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The power of noncompliance

In 2020, I watched the New Normal die right in front of me. Here's the story.
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© Alex Krainer's TrendCompass
Peaceful noncompliance may not seem like much. It doesn't make revolutions, nor is it suitable for Hollywood-style epics about the struggle for freedom. But it is actually extraordinarily powerful as I'll try to convey with this personal experience.

On 22 May 2020, after three months of lockdowns, some of the beaches in the South of France finally opened. After weeks of being restricted at home with two small boys, I took advantage and went down to the seashore. However, this was going to be a New Normal experience with lots of new rules and restrictions. I was so horrified with what I found there, I refused to participate in what seemed like a humiliating treatment, so I just set down a few towels on the grass, overlooking the New Normal beach scene.

Over the following four days I simply sat there and observed while my kids were running around and playing. Later, I wrote an article titled, "A day at the beach in the brave new world" on my blog, The Naked Hedgie. What I did not appreciate at that time was that I was in fact watching that New Normal arrangement disintegrate and die right in front of me, under the weight of people's simple noncompliance.

Brick Wall

Zuck still toeing the line: Threads blocks COVID-related searches amid allegedly spiking cases

Threads Meta zuckerberg social media censor covid information
© AP Photo/Richard DrewThis photo, taken in New York, Thursday, July 6, 2023, shows Meta’s new app Threads. Meta has unveiled an app called Threads to rival Twitter
Threads, a new text-based social media platform created by industry giant Meta, is now blocking terms related to COVID-19 and vaccines on its search engines.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the social media platform rolled out its revamped search engine last week, only for users to be met with a blank screen and a pop-up linking to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website when they type terms related to "covid" or "long covid".

Words such as "sex," "nude," "gore," "porn," "coronavirus," "vaccines" and "vaccination" are also blocked on the social media platform's search engine, according to the Post.

In a statement, Meta told The Hill that Threads's new search engine "temporarily doesn't provide results" for words that may include "sensitive content."

Boat

A flotilla of migrant boats from Tunisia overwhelms an Italian island and tests Meloni's policy

Euope migrants
© AP Photo/Gregorio BorgiaMigrants walk towards a station to board a bus directed to Marseille, France, in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. Despite vows by Italy’s right-wing government to crack down on migrant arrivals and European Union-inked deals with Tunisia to stem the flow, the numbers of desperate people making the dangerous Mediterranean crossing keep rising.
A flotilla of flimsy boats, crowded with migrants and launched from Tunisia, overwhelmed a tiny southern Italian island on Wednesday, taxing the coast guard's capability to intercept the smugglers' vessels and testing Premier Giorgia Meloni's pledge to thwart irregular migration.

Compounding the political pressure on Italy's first post-war far-right leader were vows by France and Germany to rebuff migrants who arrive by sea on Italian shores, and, in defiance of European Union asylum system rules, head northward to try to find jobs or relatives.

Starting early Tuesday, the unseaworthy, overcrowded iron boats, came one after the other in what appeared to be almost a procession to onlookers on Lampedusa, a fishing and tourist island south of Sicily. Around 6,800 migrants came in a span of just over 24 hours — that number is a few hundred higher than the isle's full-time population.

In all, by Wednesday evening some 120 boats had arrived, Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said.

Books

'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process

Mississauga high school library, bookshelves, Peel District School Board
© Reina TakataGrade 10 student Reina Takata took this photo of the bookshelves in her Mississauga high school's library in her first week back to school this fall. Takata and others are concerned about a seemingly inconsistent approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the Peel District School Board last spring.
Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Those are all examples of books Reina Takata says she can no longer find in her public high school library in Mississauga, Ont., which she visits on her lunch hour most days.

In May, Takata says the shelves at Erindale Secondary School were full of books, but she noticed that they had gradually started to disappear. When she returned to school this fall, things were more stark.

"This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books," said Takata, who started Grade 10 last week.

She estimates more than 50 per cent of her school's library books are gone.

In the spring, Takata says students were told by staff that "if the shelves look emptier right now it's because we have to remove all books [published] prior to 2008."

Takata is one of several Peel District School Board (PDSB) students, parents and community members CBC Toronto spoke to who are concerned about a seemingly inconsistent approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the board last spring in response to a provincial directive from the Minister of Education.

They say the new process, intended to ensure library books are inclusive, appears to have led some schools to remove thousands of books solely because they were published in 2008 or earlier.

Parents and students are looking for answers as to why this happened, and what the board plans to do moving forward.

Comment: If one wanted a shortcut method of doing what one was asked with these asinine directives, then this is pretty close to being on the money.


Yoda

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: I and other scientists fought back against government censorship and won

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Sunetra Gupta and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Sunetra Gupta and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya were signatories to The Great Barrington Declaration against unreasonable Covid restrictions
When I was four, my mother took her first flight and first trip out of her native India to the U.S. with me and my younger brother in tow. We were going to meet my father, an electrical engineer and rocket scientist by training, who had won the U.S. visa lottery in 1970. He had moved to New York a year earlier. By the time we arrived he was working at McDonald's because engineering jobs had dried up during a recession.

Both of my parents — children of the violent partition of India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) — had grown up in poverty, my mother in a Calcutta slum. They immigrated to this country because they believed in the American dream. That belief led to the success my father ultimately found as an engineer and my mother found running a family daycare business.

