Goodbye 2020

From a “Covidiot” to the “Covidians”:

I hope you’ve enjoyed 2020, the year you learned and believed that we are all potential bio-weapons against each other; the year you learned and believed that to save lives, you must stop living; the year you “followed the science”, as if science is meant to be “followed” and not studied; the year you learned and believed that there is such a thing as an “asymptomatic outbreak” of a respiratory illness; the year you were told and believed that to love your elderly relatives, you must not see them, or if you do, must not touch them; the year you learned and believed that your governments and Big Pharma care for you and the health of your loved ones; the year your learned and believed that Bill Gates is one of the good guys; in short, the year you were told and believed the inverse of everything you previously thought of as “common sense”.

I wish you all blessings for 2021, a year that will make 2020 look like a warm-up. With any luck, the Covidian spell will be broken and we can be friends again in 2021.

From “Me” to those on “The Fence”:

I know you probably didn’t enjoy 2020. I hope you are managing and are able to make ends meet, see your loved ones, and have made the best of a bad situation. Some of you might be having a hard time making sense of all this. Who to believe? What to believe? It’s probably easier to start with who not to believe. For years now I’ve worked from the premise that one can start by not believing government officials, elected or not; not believing State and Corporate media; and not believing corporations who stand to make hundreds of billions from telling lies. Fact-checkers? From Reuters? Snopes? Facebook? Google? Are you kidding me? 2020 has seen an unprecedented attack on those questioning the standard narratives, whether in State and Corporate Media, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. I’ve seen doctors, nurses, and medical scientists censored and silenced to a degree I never would have thought possible. Many lost their jobs for speaking out their truth, their experience. They are a diverse group of professionals, many of whom have signed The Great Barrington Declaration (https://gbdeclaration.org/).

These are not politically motivated individuals but professionals speaking out against policies they describe as “producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health”. When it comes to the medical and health issues of this crisis, I listen to these professionals. They have the most to lose, and gain nothing by speaking out. Listen to what these people have to say, and by all means listen to what State and Corporate media are telling you, then decide for yourself. Oh, and always ask questions. When you are told not to ask questions, then you must ask questions.

I wish you all blessings in 2021, a year that will make 2020 look like a warm up. With any luck, by this time next year, you’ll be off the fence and will see this for what it is: the imposition of a global totalitarian social and economic order.

From “Me” to my friends in Truth

What a year, eh? Who would have thought on this day last year that by March 2020 we’d be witnesses to the greatest fraud ever perpetrated in the known history of humanity. I hope you are managing and are able to make ends meet, see your loved ones, and have made the best of a bad situation.

It’s been hard to fathom, even for a person who has long been aware of the many crimes against humanity perpetrated by states and corporations in the past 300 years.

Two years ago, I took a break from all social media and all news media. While I had long seen Corporate and State media as purveyors of lies and half-truths, I could no longer follow even the independent news media I trusted, because “the news” was bad for my mental health. Social media even worse. I turned to amateur astronomy, got a telescope, star atlas, and binoculars, and immersed myself in the history of astronomy and cosmology. It was a mental escape from the sense of powerlessness I felt when immersed in “news” and social media. It did me a tremendous amount of good. Many of my close friends could see the difference it made. Then the lockdowns started, and all of a sudden the “reality” given by “the news” and the government had a direct effect on daily life. I had to end my isolation from social media, and return to some of the independent media creators who had earned my trust over the years.

In that first month of the lockdowns, I immersed myself in the various scientific aspects of the crisis, a natural place to start. I had already been immersed in various scientific controversies over the past 30 years, and while I’m no expert, I have learned to listen to those who have the most to lose and the least to gain from any scientific controversy. This crisis was no different. What I learned then is what we all know now: there is no scientific basis for any these measures. No basis for lockdowns, masking, or social distancing. None. Even the WHO says that now. By mid-April, it was clear to me that an invisible hand had cast a spell on half the population of the planet, and that our old way of life had come to an end, not through force of violence – but through force of a spell or hypnotic suggestion!

