Month: March 2022

Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they (should) know to be true … Over time, a gaslighter’s manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth.

I have frequently thought about the term, “gaslighting,” as I am still seeing people wearing masks, both inside and outside. I am sure they wear them for a variety of reasons, however, to me one main question still remains. Do masks do any good? … or have we, as a population, been gaslit?

After reading summaries of close to one-hundred (97+9) articles (Epoch Times) on masks and mask mandates, my thinking that we have been subjected to a major display of gaslighting has been reinforced. 

(Granted I cannot verify the veracity of all of these, but I have included a number to make my point.)

Here are some of the 97 summaries:

2) SARS-CoV-2 Transmission among Marine Recruits during Quarantine, Letizia, 2020

“Our study showed that in a group of predominantly young male military recruits, approximately 2% became positive for SARS-CoV-2, as determined by qPCR assay, during a 2-week, strictly enforced quarantine. Multiple, independent virus strain transmission clusters were identified…all recruits wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors and outdoors.”

8) Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era, Klompas/NEJM, 2020

“We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic …”

28) Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence, Alexander, 2021

“In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful.”

29) Community and Close Contact Exposures Associated with COVID-19 Among Symptomatic Adults ≥18 Years in 11 Outpatient Health Care Facilities — United States, July 2020, Fisher, 2020

Reported characteristics of symptomatic adults ≥18 years who were outpatients in 11 US academic health care facilities and who received positive and negative SARS-CoV-2 test results (N = 314)* — United States, July 1–29, 2020, revealed that 80% of infected persons wore face masks almost all or most of the time.

33) Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza, WHO, 2020

“Ten RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, and there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”

37) Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden, Ludvigsson, 2020

“1,951,905 children in Sweden (as of December 31, 2019) who were 1 to 16 years of age, were examined…social distancing was encouraged in Sweden, but wearing face masks was not…No child with Covid-19 died.”

40) Should individuals in the community without respiratory symptoms wear facemasks to reduce the spread of COVID-19?, NIPH, 2020

“Non-medical facemasks include a variety of products. There is no reliable evidence of the effectiveness of non-medical facemasks in community settings. There is likely to be substantial variation in effectiveness between products. However, there is only limited evidence from laboratory studies of potential differences in effectiveness when different products are used in the community.”

46) Are Face Masks Effective? The Evidence., Swiss Policy Research, 2021

“Most studies found little to no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in the general population, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control.”

54) 47 studies confirm ineffectiveness of masks for COVID and 32 more confirm their negative health effects, Lifesite news staff, 2021

“No studies were needed to justify this practice since most understood viruses were far too small to be stopped by the wearing of most masks, other than sophisticated ones designed for that task and which were too costly and complicated for the general public to properly wear and keep changing or cleaning. It was also understood that long mask wearing was unhealthy for wearers for common sense and basic science reasons.”

Note to reader … at this point I did not continue to copy and paste any summaries from 55) through 97) as they just said more of the same. 

In conclusion, I am convinced that we, the general public, have been gaslit!

Decide for yourself!

3/31/22

About twenty-five years ago, I was a big fan of Fox News, and recorded and watched multiple shows every evening. Now I rarely watch Fox News, but the other night I happened  to catch Tucker Carlson Show on YouTube. President Biden had just returned from his trip to Poland and his meetings with other NATO representatives. Now days everything one says is captured for posterity. If you say A, you cannot deny it and keep any credibility, as it has been recorded. While in Europe Joe Biden said some truly unbelievable things, and very quickly attempts were made to walk back these quotes … “even though the President said A, what he really meant was B.” Actually when he said A, it was pretty clear to those watching that he meant A, irrespective of the later attempted walk-backs by his staff. 

Now that is bad enough … in other words, do not listen to what the President of the United States says, because he might not mean it! It’s hard to imagine the confidence that must instill in our allies. 

As Tucker Carlson pointed out three separate times Biden said “A,” (on  film), and Biden’s words had to be “translated to B,” as in “what he really meant was …” When he talked of sending the 82nd Airborne Division into Ukraine … he didn’t really mean that! When he talked of the U.S. using chemical weapons if Russia used them … he didn’t really mean that! When he talked about regime change in Russia, and then called Putin names, he really didn’t mean that!

Now folks, these examples are bad enough. Remember that supposedly we are talking about the leader of the free world who is saying these audacious things. However, when directly asked by Peter Doocy what he meant by these things, President Biden proceeded to either deny that that he said them or refused to admit that his staff had walked back and re-interpreted his statements. One wonders if Joe realizes that this is the twenty-first century, and everything is on tape?

