Spring into Summer

Here in the northern hemisphere it is short nights and long days for the near term. It's funny to me how our sense of time changes. When the COVID-19 isolation was begun, it seemed like time was dragging, but now in the height of garden season and homestead maintenance, time flies. I can't keep up. The corona virus continues with more conundrums, cases, and deaths. The political kabuki theater continues to entertain and perplex. Racism continues to be endemic in our culture. The war drums continue to beat. And the Fed continues creating currency and transferring it to the wealthiest among us. At the same time the planet continues to rotate, revolve around our star, and travel with our solar system around our galaxy, as the galaxy itself speeds through space.

The sun began its march back south yesterday at 4:44 pm CDT. Nights will now begin to lengthen and days will get shorter...so slowly it is difficult to notice. But the plants know. Animals know.

Where should I look to see signs of the solstice in nature? Everywhere. For all of Earth’s creatures, nothing is so fundamental as the length of the day. After all, the sun is the ultimate source of almost all light and warmth on Earth’s surface.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you might notice the early dawns and late sunsets, and the high arc of the sun across the sky each day. You might see how high the sun appears in the sky at local noon. And be sure to look at your noontime shadow. Around the time of the solstice, it’s your shortest noontime shadow of the year.

If you’re a person who’s tuned in to the out-of-doors, you know the peaceful, comforting feeling that accompanies these signs and signals of the year’s longest day.
...It’s an event celebrated by people throughout the ages.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-ju...

The change in seasons does not find our world in a state of peace and comfort. Perhaps a transition toward a more equitable and peaceful planet requires some chaos. I find it amazing how a tiny viral particle threw the entire world into a panic. Not to trivialize the damage from infection nor the loss of life...it has been tragic. What amazes me the most is the repercussions...economic, social, political, and so on...from this microscopic strand of genetic (RNA) material (I think Chris Martenson said 48K worth of information), which carries one set of instructions for our cells to "make more of it". But, here we are, in a time of great change driven by a viral particle.

The virus itself is a conundrum in many ways.

I was disappointed to read in SoE's Friday OT that...

Humans may never develop immunity against Covid-19, according to new research on antibodies by Chinese and American scientists. Their conclusion was based on a study looking at whether hospital workers in Wuhan who were directly exposed to infected patients at the early stage of the outbreak had developed antibodies.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3089476/there-may-be-no-...

The situation is complicated. We have several types of immune responses, some of which don't create antibodies.

The immune system (or immunity) can be divided into two types - innate and adaptive immunity. This 7 min video has an immune system animation. The innate immune system consists of defenses against infection that are activated instantly as a pathogen attacks. Adaptive immunity (or acquired immunity) is a subsystem of the immune system that contains highly specialised systemic cells and processes that kill pathogens and prevent their growth in the body.

And testing methods of all types are often questionable. Quality randomized blind studies are almost non-existent. So we really don't know the extent of the spread. John Campbell suggest about 10% of people have had the disease, but I think we don't have data.

I find pathologist Chris Martenson at peak prosperity the best analyst of the COVID situation. Watch this for 5 or ten minutes to see what I mean.

Global cases have crossed the 8 million mark, and eighteen US states have reported a rise in new infections this week vs last.

China, too, is grappling to suppress a new outbreak, this time in the capital city of Beijing.

We do see, though, plenty of examples where covid-19 has been successfully suppressed or eradicated by good anti-contagion practices including masks, social distancing, handwashing/hygiene, and other measures.

So why was the US government so intent back in February and March on convincing us that "masks don't work" and urging us not to wear them?

Presidential pandemic task force medical chief Dr. Anthony Fauci is twisting history, claiming that they didn't want to direct needed PPE away from medical workers. But that's not the full story.

The truth is, the US government badly under-invested in maintaining the national stockpile of PPE for such a pandemic, which was pretty much depleted by the end of March. And they didn't want us to know that. So that tried to convince us that masks don't work.

While they obviously should have funded adequate preparation, the government could have instead been honest with us from the get go and encouraged a national citizen mask-making brigade, akin to the civilian war efforts of WW2. We could have much better protected ourselves AND reduced demand for the higher-standard PPE that the hospitals needed.

It didn't have to be this way...

I learn a lot from MedCram too. It is a doctors perspective. In this clip he offers advice about procedures and questions to ask for COVID patients. I think he needs to listen to Chris, he never mentioned the MATH+ protocol. However, he offers a care taker, practitioner perspective rather than a researcher. Big pharma plays its role and profits from the system, too.

The components of MATH+ are off-patent, inexpensive, and globally available. So if we know that MATH+ works, produces few side effects, and saves lives that would otherwise be lost, why isn’t it being used throughout the world? Tragically, the World Health Organization (WHO) ignored extensive evidence in recommending against the use of corticosteroids in COVID19 ARDS and cytokine storm. Neither the WHO nor other guideline-writing bodies have assessed the formidable and growing evidence for intravenous ascorbic acid. despite its association in a major recent study, with significantly improved mortality in ARDS. Numerous previous studies have also shown its safety and effectiveness, particularly when used with corticosteroids in critical care medicine.

14 min video for more details @ https://covid19criticalcare.com/

Never let a crisis go to waste!

This is a 5 min take on how our situation could improve things in the long run.

So as people are distracted by the disease, TPTB pull off the biggest heist of our life time, maybe of all time. Max and Stacy explain in this episode called "Shut up and Print!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTewfzUJoNE (15 min, 2nd 15 min on bitcoin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uua8vb3XXrs (3 min)
Robert wrote: “FED bails out WALL St again. F**Ks MAIN St again. Corporates sold $560 Billion in bonds to Fed in six weeks, twice normal level. Small businesses and employees go bankrupt. What the F**K is wrong with us. 50% of Americans have nothing and Fed bails out rich CEOs. This is sick.”