Perhaps you, like me, have lost friends in 2020, maybe from death, but almost certainly from an argument. This is inevitable and by design. My approach for those nearest and dearest to me who wholeheartedly believe “the news” is I don’t discuss any of this directly, nor do I try to change their minds. It is pointless. For those former friends who wholeheartedly believe “the news”, I have nothing. For many of these former friends, no amount of facts and expert (though dissenting) opinion matters. For those on the fence, we must find common ground and address the key scientific issues that function as the basis for the measures. Finally, it helps to provide perspectives that expose the totalitarian nature of the measures in historical and psychological terms. This is totalitarianism, no matter what the underlying ideology. It can’t be stressed enough.

I wish you all blessings in 2021, a year that will make 2020 look like a warm up. With any luck, by this time next year, you’ll have made up with former friends, will have made new friends, and won’t be feeling as alone in the struggle as you do now. Already, many people are at least beginning to ask questions, which is the beginning of the process of “waking up”. The more of us there are, the more of us who speak out, the more likely this will end. And it has to end. Our humanity is at stake.

Response to Lisa Ann Gallagher piece on The Nils and Alex Soria on Medium.com

My reply to Concert Stories from my Punk Days: the one about the band who broke my heart

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LisaAnnGallagher — First, I want to say that I appreciate that you’re a genuine fan of The Nils, and the article is best when you speak from your experience of seeing them back in the day, and your appreciation of the music. The problem is that much of the story is based on “multiple articles and blogs written about the band…”.

I knew Alex from the winter of ’82 until he died. We were best of friends. I went to high school with him, a short spell at a local college, went to all his shows, worked in the mail room of a bank with him for years (“Rock’n’Roll Banker” is a song for those years), and was even roommates with him and Chico for a short while. We grew up together and hoped to grow old together, but sadly, that wasn’t to be.

There’s so much that people don’t know, but worse than that, there’s so much that people think they know but don’t. And so much of the story is told by one person, and the same old myths are perpetuated with each article based on “multiple articles and blogs”.

Much remains unsaid (publicly) by those of us who wish to protect the guilty, innocent, and Alex’s memory. What is often forgotten or overlooked is that the night Alex died was a nightmare for the the person that survived it — Deb. Deb didn’t chase Alex “out of their apartment”. He fled because he fucked up in a way he couldn’t live with at that point in time. The truth is, he was literally out of his mind the night he took his life, having just shot up some kind of drug cocktail that wasn’t heroin. When you and others suggest that Deb “chased him out of their apartment”, you are actually hurting the person who did more for Alex than just about everyone. Every time that last night of Alex’s life comes up Deb’s name is dragged out as if she is responsible. The only thing Deb is responsible for is for loving Alex through thick and thin. I can tell you that Alex had many ups and downs in his life, but many of us had never seen him better than in the years he was with Deb. Tragically, difficult circumstances led Alex to a relapse in his last year, and relapses are the most dangerous time for drug users who have been clean for a spell. Yet, to paraphrase Alex, she is always stuck in his mud.

If you want a clue as to what went wrong that year, you have it already:

Then Alex decided to let Carlos join the band, and it all fell apart again.

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“and often dated much older (and troubled) women”

Alex had three serious girlfriends in his life, Karin H (in college), Karen M, and Deb. Karin was his age, Karen M was quite a bit older (maybe 5 years?), and Deb quite a bit younger. So not sure where this “much older” bit comes from, but it just isn’t true. What is true is that Alex attracted people who wanted to take care of him, friends and girlfriends alike. It’s hard to say why that is, and it may well be “mommy issues”, I don’t know.

Nor would I say he dated “troubled” women, because I know that Karin H and Deb were not and are not troubled. Alex was troubled, and the relationship between he and Karen was troubled, no question. How could it not be when they’d been using heroin together since the beginning of their relationship? He started seeing her when he was 20, and over that time he had a more or less continuous relationship with heroin and Karen until he hit bottom in ’96, and the process of cleaning up got underway

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“The Nils were formed in 1978, in Montreal, by brothers Alex and Carlos Soria.”

The “brothers” were never the core of The Nils. I understand that this is one of those persistent myths, but the truth is that the first Nils show was in 1980 and the three piece band was Alex Soria on guitar and vocals, Guy Caron on bass, and Terry Toner on drums. That was the original core. Alex and Guy were 16, and Terry was and undersized 14 year old.