In my humble opinion, his responses to Peter Doocy can only mean a few things.

The possibilities are:

-he is purposely lying

-he doesn’t remember what he said the day before

  or

-he is not actually the one in charge.

Whereas all of these options are bad, for America, which is the worst? …J.B. is a liar. 

J.B. is senile. 

  or 

J.B. is merely a front for whomever is really in charge.

Furthermore, insofar as alliances are built on credibility, is there any good reason for our allies to believe what J.B. says?

3/30/22

As I was reading the other morning an old saying came to mind:

“All’s fair in love and war … and pandemics.”

I added “pandemics” to that hackneyed phrase because of something I read from Epoch Share:

“The United Kingdom and other governments around the world used covert psychological methods during the COVID-19 pandemic to manipulate and control the public,” says filmmaker and author Laura Dodsworth.

In the course of the investigation for her book, “A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponized Fear During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Upon investigating, Dodsworth said she found that the UK government’s ‘nudge’ unit purposefully deployed fear to make the public comply with things such as extended lockdowns and vaccinations.”

From my perspective in the U.S., the “nudge” was consistently employed throughout the Covid pandemic, and, make no mistake about it, this was not by accident!

As Dodsworth pointed out:

“Fear of an infection in a pandemic is natural. … But it was put on steroids by the government’s handling of it. Right from the beginning, it struck me as completely immoral to say to people who are healthy—and no reason to be thought infectious—that they can’t leave the house to work, to earn a living, to provide for their family, let alone to do all the other normal things that we consider to be basic human rights, like have relationships, go to a place of education, a place of worship. The lockdown was such a tough and authoritarian measure, and so unprecedented.”

To me, throughout the pandemic in my local “newspaper,” there seemed to be a specific, almost as if designated, fear-monger writer. It seemed that his job was to stoke fear in his readers even if the Covid trend was hopeful. For instance, if the case numbers were going down, he would focus on the potential for hospital overload even if hospital overload was not occurring. His motto appeared to be … “Always stoke fear, as that is what sells newspapers.” He certainly was a firm believer in the “nudge” philosophy.

Again from Dodsworth who lives in the U.K.:

“It’s about understanding how human beings behave and exploiting those mechanisms to encourage people to make the ‘right’ decisions, and this is where I think it’s tricky, that policymakers and the behavioral scientists advising them decide what being a model citizen is—they decide what being ‘good’ is, and they ‘nudge’ you.

“Don’t Kill Granny” is one example of strong emotional messaging that the government use to get people to comply with the rules. ‘Don’t Kill Granny’ was never explicitly used in advertisements, but the phrase was pushed by media and government officials.

“British health secretary, Matt Hancock, actually used the term ‘Don’t Kill Granny.’ So, imagine that pressure, that burden that’s put onto young people.

“The thing is that behavioral science is incredibly useful to governments. It avoids the awkward debate, the persuasion that’s needed. It avoids enacting legislation. You just nudge people subtly into doing what you want. I think it’s a very cheap and reasonably effective and quite sneaky way to get people to do what they want.”

My question to all of you … “During the pandemic, how far were you nudged? And more importantly will you be more cognizant of the government’s nudging manipulation the next time?”

3/29/22

The other day someone mentioned to me that she knew someone who liked to chew ice. I then remarked that chewing ice was a pica, which is an appetite or craving for substances that are not fit to eat. In addition I commented that chewing ice was associated with iron deficiency anemia. 

She then asked if the chewing-ice-pica caused the iron deficiency or if the iron deficiency caused the ice chewing. I had to admit that I didn’t know the answer to that quandary. However, that quandary of what causes what reminded me of a Daniel Horowitz’s article that I had just read about the surge of Covid in Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland.

From that article:

“cases are surging in many European countries, and U.K. seniors are now experiencing record numbers. ‘Covid infections surge to record high for over-70s in UK’ was the title of a Financial Times article from 3/21. But how can there be record infections precisely after nearly every senior was vaccinated and 90% were boosted, even though many already have had prior infection? Or are the record infections because of the shots, not despite them, and does this mean that they are preventing people from achieving immunity?”

A quandary!

From that same Horowitz article:

“Ireland is one of the most vaccinated countries in the European Union, yet hospitalizations are rising. There are now more people in Irish hospitals than at any point in 12 months. Nearly 95% of all adults are fully vaccinated, and nearly 100% of seniors are vaccinated and boosted.”

