[Garden & Gun] Around here we’re big on thoughtfulness. There are so many products out there, but we really take the time to test and vet the things we pass along to you. And that’s especially true for Valentine’s Day, when getting it right is particularly important. We’ve included a range of price points here, because you don’t have to spend big to say something meaningful, but if you opt for one of our splurge-worthy recommendations, you can also be assured you’re helping a tiny brand weather these uncertain times—a great way to help spread the love.
Had it not been for the travel difficulties, a return to the Au Croissant Doré in Colmar would have been my first choice. Continued on Page 47
[Zero] Things I trust more than the government: a Facebook ad promising me a free weekend in Lithuania.
The year was 2016 and I was a starving artist, writing and living in a travel trailer on my sister’s property in rural Florida.
One day an advertisement popped up on my social media feed encouraging me to apply to an entrepreneurship camp in Lithuania called Sovereign Academy. But what caught my eye was that it was free.
All you had to do was submit a video application about your entrepreneurial journey, and 50 people from around the world would be chosen to spend a weekend learning from a handful of top notch mentors— CEOs, successful businessmen, and advertising experts.
So I made a video about the books I’d written, the mini-farm I was helping build, and all the business ideas I had, but didn’t know how to accomplish. Actually it’s the first video I ever posted on my Youtube, so you can go and see for yourself if you want.
Then I got accepted to the camp, and I was like, hold up— let me look into this a little bit more.
The camp was put on by this guy named Simon Black who founded SovereignMan.com. I’d never heard of it before, but it did seem to match my general ethos on planning for a worst case scenario— I was, after all, preparing for a zombie apocalypse on a remote farm.
But Sovereign Man was less about "prepping" and more about incrementally building up a portfolio of options. A Plan B leaves you better off no matter what happens, while prepping for disaster almost leaves you, hoping for disaster. Otherwise all your hard work is for nothing.
So I said, you know what, let’s see what this Sovereign Man thing is all about, and I hopped on a plane to Lithuania by myself. What did I have to lose?
Continued on Page 47
#1
Always have a plan B. And I trust the government as much as I trust those ads telling me there are 20 hot and horny women 10 miles from me that want to hook up. Actually I trust those ads more....
[Babylon Bee] ICELAND—According to sources, Climate Czar John Kerry arrived in Iceland to receive a climate change leadership award, riding in a massive coal-burning, steam-powered machine.
"Listen, this is really the only way for an important person like me to get around safely," said Kerry indignantly after being questioned by reporters. "I find it to be a very effective mode of transportation-- especially when roads are bad or filthy peasants are in the way. This baby just rolls right over 'em."
According to sources, the machine is powered by a steam engine that burns 12 tons of raw, filthy coal every hour. There are also 8 rocket-boosters on the rear for when a quick escape is needed.
"Listen here, I don't need you malcontents chiding me about my transportation choices!" said Kerry. "I happen to be a very important international figure! You don't realize how important my work is."
Kerry accepted his award, and then boarded his coal-powered rocket-Zepplin and took off across the Atlantic.
Continued on Page 47
[Right Scoop] On a cool Massachusetts morning, April 19, 1775, a group of farmers, tradesmen, and other "Minutemen" led by Captain John Parker, gathered on Lexington Commons to...express umbrage, at the British Crown’s illegal attempt to confiscate Colonial Weapons.
"Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here," declared Parker.
No one knows who fired the first shot, but at the end of the bloodletting, eight Americans lay dead and as many wounded. This came to be known as the "shot heard ’round the World" and the de facto beginning of our American Revolution.
So, how close are we to this type of situation today? The leftist media (I know, redundant) keeps trying to gaslight us by constantly screeching, Nobody is coming for your guns! Except, it looks like they are. In the run up to the the 2020 Presidential Election, both candidates Biden and Harris have made some pretty strong statements about gun control. IVPOTUS Harris as candidate, made some especially concerning comments. From an article by my good friend and colleague Brandon Morse:
Continued on Page 47
[Free Beacon] Anti-Semitic incidents on American college campuses are rising at "alarming rates" and have migrated to online spaces as students have moved to remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
At least 2,000 anti-Semitic incidents in total have been recorded since 2017—and include swastikas being spray painted on a Jewish professor's office, a campus performer inviting students to sing a song endorsing anti-Semitism, and scores of students being harassed for being Jewish and having pro-Israel views.
"Although campuses closed when coronavirus erupted, and nearly half of colleges began their fall semesters entirely or primarily online, antisemitism has continued both online and offline," states the new report by Alums for Campus Fairness, an advocacy group that codified 50 of the most flagrant examples of campus anti-Semitism reported in the past three years.
The report comes as colleges, including San Francisco State University, the University of Illinois, and others, grapple with a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents. San Francisco University, for instance, was the subject of a civil rights lawsuit alleging "institutionalized anti-Semitism," while the Department of Education launched an investigation last year into University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, citing a string of anti-Semitic incidents. More than half of Jewish students on American college campuses have reported witnessing or being the subject of anti-Jewish harassment. More than 80 percent of American Jews say anti-Semitism in America has increased during the last five years, according to a 2019 study by the American Jewish Committee.
Continued on Page 47
[Strategypage - Austin Bay] February 2021 reprises a red-line drama, not yet as tragedy and not as farce but definitely as a threat to world peace. The repetition tests the will of President Joe Biden's administration to defend American security and a common-sense understanding of human freedom.
On Feb. 1, communist China's top foreign policy guru, Yang Jiechi, gave a speech to a virtual audience hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
From Fred’s instructions to the moderators a few years ago:
Use only short excerpts from Jamestown and Strategy Page. They'll send me take down requests for long ones. I hadn't thought about it for Long War Journal (Bill and I are acquainted on friendly terms) but it would apply there, too. We're one of the raw intel streams to their finished product.
A pity because that opening paragraph is a humdinger. It’s worth adding them to the regular perusal.
#1
Message received since the US Military is apparently standing down for Mao-style self-criticsm sessions. This should leave a nice (mutually agreed upon?) window to deal with that pesky Taiwan issue.
[FOX] Democratic lawmakers are poised to plow ahead with passing President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, a measure that will provide an immediate burst to the U.S. economy but that could drag on growth in years to come.
That's according to a new analysis published Wednesday by a nonpartisan group at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, which found that Biden's proposal could increase the nation's GDP by 0.6% in 2021. But the additional public debt resulting from his measure would decrease GDP, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in a nation, by 0.2% in 2022 and 0.3% in 2040.
"The Biden relief plan leads to an increase in output in 2021 as the plan's expenditures stimulate the economy, but GDP declines in subsequent years as the additional public debt crowds-out investment in productive capital," the report said. "The increase in output 2021 is due to the immediate stimulative effect of the economic recovery plan."
Unlike the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which Congress passed last March at the beginning of the pandemic, the U.S. economy is much closer to its pre-crisis output. As a result, Biden's $1.9 trillion plan "would generate less additional output in 2021 than it did in spring or summer of 2020 when the U.S. economy was further from potential," the analysts said.
For instance, Biden has made a third stimulus check — worth $1,400 — an integral part of the emergency aid package. But the Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated that 73% of check recipients would stash the money away in household savings rather than spend it. Just 27% would go to increased consumption, the analysts projected.
Continued on Page 47
#1
Hyperinflation, here we come
This doofus will make Jimmy Carter happy: "See? There was a postwar president whose economic record was even worse than mine!"
[American Spectator] The former CIA director John Brennan is the classic illiberal liberal, an aging radical who openly favors in America the repressiveness he once excused in the Soviet Union. Recall that at the height of the Cold War he was rooting for the Reds. He has admitted that in 1976 he voted for Gus Hall, the American Communist Party’s presidential candidate. That radicalism never left Brennan’s system. He continues to nurse the dream of left-wing autocracy. In his recent pronouncements, he has sounded like a smug Soviet commissar. He recently enthused over the prospect of the Biden administration targeting its political opponents:
We are now looking forward that the members of the Biden team who have been nominated or have been appointed, are now moving in laser like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we’ve seen overseas, where they germinate in different parts of the country and they gain strength and it brings together an unholy alliance frequently of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians.
This, of course, is the same John Brennan who overlooked the spread of Islamic insurgency during his time at the CIA. After excusing the evil empire of the Soviets, he played the same role in his avuncular treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic groups. Brennan famously sanitized the definition of jihad, saying that the term actually means self-improvement and harmless community organizing.
Continued on Page 47
#5
Salmson, it's no good contacting Diane Feinstein. I've tried. Unless you have a couple hundred thousand to contribute to her, er, campaign, you might as well talk to a rock.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/04/2021 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#6
^ perhaps if you spoofed a Beijing Nation/Area Code?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2021 14:11 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Brennan needs to hurry up and have a fatal stroke. His master Sorors as well.
[CALIFORNIA GLOBE] There are smart ways to protect the vulnerable and reopen businesses and churches and schools, but California's legislators continue to do nothing. Instead, edicts issued from the governor’s office have the state in an ongoing lockdown, despite growing evidence there are safe alternatives.
Last month an event held in the Sacramento area, "Re-Open Cal Now," offered local elected officials from all over California access to attorneys, economists, and medical experts who presented information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to safely cope with it. From the start, it was smeared as being a partisan "super-spreader" event. Facebook refused to allow promotional ads, claiming the agenda included "dangerous content." Not one, but two email services, MailChimp and then MailLite, banned event organizers from using their platform. But none of these accusations were true.
The event admitted only 115 in-person attendees and was held in a 24,000 square foot covered but outdoor equestrian center. As a consequence of all this extra space, booked at significant extra cost, extreme social distancing was observed. As for partisanship, over 25,000 people have viewed the event online so far, and the only thing "partisan" about the event was its commitment to finding solutions to end the lockdown.
The most revealing and controversial of the panels during this three day event was the one that featured medical experts. These medical doctors and epidemiologists provided information on COVID-19 treatments that have been ignored and even suppressed by the media and the mainstream medical community.
Without delving into the reasons for this, which are at best inexplicable and mystifying, public policy experts and local elected officials are invited to watch these presentations. They are invited to ask themselves: Why is COVID-19 unique among diseases that have confronted humanity, in that early stage outpatient treatments are not only ignored, but have arguably become forbidden topics?
As Dr. George Fareed described in his segment, in any pandemic there are four essential policy responses: (1) contagion control, or social distancing to slow the spread, (2) early home treatment to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, (3) late stage hospitalization, and (4) vaccinations to develop herd immunity. As anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the COVID-19 pandemic will confirm, stage two has been ignored.
It isn't necessary to examine the merits or fallacies underlying the many early stage treatments that have been proposed to conclude something is wrong with this picture. There are many drugs and therapies that practicing doctors claim can prevent this disease from worsening, causing death or chronic disabilities. They include Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, Doxycycline, Ivermectin, Zinc Sulfate, vitamin C, vitamin D, Quercetin, Fluvoxamine, intracellular anti-infectives, antiviral antibodies, corticosteroids, immunomodulators, antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants, and many, many more.
Are all of these drugs effective in treating early stage COVID-19? Probably not. But why has discussion regarding their efficacy been suppressed? Equally important, why has an entire early stage treatment protocol for COVID-19 been neglected?
#2
Link fixed. I removed the quotes around the URL, and that took care of it. It’s a black box to me, but sometimes that works. 3dc explained what was going on once, but I’m afraid my eyes glazed over — it’s a really good thing I quickly gave up the idea of becoming a programmer.
[American Thinker] One of comedian George Carlin’s more notable quotes, pointing out a reality of American life is, "It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it." His words are a simple commentary on the ruling class, the elites, the cabal, the establishment, or the deep state, whatever you prefer to call the Big Club.
Donald Trump is the first president since Ronald Reagan to point this out. Neither men were members of the Big Club. Reagan was a former actor (the bit about serving as a two-term governor of California is conveniently omitted from his biography, instead characterizing him only as a simple thespian) who attended a little-known college in Illinois. He did not have the Ivy League degrees of Big Club members named Bush, Clinton, or Obama.
Trump has an Ivy League undergraduate degree that the elites ignore, preferring to believe he is a graduate of a community college or reform school. He never held political office, instead winning the most important election in the world assisted only by his family and a handful of campaign staff. He handily defeated Big Club members Clinton, Bush, Kasich, and Rubio.
He didn’t need the services of the Big Club political consultants, many of whom were part of the Lincoln Project, cofounded by a pedophile, but firm in their belief that Trump is an embarrassment, ill-mannered, amoral, and unsuited for the White House. He didn’t need help from Karl Rove, so-called Republican consulting guru, who knew of allegations against the Lincoln Project cofounder for 32 years but said nothing over the last 5 years, perhaps out of professional courtesy. So much for "see something, say something."
The Big Club is bipartisan, although left leaning. Not every Democrat is a member of this club. Bernie Sanders and his supporters are certainly not. Bernie was robbed of the Democrat presidential nomination twice, likely due to the same electoral "irregularities" that gave the 2020 election to a senile grifter who hardly campaigned. Despite Bernie’s anti-capitalistic schtick, he appears to have happily sold out for money and a lake house, and is now relegated to meme status, sitting alone in a chair, bundled up with mask and mittens.
Bernie and his supporters are no more welcome in the Big Club than are Trump supporters, serving only as props, protesters, or Congressional baseball game shooters. Not being in the club, Bernie will never get near the White House. Neither will his mini-me AOC or her Squad. They too are useful on social media for outrage and trash talk, but any challenges to Big Club honcho Nancy Pelosi are quickly squashed.
Continued on Page 47
[National Interest] Submachine guns began to appear near the end of World War I to help soldiers clear out trenches in brutal short-range assaults.
Continued on Page 47
#3
Nice look if you like the Catholic school girl outfit with the burp gun. Might be a recruiting poster for some. I can think of at least one Congress member who might fall for this honey trap.
[Summit] Just when you thought the future couldn’t get much more dystopian, scientists have issued more stark warnings that COVID-19 is reducing fertility in men, and could contribute to depopulation of the planet.
Scientists say that there is increasing evidence in patients of testicular damage and lower sperm counts and mobility, with initial studies revealing the presence of the virus in semen samples.
Researchers at the Justus-Liebig-University in Germany. along with scientists from Allameh Tabataba’i University in Iran have reported significant inflammation markers in samples of testicular tissue from 84 Covid-19 patients.
They discovered that the inflammation and cellular stress were twice as severe in the Covid-19 positive group as in a control group.
Researchers also noted that sperm was three times slower in COVID patients, and sperm count in general was much lower.
The study found that sperm concentration was reduced by 516 per cent, mobility by 209 per cent and sperm cell shape was altered by 400 per cent.
Continued on Page 47
Testicles on a Goddess of Fertility - Ephesian Artemis
Our guide in the Vatican Museum said this ancient goddess of fertility is decorated with bull testicles.
The following is from Wikipedia:
Ephesian Artemis
From the Greek point of view Ephesian Artemis is a distinctive form of their goddess Artemis. In Greek cult and myth, Artemis is the twin of Apollo, a virgin huntress who supplanted the Titan Selene as goddess of the Moon. At Ephesus, a goddess whom the Greeks associated with Artemis was venerated in an archaic, certainly pre-Hellenic cult image that was carved of wood and kept decorated with jewelry.
#5
But a doctor came on the teevee last night to debunk some vaccination myths, including the one about 'no more children'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/04/2021 7:51 Comments ||
Top||
#6
From the 2007 link at #4: Pesticides, hormone-disrupting chemicals, diet, stress, smoking and obesity have all been suggested as possible reasons behind the dramatic declines but experts say more research is urgently needed.
So now we have it: More research - showing it was due to COVID all along! I'm sure global warming is also a factor...
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/04/2021 7:54 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Scientist #1 - 'Damn, that multiple mask thing from last week didn't work; what do we have this week?'
Scientist #2 - 'How about 'Covid reduces your sperm count' ?'
Scientist #3 - 'Brilliant!'
Scientist #4 - 'I'll come up with something for next week!'
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Garden & Gun] Around here we’re big on thoughtfulness. There are so many products out there, but we really take the time to test and vet the things we pass along to you. And that’s especially true for Valentine’s Day, when getting it right is particularly important. We’ve included a range of price points here, because you don’t have to spend big to say something meaningful, but if you opt for one of our splurge-worthy recommendations, you can also be assured you’re helping a tiny brand weather these uncertain times—a great way to help spread the love.
[Babylon Bee] ICELAND—According to sources, Climate Czar John Kerry arrived in Iceland to receive a climate change leadership award, riding in a massive coal-burning, steam-powered machine.
[American Spectator] The former CIA director John Brennan is the classic illiberal liberal, an aging radical who openly favors in America the repressiveness he once excused in the Soviet Union. Recall that at the height of the Cold War he was rooting for the Reds. He has admitted that in 1976 he voted for Gus Hall, the American Communist Party’s presidential candidate. That radicalism never left Brennan’s system. He continues to nurse the dream of left-wing autocracy. In his recent pronouncements, he has sounded like a smug Soviet commissar. He recently enthused over the prospect of the Biden administration targeting its political opponents:
Could this alledged 'Second-Order Effect' actually be the primary goal of the virus' development ? 
