Well now, this ought to really fix our election process.

 https://news.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/03/27/what-is-electionguard/

More food for thought from GHW Bush's HUD secretary

 https://www.bitchute.com/video/CEJS0YX8wm4P/

If you haven't yet lost faith in our government, here's a good reason

If you truly believe that our fully purchased government and media are anything more than the enforcement and propaganda department for large corporate interests who view us as sheep to be fleeced (or in this case slaughtered, because it's more profitable), here's a bit of evidence to shake your belief.

In early December, the US Senate held a hearing, at which Dr Pierre Kory, a frontline Wisconsin doctor who has treated thousands of covid patients gave testimony with regards to ivermectin as both a prophylaxis and treatment for covid.  

Within it he notes the multitude of studies (most all performed in somewhat less corporate-beholden countries) that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that ivermectin is a "miracle drug" (his words) against covid.  For instance, he cites an Argentine study where medical personnel were divided into two groups.  800 received ivermectin as a prophylaxis, and 400 received a placebo.  The placebo group was infected at a rate of 56%, whereas the ivermectin group developed no infections whatsoever.  

This doctor is not the only one touting this treatment.  Someone I trust and have followed for years (with a degree in pathology specializing in viral toxicology) has been saying the same thing for months now -- and had his youtube video censored for his efforts.  

What are we told in this country?  To wait for our chance to be guinea pigs for a vaccine which has gone through minimal trials with questionable results, and which harbors the potential for serious side effects such as the triggering of serious auto-immune disorders (the FDA, to their credit, finally announced that people with severe allergies should not take it).  

One former Pfizer exec -- who specialized in development of lung treatments -- has laid out his serious concerns for the vaccine, but you won't hear about him on TV in the US.  

If you venture to the New York Times website, and do a search for ivermectin within the last month, you'll find two smear pieces suggesting that Dr. Pierre Kory's testimony to the senate, the first with a title, "A Senate hearing promoted unproven drugs and dubious claims about the coronavirus".  If you actually review the testimony and the associated documentation, however, you'll quickly lose faith in the NYT if you hadn't already done so long ago.

Once you've seen the depths to which corporate entities will go to further their raison d'etre (which is most certainly not  to do good in the world), it's much easier to believe what many will still label as tin-foil-hat territory.  For me the tipping point was the book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" combined with conversations with a retired US Special forces coworker (retired after being shot 5 times).   He described to me how he was regularly involved in activities -- mostly in Central and South America -- which Americans were never told about.   His account meshed perfectly with Smedley Butler's famous letter, in which he states I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism"

The documentary "The Corporation", (watch it for free on Youtube) lays out the clinical definitions for diagnosis of a psychopath -- and then steps through each one and provides numerous examples of why publicly owned corporations fit the diagnosis to a T.  

My own experiences while employed at Zoetis -- a former division of Pfizer -- has also greatly altered my view of pharmaceutical corporations in particular.   One co-worker who had been with the company since it was Upjohn Pharmaceuticals described how one of the blood pressure medications they had developed -- minoxodil -- had a noted side effect of growing small amounts of light fuzzy hair where it was topically applied.  Upjohn thought nothing of it (the hair growth was not significant) and just noted it as a curiosity.  When Pfizer purchased the company, however, they viewed it as a potential goldmine, and began to market it as Rogaine, despite the fact that their claims for the drug's effectiveness were fraudulent..

While employed at Zoetis, the company email announced a series of employee informational seminars on "How to talk to friends and family about antibiotics in food".  Zoetis is the world's largest manufacturer of "medicinal feed additives" (i.e. sub-therapeutic antibiotics fed to livestock).  I signed up and attended the seminar, where a hired PR consultant from Ketchum and Associates played a few carefully prepared propaganda pieces.  They contained numerous falsehoods (which I knew because I raised cattle) about farming and the use of antibiotics, and completely avoided the central subject of antibiotic resistance -- which has been widely attributed to antibiotics in livestock feed.  

I raised my hand afterwards to point out these errors and omissions, though they didn't really have a response beyond, "that's a really tough situation" when I mentioned a friend's daughter nearly dying from a mrsa (antibiotic resistant staph) infection.  In retrospect, I think these "seminars" were likely intended to screen out people like myself who have a problem with corporate malfeasance.

So it's through this lens that I see what corporations are capable of.  Many will still cling to the comforting idea that no person in a corporation would stoop to such levels as deliberately killing for profits, but it's hard to see their suppression of the information on ivermectin as anything but.  According to NBC news, 77 thousand people died from covid in the US in December.  I would suggest that the vast majority of these deaths were entirely preventable, considering that the efficacy of ivermectin has been known for months now.

Once you find yourself able to accept that reality that people -- and especially corporations are not inherently good, you may also be able to understand more of what is going on with the push to get us all to take Pfizer's new mRNA vaccine for covid.  Here are some additional reasons for concern...

