Under Pressure

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Luke Ford

Noble Lies (12-25-20)

The Rise Of The New Right – From Barry Goldwater To Donald Trump (9-8-20)

00:00 What does it mean to put first things first?
08:30 Historian Rick Perlstein
15:20 Mom Demands Answers After Son Beaten To Death In Jail, https://www.wltz.com/2020/09/07/mom-demands-answers-after-son-beaten-to-death-in-jail/
20:50 Biden Says He’ll ‘Go Down Fighting,’ Then Talks About ‘Losing’, https://www.cnsnews.com/article/national/susan-jones/biden-says-hell-go-down-fighting-then-talks-about-losing
22:00 Sailer: How Santa Monica Cops Thwarted Looter Caravans of Rented Cars
28:30 2 Liberals on Why Trump Will Win (Bret Weinstein), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpWGafV0vOQ
33:35 Rick Wiles on why Antifa is not designated as a terrorist organization
42:45 Michele Bachmann Says Biden Will Collapse the U.S. Economy and Impose Communism
57:00 Kramer won’t wear an AIDS ribbon
1:12:10 Colin Liddell joins
2:00:00 CV Vitolo “Haddad”: Another Academic Racial Fraud? https://medium.com/@polite_keppel_dinosaur_57/cv-vitolo-haddad-another-academic-racial-fraud-c5c41fe32110
2:05:30 Bill Gates
2:26:00 Tucker Carlson on Trump ending racial indoctrination in federal government
https://www.adl.org/blog/bitchute-a-hotbed-of-hate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Right#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Right_(United_States)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perlstein
https://archive.org/details/beforestormbarry0000perl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixonland
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980

The Rise Of The New Right – From Barry Goldwater To Donald Trump II (9-9-20)

00:00 Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=134200
07:30 Will America Survive 2020? Special Guest: Michael Anton – JML #032, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RPJNN0vS8A
30:15 Episode 1118 Scott Adams: Polls, Antifa Versus BLM, My Police Brutality Solution, Shy Trump Voters, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1R1mdMuFI8
35:00 Mike Cernovich predicts a Trump landslide
54:00 Paul Gottfried on Antifa, BLM, the Culture Wars, and Conservatism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad2RRIMsl9Q
1:00:50 Doov vs Jenn on Week of Review, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VE7H9WSdEs
1:15:00 Rod Dreher and Andrew Sullivan: Live Not by Lies, https://faithangle.podbean.com/e/rod-dreher-and-andrew-sullivan-live-not-by-lies/
1:31:00 The alt-right manifesto that has Trumpworld talking, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/23/alt-right-book-trump-1472413
1:41:40 Former White House Stenographer Says Biden Is A ‘Shell Of His Former Self’, https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/09/mike-mccormick-former-white-house-stenographer-joe-biden-shell/
1:55:00 Big Tech’s war on free speech, https://twitter.com/adamscrabble/status/1303838143225888768
2:10:00 Morris Berman on the collapse of the American empire, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQwvm61_dI
2:14:10 Ramzpaul says avoid honey traps, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBTkMwZDhwg
2:22:35 Tucker Carlson: Trump wants our troops out of the Middle East
2:42:00 Fred Luskin: ” Happier Folks Get More Done with Less Stress; So Can You”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERIiCiQyKxY

VC Vitolo-Haddad (Lexi Transexual): Another White Academic Claims To Be Black (9-10-20)

00:00 I interviewed a transsexual academic who turns out to be trans racial
02:00 CV Vitolo-Haddad (Lexical Transexual) Interview from May 25, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYNxXHdAj4c
45:50 Netflix film ‘Cuties’ shows left’s push to normalize childhood sexuality, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAeqbYdxlVs
50:00 Examiner: Trump has the momentum as Biden looks rattled, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-has-the-momentum-as-biden-looks-rattled
53:00 Game Time 2020, https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/07/game-time-2020/
1:02:20 Why does the AR embrace outrage porn? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaLbjd1EdYU
1:08:00 Jared Taylor on identity politics
1:20:00 Paul Gottfried on Trump vs the military industrial complex, https://twitter.com/CottoGottfried
1:26:30 Tucker Carlson on anarchists shutting down America
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/09/us/powerful-people-race-us.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Right#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Right_(United_States)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perlstein
https://archive.org/details/beforestormbarry0000perl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixonland
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980

The House Of Windsor Netflix Documentary (11-20-20)

00:00 The House of Windsor
10:00 Robert Lawrence joins, https://twitter.com/RobertL58304117
20:00 The Anti-Christ world system
49:00 Patrick Little
1:05:30 Truth is the Only Client: The Official Investigation of the Murder of John F. Kennedy
1:08:00 German doctor, covid-skeptic, arrested during Youtube livestream
1:10:40 Michael Tracey talks to Robert Barnes about election fraud, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nuMe7DDnpY
1:21:00 OnlyFans and the Changing Face of Pornography, https://quillette.com/2020/11/19/onlyfans-and-the-changing-face-of-pornography/
1:27:00 Banned words on Only Fans

