In the last day of October, the far-Left propaganda and Regime shilling outlet The Atlantic published an astonishingly tone-deaf piece titled Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty.
As per the article itself, our response simple: NO. And by that we mean HELL NO!
With that said, however, we are open to discussion about a pandemic amnesty. We have no interest in holding a grudge forever. Unlike the Branch Covidians – who never stopped with their creepy and dystopian talk of “the new normal” – we have no intention of inflicting a revanchard agenda upon them forever.
But, we’re also not interested in unconditional amnsety. Justice needs to be served. Forgiveness can only come after punishment has been doled out, contrition has been shown and apologies have been asked. Not a second earlier.
So here are the Sofa’s conditions for amnesty both at an individual and collective level:
Get fired and don’t work anywhere for 24 months (work for free is an acceptable option) and live on savings. No welfare either. In the case of medical profession, the period must be a minimum of 48 months because of the inherent Evil of that profession
Pay an amount equivalent to 8 months of the Branch Covidian’s current income plus 20% plus all of the bank/transfer fees to a reparations fund
Additionally, pay out of pocket reparations to all those you personally harmed, but no more than the equivalent of 16 months of your current income. Subjected to the private arbitration of a panel of your peers – two normal people and one Branch Covidian
Post public heartfelt apologies and, where applicable, do a TV tour as well
If applicable, publicly denounce your political party’s Covid19 policies and leadership and work hard to remove them from politics altogether
You are automatically signed up as a volunteer for all trials of mRNA-based medical products, in addition to mandatory 4 Moderna shots per year for 10 years
No right to vote for 10 years
Make amends by amplifying those who were right about Covid19 and purposefully making space for them explicitly to the detriment of those who were wrong
If applicable, denounce those above you and collaborate to any investigation that can lead to jailing, firing or fining of those above you (applicable for anyone working in “public health”, education, medicine, multinational corporations, any government agency and other institutions at fault for the situation)
Publicly work, for at least two years, to get “public health” recognized as an illegitimate profession which thus enjoys undue and illegitimate authority
Why is this necessary
Of course, at an individual level, especially with the rank and file, we are open to further negotiations (except for the reparations fund – that’s a must). But without personal punishment equivalent to the harm(s) inflicted, this whole madness will happen again.
You can’t just come out and say “Ooops, my bad!” after two years of being consistently wrong and after two years of demonizing, dehumanizing and abusing those who were correct.
And most certainly you cannot, as Prof. Emily Oster does in The Atlantic, come out and say that those of us who were entirely correct all along were simply “lucky”. No, we weren’t lucky. You can be lucky once. Maybe twice. After the third time in a row of being correct, it’s no longer coincidence or luck.
You also cannot come out and say that despite being entirely wrong about everything, it’s all excusable because it was done with good intentions. Mao Zedong also had good intentions. We’re not interested in your “good intentions”. The policies you supported amounted to illiberal, illegal, useless and immoral abuses against basic civil liberties and human rights. That cannot and will not be forgiven by a simple ”oops!” Nor will it be waved away under the excuse that the abusers had the best intentions in mind. With all due respect, fuck your best intentions! Sideways!
If these policies had been advocated and implemented by a nominally Right Wing elite, you would be asking for public prosecutions. So you will forgive us for asking roughly the same.
You also cannot expect anyone to forgive so easily after your side closed public parks, filled skate parks with sand to prevent teenagers from having fun, called children killers (this happened in Germany, Denmark, Romania and other countries), closed churches, implemented policies that drove children literally insane (who knew that solitary confinement is torture, am I right?) and, perhaps the most unforgivable, advocated for the death through starvation of those who disagree with you (because that’s exactly what “workplace mandates” meant in practice).
It shows a tremendous sense of entitlement (and no contrition whatsoever) to simply expect to be forgiven and granted amnesty after all of this.
Your policies led to inflation, job losses, a spike in unnecessary cardiopathies, loss of careers, suicides, severe deepening of pre-existent mental health problems (in addition to creating new ones), learning losses, crime increases that we’ll all have to grapple with for decades to come (we have no idea how many new serial killers are out there and we’ll only learn the hard way over the years to come) and a whole plethora of social and economic troubles that we can’t even properly assess yet for they are yet to manifest themselves.
And this is in addition to the open celebration of the deaths of those who disagreed with you, the open instigation(s) to genocide against those who disagree with you and the destruction of important events of life (baptism, weddings and funerals).
All of this was for nothing. And you were told, a quintillion times, that you are wrong. You refused to listen. You insisted you know better.
The excuse that you didn’t know better may work for March of 2020. Maybe for April 2020. Some more charitable people (certainly not us!) may even be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for the whole of 2020. But under no circumstances is your side deserving of anything other than punishment and scorn for the brutal insanity you personally helped implement in 2021 and early 2022.
There is no way we will forgive that easily without proper punishment being doled out.
Kathleen Hochul, the presumptive frontrunner for the gubernatorial race in New York outright said she would do the exact same sanitary fascism allover again. Kansas governor stated she has absolutely nothing to apologize for the atrocious, illiberal, illegal and illegitimate way she supposedly ”managed” the Wuhan Flu.
With very, very few exceptions, virtually nobody from your side even apologized. So, under these conditions, we have no intention of discussing amnesty unless it is in the terms we laid out above.
Until an amnesty is reached, as far as we are concerned, we continue to be at war with your side. All out war, to be more precise.
Anything is fair game: Your career, you as a person, your family, your children, your business, your finances, your hobby/ies – anything you hold dear. If it is legal for us to attack, we will attack without any regards on how this makes you feel. Until you yield to our demands. Because our demands are just and rightful and your position is illiberal, illegitimate, morally reprehensible and downright Evil.
There is a time and place for amnesty. That time has not come yet. It is up to you when that happens.
This show survived long enough to catch the commencement of reckoning on several topics.
So… the reckoning is here for all the campus violence flamed by the far-Left and entertained by the Academia. It is here for all those who supported school closures now finding themselves in deep trouble (although not enough trouble in our view). It is here for all the politicians and pundits who supported extremist and anti-scientific policies that led to children being mutilated, mentally impaired and with a myriad of long-term issues that can’t even be assessed, yet.