Another quandary!

“Furthermore, Scotland, which has the highest vaccination rate of anywhere in the U.K. and is the only region with mask mandates, seems to be worse off than ever before. ‘Scotland recorded its highest infection rates of the pandemic so far, with one in every 14 people infected with the virus in the week to mid-March, up from one in 18 a week earlier,’ reported the Financial Times.”

“According to the latest U.K. health surveillance report, roughly 95% of those over 70 are double-vaccinated and about 90%-93% of the age cohorts over 70 are boosted. Just 1.6% of the senior cases between weeks 7 and 10 of this year were among the unvaccinated, which is below the 5% share of the population pie they compose. The triple-boosted are 90% of the cases.

“Although the shots do offer some protection for some people against critical illness for a certain period of time, numerous data points have shown that the protection not only wanes but goes negative. The U.K. data now shows that the double-vaccinated have negative protection and the triple-vaxxed are headed in that direction.”

A series of quandaries!

“Remember how early on, it looked like the boosters accorded broad protection against death, even though cases skyrocketed among them? Well, now, 77% of all deaths among those over 70 are triple-jabbed! That is still somewhat below their share of the population, but not by much, and the gap is closing with every subsequent weekly report.

When it comes to case rates, the U.K. is now reporting that in some age cohorts, the triple-jabbed are more than four times as likely to test positive, which would net an efficacy rate of -300%!

Quandary after quandary … unless, as was queried … Could it be that the recent surge of infections across the pond is because of, and not in spite of the shots and boosters?

And does what is happening in Great Britain portend what will happen here in the U.S. with the more transmissible subvariant of the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus, BA.2, now accounting for just over a third of daily reported COVID-19 cases in the United States (more than 50% in New England) according to government data released on 3/22/22?

Could it be that all of the vaccine mandates will turn out to be another Biden-esque gaffe?

We’ll see!

3/28/22

“Dad, you really can’t afford to do this,” his daughter sometimes tells him.

“I cannot afford not to,” Ron Coleman replies. He stresses that he simply can’t stay on the sidelines. “It’s extremely overwhelming,” he told The Epoch Times. “I’ll be honest with you, I lay down in my bunk at night—I cry for an hour.”

As has become my tradition on Sundays, I try to honor individuals who demonstrate fortitude and courage. This week that individual is Ron Coleman, a trucker, who is part of the People’s Convoy. He lives in Reno and started out in the convoy of truckers in Adelanto, Ca. While driving across the nation, he met many many supportive people. The article in the Epoch Times about Mr. Coleman describes individual encounters in Lipton, Arizona, Big Cabin, Oklahoma! and Cuba, Missouri as he drove across the U.S.

“You can’t let the people down, because the number of people we came across was enormous.” Coleman said that the truckers estimated that they had probably seen a million people massed on highway overpasses along their route.

“On a personal scale, I have a victory. I’m not letting those people down—those I met with.”

At present the convoy is in Hagerstown, Maryland, but do not expect to read about the People’s Convoy in your local newspaper. Coleman isn’t concerned about the number of trucks dwindling over time. There’s a static number, and there’s a floating number, including the trucks and cars that join on a short-term basis.

“Many people worry that this is going to fizzle, and it may fizzle to a point,” he told The Epoch Times. “But even with 20 trucks, we still can make a point.”

“I’m bringing people up to speed and letting them know that our Constitution is suspended because of the Emergency Powers Act,” he said.

On March 3, the Senate approved legislation to declare an end to the emergency, but the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives isn’t expected to take up the measures. The White House said on the same day that the bill would be vetoed if the House were to approve it.

Coleman’s objective is to push the House to approve the measure, even if Biden vetoes it. “We’ve met our goal because we’ve just exposed a tyrant,” he said.

Coleman says he recently started a fundraising site, hoping for help to cover his mortgage. “I’m in this to win. If I can supplement and pay my bills, I’m going to stay here until this is over.”

3/27/22

After arriving in Poland President Joe Biden visited US troops from 82nd Airborne and as expected, it was another awkward encounter.

“Don’t jump! Don’t jump!” Biden shouted at the US service members. I guess that it was supposed to be some sort of joke … but nobody laughed. If I were in the 82nd Airborne, I would be thinking … “are you kidding me? This guy is my Commander-in-Chief. May God help us!”