Dr Kary Mullis -- who invented the PCR test being used for covid testing, was adamant that it was unreliable when used at higher cycle counts, where he states you "could find anything" you wanted at the higher number of amplification cycles used in this test.  Had he not died mysteriously last August, he would have undoubtedly had a lot to say about the WHO recommending up to 45 cycles for covid testing.   He also had a lot to say about Dr. Fauci, with whom he was well acquainted and whom he considered a politician (and not a very bright one).  The interview in this video goes into some of the details (the comments on Fauci start around 3:30).  

We should also keep in mind that the PCR test -- which is what was used to demonstrate the efficacy of the new Pfizer vaccine is regularly used at 35-40 amplification cycles.  Court testimony, in the case of German tourists detained in Portugal for positive PCR test results, showed that at this number of cycles, the PCR test will give a 97% false positive rate.

Another interesting recent death (on December 8th) was that of Brandi Vaughan -- a former Merck sales rep.  She worked for Merck in the early 2000s, selling Vioxx which Merck had just developed.  Upon learning that Merck was well aware that it was killing people (with heart attacks) for at least a year before the FDA forced them to stop selling the drug, she quit the company.  Her own research lead her to start the organization, "Know the Risk" about the dangers of vaccines.  This video is of one of her speeches -- where she makes some very good points that I was not previously aware of.  One that I thought was particularly interesting, is the fact that European kids receive far fewer vaccines -- and the serious anaphylactic-reaction allergies to foods such as peanut butter -- which are rampant in the US to the point that many schools now *prohibit* peanut butter -- are virtually unknown in Europe.  

In this video, Brandi detailed exactly the intimidation tactics the pharmaceutical industry was using against her (her own account begins at 7:17).  People repeatedly broke into her home (using the master key code for her security system, which nobody else knew) and stole nothing, but left several messages to intimidate her, and also clearly bugged her home.  She knew she was undertaking serious risk, to the point that she felt compelled in what became her last facebook post to state that she *is not* suicidal and *is not* in poor health.  She "died" a week after making that post, at the age of 48.

Conspiracy theory?   Perhaps.   Do people conspire?   Do corporations?  Absolutely.  

Flux

The horses insist upon staying in the barn during the day, as the July heat and humidity put the horse and deerflies into overdrive. It was 80 degrees (this is the "cool" part of the day), with 80% humidity when I made it out the house this morning .  The cows stay in a dark corner of the barn as well, against the cooler stone foundation and away from the biting flies.  Evenings offer some relief, but the mosquitoes come out then.  They're less annoying to the animals than the big 1" long horseflies, apparently.

Our second cutting of hay should be ready, but was stunted by weeks of 90 degree heat, a lack of rain, and a good infestation of leaf-hoppers such that it hardly looks to be worth cutting.  Now we're getting some decent rain, but I can't cut it until the forecast clears up for a few days so it can dry.  I'm not looking forward to working the horses in this heat -- hopefully that will subside as well.

As is now an annual summer tradition, I'm again fantasizing about someplace cooler than SW Michigan.  This year it's the NE corner of Minnesota, up between the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the north shore of Lake Superior.  There are lots of little cabins along the "Gunflint Trail" (Hwy 12) that runs from Grand Marais up to the boundary waters.  Looks like a neat area, at least so long as I ignore the many photos of people there wearing face-coverings to keep the clouds of mosquitoes and blackflies at bay.  I've always felt that it's much easier to deal with cold weather than it is with heat, but maybe living at -30 F would change my mind about that.  I do like the idea of snow sticking around for most of the winter and accumulating more than a few inches at a time.

I also like the idea of using a canoe for transporting things.  Unlike horses, there's no need to shoe or feed them, and I've never heard of a canoe freaking out and running off for any of the reasons that horses seem to find in abundance.  Better yet, they don't kick!

Now that I'm among the many covid-unemployed, it feels like we've done the right thing in remaining debt free and living where we can produce our own food and fuel.  Aside from summer, it's even a nice place weather-wise.

I had a job interview last week which seemed to go well, but haven't heard anything back on it yet.  I think the competition is pretty fierce these days.  I'm by no means convinced that the "normal" economy is ever going to return, but I've been thinking that for many years now while it's been sputtering along to my amazement.

Despite an initial failed planting and lots of deer damage, our one acre field of open-pollinated corn (Krugs 90-day) seems to be doing alright.  My two cultivations with the horses went very well, and with a couple passes of the hoe, the rows look pretty good now.   The deer (despite soaking the seeds briefly in kerosene -- an old practice that was apparently common in the days before commercial seed) and birds like to pull up the young shoots to pluck the seed off.  Lately, the deer have been breaking the stalks in half to eat the tender meristem, so I've been making evening visits to scare them off.  There are definitely parts of the field which are more or less failed, but the majority is now head-high and thick enough to keep the weeds at bay.

I find myself stuck (particularly on the really hot days) in a state of flux; not quite sure where I should be focusing my efforts, so I continue as I've been doing, working a bit until the heat becomes too much, at which point I find myself retreating indoors to sit with a popsicle and a laptop checking out cooler places to live.  Then when I get disgusted with myself for spending too much time online, I go back outside to tackle another project.  Rinse and repeat...