Just about all the songs were written by Alex alone, and Carlos only started playing with Alex after BYO recorded “Scratches and Needles” for the BYO compilation. I believe Carlos’s first show with The Nils was in the fall of ’84, playing bass. Alex and Chico were inseparable until Chico took a spell away from the band in ’84. When Chico came back, he played bass and Carlos played 2nd guitar.

It’s not an understatement to say that Alex was always the core of any band he played with. While many of his songs are credited to “A Soria/C Soria”, this is a lie that unfortunately Alex took part in. Anyone who knew Alex will tell you that. Alex was the songwriter, and he was a fantastic talent, but there was no partnership with Carlos. Rather, Alex saw his band members all playing a role in the crafting of these songs, but everyone knows they were his songs. And he hardly wrote a bad one!
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Now, there’s still stuff I like in your piece, now that I’ve got all that out of the way. This really stands out for me:

The Nils, in contrast, wore plaid shirts and t-shirts, ripped and dirty jeans, Converse hightops and baseball caps. They looked like us. They looked like a crystal ball of the near future: Seattle, 1991.

A perfect image of them, and so true about “Seattle, 1991”! And I really like how you went to see The Godfathers, who I agree were terrible, but came out loving The Nils. No doubt they were the real deal, and I think most of us knew The Godfathers were never going to be anything.

And well said when you say that Alex “cut an intriguing figure. His lyrics were redolent with confusion and angst and bittersweet longings.”. Indeed they were! And English wasn’t even his mother tongue, since Spanish was what they spoke at home. I’ve wondered if this combination of speaking Spanish at home, and English in school and with friends, contributed to his lyrical talent in English. Of course, he had a natural talent to begin with, but he often enjoyed combining certain words in English in way that might not have occurred to native English speakers. We were big fans of LA’s The Plugz, and Tito Larriva also had a similar way with his lyrics.

Almost done here, but will finish by saying that the Chino years are actually my favourite years watching and listening to Alex. Long-time fans like Jack Rabid will tell you that the recordings we have of The Nils don’t come close to capturing how great they could be. It was always a case of great songs transcending mediocre to poor production. But Chino’s Mala Leche is probably the best recording Alex ever put his name to, and for that we have Woody Whelan, Eric Kearns, and Mike Willis to thank for that.

There’s a very badly put together posthumously released LP called “It Must Be Something…” which I recommend to those fans of Alex’s work who want to hear what he was doing after the glory days of The Nils. It’s a really mixed-up release, and gives us no idea of the source recordings and who was playing what and even has mis-titled songs and numerous spelling mistakes. But the songs? So great. Some really good recordings of songs we know, and even a couple most people don’t.

Finally, thanks for giving me a chance to correct the record, and add my own thoughts on the tragedy and pain that surrounds Alex. He was my friend, and I truly loved him like a brother.

Admiral Lord West gets a scolding from BBC hack

Admiral Lord West has expressed concern about the “intelligence”, and asked questions about the narrative being pushed by the British government along with its media allies when it comes to the alleged Douma chemical attack. He has been vocal about it, and because of that, the BBC were forced to give him air time in an interview with one of their presenters/actors. Doing her job for the war mongers, she takes the time to scold the Admiral on being so openly critical:

“We know that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, or accused a western state on Friday, of perhaps fabricating evidence in Douma or somehow being involved in what happened in Douma. Given that we’re in an information war with Russia on so many fronts, do you think perhaps it’s inadvisable to be stating this so publicly given your position and your profile? Isn’t there a danger that you’re muddying the waters?”

How messed up is it that a man you’d think would be all about The Empire, a former Admiral of the British Navy and former Labour Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, is asking all the hard questions about this narrative, while a BBC News hack is scolding him for asking the questions they should be asking? It’s totally upside-down.

Robert Fisk and Pearson Sharp in Douma, Syria

The search for truth in the rubble of Douma – and one doctor’s doubts over the chemical attack

It would seem at this point that there was no chemical attack in Douma, Syria on April 7. Up until now I was leaning in this direction, but was only certain that if there was one, it couldn’t have been carried out by the Syrian government forces. They not only had no motive, they had a disincentive to do so knowing the predictable reaction from the West.