As we know Joe is often confused and misspeaks. Could it be that when he said, “Don’t jump, don’t jump,” that he thought he was speaking to someone else who was in Europe. But who? The most likely candidate was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to sit and watch as members of the European Parliament out-and-out denounced the leader to his face on 3/23 over his dictatorial handling of the Freedom Convoy protests.

From Blazemedia:

“The progressive prime minister — who last month invoked the Emergencies Act to quell vaccine mandate protests in Canada’s capital city — was in Brussels, Belgium, this week to urge European leaders (MEPs) to step up their opposition to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

But some MEPs were not so keen on taking instruction from someone they view as a dictator, the Toronto Sun reported.

“ German MEP Christine Anderson offered Trudeau what she called an appropriate “welcome” to the European Parliament by calling the leader a “disgrace” and condemning him for human rights violations.

“A prime minister who openly admires the Chinese basic dictatorship, who tramples on fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists just because they dared to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy should not be allowed to speak in this house at all,” the German lawmaker said.”

(“Don’t jump, don’t jump, Justin!”)

Another MEP, Mislav Kolakusic of Croatia, joined in on the harsh denunciation of the Canadian prime minister. During his floor speech, Kolakusic made specific reference to Freedom Convoy protesters’ controversial encounter with police horses near Parliament Hill.

“We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block bank accounts of single parents so they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes,” he charged, adding, “To you, these may be liberal methods, for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind.”

(“Don’t jump, don’t jump, Mr. Trudeau.”)

Still more from BlazeMedia:

“Still another MEP, Cristian Terhes of Romania, protested Trudeau’s speech by refusing to attend the plenary session.

The Romanian MEP said in a Facebook post that Trudeau can’t come and “teach democracy lessons to Putin from the European Parliament when you trample with horse hooves your own citizens who are demanding their fundamental rights be respected.”

“The difference between democracy and tyranny is not determined by the geographical location of political leaders, but by the values they promote,” Terhes added.

(“Oh, what the heck, go ahead and jump, Mr. Prime Minister. Canada might be better off if you did!”)

3/26/22

Gas prices here in California have risen to above $6.00 per gallon with no indication that this upward trend is going to stop anytime soon. At this point everyone is quick to point a finger at Putin, Ukraine, and the decision to stop buying of Russian oil/gas. While this is all true, at some point does someone need to ask, “Has their plan all along been to make sure that the price of a gallon of gas went up?” Alright, alright, I can hear you accusing me of being just another of those ding-a-long conspiracy wackos, but let’s try to look at the facts.

Let’s start with something we can all agree on … Biden and his cronies are over-the-top global-warming/climate-change fanatics. In fact, so over-the-top that it seems that almost everything they say/do is based on this fanaticism. Take for example! Former Secretary of State and current Biden Climate Czar John Kerry in reacting to the news of Putin’s invasion into Ukraine by issuing concerns about how the conflict will increase emissions. With a war going on, Kerry said, “I hope President Putin will help us stay on track with respect for what we need to do on climate.”  OMG!! … No need to worry, Mr. Kerry, Joe B.is right on with your views on climate change. How else does one explain the Biden administration’s suspending oil and gas leases, withdrawing the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and the crony corporate kowtowing to the elite push for ESG reducing oil- and gas-related investment; these actions all impacted rising gas prices before Putin’s madness came into play.

Could it be that the nefarious plan all along by the Democrats was to make sure that gas prices went up? What better way to discourage driving than by raising the price of gas.

Next let’s take a look at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and now he is Transportation Secretary! What were his qualifications for such a prestigious post?  Hmmm! … he is also is a fervent disciple of the global warming religion. After taking an inordinate amount of parental leave, pre-Putin’s invasion, his brilliant ideas have had to do with building more bike lanes and lowering the National speed limit. Of course, these ideas are solely all about driving less and using less gas. Buttigieg’s latest fanaticism is centered around e-vehicles. This despite the out of control inflation, and Putin’s war, he is concentrating on charging stations.

By appointing him Transportation Secretary, was the plan all along to direct everyone on the path to conversion to their new religion?

3/25/22

Until yesterday I did not really have much interest in Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Then, by chance, I happened on some of her questioning by different Republican Senators, and more importantly on her answers to these questions. … OMG!

Supposedly Judge Jackson is a very intelligent person. She graduated from Harvard Law, and it is reasonable to assume that nonchalants and dodo-heads do not get into, much less graduate from Harvard Law School. But after seeing her non-answers to fairly straight forward questions, I am wondering if Harvard Law School is all it’s cracked up to be!

