PP NewsBrief: 2021-01-27

We need to begin to reclaim control over the institutions which have such oversized roles in our lives. As you read this people work tirelessly to see to it that you are dumb and docile. Let's stop them.

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Quinn: The Fourth Turning Detonation, Part 1

"It is easy to get distracted by the daily gyrations, ceaseless media propaganda, political theater, false narratives, and delusional beliefs of both the left and right, as this military empire built on debt and deceit spirals towards its fiery cataclysmic climax. Opposing forces have gathered themselves into position focusing on defeating their domestic enemies, with the left seeming to have strategic advantage but led by hubristic dullards, while numerous foreign adversaries circle like hungry vultures ready to pounce on the dying beast of an empire.

Last January I wrote a two-part article called 2020 – Year of Living Dangerously which harkened back to another article I had written eight years before 2012 – Year of Living Dangerously. I lamented the fact I had not understood Fourth Turnings will take their own sweet time on the way to a climax, with twists and turns which will differentiate it from previous Crisis periods in U.S. history. My impatience for the great battle to resolve this struggle has not and will not impact the timeline, but the three elements driving this Crisis remain firmly in control, as they have since 2008: debt, civic decay, global disorder."

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Reflecting the Authoritarian Climate, Washington Will Remain Militarized Until At Least March

"Deploying National Guard or military troops for domestic law enforcement purposes is so dangerous that laws in place from the country’s founding strictly limit its use. It is meant only as a last resort, when concrete, specific threats are so overwhelming that they cannot be quelled by regular law enforcement absent military reinforcements. Deploying active military troops is an even graver step than putting National Guard soldiers on the streets, but they both present dangers. As Trump’s Defense Secretary said in response to calls from some over the summer to deploy troops in response to the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests: “The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations."

Are we even remotely at such an extreme state where ordinary law enforcement is insufficient? The January 6 riot at the Capitol would have been easily repelled with just a couple hundred more police officers. The U.S. is the most militarized country in the world, and has the most para-militarized police force on the planet. Earlier today, the Acting Chief of the Capitol Police acknowledged that they had advanced knowledge of what was planned but failed to take necessary steps to police it.

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What makes this all the more remarkable is that a mere seven months ago, a major controversy erupted when The New York Times published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) which, at its core, advocated the deployment of military troops to quell the social unrest, protests and riots that erupted over the summer after the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd. To justify the deployment of National Guard and active duty military forces, Cotton emphasized how many people, including police officers, had been seriously maimed or even killed as part of that unrest"

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CNN’s Brian Stelter and Former Facebook Official Reveal the Regime’s Next Moves to Silence Political Dissidents

"Alex Stamos: It’s really hard because what’s happening is people are able to seek out the information that makes them feel good. People have so much choice now. They can choose what their news sources are. They can choose what influencers they want to follow. They can try to seal out anything that helps them question that.

I think that gets to a really core issue with how our freedom as Americans, and the way we’ve treated press freedom in the past, is being abused by these actors. We have given a lot of leeway both in the traditional media and on social media to people to have a very broad range of political views. And it is now in the great economic interest of those individuals to become more and more radical."

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Las Vegas Schools Forced To Reopen Amid Rash Of Student Suicides

""When we started to see the uptick in children taking their lives, we knew it wasn't just the Covid numbers we need to look at anymore," said Jesus Jara, the Clark County superintendent."

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Compulsory Political Ideology For Illinois K-12 Teachers And Classrooms Moves Closer To Finalization

"On the surface, the CRTL Standards might appear to be only about required teaching of critical race theory – alleged systemic racism, gender discrimination, systems of oppression, white supremacy, etc – centering on a requirement to be a “culturally responsive teacher.”

But each section of the rule starts by saying what a culturally responsive teacher will do. A few examples:

•  Mandatory counterculture curriculum. The culturally responsive teacher, the standards say, will “co-create content to include a counternarrative to dominant culture.”
• Training students to be progressive activists. Culturally responsive teachers and leaders, the standards say, will “Research and offer student advocacy and activism content with real world implications and [h]old high expectations in which all students can participate and lead as student advocates or activists.” Teachers are also encouraged to substitute “social justice work” or “action civics projects” for more traditional forms of testing when deciding on a student’s grade.
• Required thinking for teachers. The “culturally responsive teacher and leader will,” according to the standards, “engage in reflection about their own actions and interactions and what ideas motivated those actions,” and “explore their own intersecting identities, how they were developed, and how they impact daily experience of the world.” Teachers must “assess their biases and perceptions” about, among other things, “unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.”"

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That's All Folks!

"Still, Trump’s failure to go full-Hitler, or even half-Hitler, was somewhat awkward. I mean, you can’t whip millions of people into a four-year frenzy of fear and hatred of a clearly powerless ass-clown president, and portray him as a Russian Intelligence asset, and the Son of Hitler, and all the rest of it, and then just drop the act cold and laugh in their faces. That would leave them feeling like total morons who had just spent the last four years of their lives being lied to and emotionally manipulated, or like members of a cult, or something.