Reckoning is here for Joe Biden as well – as railroad workers may end up striking, thus b0rking the supply chain even more, an issue entirely under the control of the federal government, and an issue that did not exist under Obama and Trump.
Reckoning is slowly approaching for Putin as well. Dissent was virtually non-existent until 10 days ago. Now it’s elected officials and even federal TV stations. And it’s only going to get worse.
Reckoning is seeping in for Европейски съюз in general and for Germany in particular. Because for all the belly-aching about Poland and other Intermarium countries – the Russophilia in Europe has had its capital in Berlin.
Reckoning is coming in Sweden as well. Much to the mainstream’s shock (but to the shock of exactly nobody who was following the Swedish society) the Sweden Democrats came in second in the election and a new bourgeois government is likely to be formed – and a government that will explicitly adopt immigration and integration policies that were “far right”, censored from discussion and unthinkable merely 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, in France, the underground institutions of the Right are finally yielding results after 18 years of work – showing a way for dissidents in other countries on how to advance.
Reckoning is coming in Armenia as well. Nobody is coming to its aid and the conflict reached a dead-end for Pashinyan – one of the few politicians that was simultaneously the darling of both the West and of the Kremlin. Ooops! Seems like playing both sides has limits.
Meanwhile, theft, corruption and downright stupidity is creating energy woes in Africa – particularly Nigeria and the South African Republic. All while in Ethiopia, the efforts to maintain ceasefires in Tigray continue.
Energy woes is exactly what India and Japan do not want to have. So both countries are pouring enormous amounts of money in nuclear and coal. Indians are a bit more honest while the Japanese still try to sweeten the deal by mentioning the nonsensical “decarbonization” claptrap – all while enhancing coal and setting the stage for SMRs and new big reactors.
Chinese biopharmaceutical stocks took a slump after US sanctions on intellectual property kicked in, all while the citizens in Uyguristan enter their 6th week of lockdown and a biosecurity totalitarian state.
Reckoning is coming in Oceania as well. Even with removing all of the pandemic theater, New Zealand’s children still aren’t coming back to school. The government expects 70% of children to come back to school in the next four years. All while neuropsychiatric issues continue to mount amongst the country’s minors.
Food prices are way up in NZ, even though it’s a country with a top-tier agricultural sector; and in Australia a “mortgage time bomb” is ticking – as the central bank called it.
Reckoning is coming for everyone. For many, it is already here.
These, and other news and sub-threads, are explored in great detail in the longest episode of the series. The music breaks will also bring exclusive footage from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We thought that we’d go down with a bang since this will also be the last one in this format. We hope you enjoyed this version of traveling through the whole world’s (geo)politics.
One of the recurring themes thrown around by those questioning the efficacy of sanctions against the Russian Federation is the postulate that the Russian Rouble is at its all time high. The slightly more informed ones nuance things and say that the Rouble is at its 5-year high (which is also closer to the truth). Tucker Carlson claimed yesterday that the Rouble hit a 7-year high (timestamped link) but even that is also a debatable claim.
7 years ago $1 would buy 50 roubles. Today it buys 60 roubles. So on a 7 year trend, the rouble is in fact worth 20% less.
Russian Rouble to US Dollar 10 year exchange chart Source: xe.com (Xenon Laboratories Incorporated)
The evolution of the Rouble, their argument goes, shows not only the inefficacy of sanctions, but it also allegedly proves that it’s making Russia stronger. But is that true?
Now, there is a lot to discuss about the sanctions regime – and certainly some of the sanctions are outright useless or ill-conceived – but the point about the exchange rate is a non-sequitur. The answer to the point “the RUB is at an all-time/5-years/whatever-lengh-of-time high” is “So what?”. The nominal value of the exchange rate is only a minuscule part of the story and is rarely a relevant one.
Some comparisons
If the argument had been true – that a higher exchange rate means a stronger economy for that country – then that would necessarily imply for everyone to believe that Somalia is at its best economically over the last 17 years.
But is that the case? Well, not really. Somalia’s economy is mostly stagnating – and has been mostly stagnating for most of the last 20 years with a brief exception in 2014-15.
Data Source: World Bank Image Source: Macrotrends.net
Of course, there are multiple explanations for this. The locust infestation, the floods, the inevitable imports of inflation and a few other local and regional crises that have hit Somalia over the last 5 years explain this phenomenon really well (in addition to the historical baggage that the country is carrying).
But if the exchange rate had been an important part of the story, then the economic situation in Somalia should’ve improved instead of worsening. But it didn’t because the exchange rate is a poor proxy for measuring the economic strength of a country – be it Russia or Somalia.
My argument stands even when looking at more developed and wealthier countries.
The Israeli New Shekel, for instance, has a higher exchange rate against the dollar today than it had in 2016. Yet the economic growth (and the corresponding level of prosperity) of Israel has, at best, a light correlation with the exchange rate. Heck, Israel had over the last 15 years some years in which it recorded economic growth yet a negative annual change for the same year.
If the story Tucker Carlson and others are telling had been true, and a good exchange rate and GDP growth meant increase in prosperity and economic strength of the country, then that would’ve been easily noticeable in most countries throughout the data at least over the last 20 years. But it’s not.
On capital controls
Capital control represents any measure taken by a government, central bank, or other regulatory body to limit the flow of foreign capital in and/or out of the domestic economy. These controls include taxes, tariffs, legislation, volume restrictions and a whole plethora of other measures.
Ever since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian Central Bank imposed quite a few capital control measures: it banned Russian companies from sending their funds overseas (measure somewhat softened in June), introduced a mandatory rule for export-oriented companies to sell as much as 80% of their forex revenues at home (later the threshold was lowered to 50% but the measure overall still stands) and made it very difficult for regular Russians to buy physical US dollars or Euros even at a loss (which led to the street exchange rate to skyrocket – something unseen since the old Soviet days). Most of these were adopted even before any Western-led economic sanctions had been adopted.