About face

A campfire lunch in our woods overlooking the muskrat pond.

After a dozen years of forking manure, weeding, putting up hay and firewood, squeezing teats, enduring mid-west heat and humidity, picking off lyme carrying ticks, killing cute animals, and having spooked horses run off to destroy yet another expensive piece of equipment... I was ready to give it a rest.

I was done waiting for Godot; peak oil, impending economic collapse... you name it.  Come what may, I was ready to again assume the simple life of dependency that the vast majority have chosen. I was ready to fall into the arms of industrial civilization, sell my remaining life for an inflated west-coast mortgage, and endure insane Washington traffic.

On the plus side, we would again be near the mountains and ocean, so Henry would get to experience the wilderness that was so important to me for most of my life. We could go backpacking, skiing, sailing, kayaking, crabbing... all good things. More fun, less work -- at least on weekends anyway.

We put the farm up for sale late last year, and found an Amish family who wanted to buy it -- complete with all equipment and much of the livestock.  A great situation for us, as we knew they appreciated what we've cobbled together, and also great because we didn't need to worry ourselves with selling off everything separately.  Nobody would be bulldozing the barns and building a McMansion.

With this in mind, in January we placed an offer on an old Lopez Island farm house -- imho the nicest of the ferry-serviced islands in the San Juan archipelago at the north end of Puget Sound. As it turns out, the home inspection did not go well. When the sellers refused to make any concessions, we walked. Just about that time covid-19 started to make a few headlines.

Still looking for homes, I began to wonder if moving might not be such a good idea anymore. As the coronavirus spread continued, it soon became readily apparent that it wasn't. Though we hadn't seen much of interest come on the housing market, a "good" house came up a few weeks ago, but I simply couldn't see making an offer on it. I feel better about that now, because it just sold for $65k above the asking price. Yes, the Puget Sound region is still going insane. I'm hoping that things may calm down a bit once this virus has taken its toll.  Prices here in Michigan will fall as well, but they don't have as much room to drop.

In the meantime, I'm awfully happy to be sitting where we are, on a farm where we can produce our own food, fuel, and hay. The current "lock-down" simply provides justification for all the things we've been doing for these many years.  Rachel and Henry are both home now that schools are closed, though I'm still working for the time being.  Michigan just announced lockdown yesterday, as the state reported 1300 cases. Being forced to "self-isolate" actually sounds pretty nice here.

As I suggested in February, I think there will be significant economic repercussions from the virus, well beyond the shortage of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I've seen modeling which suggests that the virus will be problematic for another 18-24 months. As a perennial pessimist (or realist, as I like to think), I see the economic mayhem lasting well beyond that, but I have a fantastic record of being wildly wrong on a lot of things. On the other hand, just like a stopped clock, I'm bound to be right, eventually.

So the window of opportunity for living as if it's still the 20th century may be riding off into the sunset. Buying a house on credit, or loading our possessions on a semi to haul them 2500 miles across the country may very well be a thing of the past. If so, we're about as well situated as we could ask to be. If I'm wrong (yet again!) and "Saudi America" rides in to rescue us all from a return to civilizational sanity, I wouldn't mind sailing out to Patos Island one more time.

The best description of the Democratic party I've ever read...

"Progressives assume that they have negotiating power because they assume, wrongly, that the Democratic Party exists to win elections. It doesn’t. The Democratic Party exists, first and foremost, to sabotage the left." -- Caitlin Johnstone's blog update from 3/18/20

Now that the DNC has annointed Biden and altered primary results to ensure that their candidate is a dementia-addled do-nothing who is *guaranteed* to lose to Trump, I hope everyone can see them for who they are.

Don't fret - we're in GOOD hands!

Our fine reality-TV president tRump has returned to the saddle after working hard to get the CDC defunded, and is ready to make sure that covid-19 is brought under control.  He's organized a new dream-team of clueless corruption to restore American confidence. Strangely enough, not one of them has any medical background whatsoever, unless we count Pence's proven ability to create epidemics.

Leading this valiant effort is the frat-boy turned evangelical lunatic and talk-show host -- Mike Pence.  As the unfortunate governor of Indiana, he defunded the only clinic in the state which performed HIV testing, eliminated programs meant to restrict the spread of disease among drug addicts, and presided over the resulting HIV outbreak whereupon he bravely determined that "prayer" was the appropriate response.

Supporting him is Steve Mnuchin -- a morally bankrupt uber-nerd whose primary qualifications seem to be doing "God's Work" for Goldman Sachs and using the proceeds to bribe an equally vapid and vain super-model to pose as his wife.

Rounding out the team is Larry Kudlow -- a hard partying Wall-Street financial analyst with a fondness for cocaine who has already declared corona virus to be contained within the US.

If I didn't know any better, I'd be inclined to think that someone views this virus as a golden opportunity.