Then word began to spread earlier today on Twitter that Robert Fisk was actually in Douma and had spoken to a doctor in the hospital that was supposedly treating victims of the alleged attack, and it turned out there were no gas victims in the hospital, but rather people suffering from hypoxia, the causes of which are described in Fisk’s report.

Yet Fisk wasn’t the first reporter to actually report on what was really going on in Douma. A reporter for an American news network called OAN is actually in Syria, and today he filed a report from Douma which you can see on youtube. You can question the source all you want, but this reporter *actually* reports on what he sees and hears from people on the ground in Douma, from the people who live there. He’s *not* reading from a script, like so many of those on the “trusted” news networks. Fisk’s report corroborates the OAN report. Not only does it seem that no one died in this attack, and that the attack never took place, the OAN reporter says he spoke to 10 people who live near the site of the alleged attack and they didn’t even know about it. Imagine that? If you read Fisk, and then watch the OAN report, it’s pretty clear that no attack took place.

So the truth is out there, but you won’t hear about it on your 6 o’clock news.

Pearson Sharp Report:

John Taylor Gatto: The Purpose of Schooling

John Taylor Gatto wrote an article for Harper’s back in 2003 that forever changed my ideas about what school really is. This 7 minute video sums it up nicely. From that Harper’s article, here are his suggestions for parents who want to counter the negative aspects of “schooling”.

Against School

“Now for the good news. Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology – all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues. Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.”

The real war criminals

I read a report yesterday that the OPCW arrived in Syria and were ready to get to work today. Then the missiles came. Coincidence?

Let’s get one thing straight: the biggest war crimes in my lifetime have been committed by the governments of the United States, Britain, and Israel. The British are probably the worst of the lot given they’ve been committing heinous war crimes for at least three hundred years. These countries have no moral high ground. They are The Empire, and whenever they say they are doing what they do because they care about the people at the other end of their missiles, they aren’t just lying, they are laughing at us.

Then the Missiles Came

I read a report yesterday that the OPCW arrived in Syria and were ready to get to work today. Then the missiles came. Coincidence?

Let’s get one thing straight: the biggest war crimes in my lifetime have been committed by the governments of the United States, Britain, and Israel. The British are probably the worst of the lot given they’ve been committing heinous war crimes for at least three hundred years. These countries have no moral high ground. They are The Empire, and whenever they say they are doing what they do because they care about the people at the other end of their missiles, they aren’t just lying, they are laughing at us.

Caption: “Former head of British Armed Forces gets cut off by Sky when he goes off-script on Syria!”

This video is nice and short because once this former commander of British forces in Iraq starts answering her question, he’s abruptly cut-off before he could finish his answer. You still get a wee bit of truth though. The British media are now all about beating the drums of war in the past few weeks, and anyone of any stature who isn’t on-board is silenced wherever possible. This is just one of the more obvious examples.

Craig Murray: Yulia Skripal is Plainly Under Duress

Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress

There’s an interesting part of the Skripal story that people might have missed. I don’t think I’ve brought it up. On April 5, Skripal’s daughter Yulia called her cousin Viktoria from what she described as a temporary phone. At the time, the MSM were saying that both Yulia and her father were in serious condition, with the father supposedly in a coma. In the conversation, Viktoria asks, ” Is your dad OK?. Yulia answers, “He’s fine, now he’s resting, sleeping. Everybody’s healthy, everybody’s fine. Nobody has got anything they won’t recover from. I’ll be discharged soon. Everything’s ok.”

When this story broke in the U.K. as a result of the conversation being aired on Russian TV, it was suggested this was hoaxed, but it turns out it wasn’t. Once that was clear, the authorities had to come out and say that Skripal was recovering and that both he and his daughter would live.

All this is for background, because now Scotland Yard have issued a statement claiming to be from Yulia, written in perfect English.

Are you a believer?

You were told the bombing of Afghanistan would be good for Afghanistan. You believed it. It wasn’t.

You were told the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be good for Iraqis. You believed it. It wasn’t.

You were told the bombing of Libya would be good for Libyans. You believed it. It wasn’t.

You’re now being told that bombing Syria will be good for Syrians. Do you believe it?