In practice, this means that a Russian citizen or resident cannot take advantage of this “good exchange rate” in any meaningful way. In other words: the Russian Rouble may be at its “best moment in X years”, as the story goes, but nobody can meaningfully confirm that in practice because it’s illegal and nearly impossible to do so.
Russia is not the first (nor the last) to find itself in such situation. Iceland for instance introduced similar capital control measures in 2008 to prevent capital flight and a total meltdown of its economy. Those measures were only lifted in 2017 with mixed results. Just like Russia, Iceland stayed out of the international financial markets for years as investors (rightfully) regarded the Icelandic banking sector and the krona as untrustworthy.
When the capital control measures were lifted, the krona had the highest exchange rate in years (just like the rouble has now), yet the country got much wealthier in the years that followed the lifting of capital controls even though that also led to a negative trend in the exchange rate.
This also makes sense intuitively. For most people in any country (except for some exporters) it is preferable for hard foreign currency (USD, EUR, etc.) to be cheaper rather than more expensive. This is even more important for people in countries where so many of the necessary goods are denominated in a foreign currency (usually USD or EUR) – which is a situation in which most of the world (Russia included) finds itself in.
Convertible currencies and other factors
To an extent, all currencies are subjected to capital controls and other restrictions. But some (a lot) less so than others.
Currencies subjected to the least amount of controls and restrictions are called convertible currencies because they can be easily bought or sold on the foreign exchange market with little to no restrictions. A convertible currency is a highly liquid instrument (and thus more desirable) than a currency that is tightly controlled by a central bank.
That’s why people allover the world hoard $100 bills a lot more than €500 notes (which the EU is trying to abolish) or the 1000 Emirati dirham bill. The US dollar, for all its faults, is convertible. Of course, this is a matter of trust and historic precedent. But people around the world trust the US dollar so much that the $100 bill routinely tops the charts as one of the best American exports.
World currencies are divided between convertible, partially convertible and non-convertible. The Swiss Franc, the Euro, the US Dollar, the British Pund Sterling, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kroner, the Canadian dollar, Emirati Dirham and the Australian dollar are the most well-known convertible currencies. But on this small list there are a few lesser-known members such as the Kenyan Shilling, the Singaporean dollar, the Saudi Arabian Riyal or the South African Rand. In fact, in some countries of Africa (that are not South Africa) you may end up in a bit of a shock when the ATM may cough up South African Rands instead of the local currency. That is possible because the local banks and the people trust the Rand to be interchangeable and liquid all the time including and especially against the local currency (e.g. Namibian dollar).
The partially convertible currencies are those that are liquid enough to be changed in some places but not easily on the foreign exchange market. The Kyrgyz Som, the Polish Złoty, the Romanian Leu or the Turkish Lira are some examples of currencies in this category.
The non-convertible currencies are, really, the majority of the currencies in the world. Russian Rouble, Kazakh Tenge, Tunisian Dinar, Uzbek Sumy, the Ukrainian Hrivnya and so many others are in the category of currencies that if you’re caught holding, you’ll be in a very difficult position should you will try to exchange them into something else without physically going into the place/country where they are in circulation (and sometimes not even then – as it’s the case with Tunisia or Russia).
That’s why my 160,000 Uzbek so’m/sumy leftover from my visit there are nearly impossible to change outside Uzbekistan – because the so’m, in addition to being inflationary in ways the US dollar isn’t, is not even partially convertible. Not even banks in the neighboring countries accept them. People traveling from Uzbekistan to neighboring Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan carry US dollar $20 and $100 notes with them.
Of course, there are degrees here too. The non-convertible Kazakh Tenge is a bit “more convertible” than the Tunisian Dinar and they are both more convertible than the North Korean won. But the point is that non-convertible currencies are not only less liquid, but they’re also less reliable (since their regulation regime is more likely to change overnight or with little notice than convertible ones) and, most importantly, information about them is routinely less relevant.
The Russian Rouble, being non-convertible, coupled with the “temporary” capital controls is one of the currencies whose nominal exchange rate is even less corroborated with the real world.
This has happened to Russia in the past too. In the 1980s, the official rate was 1 Soviet rouble (SUR) for 1.35 US Dollars (or 74 копейки/kopeks for $1). The capital control regime was even tighter than now. Once those controls were lifted, in 1988, the exchange rate moved from 0.74SUR for a dollar to 100SUR in under four years. And that was the official rate. On the streets (the only free market) the Soviet Rouble would trade for as much as 500 roubles for a US Dollar.
The lesson here is this: The exchange rate’s importance in the story of the economy of a country varies by the status of the currency. The more convertible a currency is, the more important its exchange rate is. And the less convertible a currency is (as it’s the case with the Russian Rouble), the less important its exchange rate is.
We can (and indeed should) discuss the role of sanctions in the West’s response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine – but the value of the Russian Rouble as communicated by the Russian Central Bank is simply not an argument in this discussion.
We can (and indeed should) discuss the effect of sanctions (both on Russia and on the West itself) but touting the exchange rate of the Rouble does nothing to advance the argument in any direction. It merely distracts attention from more relevant aspects and, in the end, wastes everyone’s time.
One of the great advantages of publishing on Odysee is that we can discuss the three main topics of this period without being afraid of upsetting some “algorithm” from Goolag Inc. The topics are Roe v Wade, the sentencing of Ghislane Maxwell and the upcoming recession.
Speaking of Goolag Inc., the tech corporation has been infiltrated by a sectarian apocalyptic cult and, like any other virus/parasite, it seeks to replace everyone in the firm with their own NPCs. Dis gon b gud!
In other news, Ecuador lifts the state of emergency after the president’s attempt to consolidate power didn’t quite work out, Austria scraps its vaccine mandate after even their fans noticed that approximately nobody takes the myocarditis-inducing experimental gene therapy clotshot out of fear of some BS fine; the terrible Harvard leftist who was the prime minister of Bulgaria now blames Russia for his own incompetence and inept leadership; Russia itself went into a little bit of default and FC Sherriff Tiraspol found itself sanctioned.