Chris also weighs in on the Fed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeJt72qCfM&t=5m53s (40 min)

The Federal Reserve is NOT serving the interests and welfare of the general public. Instead it serves the top 1%. Or more accurately, the top 0.1% -- i.e., the people who actually own the vast majority of financial assets, corporations and real estate.

Right now, the Fed is pouring gasoline on the "wealth gap"; the tremendous divide in social inequity it has largely been responsible for creating. And yet it's Chairman, Jerome Powell, flat out refuses to acknowledge this.

The very valid grievances of many dispossessed and disempowered groups can be laid at the feet of the Fed. Minorities starting at diminished employment prospects? Seniors unable to live off of their life savings in a world of 0% interest rates? The Fed is either directly or indirectly responsible.

It's way past time for society to realize the truth and stop believing the Fed's pitch that it's the hero riding to the rescue in this story. It's not.

It's the villain who created the injustices we're sick of. And it's "rescue" efforts are simply a trojan horse for using a crisis of its own making to enrich its stakeholders further.

David Dayen: How monopolies like Amazon are RUINING everything. Executive Editor at The American Prospect David Dayen shares exclusive reporting from his new book 'Monopolized.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqhOFCBNFb4 (9 min)

Jimmy and Dylan also tackle the economic situation and future flood of foreclosures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhsAkmNqkGM (18.5 min)
These weekly conversations with Dylan have been good IMO.

Check out this clip to see the lines at unemployment offices around the country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLatjMIIxPI (12 min)

The V-shaped recovery seems to be falling apart as the continuing jobless claims have stalled suggesting we may be about to see a jump in unemployment coming our way. Thousands of people lined up at Kentucky unemployment offices trying to find out where their payments are and the lines had an 8 hour wait time. KY isn't the only state that has massive backlogs in their unemployment and movements are building around the country of the 46 million unemployed wondering where their unemployment insurance benefit checks are. 46 million have filed for unemployment in the last 13 weeks and there is a lot of losses in Texas and Nevada which led the collapse. The stimulus incentives to keep employees on the books are also about to come to an end wich means the pain has only just begun. 1.5 million more people have just filed for unemployment for the past week alone despite the constant fanfare from the recent jobs report. According to Goldman Sachs, the stock market may not have very long at these record-high valuations as the third-largest non-December expiration on record, in addition to $230bln of SPY options and $250bln of options on SPX and SPX E-mini futures. There is a lot of pension selling heading our way due to the major moves in bonds and stocks according to their modelling meaning we could see some troubled waters within the next 2 weeks to be exact.

Chris Hedges writes Gaslighted by the Ruling Class...We are trapped in an abusive relationship. When we finally have enough, our abuser comes after us with flowers and apologies, promising never to do it again.
https://scheerpost.com/2020/06/15/chris-hedges-gaslighted-by-the-ruling-...

Economic Chaos leads to Social Chaos...

Richard Wolff contends that the problems of racism, poverty and police brutality afflicting the US cannot be fixed without a fundamental change in how we organize our society, how we give people jobs, incomes, homes, healthcare, education, etc. Social change is necessary and ought to come out of the courageous people reminding us that Black Lives matter, that equality is something we can and need to continue to fight for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvCPLEJYgo (11 min)

Seeing Through Faux-Solidarity Performance Stunts Of Police Politicians & Corporations -
Chris Hedges discusses how lawmakers and activists are working together to make real changes in policing that are worth celebrating, it is important to name the statements that are opportunistic and performative, like police officers taking a knee with protesters before proceeding to pepper spray them. Chris talks about why these faux actions are so insidious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVyPNeFvkDA (39 min)

Lee Camp's show this week begins by looking at agent provocateurs, law enforcement agents who join protests to encourage violence. The police then use that violence as an excuse to attack protesters. This is a classic strategy and Lee exposes it in history, in the George Floyd uprising, and in a lot of domestic terrorism in the US. The Venezuelan embassy protectors had their felony charges dropped over their protests defending the international diplomatic order, US law enforcement targets journalists covering the George Floyd uprising, the Biden campaign continues to become more of a carnival as they let the DNC's candidate continue to talk in public, and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUjy5JzPRrk

Lee Camp relays sixteen facts about American policing that will blow your mind and prove that the police aren’t what you think. He tells us their origins, their worst crimes, and the most useless jobs that society expects them to do. People need to have a more accurate understanding of what the police do in order to understand why society wouldn’t fall apart if police department budgets were slashed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vweMc91ra-k

A few weeks ago we examined the new film "Planet of the Humans" It is back up on YouTube. This week Chris Hedges talks with the the director, Jeff Gibbs, about the censorship and mission of the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-rZAtWXyA (28 min)

My favorite conversation of the week was with Brother Cornel who joined Matt and Katie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrKwTVW4iS0 (1 hour)

So there's lots happening all at once. This time of year my focus has to be on the garden and maintenance. Time evaporates and prioritizing chores is a necessity. This weeks piece didn't even cover war and militarism as the US urges conflict between India and China, a situation which may escalate. I had thought about including more information on prisons where racism and inequality stand out neon bright, so I'll save that depressing topic for another edition. On the positive side of things, we sure are eating well out of the garden. Salad season has lasted all the way to summer this year. Summer crops are around the corner...tomatoes, beans, and squash are all fruiting. Sweet potatoes and okra are growing. I still need to order some gravel for the eroded road...a good use of our stimulus check. That's on the list in the next couple of weeks. Well here's hoping your road is smooth and you're healthy and well.