To a simple question from Senator Kennedy (R,LA), the brilliant Harvard graduate could not provide an answer.

Sen. John Kennedy:  “When does life begin, in your opinion?”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: “I don’t know…I have a religious view that I set aside when I am ruling on cases.”

Then we have the question from Senator Blackburn and Judge Jackson’s non-response:

Senator Blackburn: “Can you provide a definition for the word woman?”

Judge Jackson: “No. I can’t…I’m not a biologist.”

Ben Shapiro tweeted:

“So she has no opinion on what a woman is or when life begins, yet she wants a slot on the highest court in the land, where those definitions will determine the rights held by both the unborn and women.”

(At this point I wondered if Ben Shapiro actually went to Harvard!)

Piers Morgan also raised my suspicion about where he went to school … most likely not Harvard as his tweet was too common-sensical: “Ridiculous. I’m not a brain surgeon but I know what a brain is. This is where ‘progressive’ thinking leads – to a terror of stating basic unarguable facts lest it offend the woke brigade.”

Finally Sen Cruz (R,TX), also a Harvard Law School graduate, asked some questions about Critical Race Theory, and Judge Jackson feigned ignorance, time and time again.

Then came some simple yes or no questions on court packing. Again Judge Jackson avoided answering. (At that point I expected an answer from her like … “I have no opinion on court packing … I am not a tennis player!)

Why wasn’t Judge Jackson not able to answer these apparent simple questions? Was she not prepared? Surely a truly intelligent person would know that these types of questions were coming. 

In my opinion, a truly piss-poor performance … even though I am not a urologist!

3/24/22

Satire is defined as “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.” 

As most of you are aware the Babylon Bee is a satirical web site. To most it is clear that the Babylon Bee is always satirical. For instance, if the title of a Babylon Bee article read “Biden sells Alaska back to Russia,” mostly everyone would realize that the title and the contents were mere folly.

Furthermore, if the Bee wrote an article proclaiming Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as one of its “Women of the Year,” everyone would understand the satire involved, because “Rachel” Levine was actually born Richard Levine. 

When we are talking about satire is it like “two negatives make a positive” … in other words if one satirises something that is already satire, is the end result satire or non-satire?

Confused? Well Twitter is not confused!

Recently the Babylon Bee proclaimed that Rachel Levine was the Bee’s Man Of The Year. Was this satire on USA Today’s proclaiming that

“Rachel Levine is one of USA Today’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact?”

To rightfully answer that question it would seem to me that declaring Rachel “Man of the year” is a clear example of the Bee mocking USA Today.

So what is it? Well Twitter declared that the Bee’s article was “hateful” even though Rachel was indeed born male. If Joe Biden decided that he would prefer to be called Josephine, because of his insightful knack of diplomacy, well okay, Joe, call yourself what you want. If Joe transitioned into Josephine, a “Rachel” paraphrase from the Bee could apply here … “He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird—but he doesn’t care one bit. Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don’t they?”

Even though Josephine might fit well, it doesn’t change what you are, Joe. Nonetheless, be careful, Mr/Ms Biden because Twitter could well label you as hateful, irrespective of what the truth actually is!

3/23/22

“LGBFJB” was a personalized license plate ordered by Nathan Kirk, a Blount County Alabama resident.

On Jan. 21, Kirk said he received his tag in the mail, put it on his F-150 truck, took a picture of it, and posted it on his Facebook account.

Then on Feb. 25 he received a letter telling him that the tag was “inappropriate and “objectionable.”

“That didn’t sound right to me,” he said of the letter. “I thought somebody had seen it and then reported it, but that turned out not to be the case.”

He said he received a telephone call “a few days” after receiving the letter and told him the “exact reason” why they found Kirk’s tag to be “objectionable.”

“They told me they have ‘reviewers from the review department’—that’s the exact terminology they used,” he said. “The reviewer said they thought the “F” meant the explicative word.”

In my interpretation, it doesn’t stand for that,” he said. “I can’t help what they make it stand for, but regardless, it’s up to your own interpretation.”

Kirk said he issued a challenge to the department by telling them he would surrender his tag if they “revoked every single license plate in the state of Alabama that has the letter ‘F’ in it.”

“They said they’re not going to do that,” he laughed. “Then I said you’re probably not going to get mine either.”

In the end the state reviewer caved. Kirk said that his F doesn’t stand for the notorious F-word – it stands for the word “forget.”

Kirk’s advice to anyone who is getting “bullied” by government officials is to “not lay down.”

3/22/22