Our family had indeed won the lottery. But coming to America meant something more profound than financial opportunity.

I remember in 1975 when a high court found that then-prime minister of India Indira Gandhi had interfered unlawfully in an election. The ruling disqualified her from holding office. In response, she declared a state of emergency, suspended democracy, censored the opposition press and government critics, and threw her political opponents in jail. I remember the shock of these events and our family's collective relief that we were in the U.S., where it was unimaginable that such things could happen.

Comment: American citizens owe a great debt to Bhattacharya and his colleagues.


Rocket

24 people injured in Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol - governor

attack
© Telegram/RaZVozhaevSevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev visits the site of the attack.
Russian air defenses have engaged multiple hostile targets over Crimea, according to the governor of Sevastopol...

Ukrainian forces have targeted port infrastructure in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, according to Mikhail Razvozhaev, governor of the strategic city which hosts Russia's Black Sea fleet.

"Approximately 20 minutes ago, our enemies attacked Sevastopol," Razvozhaev wrote in a Telegram post at around 3:40am Wednesday morning. He later said that at least 24 people were injured, of whom four were in a moderately serious condition. The official said that while air defenses were activated against the suspected missiles, the attack caused a fire at a "non-civilian" facility in the city's industrial district.

There was no immediate information about the extent of the damage. Several photos and videos shared by Russian Telegram news channels purportedly showed an explosion and fire in the vicinity of a shipbuilding yard.

All traffic on the Crimean Bridge was briefly stopped as a precaution during the incident. Razvozhaev said that security services "continue to monitor the situation," urging residents to remain calm and only trust official sources of information.

Russia's Defense Ministry later confirmed the strike, saying the Ukrainian forces had fired ten cruise missiles at the Sevastopol Shipyard overnight. Air defenses shot down seven of the incoming projectiles, but three made it through, damaging two vessels undergoing repairs at the facility, the statement said.

Comment: The timing of Ukraine's middle of the night attack guaranteed victims and maximum panic.


Stop

Supreme Court blocks, for now, OxyContin maker bankruptcy deal that would shield Sacklers

US SCourt
© Mariam Zuhaib/AP/FileUS Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.

The justices agreed to a request from the Biden administration to put the brakes on an agreement reached last year with state and local governments. In addition, the high court will hear arguments before the end of the year over whether the settlement can proceed.

The deal would allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used to fight the opioid epidemic. Members of the Sackler family would contribute up to $6 billion. But a key component of the agreement would shield family members, who are not seeking bankruptcy protection as individuals, from lawsuits.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, represented by the Justice Department, opposes releasing the Sackler family from legal liability.

The justices directed the parties to address whether bankruptcy law authorizes a blanket shield from lawsuits filed by all opioid victims. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had allowed the reorganization plan to proceed.

Lawyers for Purdue and other parties to the agreement had urged the justices to stay out of the case.

Comment: See also:


X

X marks the spot

twitter/x
Intro

When I read that Elon Musk was buying Twitter for $44 billion USD, it seemed really odd at first. It didn't make sense to me.

After I thought about it for a bit, it clicked.

I considered Musk's connections to intelligence agencies and the MIC (Military Industrial Complex). After all, tech companies are basically front companies for the former, and his involvement with SpaceX means he's deep with various military organizations - and it also means he must have a very high-level security clearance.

I also considered that Musk's largest business ventures are centered around government in some way too. Tesla (and the solar company) are eligible for massive subsidies for buyers. SpaceX's contracts are government/military. The guy knows how to position himself well, that's for sure.

This Twitter/X venture is no different. It's all part of the digital prison the social engineers are working to erect all around us.

Here's where it's heading.

Family

Missouri transgender health care center ends some treatments for minors due to legal risk

St. Louis Children’s Hospital
© Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio
The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital will no longer offer gender transition surgery, puberty blockers or hormones to patients under 18, now that new legislation that outlaws such care has gone into effect.

The law, passed by the majority-Republican Missouri legislature earlier this year, exempted from the ban care for patients already receiving treatment. However, Washington University officials said in a statement Monday that the legal liabilities for continuing certain gender transition treatments even for existing patients was too risky and set their providers up for lawsuits.

"Missouri's newly enacted law regarding transgender care has created a new legal claim for patients who received these medications as minors," university officials said in the statement. "This legal claim creates unsustainable liability for health-care professionals and makes it untenable for us to continue to provide comprehensive transgender care for minor patients without subjecting the university and our providers to an unacceptable level of liability."

Document

China saw 1.9 million excess deaths from Covid, study estimates

Wuhan, China
Evidence suggests that China managed to contain Covid for almost three years following the initial outbreak in Wuhan - through a combination of strict border closures and brutal lockdowns. Yet in December of 2022, the country finally abandoned its contentious zero-Covid policy, leading to a surge of cases.

How many people died in this post-zero-Covid outbreak? Because the Chinese government doesn't publish accurate or timely data on Covid deaths, it was very difficult to know. And the official figure of 60,000 always seemed implausibly low.

Thanks to a new paper by Hong Xiao and colleagues, we now have a decent estimate: 1.87 million among people aged 30 and older (who of course account for the vast majority of deaths). That's about 32 times greater than the official count.

Comment: See also: