35 Comments
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Wazoomann's avatar

Having worked on a "set" I can tell you that even bureaucrats are "people" and I caught several of them, in a moment of exhaustion, mask less...trying to catch their breath, of course in a break towards the end of the day, I guess when the virus is also tired and not interested in invading the immune system. I suppose I should have "screen-shotted" them and posted the photos to ruin their lives but I had better things to do. This lunacy all starts at the top...how soon we forget Fauci attending a ball game...MASK LESS!

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memento mori's avatar

Once again the rulers turn the little people against the little people - it works.

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JohnOnKaui's avatar

The best analysis of the current situation I can imagine! How is it that "humanity" (for want of a better word) was divided into two separate groups that just scream at one another without listening to what the "other side" has to say. Either the Pandemic is a hoax or the failure to get vaccinated is going to "kill us all".

The fear is infectious. I've been "detected" with COVID (although 3x vaxxed), if it weren't for the DoH calling me twice a day and the complete domination of all social media by this new "Godzilla", I'd probably just be living my life while dealing with "a cold".

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Colin Sims's avatar

The image of fully grown adults sitting at work and signaling each other with secret codes just to escape the admonishment of COVID “hall monitors,” both saddens and terrifies me.

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PamelaDrew's avatar

"offending the sensibilities of COVID-paranoid"

For the longest time I've wondered how to describe it and you totally nailed it tyvm, now it's a question of luck to remember what you said.

"Each of these colleges has its own little COVID bureaucracy, often populated by the types of people who pre-2020 would’ve been writing memos on parking decals and roommate disputes — but who today routinely promulgate infectious disease regulations."

It's tragic to watch the power tripping desk jockeys and more alarming to me to see the level of compliance by students.

"I’m not in any position to offer firm predictions on the severity of “Omicron.”

Me either but Dr Robert Malone is and he thinks Omicron is the best thing that could happen.. the mildest variant less than a cold and once you've had it you have immunity for life from all variants. Check him out here on Substack and he does read his comments & betcha a nickle he would weigh in on the medical insanity of campus policies. https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/physicians-declaration-ii-updated

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Michael Greenberg's avatar

".... the mildest variant less than a cold and once you've had it...." Unfortunately, the vaccine may prevent you from getting the mild variant.

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PamelaDrew's avatar

Actually the majority of Omicron is now in the vaccinated so the statistics do not bear that out at the moment..

https://www.newsweek.com/omicron-variant-found-more-vaccinated-people-us-resistance-concerns-persist-1656114

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Dec 18, 2021
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JohnOnKaui's avatar

People who believe they have Omicron aren't saying it is a cold. Its just what they've told me so just passing it on.

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Dec 18, 2021
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JohnOnKaui's avatar

The cacophony is already overpowering. You and I have no way of getting any signal because of the noise. We're each on our own to decide what to do, and that seems to be "nothing".

The reports of vaccine failures are everywhere. The reports of Ivermectin being effective are also everywhere. I know people on Ivermectin who are dead. I don't know anyone vaxxed who is dead.

This article suggests being fully vaxxed is much better than being untaxed, but it still isn't a guarantee of anything.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths-by-vaccination

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Rick Merlotti's avatar

"Which I reserve the right to pronounce as “Oh, c’mon.” And the anagram is Moronic. I think they are just fucking with our heads now.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Thanks and -- the approaching freak-out:

It looks more and more likely -- in 2024 elections it will be a repeat of HILLARY versus TRUMP...

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Michael Tracey's avatar

I so want that to happen. Please make it happen, universe.

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Prodigal's Journey's avatar

My family is already preparing for Bolsonaro-Lula, so tumult will reign anyway. Let's do it.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Not so sure Michael -- I hope you are joking.. ;-))

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Diamond Boy's avatar

Trump yes but Hillary? Do you really think she can climb that mountain again and be the nominee?

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Rick Merlotti's avatar

I pray to the gods not.

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Diamond Boy's avatar

My first reaction is that it would be funny to have Hillary back. But it would also be a death blow to credibility for the US political system. Trump versus Hillary would be WWE wrestling.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

That credibility is long gone ;-))

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Boris Petrov's avatar

compared with Kamala or Buttigieg?

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Diamond Boy's avatar

Agreed. I hope Trump wins, he is the ultimate comeuppance for the liberals: a high colonic.

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Dec 18, 2021
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Boris Petrov's avatar

Desperate Democrats are already starting to recruit Hillary Clinton for another run at the presidency in 2024.

What do they call it after tragic history has already repeated itself as farce?

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John Corso's avatar

Mr. Tracey has answered the classic question in these circumstances: “Qui bono?”

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Diamond Boy's avatar

Who benefits: social control, fear, compliance, a confusion amongst the public at large and strict enforcement through the threat of being ostracized as a science denier, whether we think it’s stupid or not we all know not to transgress this authority. So who benefits indeed?

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Fredo's avatar

😆. I love you, man. Great stuff.

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Mitch Barrie's avatar

The more you learn about Omicron, the more you realize we are all going to get it eventually, providing herd immunity at the cost of relatively mild illness, and it could basically end the pandemic within a few months.

It's really terrifying!

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DECQuine's avatar

Yeah, there's the Job Security factor, of course.

And the problem with the Momentum of Bureaucracy. Or as John Gall puts it in Systemantics - "The System Behaves as if it has a Will to Life" and "Systems Develop Goals of their own, the Instant they come into Being" and "The System Continues to do its Thing, regardless of Circumstances"

And there's the Trump Syndrome, which arrived in this century, after the middle of the last decade - "When Trump isn't available, glob onto any binary conflict that guarantees you an exciting on- going conflict, generates endless Bullshit Jobs producing endless Bullshit Psychological Reinforcement media, and that makes you feel superior to other side." And since the Vax vs Anti-Vax dichotomy is pre-mapped with our beloved Left vs Right dichotomy, it's nearly impossible to break out of.

If Trump runs again, Vaxing and everything else will take a back seat. It's so much more convenient when you have a figurehead to point to.

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dd's avatar

Readers may want to google about Michel Foucault's notions of "biopower".

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Kathy S.'s avatar

I agree with your observations! And on the flip side there’s a whole set of employees who don’t want to add Covid policing to their job descriptions. I freelance for retailer & groaned when I found out we’d be requiring masks again. Don’t shoot the messenger!

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Douglas Marolla's avatar

This scamdemic was exposed by MTracey, Taibbi and Greenwald when, suddenly, you could "protest and riot" and ignore the 'covid' protocols. Because racism was a bigger threat than covid. And getting bad Orange Man bad out of there. Remember, there was a huge rally in Brooklyn for 'black trans lives' (they're the most important ones), and masks were obviously optional, and social distancing was vaporized.

Too many people are afraid of just saying "we're not doing that here anymore".

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Heime Israel's avatar

Michael, this post was hilarious! You nailed the absolute obscurity of it all…. Yes, the “Oh, C’mon” variant…. That’s it, for sure…

The fact that these people can’t see how totally worthless this whole thing is is mind numbing….

Enjoyed it very much! Keep it up…

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Douglas Marolla's avatar

Wait til the "midterm 2022 election variant" shows up. That will be the Optimus Prime variant.

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Dec 18, 2021
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Wazoomann's avatar

Except beer and potato chips gets you in the comorbidity death class ;-) - and if you're a POC, you're more likely to die because the virus is racist.

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Dec 18, 2021
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Wazoomann's avatar

I did the low carb diet. It was fun and I lost weight. But I also ate/eat a ton of vegetables to move things "through" so to speak ;-)

Most Americans, although wealthy relative to the rest of the globe, lead unhappy lives, staring at their neighbor's possessions. Enjoy the ride, lead a nice quiet life if you can and enjoy. Living in poor countries as well as the US I always marveled at how much happier the less "well off" seemed to be. Could it be that money is not the root of all happiness?

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Dec 18, 2021
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Michael Tracey's avatar

I basically agree with the sentiment but I think the invocation of East Germany misapprehends and confuses the nature of the current surveillance regime. Maybe that's a subject for another Substack post, however...

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Diamond Boy's avatar

So right you are and it is accelerating, our children are being marinated in the stuff at school. This drivel is fully ensconced in education from grade school on up.

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