The One Decisive Moment In American History – When WASPs Surrendered Their Sovereignty (12-19-20)

00:00 The turning point
02:00 Michael Walzer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Walzer
08:00 Jews in the American Academy, 1900-1940: The Dynamics of Intellectual Assimilation, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300049412/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1
29:00 Philosopher Richard J. Bernstein, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Bernstein
42:20 Jewish Scholars at The New School, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8MXVKTs0W8
44:50 Chris Dorsey on the Vaccine and The Synagogue Of Satan
50:00 After a professor wrote about hating white people, Rutgers considers the limits of free speech, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/08/22/after-professor-wrote-about-hating-white-people-rutgers-considers-limits-free-speech/
1:02:00 Southern Dingo calls out race traitors such as Matt Heimbach
1:28:00 Greg Gutfeld and co: Is Hunter ok?
1:34:25 Ramzpaul on nationalism, https://www.bitchute.com/video/9bWitJMbDngV/
1:38:40 Josh/Null from Kiwi Farms vs Ethan Ralph, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78a1CmO3ws
1:43:00 Josh from Kiwi Farms, https://twitter.com/Job4_2
2:02:00 Angelo John Gage: To All the Covid Tough Guys
2:03:00 Andy Nowicki: Calling all simps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YrCB0fMOXw
2:14:00 No White Guilt
2:24:00 Philosopher Richard J. Bernstein on Hans Jonas, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8MXVKTs0W8
2:25:00 A Jewish Army to fight Hitler, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jonas

The Epic Story of the Second World War (11-21-20)

00:00 Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941, https://www.amazon.com/Britain-Bay-Story-Second-1938-1941/dp/0451494741
08:00 The Royal House of Windsor, https://www.netflix.com/title/80181555
24:00 Tucker Carlson vs Sidney Powell
28:00 Erik Wemple: Hey MAGA folks: Don’t bail on Tucker!, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/20/hey-maga-folks-dont-bail-tucker/
33:50 Styx On Cucker Carlson and Other Establishment Hacks “Demanding” Evidence Prior to Litigation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPdnAvA9gA
49:00 If Republicans thought the Dems were going to cheat, why weren’t Republicans ready? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHUxRGAZi4Y
51:00 Tearful MAGA caller to Rush says Trump has never let them down
54:50 Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks endorses bestiality
56:00 Nick Fuentes counter-signals Tucker Carlson
1:06:50 Video: My thoughts on the Richard Spencer vs Nick Fuentes rivalry within the nationalist right, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9PIJCv0Iqs
1:12:00 The Duo That Defeated the ‘Diversity Industry’, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-duo-that-defeated-the-diversity-industry-11605904415?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
1:13:00 Sam Hyde: Jocko and Rogan Have No Real Solution For You (Sam Hyde Podcast), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jQUoBMlg58
1:17:00 Rick Wiles counter-signals Tucker Carlson
1:18:45 Dr. John E Sarno – 20/20 Segment
1:26:00 Howard Stern’s Eulogy for Dr. Sarno
1:31:00 Dr. Sarno Methodolgy Lecture, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p20QhBz-Tik
1:38:00 Mersh not thrilled with Matt Heimbach and others playing out of the anti-extremist handbook, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTrk69RdClk
1:42:30 NWG: Avoid The Wignats
1:44:00 NWG: ANSWERING A QUESTION REGARDING PUTIN’S (& TRUMP’S, ETC) CONNECTIONS TO A CERTAIN TRIBE, https://www.bitchute.com/video/nUTuJsDjceBO/
1:49:45 Ramzpaul is not an ethno-nationalist, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMuoFX5xUcM
1:51:10 The Big Rig with Richard Spencer, Edward Dutton, https://www.bitchute.com/video/bRIIMO7dOmD3/

#22 Peter Strzok, MPC VS TRS, Decline Of WASPs, Stanley Kubrick

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The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Luke Ford

Here are some excerpts from this 2019 book:

* GOSSIP and reputation are core processes in all human societies. Consequently, humans invest a great amount of effort to keep track of others’ reputation and to effectively manage their own. This is especially true in the contemporary world. New technologies increased the number of potential partners and interactions and changed the way we deal with information about others. Reputation management companies and specialists are no longer employed only by movie stars and firms’ CEOs, but these services are required by more and more people. According to Forbes, 82% of executive recruiters report that positive information found online can improve a candidate’s job prospects, but also that firms risk losing more than 20% of business when potential customers find a negative review on their first page of search results. In the offline world, positive or negative reputations result from gossip, which is a primary source of information about others, and it is also a very popular activity, widespread across time and culture.

Gossip and reputation are multifaceted social phenomena. As theoretical constructs, they share several characteristics that pose a challenge for attempts to get a grip on them. First and foremost, both are part of a triadic relation, in which at least three types of actors “engage” with each other. Gossiping requires somebody (a sender) conveying information about a third party (object) to somebody else (receiver); having a reputation implies that the information we receive about someone’s presumed qualities has been generated by somebody else. It involves at least three relational acts: an act of attribution, in which someone attaches an (evaluative) quality to someone else (e.g., Vaidyanathan, Khalsa, & Ecklund, 2016); an act of sharing, in which this attribution is communicated (Hallett, Harger, & Eder, 2009) to others; and an act of perception in which this attribution is recognized and understood as such by a receiver (p. 2) (Kuttler, Parker, & LaGreca, 2002). In the case of gossip, an additional condition is that it requires the absence of the third party, that is, secrecy at the moment of transmission. Any attempt to systematically observe these phenomena in real-life or in the lab will have to find a way to capture this combination of attribution, communication, and perception in triadic structures. In addition to psychological complexity, the triadic and relational aspects of gossip and reputation also come with structural complexity. For example, for the individuals involved to disclose sensitive or evaluative third-party information, power differences matter (Ellwardt, Wittek, & Wielers, 2012; Jeuken et al., 2015).

Second, in most societies the act of gossiping, but also of strategically “managing” one’s own reputation or “damaging” the reputation of others, tends to be normatively regulated and morally laden (Alfano & Robinson, 2017; Bertolotti & Magnani, 2014; Fernandes, Kapoor, & Karandikar, 2017; Peters & Kashima, 2015; Radzik, 2016). The discourse on gossip illustrates this nicely, since for each negative view on gossip, there is a positive one. According to the philosopher Henry Lanz: “In gossip we are pleased to discuss other people’s faults, seldom their merits. We thus seem to enjoy evil for evil’s sake. For we are pleased by faults and errors. We are content to see them endure and grow. We are eager to augment their number and to exaggerate their importance” (Lanz, 1936, p. 494). In contrast, Robin Dunbar, who posited that gossip could have played a major role in the evolution of language, believes that gossip is “the central plank on which human sociality
is founded” (2004, p. 109). Similarly, whereas many emphasize effective reputation management as the key to success for individuals and firms, others point to the “dangerous art of impression management.”

Third, the moral connotation of both phenomena is related to the fact that they require agency of those involved and therefore allow strategic behavior. Individuals may deliberately spread lies about others (Seki & Nakamaru, 2016), or they may attempt to manipulate the image others have about them. Although gossip has been described as “cheap talk” (Coleman, 1990), it is evident that not everybody will share everything about any third party with anyone else: selective disclosure can be of tremendous strategic value for furthering the interests of oneself or one’s group (Burt, 1992). Consequently, assessing the veracity of gossip (Hess & Hagen, 2006; Kuttler, Parker, & La Greca, 2002) becomes a challenge of its own.

Fourth, judging from the evidence that has been compiled so far, gossip and reputation are truly multipurpose social phenomena. As the chapters in this Handbook also demonstrate, the list of their potential “functions” for individuals and groups is impressive, ranging from their impact on emotions and the fulfilment of basic human needs to the cohesion of groups and human sociality in general.

Fifth, the wide-ranging impact of gossip and reputation may stem from the pivotal role they have played in human evolution (e.g., Massar, Buunk, & Rempt, 2012). Their evolutionary base may explain not only the strong emotional and neurophysiological reactions they can trigger (Anderson et al., 2011; Brondino, Fusar-Poli, & Politi, 2017; Peng et al.,
2015), but also account for the distinct variations in their behavioral base and impact between the sexes or along social hierarchies.

Finally, whereas recent research provides evidence for cross-cultural measurement invariance for (workplace) gossip (Brady, Brown & Liang, 2017) and for reputation as a “universal currency for human social interactions” (Milinski, 2016), the antecedents, processes, and consequences of gossip and reputation are highly context dependent. This holds not only for differences across cultures (Henrich et al., 2006; Marlowe et al., 2008), but also across other kinds of social collectives. For example, the incidence, content, form, and function of gossip and reputation may vary depending on the social-structural environment, such as the kind and degree of (inter)dependence in organizations or communities or the socioeconomic position of those involved.

Despite their importance in social life, academic interest in gossip and reputation has developed relatively recently. In 1993, Bromley wrote, “Reputation is a phenomenon of considerable social and scientific importance, but the interest shown in it by writers and by ordinary people has not been paralleled by an equivalent degree of interest shown by social and behavioural scientists” (Bromley, 1993, p. 8). A similar concern was shared by Goodman (1994), who wrote in the introduction to his edited volume on gossip that “until recently, philosophers and social scientists have paid scant attention to gossip” (p. 1). Still in 2004, Wert and Salovey wrote in their introduction to the Special Issue on Gossip
published by the Review of General Psychology that “Gossip matters to all things social, yet social scientists have been slow to pursue its secrets” (p. 76).

Gossip, Internet-Based Reputation Systems, and Governance

The eBay electronic market provides one of the most interesting examples of Internetbased reputation systems, and it is also the most widely researched. Founded in 1995, today it has over 160 million active users around the world, generating close to one billion yearly listings. One key of its success is the fact that both sellers and buyers might write an
assessment, or “feedback”, on each other, which can be positive, neutral, or negative. The percentage of positive feedbacks received in the previous 12 months forms an index of reputation of sort. In a situation where otherwise there would be ample room for cheating, this feature provides incentives to behave honestly, to be efficient, and to invest in quality.
Similar mechanisms are in place in many electronic markets, and all Internet-based reputation systems share some of the key characteristics of eBay. Such Internet-based systems serve as tools to process reputationally relevant information in situations where traditional word-of-mouth would not work, because of the impersonal nature of the relationship among
participants who are typically geographically scattered.

* First, according to a point of view originating in Dunbar (1996), “gossip [is] a mechanism for bonding social groups, tracing these origins back to social grooming among primates” (Dunbar, 2004). According to Baumeister et al. (2004), gossip “can convey valuable information to the hearer about culture and society” and it spurs cultural learning, and several studies (for example, Gottman and Mettetal, 1986) sustain that gossip serves to promote group solidarity. In revealing “personal information about the gossiper”, gossip “communicates to the listener that he or she is trusted” (Bosson et al., 2006) and helps “cement and maintain social bonds” (Baumeister et al, 2004). Also, (negative) gossip ties persons together by providing opportunities for downward social comparisons, which, in turn ”can boost self esteem”. Bosson et al. (2006) (referring to Wert and Salovey, 2004) note that “by gossiping with a potential friend about her dislike of a third person, the gossiper signals to the gossipee that she considers him an in-group member, which should promote self-esteem and grease the wheels of their friendship.”

In fact, gossip might grease human interactions also precisely because it is perceived to be ethically wrong. Ego pays a cost in case alter exposes him as a gossiper, so that gossip might function as a bond of trust between ego and alter. Alter shares the moral blame with ego, to the extent that he approvingly accepts to hear the gossip, and even more so when, as it
often happens, roles are interchanged in a “gossiping session”. Willingly assuming the moral cost of gossiping, and the possibility of reciprocally exposing each other to the social stigma which accompanies such activity, facilitates cooperation by bonding ego and alter. For all these reasons, even negative gossip, far from having the merely destructive role that it is often assumed, might actually positively affect organizational output, and encourage cooperation beyond the direct effects of the reputational information that it disseminates.

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The Rise & Fall Of Jordan Peterson (12-24-20)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Luke Ford

00:00 The Rise of Jordan Peterson (2019)
12:20 Jordan on the Jews
21:00 Jordan’s health problems, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Health_problems
1:12:40 Ed Dutton and Richard Spencer’s podcast, https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-mcspencer-group
1:14:00 IQ Denial
1:26:00 Geographic chauvinism, Los Angeles vs San Francisco
1:38:00 The Ripper documentary, https://decider.com/2020/12/16/the-ripper-netflix-review/
2:11:00 EVERYTHING THE ALT-RIGHT KNOWS IS WRONG (AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN), https://affirmativeright.blogspot.com/2020/12/everything-alt-right-knows-is-wrong-and.html
2:19:40 The AR Optics debate, https://www.pscp.tv/w/1kvJpoLPeAPGE

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Not only Trolls are Trolling the Internet: A study on dark personality traits, online environment, and commentary styles

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Luke Ford

From this new paper:

* These are “Trolls” (their motive is to seek attention/revenge and are suggested to have person-ality traits associated with Sadism, low self-esteem, low conscience, and a low moral compass), “Lurkers” (they visit various forums but refrain from writing messages or comments), and “Posters” (they use forums to reveal per-sonal information that often relates to sex life, sexuality, fantasies, family problems, and personal problems, varying in motives).

* Dark traits can predict what kind of approach and values a person has towards others… The first of the three traits is “Machiavellianism” (Mach), characterized by often having a cynical worldview and by striving for power, money and status; they often are cold and pragmatic, and use false play and manipulation. They can be charming, cun-ning, strategic, enthusiastic and deficient in morals. The sec-ond of these traits is “Narcissism” (Narc), characterized by seeking attention and admiration, by being arrogant and ex-hibitionistic, and by striving for power and leadership. They often feel superior, dominant and self-righteous. They can be charismatic, productive and inspiring. Thirdly, “Psy-chopathy” (Psych), characterized by often being cold, and by being manipulative, and impulsive. They often have a low degree of empathy and little feelings of guilt… Studies have also suggested that Sadism should be included in the set of dark traits… Apart from the first three traits, Sadism can predict insensitivity to the suffering of others, and can also predict insensitivity when to “strike back” when threatened. Sadism also has shown a unique relation to Internet Trolling and to sexuality. The unique aspect of Sadism is that the individual enjoys the suffering of others.

The anonymity aspect of the online environment is reported to affect the behavior on internet (Seigfried-Spellar & Lank-ford, 2018). This could be due to de-individuation processes (Demetriou & Silke, 2003), inducing a state where individuals feel anonymous among many people. Postmes and Spear (1998) claim that de-individuation must not necessarily lead to unethical behavior on the Internet. However, de-individuation may lead to online disinhibition effects, meaning that in anonymity, communication is more uninhibited than in a face-to-face communication (Clark-Gor-don, Bowman, Goodboy, & Wright, 2019). Measures of Online Environment (OE) can be de-scribed with three subcategories (Ritter, 2014). One is “Acceptability” (relates to the hegemonic culture of the forum. Individuals who score high on OE-acceptability may feel it is okay to express themselves with both prejudice and sexist comments). A second is “Aloneness” (encourages harassment, as the OE is lacking social codes, creating inhibitory effects. Individuals do not feel they need to follow ordinary social norms and can write whatever they want). The third is “Anonymity” (neutralizes status disparities and makes individuals feel invisible while also reducing personal responsibility. Individuals participate in more risky behavior and treat people any way they want since no one knows who they are).

…The results showed that particularly Trolling (malicious posting) had significant correlations with almost all four dark personality traits. Controlling for dark personality traits, Sadism and Machiavellianism remained as the strongest predictors for Trolling. This is in line with Buckels et al.’s (2014) results that also showed a strong correlation with the Internet behavior style, and it provides more evidence of the importance of the role of especially dark personality traits. Not surprisingly, it seems that hard-minded people post more malicious content. Similarly, two of the dark personality traits, Sadism and Psychopathy, co-varied strongly with Posting (regular reading and posting on forums). Interestingly, it seems that hard-minded people also post more in conventional styles.

When the Online Environment was investigated as a mediator in these relationships, only trivial effects were found. This means that personality behind posting behaviors generally cannot be explained by how people see or feel or perceive their online environment on Internet forums. The one exception was Acceptability, which describes tolerance to harmful and socially unacceptable behavior on the Internet (Ritter, 2014), which had a small mediating effect explaining Psychopathy and conventional Posting. This study makes several contributions to research on individual behavior on the Internet. First, this study shows that an individual’s behavior on the Internet can be predicted by dark personality traits. The fact that Trolling is related to the dark traits is already known, but what is of interest is that these dark traits (especially Sadism and Psychopathy) are also represented in the regular Posters. Second, the present study also shows in an exploratory way that Online Environment cannot explain the relationship between the dark traits and the posting behavior. It seems that personality traits are “all it takes” for Internet commentary styles.

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Who Made the Vaccine Possible? Not WHO

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Luke Ford

Graham Allison writes in the WSJ:

…companies like Germany-based BioNTech, its Boston-based competitor Moderna, and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have also been racing for a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. There would be no Covid-19 vaccine today had there been no venture capitalists prepared to invest before a product or profit was visible, no corporate leadership willing to double down with the companies’ own money in the spring to fund a crash effort to produce a vaccine by year-end, and no researchers pursuing a dream about mRNA as an unprecedented route for vaccines.

Second is Operation Warp Speed. Had Mr. Trump not created the initiative, appointed as its leader a man who knows the vaccine development world, and given him license to spend $10 billion outside normal contracting procedures, Covid-19 vaccines would still be only works in progress. Even after they were finally approved, the vaccines’ distribution could have been long delayed. Imagine a world in which Mr. Trump had not appointed as deputy head of the operation a general who knows logistics and had the authority to write contracts with FedEx and UPS to book space on their airplanes and in their network of distribution centers.

So as Americans now look forward to getting vaccinated and resuming our normal lives, we should pause to give thanks to a remarkable group of scientists and entrepreneurs whose capitalism-fed competitive drive pushed them to venture into the unknown—for fortune and fame. And to a deeply flawed, often dysfunctional disrupter in chief who in this case certainly did a good thing.

Posted in Covid | Comments Off on Who Made the Vaccine Possible? Not WHO

FEE: We Had the Vaccine from the Start—You Just Weren’t Allowed to Take It

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Luke Ford

00:00 Moderna’s highly effective vaccine was available in January, https://fee.org/articles/we-had-the-vaccine-from-the-start-you-just-werent-allowed-to-take-it/
07:00 James Thompson, The Bitter Tiers of Mutant England, https://www.unz.com/jthompson/the-bitter-tiers-of-mutant-england/
13:00 Who Made the Vaccine Possible? Not WHO, https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-made-the-vaccine-possible-not-who-11608744603?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
23:00 One Day Sooner pushed for challenge trials, https://www.1daysooner.org/
25:00 Covid Vaccine: Should “Challenge Trials” Be Allowed?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlsCMGC60cY
35:30 Clinical Trials: From Design to FDA Consideration, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pfsYbMP47o
55:00 Generating self-compassion, https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Recovery_Program
1:19:00 What are we doing here?
2:20:00 Jared Taylor on BLM
2:21:30 Rush Limbaugh says goodbye
2:28:30 Let’s get energized

Philip Steele writes:

Few people realize that the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19—which the FDA has finally declared “highly effective,” and which is now being distributed to Americans—has actually been available for nearly a year.

But the government wouldn’t let you take it.