Fortunately, for GloboCap, this was not a major problem. All they had to do was produce a cheap simulation of “Trump going full-Hitler.” It didn’t even have to be convincing. They just needed a semi-dramatic event to plug into the official narrative, something they could call “an attempted coup,” “an insurrection,” “an attack,” and so on, and which millions of credulous liberals could hysterically shriek about on the Internet.

The “Storming of the Capitol” did the trick.""

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Meet the Censored: Live Streamers

"The Ohio and Virginia incidents underscore two developments involving platforms like YouTube/Google, Facebook, and Twitter in recent years. The first is the campaign to stress what Google calls “authoritative content,” which up-ranks articles and videos issued by major corporate news outlets like CNN or CBS, while decreasing traffic for independent sites on the left, the right, and in between.

The second has been an effort to close loopholes in the platforms’ content moderation regimes. In the wake of the Capitol riot, this trend intensified. After the “insurrection,” a series of trial-balloon stories appeared in the press, suggesting that Internet nooks and crannies where conspiracy theory and misinformation proliferate might need more aggressive cleaning."

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Pelosi’s H.R.1 Bill Will Unleash Consequential Election Law Reform

"Here are some of the changes H.R.1 would bring if passed:

• It would regulate states in implementing “early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting.”
• Implements same-day voter registration, a potential nightmare for poll workers’ ability to effectively verify the accuracy of voter information.
• Allows all states to institute early voting, which can be disadvantageous to voters because sometimes an early voter is not as fully informed with up-to-date information on candidates and issues.
• Automatic voter registration from massive databases, like the DMV or welfare offices, adding to the potential to add large numbers of ineligible voters or duplicate voters to the rolls.
• Requires states to allow felons to vote the moment they are released from prison. Section ll of the 14th amendment gives states the right to decide that timing. Congress cannot override a constitutional amendment with a statute.
• Re-districting—takes it out of the hands of legislatures and puts it into the hands of “independent commissions whose members are unaccountable to voters. Mandates inclusion of alien population, both legal and illegal, in all redistricting.“
• Reduces the number of members on the Federal Election Commission from six to five, “allowing the political party with three commission seats to control the commission and engage in partisan enforcement activities.“
• Voter ID laws removed, allowing voters to show up without proof of who they are.
• Will “Prevent election officials from checking the eligibility and qualifications of voters and remove ineligible voters. This includes restrictions on using the U.S. Postal Service’s national change-of-address system to verify the address of registered voters; participating in state programs that compare voter registration lists to detect individuals registered in multiple states, or ever removing registrants due to a failure to vote no matter how much time has gone by.”
• Requires ballots be counted outside of the voter’s precinct. This removes the local government’s integrity to verify voter rolls and oversee elections and gives the power to count votes entirely to the federal government.
• Internet-only registration with electronic signature submission.
• A ban of the requirement to provide a full SSN for voter registration.
• Allows the use of taxpayer dollars to fund candidates.
• Requires candidates for Vice President and President to submit 10 years of tax returns."

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Disney to Change ‘Jungle Cruise’ Ride to Remove ‘Negative Depictions’ of Cultures

"“Imagineers are constantly looking for opportunities to enhance experiences, and when it comes to updating classic attractions, they employ a very careful and thoughtful approach,” Disney officials shared in a statement with the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Monday.

“In this particular case, Imagineers created a storyline that builds upon what people love the most while addressing negative depictions simultaneously,” the statement added, while it explained the update would “reflect and value the diversity of the world around us.”"

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Another Study Shows—Yet Again—That Lockdowns Don't Work

"The latest study to show the weakness of the pro-lockdown position appeared this month in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, authored by Eran Bendavid, Christopher Oh, Jay Bhattacharya, and John P.A. Ioannidis. Titled “Assessing Mandatory Stay-at-Home and Business Closure Effects on the Spread of COVID-19,” the authors compare “more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions” (mrNPI) and “less restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions" (lrNPI). More restrictive interventions include mandatory stay-at-home orders and forced business closures. Less restrictive measures include “social distancing guidelines, discouraging of international and domestic travel, and a ban on large gatherings.” The researchers compare outcomes at the subnational level in a number of countries, including England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. This is then compared against countries with less restrictive measures, primarily Sweden and South Korea, where stay-at-home orders and business closures were not widely implemented.

The conclusion:

   We find no clear, significant beneficial effect of mrNPIs on case growth in any country….In none of the 8 countries and in none out of the 16 comparisons (against Sweden or South Korea) were the effects of mrNPIs significantly negative (beneficial). The point estimates were positive (point in the direction of mrNPIs resulting in increased daily growth in cases).

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It should be noted that none of these researchers questioning the lockdown narrative express any problem with voluntary measures to reduce exposure to disease. Few are even likely to oppose measures like avoiding mass indoor gatherings.