In the background, Jarosław Kaczyński resigns from a visible role to get back to what he’s best at: preparing the agitprop for the election; and finally in Italy a serious ECR leader emerges and is now in pole position to replace boomer Draghi.
The fertilizer shortage and high prices is driving domestic investment and production in Africa; South Korea is on track to severely cut dependency on China on rare earths and other connected industries and the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Kishida, turns out to be more hawkish than previously believed.
Meanwhile, in Australia the consumers are behaving like 2003 Eastern Europe (birthday parties and washing machines on expensive credit) while the Prime Minister slashed staffing for independent MPs and crossbenchers – a move which will result in a more hostile Parliament for the newly elected Labor leader.
These, and other news are discussed thoroughly in the 31st edition of the World Sofa Report – the first in the new studio, the last one before a long break and the first one with a guest. Hope y’all enjoy it.
When we titled episode 28 “We’re all living in Eastern Europe” we were thinking more like Eastern Europe of the 1990s – that is to say increased corruption, a good dose of institutional chaos, increased inflation and a decent dose of infrastructure decay. What we weren’t thinking of is Eastern Europe of the 1980s – namely all of the above plus food shortages, electricity shortages and full HONK propaganda. Yet the latter is increasingly more present, particularly in the so-called ‘civilized’ West.
A recession is a foregone conclusion in the US (and by consequence in most of the world) and the only reason this word is not being uttered is because the midterms are coming. Meanwhile, Ohio governor signed the bill to allow teachers to be armed – a step in the right direction. In the background, 10 retiring boomer ‘republican’ senators are joining the far-Left in an attempt to pass an obviously unconstitutional gun bill while California Dems want to weaponize the local IRS against patriotic groups in a bid to prevent California’s slow march towards becoming red again.
In Sweden, Ukrainian refugee children are being beaten up by Arabs who tell them to “go home” – in yet another event showing the deep problem that exists in Sweden as a result of the catastrophic decisions made back in 2015-16.
The European Commission may end up in a spat again with the United Kingdom as the Johnson government is trying to correct a provision of the Brexit agreement which, at the moment, de facto turns Northern Ireland in a third-party state. Meanwhile, Nord Steam 1 is working at a lower capacity as more and more countries in Evropeiski Soyuz are being compelled to embrace nuclear.
But while the problems in Europe and North America are causing some turbulence, they are for sure mild in comparison to the spillover effects on Africa. Even in wealthier space-program operator Nigeria the fuel prices are threatening the domestic flights, public transport is almost entirely paralyzed in Zimbabwe and in Cameroon thousands of truckers spend weeks stranded at highways and border crossings due to lack of diesel which threatens to cause its own local version of supply chain chaos.
Also in Africa, Moscow is trying to get approval to build a military base in Sudan as the transition to democracy is blocked in Khartoum and the negotiations seem to have hit a dead-end.
In Israel the country might get its fifth election in three years as the coalition of Naftali Bennett is now officially a minority government and thus subjected anytime to a successful vote of no confidence given that Benjamin Netanyahu has made no secret that he is vying for a return to power.
Disney has a film banned in UAE for consistent pidar in public; the Yemeni government is slowly progressing in its peace negotiations with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and while the world is grappling with oil shortages, Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese oil company is phasing out one of its big refineries as Japan is preparing for an economy with a smaller population.
Meanwhile, the CCP is using the Cough19 QRkodizatsiya programme to prevent protests from taking place against the financial mismanagement of four rural banks which may have lost at least $3bn in depositors’ money; all while Xi Jinping is trying his best to divert attention from all of these issues as he’s preparing for the Congress of the Party in the second half of the year.
The new majority government in Australia is already showing strong 1980s Ceaușescu vibes in terms of its approach to energy; the Australian Reserve Bank makes no promises that the interest rates won’t go to the Moon, while in NZ the country is only now finding out about the principle in commercial law called “abuse of dominant position” all while the country is also trying hard (and for the most part failing) to disarm its population.
These and other news are discussed thoroughly in this long-waited 30th edition of the World Sofa Report. Let’s explore!
While the Wuhan Virus was in some ways a bit different (though not really too different from the other respiratory pathogens we humans encountered in the recent past), the monkeypox is known for over 60 years. And, in fact, the corporate media has been stirring panic over it multiple times over the last 20 years or so.
But before we get to history, please take a quick look at the little document below:
So, the reason both the President of the USA and the skeptic/alternative media are talking about this is because someone’s been nasty in public with the monkeypox yet again (yes, this also happened in the past too). And it’s not just any random somebody – but exactly the Wuhan Virology Institute, you know, kinda sort of the source of the Wuhan Flu which is still being used by various countries (including and especially the People’s Republic of China) to suppress civil liberties.
However, unlike the Wuhan Coronavirus, the monkeypox has decades of literature behind it and also multiple attempts by media or governments (assuming the two entities are separate) to turning it into a panic.
It will not be the first time humans are being stupid in public over monkeypox.
For instance in 2012 the CDC/US Feds quarantined a Delta flight over fears of monkeypox.
It was… bed bugs.
Here’s a 2010 story about monkeypox in Zaire/DR Congo and why the disease didn’t just die off as the eXpErTs had expected:
Just yesterday, in Romania, a doctor that has been making waves over his “warnings” of monkeypox allegedly found at his hospital… had to be taken to the loony bin after he beat up a patient and two nurses, and then tried to drive a garbage truck. You see… viral panics attract the looniest members of society.
Well, similar things happened in Britain in 2018. Most of the tabloid press and other media took it upon themselves to warn the public about the looming danger(s) of the monkeypox. Rumours of “hundreds” of “cases” spread like wildfire (and, just like with Covid or with monkeypox today, no clear definition of what a “case” means was offered). In reality, there had been exactly… two cases. Both discussed at length in this paper: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.38.1800509 (please notice the quality and the precision of clinical data – the opposite of what was and still is the case with Covid19)
Here’s a 2016 story of the very serious monkeypox outbreak in DR Congo:
BS stories about monkeypox aren’t a new phenomenon at all. Nor an exclusive purview of the West.
Here’s the health minister in Malaysia in 2019, exasperated by the media’s exaggerations of the monkeypox (which at the time hadn’t even been detected in his country):
The United States suffered through an outbreak of monkeypox 19 years ago, in the year 2003. Here’s how the CDC was describing the situation in the middle of the outbreak:
As of July 8, 2003, a total of 71 cases of monkeypox have been reported to CDC from Wisconsin (39), Indiana (16), Illinois (12), Missouri (two), Kansas (one), and Ohio (one); these include 35 (49%) cases laboratory-confirmed at CDC and 36 (51%) suspect and probable cases under investigation by state and local health departments
Here’s how the 2003 outbreak was described in a paper from 2006 (remember that any outbreak is better analyzed at its end, rather than in the middle of it – because cooler heads can prevail and emotion/panic doesn’t run as high):
In May and June 2003, public health officials identified an outbreak of human monkeypox in the United States. This was the first instance of human monkeypox virus (MPXV) infection detected outside its endemic range in Africa. As of July 30, 2003, a total of 72 human cases had been reported. Thirty-seven (51%) cases were eventually laboratory confirmed, and 35 met the case definition set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among the 35 patients whose cases were laboratory confirmed before July 11, 2003, 32 (91%) tested positive for MPXV by PCR, culture, immunohistochemical testing, or electron microscopy of skin lesions; 2 tested positive by PCR and/or culture of an oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal swab; and 1 tested positive by PCR and culture of a lymph node aspirate. To date, no new animal or human cases have been reported.
The outbreak was relatively large compared with most reported events in Africa, but clinical features were milder than typically seen there. No human deaths occurred, although 2 children required intensive care. One patient received a corneal transplant due to chronic ocular infection.
Please notice that PCR tests were a thing then too. Though, unlike 2020/21/22, they weren’t used randomly on the general population – which allowed for a much more precise use. And even so, the PCR test was still rather useless as a diagnostic tool. Back in those days, diseases were counted by clinical diagnosis. The good ol’ days…
Anyway, “your pets are a danger” is also not a new narrative.
There was a time when the mainstream Left was equally skeptical of the public health establishment and Big Pharma as the Right.
Here’s an article about monkeypox in The Guardian from 2003: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2003/jun/12/thisweekssciencequestions -> Notice that the possibility of it spreading wildly through humans is treated with a shrug, precisely because the disease itself is pretty mild (and infection-acquired immunity is lifelong and sterilizing, by the way).
Experiments on and with monkeypox in aerosolized form (in theory more transmissible – tho not necessarily in practice) aren’t new either.
Here’s a paper from 2001 discussing such an experiment: https://www.nature.com/articles/3780373
So… does all of this mean that this time ’round there won’t be a general(ized) panic about the monkeypox even though it’s the third or fourth semi-serious transnational outbreak just this century? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
“People are not stupid, people are fucking stupid” – is a reality that the powers that be know all too well. Additionally, unlike 2001, 2003, 2010 and 2019, people are significantly stupider today. Or, at the very least, the stupidity of the general public is far more evident today than it was at the turn of the century. With this fact in mind, do expect authorities in at least some countries to be supremely stupid in public.
Remember that in 2009, a few countries did go into lockdown over a very mild flu. And highly advanced countries at some point in time were very proud of spreading DDT everywhere in order to fight child paralysis. In fact, they were proud of it:
The point that I’m making is that the ability and willingness of the Trust the Science™ crowd to endorse policies that amount to being supremely stupid in public is not a new phenomenon. It did not start with Covid19 and there is no reason for it not to be manifested during this outbreak of monkeypox.
The purpose of this article is to equip you with the knowledge that this movie has been seen before. Monkeypox experiments (including dubious lab experiments), media panic over it, dubious policies meant to “protect” but in fact did only harm, dubious NPIs being deployed, very fake news spreading like wildfire… all of those happened multiple times just in the last 20 years. And the world didn’t end under a pile of monkeypox rashes. It won’t this time either.
Also, it is true that the smallpox vaccine protects (because, unlike the myocarditis-inducing experimental gene therapy clotshots of 2020, it actually is a vaccine). It is also true that infection-acquired immunity is lifelong and sterilizing.
Also, while it makes for good memes, monkeypox is not like HIV (Gay-related immune deficiency – GRID) in the sense that it’s not an STD per se. It’s still funny though to watch/read concocted double speak like “individuals who self-identify as gay or bi-sexual as well as other communities of men who have sex with other men” – because, you see, “homosexuals” is just not hip enough anymore.
That’s it for now. Don’t panic. Grab popcorn. And enjoy the shitshow.
MPs from Putin’s “United Russia” party filed a proposal in the Duma (Russian parliament) to abolish the age limit for first-time military contractors from abroad (mercenaries), routinely used by the Russian army in operational theaters, including in Ukraine.
Andrey Krasov and Andrey Kartapolov filed the proposal to amend the Military Duty and Service Act in the sens of abolishing the upper age limit until a contractor can serve for the Russian military, according to a document published by the Duma’s electronic database consulted by RIA Novosti (link inaccessible from the European Union).
The MPs explain that Russian citizens can serve under a contract from age 18 up to the age of 40, while foreigners can serve only from age 18 to 30 years of age.
“This bill aims to eliminate the age limit for foreign citizens of working age who are entitled to enter into a contract with the military service,” the proposal states.
Additionally, the set of amendments also set new limits for who can use high precision weapons and who can operate other more sophisticated military equipment. Such tasks are reserved for highly professional specialized personnel that can now serve by age 45.
According to the authors of the initiative, these modifications will make it possible to attract more specialists from the civilian sector in popular roles in the military.
Finally some more visible non-Leftists are willing to do what it takes: namely to compete and go on the offensive – not just occasionally, but all the time.
The last couple of weeks were quite good in this department: There is now a full fledged children’s right-wing entertainment complex that terrifies CNN (the same CNN that flopped CNN+, hehe) and Ron DeSantis imposes the correct policy against globohomo Disney.
Meanwhile, the glowing-in-the-dark case of alleged kidnapping plot of tyrannical governor of Michigan collapsed in court. With a bit of luck and a lot of work, she will collapse in November too.