The vaccine, a triumph of medical science known as mRNA-1273, was designed in a single weekend, just two days after Chinese researchers published the virus’s genetic code on January 11, 2020.

For the entire duration of the pandemic, while hundreds of thousands died and the world economy was decimated by lockdowns, this highly effective vaccine has been available.

But you, and all the people who died, were prohibited by the government from taking it.

There are some who claim that the FDA “saves lives” by putting the brakes on medical innovation with their requirements for years-long, and often decades-long, billion-dollar medical trial procedures.

Missing here is the obvious counterpoint—How many lives did the FDA sacrifice to disease in the meantime?

In the case of COVID-19 we know the answer: more than 300,000 deaths so far in the United States and counting.

So why was this vaccine delayed for a full year? Because the FDA prohibited rapid “challenge trials”—where volunteers take the vaccine and then expose themselves to the virus in a lab, rather than waiting agonizing months to see how many catch the virus “in the wild.”

Challenge trials would have proven the vaccine’s effectiveness in a matter of weeks. But the FDA considered the risk to trial volunteers too high.

But why? Why are hundreds of thousands of “natural” deaths from a rampaging disease considered acceptable to the FDA—while the remote possibility of one or two deaths, in the absolute worst case scenario, among well-informed vaccine-testing volunteers are not?

There is no rational answer. The tragic truth is that we are ruled by a cowardly medical bureaucracy, one that would rather allow hundreds of thousands of people to die than face any potential criticism for allowing an accelerated vaccine trial.

By contrast, in a free society, immediately after the vaccine was created, volunteers would have been allowed to participate in challenge trials. The trials would have been conducted either by the vaccine company itself, or more likely by third-party medical-trial specialists, to remove any concerns about bias in the results.

The first small group of volunteers would be vaccinated, and then exposed to the virus. If the vaccine appeared to be safe and effective, then a larger group would be vaccinated.

As each challenge group proved successful, the number of volunteers for the next group would grow. Week by week the challenge groups would grow larger, until after just a few months—instead of taking nearly a year by the FDA’s “in the wild” method—the results would be definitive and the trials complete.

This means that in March or April of 2020—instead of the first wave of COVID deaths and lockdowns in the United States—we could have seen a wide vaccine rollout, leading to rapid herd immunity, nipping the pandemic in the bud.

But that path would have been possible only in a free society.

Instead, we have the FDA, backed by government force, dictating medical policy and drawing out the trial process for nearly a year, while death and economic destruction reign.

James Thompson writes for Unz.com: “the Moderna vaccine was available in January and could have been deployed from 24 February onwards. It took two days for a bright scientist to complete her mRNA design, and then it was ready to go into production.”

Posted in Covid | Comments Off on FEE: We Had the Vaccine from the Start—You Just Weren’t Allowed to Take It

The Power Of State

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Luke Ford

Mary McNamara writes for the Los Angeles Times:

I was a junior in college, my brother a freshman, and we were home for the annual roller-coaster ride of the holidays. On this particular Christmas Day, events had unfolded as they often did — early morning present opening (hats off to Mom, who must have felt like crap at 6 a.m. but got up anyway), then a big extended-family gathering and meal during the afternoon. Things inevitably … devolved and after our guests left, my brother and I retreated to our rooms and out of the line of fire. I remember lying in bed and thinking that in two years I would be out of college and living somewhere far, far away; so far that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to come home for Christmas. Which might break my father’s heart — but, I thought, he’d live.

I was deeply asleep when Dad had his heart attack.

It was not a big one — he remained conscious — but hearing him tell my mother repeatedly to call an ambulance in a voice broken and strained filled me with fear.

Then, after my brother called 911 and things seemed as bad as they could get, the power blew…

I have already told you my mom got sober, and in case you were wondering, my father lived for many years after his heart attack — so it would be easy for me to couch this moment in the black humor that many adult children of alcoholics often use to describe the outstanding moments of a dysfunctional life. I mean, it is pretty hilarious in a way — “and then the lights went out” is a pretty good punchline for any “it could be worse” kind of story. But some stories defy even black humor; 30 years later, my brother and I almost never talk about this night because, at the time, we were just two kids shivering in the snow, desperately signaling for help.

The ambulance came and Dad survived, but the days that followed were a blur of anxiety. In the ICU, Dad was told he would need a quintuple bypass. Mom was drinking hard and refusing to speak, so we stayed away from the house as much as we could, visiting our father and hanging out with our aunt, who was the only person who had ever told us that the real problem in our house was not that we were lazy and ungrateful but that our mother was an alcoholic — and it was not our fault.

I remember telling her it would probably be best if I skipped the next semester of college to stay home and take care of my father. My mother certainly was not up to the task, and my aunt, a widow with four young children, already had way too much on her plate.

My aunt suggested gently that leaving school might not be the best plan. Then she called one of her friends, a recovering alcoholic who promptly took me to a meeting of family members coping with alcoholism. I sat through it in silence, hunched miserably in my coat, thinking only of how awful it would be to return full-time to a house I had waited so long to flee.