But those sorts of measures are fundamentally different from mandated business closures and stay-at-home orders. The problem with mandatory lockdowns—in contrast to voluntary social distancing—is highlighted by the fact that they indiscriminately rob vulnerable populations of the services and assistance they need. And by “vulnerable populations” I mean anyone who is vulnerable to any life-threatening condition. Although we're being conditioned to believe that deaths from covid are the only deaths worth noticing, the fact is that the world includes people who are vulnerable to suicide, to drug overdoses, and to economic ruin—which comes with countless secondary effects in the form of health problems. By denying these people the freedom to seek an income and secure the social and medical support they need, we are essentially saying that those people are expendable and it's better to tilt the scales in favor of covid patients."

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Poor Lives Matter, But Less

"Sundaram discusses how the obsession with metrics, a long standing favorite topic of ours (see Management’s Great Addiction) produces policies that give short shrift to the poor and poor countries. One of the big fallacies is treating money as the measure of the value and quality of life. For instance, reducing the instance of cancer is worth more in rich countries because their lives are valued more highly in these models. Similarly, they often fall back on unitary measures like lifespan, and so don’t capture outcomes like diets heavy in low nutrient foods (think simple sugars) producing higher rates of non-communicable diseases and hence less healthy citizens"

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1st private space crew paying $55M each to fly to station

While space boosters like to promote space as a new frontier for the noble pursuits of science & exploration history shows us that the most likely outcome will be exploitation and rapacious greed. Only now it will exist in the ungovernable vacuum of space. What could go wrong?

"The first private space station crew was introduced Tuesday: Three men who are each paying $55 million to fly on a SpaceX rocket."

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Get Used To Living Under "Subsidiarity" After The Great Reset

"When Schwab talks about how a grand ideal of a standard issue One World Government model, what he calls the Neoliberal Utopia simply will not work, I breathe a sigh of relief:

   “Consider  a global government [that] regulates multinational companies in global markets, and people gather in a global democracy and global unions. It is an unrealistic an undesirable goal, as it increases the distance between individuals and the immediate social ecosystems they are a part of. It also decreases their feeling of commitment to the people and the environment closest to them…Though the 20th century neoliberalists once may have seen such a global model as a Utopian ideal, it would inevitably end in the political disenfranchisement of local communities. When the center of power is too far removed  from people’s everyday realities, neither political governance nor economic decision-making would have popular support.”

   - Stakeholder Capitalism p.181

But then, the more I read, the more I couldn’t shake the sense that when a guy like Schwab means by the word “commitment, what he really means is “obedience”. Schwab understands that people aren’t really going to accept decisions from on high, especially if on high is a centralized world government.

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We get some insight by looking at the list of “Deep Shifts” Schwab predicts in his earlier book: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, where he posits what the big changes are that are coming at us in terms of tipping points, positive outcomes, negative outcomes and “unknown / cuts both ways”.

Shift #1: Implantable Technologies (p. 121)

“Digital tattoos not only look cool but can perform useful tasks, like unlocking a car, entering mobile phone codes with a finger point or tracking body processes

(or implementing immunity passports).

Shift #10: Smart Cities (p.144)

Shift #11: Big Data for Decisions (p. 145)

Shift #22: Designer Beings

Tipping point in for this one will be when “The first human whose genome was directly and deliberately edited is born” (which I will point out, has already happened with the CRISPR babies in China).

Shift #23: Neurotechnologies (p. 170)

Tipping point: “The first human with fully artificial memory implanted in the brain”.

Together, they coalesce to usher in an impetus toward transhumanism ordered by Big Data and AI that will probably, in lieu of any honest debate or public consultation around these shifts, result in a type of social credit system.

And that’s what is missing from Schwab’s books. There is nothing in the framework where local communities can identify and define what they see as problems for themselves and work toward solving them. There is no mechanism for asserting their own priorities of types of things the communities themselves may value above the WEF’s “Deep Shifts”, such as full or meaningful employment, privacy, or self-sovereign health care."

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'Public health experts' now call for three masks to stop the spread

"It’s worth recalling that there is no actual scientific evidence that masks work to stop the spread of a submicroscopic infectious particle, which in this case, is the virus known as SARS-CoV-2.. There are a lot of hypotheses about how masks could work, but there is no data to confirm these academic models. In fact, the limited randomized controlled trial data (see: Danish mask study) that we have available shows that masks do not do anything at all to minimize the spread of COVID-19."

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Only Five Republicans Vote With Senate Dems to Table Rand Paul’s Point of Order on ‘Sham Impeachment’

"“I think there will be enough support on it to show there’s no chance they can impeach the president,” Paul told reporters Tuesday. “If 34 people support my resolution that this is an unconstitutional proceeding it shows they don’t have the votes and we’re basically wasting our time.”

In fact, the vote was 55 to 45, strongly suggesting that the Dems will not come close to the 67 votes needed to convict the former president.

Only five Republicans voted with Democrats to table Paul’s point of order to dismiss the trial: Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey."