all the millionaires and billionaires whose accountants can no longer dodge and obfuscate? A completely level playing field. The investor class wouldn’t last. They’d be clobbered in ten minutes flat. Whole fortunes wiped out be massive tax bills, issued by the implacable logic of a completely automated system.
What if an AI were to be also put in charge of the economy? Instead of politicians and bankers? Think about how ‘fair’ that system would be, where equality of outcome would be rigidly enforced, or the AI would cut off your account / travel / shopping access for serial infractions. Imagine the world where the politicians and bankers get treated exactly the same as John Q Public?
The politicians might try to give themselves privileges, but the machines would soon close off those loopholes.
With me so far? If you aren’t laughing now you should be, with prescient laughter. The powers that be and those who fancy themselves a cut above mere mortals might want to walk this one back a bit, because they have far more to lose than us proles.
Because AI managed ‘fairness’ is a two edged sword.
Mrs S has been wondering what I’ve been laughing about all morning.
Mrs S wants a hedge to back up the front wall. I thought she meant privet, but she says no, she wants a flowering shrub. So I’ve been scouring various horticultural sources for an evergreen that flowers. At present the smart money is on Gardenias. Although this may change.
Highly amused by the Yanks shooting down balloons at 40,000ft. Maybe the Pentagon isn’t aware, but there are companies who use Radio-Sonde type balloons to take giftware up to the edge of the atmosphere before retrieving it and selling the giftware items, like here. Is this what the Yanks have been shooting down? I could have saved them the cost of those three missiles by pointing them to this site for weather balloon tracking too.
The Redacted crew (See below) says it’s a probably distraction for the Yanks blowing up the Nordstream 2 pipeline. Not aliens.
Frankly it’s embarrassing. The western media have been beating the war drum so hard that everything is a ‘threat’. Everyone is shouting. No one’s really listening, and important information gets lost in the emotion. It’s why we can’t have nice things because the current US administration has less control than a thwarted spoiled brat.
Mrs S follows the UK Royal news. Every so often she feels compelled to share snippets with me. Like the current furore over a certain ex-prince of the realm who has written a book. Well, not so much a book as a fit of ghost-written pique.
Details of the security procedures meant to protect the monarch are not meant to become public domain, yet he has spilled the beans. Although the security services will no doubt have read the silly whinge-fest and changed their protocols accordingly.
Why this situation was created is purely down to said ex-princes ego. Which needs a bit of a psychic slap. He’s spent too much time in La-La land. And having been resident on Canada’s wet coast, I can vouch for how adrift from reality that can be.
Such a wake up call will not be a pleasant experience for said ex-prince. It will be traumatic and involve a good deal of self reflection. Indeed, the best case scenario for all concerned for him would be to become an outcast somewhere remote for a couple of years on his tod getting his mind right.
Far from the madness of his current existence. No phones, Internet or other modern conveniences, just a year or two of getting his hands dirty and away from the malign influences that have brought him to this circumstance. Maybe his Dad would help by letting him live rough on one of his estates where a man can lose himself for long enough to meet himself coming back, and perhaps learn a little gratitude and humility on the way.
To conclude; that boy needs serious alone time to get his head sorted out. Not that he’ll get it given current circumstances. Although if, as I think is probable given her track record, Sparkly Meg does dump him, as the gossip is that said alleged “Puck bunny” is busy looking for a new sugar daddy, he might just be lucky to become reconciled with his family. Then he might be worth having some sympathy for.
Maybe he could even go and take a job driving a tractor on Clarkson’s farm. While he decides to accept JC’s apology. Stranger things have happened.
Taking a break from painting my own personal Forth Bridge (metaphor for a never ending task) of shed roof patching. The major issue is that there’s so much residual moisture in between the cladding and the internal membrane that it’ll be weeks before I can tell how successful my patching has been.
Progress will be slow while I have no proper light in there, because I’m not stupid enough to do any wiring until I’m confident the shed is reasonably dry and leak resistant.
Major projects remaining are sorting a replacement septic system for the house and getting the gear in for mead brewing. Neither of which can happen for the next two months. Both are mostly weather and light dependent.
As is the patching. I need full daylight so I can see where the holes are, which limits my activity. I could of course get some crawl boards and do any sealing from up on top, but I don’t trust the current roof and rafters to hold up anything heavier than next doors cat. So, there’s another delay. The roof is going to be changed when funds allow to create a properly supported platform floor which can handle a full dance troupe doing a high kick routine. Then there will be a supported roof over that to make a second floor open viewing space. But that’s scheduled for 2024.
Was having a few issues with one app on my TV streaming box when not chasing people for quotes and suchlike, so I went on one of the forums to find out if anyone else had found a fix. Well now, what can i say? There was one guy (On several threads) demanding that an app be shut down and deleted because he / she / it felt that people were (And I joke not) “Being driven to suicide” by the “right wing content”. Well now chums. What can I say? I almost fell off my chair laughing. This was pure Tony Hancock, whose stock in trade was his pompous little man routine.
To put it politely, said complainant had definitely drunk deep of the Kool-aid, as our American cousins like to phrase it. Anyone questioning the mainstream dogmas of man made climate change / Covid / or the Epstein scandal etc was repeating “QAnon conspiracies” and should not be allowed to put their content on any app, anywhere. Yar boo to you.