In Europe, dozens were injured after an Allahu-Ackbar set of riots in Sverigestan. The “new Swedes” were deeply aggrieved that someone exercised his fundamental right to freedom of expression by engaging in a special operation of increasing the temperature of a Qu’ran.
In other news in Europe – the Russian MoD is whining that there are Romanian, Polish, American and Georgian mercs in Ukraine; the VP of Gazprombank got suicided in Moscow; the British government is trying hard to get its civil service back to work and Germany is trying to acquire floating LNG terminals.
But perhaps the most important event in Europe is the upcoming second round of the presidential election in France – where the people have a choice between secular Putinism with a skirt (Marine Le Pen) and pro-Islamic Putinism without a skirt (Emmanuel Macron). With a bonus that the incumbent was the biggest arms supplier of Russia from 2017 and until April 2022 (yes!) and is on record to wanting a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok (something so extreme that not even the Sberbank lady isn’t keen on saying it out loud). So, of course, we dedicate a longer segment to this event.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Crown Prince is trying to gauge the impact of sanctions against Russia so the Kingdom can then hedge the bets and an incident in Libya creates a bit more panic on the oil market.
In the far-east, the forced labour system in Nepal gets some attention via its victims working in the richer Gulf states; Japan is sending drones to Ukraine and then we take a longer time to discuss the health theatre in Shanghai.
And, finally, in Oceania, the plebs are finding out what we’ve been saying for almost two years: the sanitary fascism was not only useless, but in fact explicitly NOT recommended even by their own “experts” – yet the far-Left China-serving Regime in New Zealand went ahead and implemented anyway. New Zealand is that country whose citizens were better treated by the Taliban than their own government.
Meanwhile, 7 in 10 Aussies live paycheque-to-paycheque with no savings, the construction industry is about to collapse (in part thanks to sanitary fascism), and the regional security framework just took a boot in the teeth after Solomon Island’s security deal with China – negotiated and signed whilst the Australian regime was busy fighting with Novak Đoković.
These and other news are covered in this only episode for April as we work through other projects.
It very rarely happens to find myself somewhat on the side of the establishment. Least of all on an international issue.
Last time I was on the side of the establishment neither the concept nor the disgusting real-life manifestations of luxury beliefs had not reached my country, yet.
Yet here we are, in 2022, as the establishment suddenly finds out that Ukraine exists, that Duginism is real (NPR link because in 2016 NPR readers were trolling me for talking about this) and that Germany is run by Putin’s useful idiots. All of these are topics that us, at Freedom Alternative Network (as well as our partners and friends in Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, the USA and, yes, Ukraine) have covered, shilled, explained and analyzed in great detail for years on end.
Just 56 days ago Facebook was banning me again for discussing Russian violence. Then 10 days later Russian violence commenced on a big scale and then Facebook said its kosher even to engage in sweeping generalizations against all Russians everywhere.
Suffice to say that I have a high interest in this conflict (which I’ve made known for years) in the direction of Ukraine eventually winning (or at least not losing).
With that said, this doesn’t change the fact that the so-called “Western culture” (a shell of its former self) approaches this in a way that not only seems crazy but it IS crazy. Luckily, Russian propaganda is not what it used to be. 2010-tier Russian propaganda would have a field day these weeks by simply repeating and mocking the myriad of absurdities done in or by the West since the commencement of the conflict.
When it’s “cool” to be pro-Ukraine
As it was the case with the pandemic (in which it became “cool” to behave like a fucking lunatic in public), it is now cool to behave, say and do things that no normal person would or should do.
The connection with the pandemic was also made by the establishment – of course, in Canada, the place run by Justin “I like China’s basic dictatorship” Trudeau where “studies have shown” that those who haven’t taken up the myocarditis-inducing experimental gene therapy clotshot are more likely to be putinists.
And then the HONKs just kept on pouring.
Under the eternal “we gotta do something” – a slew of stupidity in public was triggered allover the place.
Take the Waterloo Warbirds from Ontario, Canada. They could have organized an aviation show and donate some money for the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees. Or they could’ve encouraged people to enlist the Ukrainian Foreign Legion since Waterloo Warbirds surely attracts a lot of guys with military and combat experience – which is exactly the kind of people needed today.
What did they choose to do? Vandalize their own museum-worthy airplanes with the markings of the Ukrainian and Polish Air Force. Outstanding!
Surely Putin is going to surrender tonight! Or, at the very least, two Ukrainian refugees will be saved. Virtue signaling saves lives, dontcha know?
Or take Zürich Insurance Group Ltd. (ZURN) who could have made a good insurance offer to Ukrainian farmers (that would actually help not just the farmers, but many countries in the world!) since ZURN is one of the largest and best insurers of farmers in the world.
Or maybe they could’ve donated a sum of money for the relocation of the children evacuated from Mariupol. Or, why not, a sum of money to the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces.
Instead… their contribution is… removing the Z from their logo. I’m sure President Elenski [sic!] is now happier knowing that the whole might of the corporate power wielded by the Swiss insurer is put to the highly important use of purging a letter from their logo… What’s next? Banning the letter Z altogether?
Germany is one of the countries that is at fault for the invasion (in fact I would argue that Germany is indeed equally at fault as Russia is – since German weapons have continued to flow into Russia even after 2014). So in these circumstances they could have sent a lot of weapons to Ukraine (I mean functional ones – not just dumping its expired stockpile inherited from the DDR). Or they could have send some money. There are Polish corporations that contributed financially for Ukraine more than the German government. I’m just saying.
Instead, Germany is busy policing the wrong kinds of Zs in public. Yeah, that will help 👌🏻- I’m sure Putin is drafting his unconditional surrender speech as we speak after he heard that Z is haram in some parts of Germany!
Cluj Napoca, March 26, 2022 The message reads “No warrior” Likely the intention was to write “нет войне” (no war) – the slogan made famous by the Russian protesters in Russia.
Recently-renovated buildings allover Europe are being tagged vandalized with wrongly-written Cyrillic messages because surely the Ukrainian refugees in my hometown need to see wrongly written messages on clean buildings. Otherwise they would’ve never known that we really don’t like Putin.