Afterward, I spoke with a woman who looked remarkably like my mother. I told her what was happening and what I planned to do. She shook her head and took my hands in hers.

“This is not your problem,” she said. “This is her problem, and their marriage. It is not your job to fix them. It is your job to get on with your life.”

Bud: “Luke, allow me to play devil’s advocate for a minute. You seem to minimize anecdotal evidence in favor of data/evidence verifiable by scholars. Yet for both therapy and AA isn’t all the power/benefit anecdotal. Like the Christmas drinking story, powerful though it may be is just an anecdote. is that reliable?”

Luke: Both have their place. Anecdotes, to me, are great for personal inspiration (the micro). Empirical data is good for analyzing the macro (society). Both are often more powerful when used together ala an anecdote that illustrates the data.

Creating and editing are two different mindsets. If you do them together, they don’t work well. When you create, you do not want to edit at the same time. Inspiration and analysis are also very different mindsets as are feeling and thinking. I don’t want to be in analysis when I am loving my woman, and I don’t want to have the horn when I’m trying to analyze marginal tax rates. Sometimes I want to run hot (emotional) and sometimes I want to run cold (analytical). I was about to go for a walk and do a heartfelt stream on being a good friend to oneself when instead I got immersed in researching and dealing with a problem. So that switch in mindset took me completely out of my ability to feel and to livestream.

When I have a tech issue while livestreaming, it destroys my ability to have fun, to laugh, and to be spontaneous. It’s hard to monitor my sound quality and think and create at same time. One moment I may feel loving and generous, next moment I have to deal with a problem and my ability to love is destroyed for hours. When I studied calculus and economics, it killed for years my ability to appreciate poetry.

I can have experiences that are so powerful, such as with yoga/therapy/12 step, that they, at times, supercede my desire for the data. Sometimes when you analyze things, you lose the placebo effect. I had a shrink who thought my miraculous recovery from CFS after getting on nardil in late 1993 was pure placebo. Acupuncture, which many studies say has purely a placebo effect, solved my carpal tunnel in 2007. I had ecstatic experiences doing kundalini yoga.

There are some things I don’t want to know, such as how many dudes my GF has banged. There are some things that just permanently warp the way you look at someone. There are times when ignorance is bliss. For everything there is a season and a time under heaven. There’s a time to feel and a time to analyze. There’s a time to get angry and a time to forgive.

Orthodox Judaism primarily spoke to a non-rational part of me. I don’t think I converted primarily out of rational reasons, but I enjoy at times rationally analyzing the tribe I joined.

Posted in Addiction | Comments Off on The Power Of State

‘Trump commutes Esformes’ 20-year sentence in massive Medicare fraud case in Miami’

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Luke Ford

From the Miami Herald:

Philip Esformes, a former Miami Beach healthcare mogul convicted of playing a central role in one of the nation’s biggest Medicare fraud cases and using his ill-gotten millions to pay bribes for favors, won a commutation of his 20-year sentence from President Donald Trump Tuesday night.

Esformes, convicted of paying bribes, money laundering and other charges, was also ordered to pay $44 million to the taxpayer-funded Medicare program and the U.S. government after a grueling 2019 trial prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami and Justice Department. Trump’s commutation did not overturn that restitution order.

A handful of former federal prosecutors in South Florida questioned Trump’s clemency decision.

From the Chicago Tribune, Sept. 13, 2019:

Former Illinois and Florida nursing home mogul Philip Esformes wept and pleaded for mercy Thursday before being sentenced to 20 years in prison for what the U.S. Justice Department called the largest single health care bribery and kickback scheme in American history.

Esformes, who once controlled a network of more than two dozen health care facilities that stretched from Chicago to Miami, garnered $1.3 billion Medicaid revenues by bribing medical professionals who referred patients to his Florida facilities then paid off government regulators as vulnerable residents were injured by their peers, prosecutors said.

He housed elderly patients alongside younger adults who suffered from mental illness and drug addiction — sometimes with fatal results. In Esformes’ Oceanside Extended Care Center in Miami Beach, “an elderly patient was attacked and beaten to death by a younger mental health patient who never should have been at (a nursing facility) in the first place,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing memo.

As he handed down the sentence, Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. said the length and scope of Esformes’ criminal conduct were “unmatched in our community. … Mr. Esformes violated the trust of Medicare and Medicaid in epic proportions.”

But Scola meted out a punishment significantly less than the 30 years prosecutors requested, saying Esformes also had an extraordinary history of helping people in need. Attorneys for Esformes had described him as a selfless philanthropist who had donated more than $15 million to synagogues, schools and needy individuals, often anonymously.

Said Scola: “I think he should get some consideration for his philanthropy, although it’s dangerous to say because he was stealing money from Medicare, so people might say he was giving that money to charity. But the vast majority of the money he made, he made legitimately. More importantly he was a true friend to people known and unknown to him, and that is worthy of mitigation.”