Now as someone who has, through their own research and consulting the content of properly credentialed and experienced researchers, come to doubt a lot of the mainstream narrative, I can say, hand on heart, that I have never visited any QAnon (or similar) thread. Indeed, I tend to view all such content with a heavily jaundiced eye. Nor would I use anything on that platform as a source or reference. That would be like believing everything on Fox, CNN, BBC, MSNBC etc. While mainstream content (and QAnon) may contain elements of actual events, facts are too often overshadowed by a crowd of baseless assertions , hulking great porky pies and non-sequiturs.
Never been on Reddit either. Although I have had cause to consult various specialist forums for fixes and guidance. Like international tax treaties, legal advice and citizens advice. All of which are accessed and digested with a very healthy metaphorical grain of salt. It’s like getting quotes from tradespeople. You always get what you want nailed down as much as possible. You discuss options, you take advice, you sometimes follow your gut feelings. What some journalist might say in an article can give you an idea, but should rarely be taken as gospel. Their ignorance may be as great or greater than yours.
Personally, I pay attention to the people voicing legitimate concerns who have real world experience, even if they are semi-retired, Like Dr John Campbell, and the immunologists who penned the great Barrington declaration. People who have been doing high level work and teaching all their working lives, not those who are little better than petty bureaucrats, afraid to deviate from an accepted narrative lest they lose their jobs.
That said, one of the things that never fails to pleasantly surprise me is how often when talking to friends and family nowadays, who had previously dismissed my positions on various topics, now agree with me. Totally without prompting. Which feels quite gratifying. When I feel my opinions have been reached reasonably. Reached by pausing and asking questions when all else are hurrying blindly toward a cliff edge. As with people like the recently unjustifiably maligned and sidelined Andrew Bridgen, UK MP for northwest Leicestershire. Falsely accused of ‘anti-Semitism’.
To the vicious person on that (and probably other) forum I would say this; shutting people up for voicing genuine concerns or doubts, is flat out wrong. Even if those voicing the concerns do go off on one. If you don’t like their version there is always the off switch. Contrariwise, blanket dismissal of carefully formulated opinions on various topics as mere ‘conspiracy theories’ is also very closed minded. A tactic that simply marks out the person making said knee jerk statement as ignorant and perhaps even callous.
Does this mean I would like the comments that ‘offended’ me shut down? Far from it. Let them make fools of themselves. Let their overt hatred of ‘the other’ show them up for the blinkered bigots they claim others are. In public, where others can use the Robin Williams defence against rape (“point and laugh”), because by shutting down all other voices but theirs is nothing short of the rape of public discourse. And it’s gotten really obvious.
The only question we need ask when anyone makes a definitive statement of belief is; “How much of what you are telling me is really true? or is this just your opinion?”
Well, that’s only my opinion. But more and more people, with or without reading my commentary, share it.
I mean come on. Silly masks do next to nothing to stop infection. They may reduce the radius of infection in an operating theatre, but in civilian hands they are effectively useless, Especially at stopping viral spread. The weave is too coarse to stop microdroplets and catches other pathogens for rebreathing.
I don’t give a bugger whether mask mandates are being brought back because they didn’t work last time. Nor did keeping people restricted indoors. Again, because indoors is where people catch most infections. I would argue strongly that the restrictions made things worse. The high excess death figures post pandemic rather proving my point.
Heavy sigh, no doubt we will be treated to ‘health advice’ to wear a mask while swimming FFS! How stupid are the people giving this ‘advice’? And if someone says that they are ‘following the science’ to me I’ll laugh in their face.
All to prevent an infection that is no worse for most then a bad cold. Candidly me deario’s I think these experts and the idiots who believe them are madder that Jock Mcfiddle-Blanchett, a Victorian lunatic who was the only man to invent a Trout powered bicycle and believed that the pixies in his sporran made him walk sideways. He also claimed to be the first Vampire haddock, who turned into a piece of battered fish during the hours of darkness,
People that batshit crazy should be nowhere near anywhere they can influence policy for the rest of us.
Don’t know why, but it just struck me. Every single argument for man made climate change is a complete non-sequitur.
non sequitur
/nɒn ˈsɛkwɪtə/
noun
a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.”his weird mixed metaphors and non sequiturs”
For example; that decrepit old luvvie Attenborough will make a claim on one of his well produced but factually warped natural history programmes that a Walrus jumped off a cliff because it got too hot, ‘cos of ‘climate change’. With the implication that it’s all the fault of dear Mrs Miggins who drives her Morris Minor two miles to Tesco’s once a week and should have her pension cut off for said criminal act. When what actually happened was that said Walrus was taking a well earned breather from foraging for clams in freezing Arctic seas to socialise with it’s mates on a nice beach when some bloody great Polar Bear turns up, chases it up the slope and off the cliff edge where it promptly croaks.
Or we get shown the spectacular calving of a glacier, which is a regular event that occurs both when glaciers are advancing or retreating, then some narrator with a nice voice assures us that the big crumbling of excess ice from the glacier is all your fault for taking your once a year (and well earned) flight to Ibiza for a dose of alcoholic poisoning, venereal disease and sunburn.
All pro man made climate change arguments are structured thus. Something that looks like a fact is presented with a claimed cause of man made climate change due to your ’emissions’. Yet when you ask the people making these specious claims for a better proof you are faced with claims that only they know ‘the science’ you filthy denier so you’d better shut your mouth or we’ll have you arrested for ‘hate crime’. You transphobic, islamophobic, phobicphobic racist bigot you.
Which basically sums up all their cultish “only we know how to save the world” arguments. No wonder so many people are going “If it sounds like complete bollocks it must be.” and turning off the propaganda.
The Bill Sticker Alternative 