Cluj-Napoca, March 26, 2022 Text reads: “Romanians are your friends”
The hundreds of volunteers available on the borders 24/7 and the hundreds of thousands of Romanians available in the support groups that offer quite literally anything to the refugees are not a good indication that Romanians are, by and large, being very friendly to our neighbors fleeing the horrors of war.
No, what we needed was graffiti about that!
And then there’s the relentless promotion of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the point of selling Zelenskyy pillows (I wish I were joking) and turning the guy into a demigod.
Look, I won’t lie: I supported Petro Poroshenko in 2019 and I considered (and in fact I still do) that the Ukrainian people made a mistake voting not just with Zelenskyy, but with Sluha Nardonu party as well (a political party made up almost entirely out of amateurs). However, it is also clear (regardless of my opinion about Zelenskyy) that Volodymyr is living up to his position in a very honorable fashion (much better than anyone – including his own party – had expected).
With that said, the aggressive promotion of the guy everywhere is likely to turn against him at some point. Like all waves of emotion, this one shall pass too. And when it will (and it will!) – what will there be left? Because Zelenskyy needs the credibility and gravitas necessary after the war as well – when he will have to negotiate loans and investments and all sorts of arrangements that will be necessary for the reconstruction effort. But with all of the political capital spent now on needless promotion… this will be tricky.
You will also never convince any skeptic by calling a Putinist everyone who isn’t full of awe with Zelenskyy.
Nobody will be swayed by your Ukrainian flag on your profile either. Least of all if you’re one of those people who demanded that those who don’t subject themselves to experimental medical treatments should have their fundamental rights revoked. And no, pointing out the hypocrisy of the people shouting “freedom for Ukraine” while the same people were shouting “lockdown the unvaccinated” doesn’t make one a Putinist either!
Heck, one of the many reasons I support Ukraine is precisely because it treated the pandemic the way it should’ve been treated: without panic, without mandates and without hysteria. During the pandemic I’ve been to the country four times precisely for this reason. And I will continue to avoid certain countries and intentionally patronize others for many years to come because of their pandemic policies.
Also, the war isn’t ending earlier if you shout “Slava Ukrayini” against anyone who asks questions about Ihor Kolomoyskyi, or is skeptical about some numbers concerning casualties. Heck, you should assume that the numbers thrown around are inaccurate at least because you can’t properly evaluate casualties during an active war scenario but also because wartime disinformation is part and parcel of any war.
Yes, the word disinformation is a loanword from Russian itself. But the practice predates the USSR and the KGB’s black propaganda/active measures department. Heck, the word propaganda comes from the Vatican in the 17th century. Anyone pointing this out isn’t a “putinist” or “a war criminal” or an “anti-western shill” or whatever.
Also, someone pointing out how this crisis is being used to normalize being stupid in public is also not a “putinist”.
Théâtre Orchestre Bienne Soleure from Switzerland banned the performance of Thaikovsky’s Mazeppa “due to the current situation in Ukraine“. Mazeppa is an opera whose plot takes place in Ukraine and is about Ivan Stepanovych Mazeppa, Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks (kinda like the founder of the modern Ukrainian nation) and Vasyl Leontiyovych Kochubey a very rich Ukrainian nobleman and statesman who bankrolled the school(s) of thought that the Ukrainian nation of today take as reference point.
And then there’s the ban on Russian cats (including Russian breeds that have never been in Russia and have non-Russian owners).
Now look, I love the Ukrainian people. And I have 7 years of content to prove it. But I also have 7 years of public content to prove just how much I love kittens. What did those kittens do? Meowed in Cyrillic?
And then there’s the issue of 16 and 17 year old Russian and Belarussian minors who will be banned from playing hockey in Canada. I’m sorry, these boys were aged 8 and 9 (or some even younger) when the decisions concerning Ukraine were made in the Kremlin. There’s no way you can convince anyone who is not a loon that punishing children has anything whatsoever with #StandWithUkraine.
This is the problem when a legitimate cause becomes a “cool” thing: all sorts of people who until this morning (in historical terms) had no idea where Ukraine is on the map end up making decisions trying to “do something” when nothing was asked from them in the first place, and in the process end up doing more harm than good.
So what’s the problem?
Okay, so many in the West are being stupid in public under the emotional moment – since war in Europe hadn’t happened this century. Well, even that is wrong since Russia has been at war with Ukraine for 8 years, but let’s put that, too, aside for a moment.
The problem, however, is that potentially good energy, as well as resources are being spent on futile endeavors. And in the process many innocents suffer.
This war will not end tomorrow. Maybe even not next month. But it will end at some point. And Ukraine as a country and the Ukrainian people (including and especially the displaced and the refugees) will need a lot of help then too. At this pace, however, by the time the war ends, a significant proportion of Western societies will end up being indifferent or even outright hostile – not because of Russian propaganda/disinformation, but precisely because they’ve been saturated with excessive messaging from their own.
It is not normal to open a news website from a country that is not Ukraine and to find on the first two, three or four pages only news from/about Ukraine or Russia. Just like it wasn’t normal between 2014 and 2021 to open a news website from the West and see NO piece of news from/about Ukraine at all. Some balance is badly needed! But who even has the credibility for that anymore?
During the pandemic multiple institutions (including and especially media institutions) have burned their trust capital by publishing disdainful nonsense and outright lies that now, rightfully so, enough citizens are having a hard time taking the media seriously on anything.
Heck, in Romania, two guys who voluntered to help the refugees were still not convinced that the war is real. So they went all the way to Kyiv to check it out for themselves. Well, they did find out and, to their credit, didn’t freak out either. The bien-pensantsdu jour laughed at them but I didn’t. It’s how I function as well. Heck, in 2020 I went to Sweden to check the mountains of dead bodies that the media guaranteed will be there because Sweden didn’t engage in sanitary fascism like Italy did. Of course, no mountains of dead bodies were found so I deemed the media’s stories to be what they were: utter nonsense.