Posted in Jews | Comments Off on ‘Trump commutes Esformes’ 20-year sentence in massive Medicare fraud case in Miami’

The end of the liberal international order (12-22-20)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Luke Ford

00:00 The arc of history does not bend towards democracy
03:10 Michael Malice On Biden And The New Right
07:00 John Mearsheimer: The end of the liberal international order
36:30 A Lot of Friends Fell Down the Racist Rabbit Hole | Michael Malice
44:00 Michael Malice: Anarchy, Democracy, Libertarianism, Love, and Trolling, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIk1zUy8ehU
50:25 Colin Liddell: The decline of the Alt-Right into Alt-Liteism and Stormertardery, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_rdkJo0GjY
1:13:20 Dana White says the show will go on for UFC
1:19:00 The greatest livestream of the decade, Baked Alaska meets Sammy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njVye0I9AUU
1:21:00 YOBA, Year of Baked Alaska, https://dailygroyper.com/2020/09/25/baked-alaska-saves-schizophrenic-trailer-park-trash-human-trafficking-victim-from-pink-eye/
1:27:00 Jared Taylor racist in Japanese
1:29:00 Jared Taylor racist in French
1:33:40 Greg Johnson on Covid-19 and excess deaths
1:45:40 Redbar Destroys A Florida Homeless Man (Mersh), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlbEzurJ-zg
2:16:00 RED BAR RADIO S13E20 Mexicans Rant July 8, 2015
2:30:30 Andy Warski on Redbar supercut
2:37:00 Redbar – Know More News – Hypocrisy & Lies!
2:43:00 Nathan Cofnas on the origins of Covid-19 (more likely lab than wet markets), https://twitter.com/nathancofnas/status/1341533156038471683
2:47:00 Jared Taylor on Black Lives Matter
2:52:10 Donald Trump’s four-minute talk today is reminiscent of Trump 2016
2:55:00 Yes, the new federal budget includes $500 million for Israel. No, that isn’t a surprise., https://www.jta.org/2020/12/22/israel/yes-the-new-federal-budget-includes-500-million-for-israel-no-that-isnt-a-surprise#.X-I5dYhXpeo.twitter
2:59:20 Tucker Carlson on covid relief bill
3:12:00 Millenniyule 2020: Josh Neal
3:16:00 ‘Life In A Northern Town’ (Dream Academy) – Pub Choir in Brisbane, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF5o7iFyBZs

Posted in America | Comments Off on The end of the liberal international order (12-22-20)

Making Sense Of Race (12-21-20)

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Luke Ford

00:00 DB: Tucker Carlson Tells His Giant Fox Audience Not to Trust COVID Vaccines, https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-tells-his-giant-fox-audience-not-to-trust-covid-vaccines?jwsource=twi
14:00 WSJ: A Pandemic of Misinformation
The media’s politicization of Covid has proved deadly and puts Americans’ freedoms at risk, https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-pandemic-of-misinformation-11608570640?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
21:00 Your defense mechanisms, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2XuzSm6o6Y
51:40 MATT PARROTT – UBI – RADIO FREE INDIANA – DEC. 14, 2020, https://www.bitchute.com/video/HnoSyrn8Im6a/
1:04:50 Jews rise up against white nationalism & fascism
1:09:20 Millenniall Woes defends Richard Spencer,https://trad-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/millennial-woes-destroys-own-brand-by.html
1:18:00 NWG opposes Richard Spencer
1:32:00 NEW on recovering from the National Socialist path
1:33:00 The Great Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn
1:43:50 Hispanic dude: Black males are jealous of Hispanic men
1:48:40 Black Men Dating Latinas
1:57:50 Will Richard Spencer study Torah and study love?
1:59:30 RICHARD SPENCER & ED DUTTON | Making Sense of Race | McSPENCER GROUP PODCAST | 2020-12-20
2:04:00 Bashar Al Assad makes a compelling case against neo-liberalism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
2:11:00 Chivo exposes black self hater, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYEahEi1BkY
http://dissident-mag.com/2020/07/07/america-first-fed-problem/
2:21:20 Redbar radio said Alex Jones is trying to get away from the Qanon/altright crowd, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVAXUiqJPt0
2:26:00 Joe Rogan tired of Covid hysteria
2:31:20 Year of Baked Alaska, YOBA
2:33:00 Nick disavows Kami giving Hitler speeches
2:35:30 Great Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn | December 21 2020 | Griffith Observatory, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uiABtFyGPY
3:29:00 The Zebra Killers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_murders
3:32:00 Jimmy Dore: AOC’s Gas Lighting Gets Called Out On Twitter!, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZFO-pmJMo
3:37:12 Tucker Carlson on the US Military pushing diversity, https://www.unz.com/isteve/thanks-trump-administration-the-great-reset-comes-for-the-military/
3:46:00 The Great Reset comes to the Dalton School, https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-great-reset-comes-for-the-dalton-school/

Posted in America | Comments Off on Making Sense Of Race (12-21-20)