The problem is that most people can’t and won’t function like that. Few people would risk going to Kyiv just to see whether the war is real. Just like few people in 2020 risked flying to Sweden in the middle of an allegedly deadly pandemic wave. The pandemic wave was real, it’s just that it was nowhere near as deadly as the media claimed.
So now, when the media IS much closer to the truth than it was during the pandemic, les bien pensants are shocked to learn there are people who just don’t believe it.
Yes, I agree it is terrible to see people who deny real suffering provoked by the Kremlin upon people who’ve done nothing wrong to the Kremlin – but we should keep in mind that calling those people “putinists” won’t solve the issue. And the issue is that the West is a shell of its former self. Its leaders are weak, its institutions are not trustworthy and its media has lied so blatantly for so long that it will take years to build back the lost trust. And Ukraine doesn’t have years. Not to mention that almost nobody in the West is even concerned with this issue.
It also doesn’t help that the loudest ones for “the Cause” are those with zero credibility on the topic. Pundits and “stars” with de facto zero knowledge about this now have strong opinions on the geopolitics of this region.
To these people the situation is just another trendy story. The mess will still have to be solved by people with beliefs and values more similar to mine, rather than similar to Patricia Arquette’s.
Yes, Ukraine needs help, and Putin must be defeated. And of course the war is real. And of course some sanctions are warranted.
But if the West doesn’t seriously clean up its room, it will all have been in vain.
The West’s main advantage over the last century has been precisely its ability to engage in open debate and tame the passions of the publics thus preventing mass hysteria from enacting hasted decisions that could bite the society in the ass later on. The West is losing that important advantage (if it hasn’t lost it already). And that vantage point must be recovered.
There is some good news too, though: Ukrainians are not like that. They’re proving it on the battlefield as we speak but it’s easy to see it if you just speak to more than 10 Ukrainians. As a people, they’re built from a different “material”. They just don’t give up.
And the harshness even before the war (and even more so now) has forged a nation that will not look kindly on Western political correctness. In Ukraine, even those with PC/leftist values have been in the trenches against Yanukovich and then against Russia. Multiple times. And still are. Hard times create strong men. The West has had too much good times for way too long. And it shows.
Just before the war the very same Western media, that now calls you a “putinist” for discussing Zelenskyy’s acting career, was itself broadcasting Russian disinformation about Ukraine focusing its attention on political parties that never exceeded 3% but almost never talking about the very real harm caused by the Kremlin continuously since 2014.
Men wiser than me say that time heals everything. Which is true. But sometimes healing comes through disappearance. The Byzantines are a good example.
So instead of turning onto your fellow citizens for failing to say the right things on this crisis (or the next one) – it is much more important to turn to our institutions and “important people” and tell them to either stop being stupid in public or fuck off outright.
That’s it. Now I’m off to prep the trip to Hungary. Lots to cover from there too.
Throughout 2021, Kazakhstan has kept several objectives on the list closed and the last one opened in January 2022. With that said, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have essentially dropped the panic by August 2020 and have been operating as normal ever since.
In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have been through profound transformations, as a result of popular uprising and other tectonic shifts in their societies – which makes them even more interesting politically today, than in 2020.
So in keeping with this tradition of gathering knowledge and wisdom and then delivering it to you as stories, we submit to y’all the proposal for a Central Asia Tour. The video above (made in 2019) goes into the details about the itinerary and the minimum things we expect to get from the tour. The only thing changed in the plan is the route. There is no direct flight from Hungary to Kazakhstan anymore so I’ll go via Istanbul.
This article is focused on the financial details. Not all expenses are thoroughly detailed – only those funded through the fundraiser. I have updated the prices to account for inflation and other changes that can be documented.
The biggest changes are in transport (fuel prices going up and inflation), in visa costs (now all down to $0) and unexpected expences (pandemic BS, basically – PCR tests etc., which in that area of the world are simply bribes).
Also, to please the donors who voted for this tour in 2020, I have decided to start the fundraising from the amount proportionate to those who voted in that direction back then.
So, without further ado…
For consistency, all expenses are converted in USD at the median exchange rate for the period between March 15 and March 21, 2022. This is also because all donations are converted to USD as it’s the working currency for almost all operations of this Network.
In places where there is price variation (e.g. trains in Central Asia) – the maximal option is listed. The list represents the minimum costs.
This number represents the absolute minimum in order for the tour to take place. The total cost will be somewhere in the vicinity of $4500 which will serve as the maximal threshold for this fundraiser.
Given past experience, even in worst case scenarios, the cost goes somewhere between the two extremes. Any excess will be redirected towards fulfilling the wishlist or towards funding another project in 2022 (possibly the Independence March in Poland in November).
Minimums and deadlines
The tour is due to take place sometime between in the month of August and it will last 25 days. This means that plane tickets should be purchased no later than May 15, 2022. Update: This has happened. ✅
As such, if the fundraiser doesn’t reach to at least $1500 by May 10, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects.
If the fundraiser doesn’t reach at least $2900 by July 15, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects. Of course, if it will be $2790 on July 15, it will be fine. But too much leeway downwards will lead to cancellation – because by July 20, most of the housing should be booked and paid for already.
Anything beyond $4000, as well as any remaining shekel after the tour, will be redirected towards other projects or to fulfilling the wishlist.
The state of the fundraiser will be updated regularly on the main page of the website and semi-regularly on the Youtube channels.
If this convinces you, head over to the Donate page and pitch in. Every dollar counts!
You can’t just come out and say “Ooops, my bad!” after two years of being consistently wrong and after two years of demonizing, dehumanizing and abusing those who were correct.
You also cannot expect anyone to forgive so easily after your side closed public parks, filled skate parks with sand to prevent teenagers from having fun, called children killers (this happened in Germany, Denmark, Romania and other countries), closed churches, implemented policies that drove children literally insane (who knew that solitary confinement is torture, am I right?) and, perhaps the most unforgivable, advocated for the death through starvation of those who disagree with you (because that’s exactly what “workplace mandates” meant in practice).
nd this is in addition to the open celebration of the deaths of those who disagreed with you, the open instigation(s) to genocide against those who disagree with you and the destruction of important events of life (baptism, weddings and funerals).
