Pondering

The logical conclusion is the British Prime Minister and his senior staff firmly believe the Covid virus is completely harmless. How else to explain their routine, systematic, *weekly* violation of lockdown restrictions?

Boris Johnson by BackBoris2012 Campaign Team is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

The level of flaming hypocrisy emerging from #10 Downing Street is growing so fast that I wonder if the issue is actually hypocrisy or instead a belief that the Covid virus is not actually dangerous.

Back on 12/17/21 I discussed Flaming hypocrisy: “It’s good to be the king” of Netherlands or Prime Minister of England edition.

In December news reports said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson attended a pizza and wine party on 5/15/20, just a couple months into the pandemic. He claimed he was there only a few minutes.

Then on 12/18/20 somewhere between 40 and 50 people had a Christmas party at #10 Downing Street.

Journalists (plural) attended but kept quiet about the event. Of course. They wanted to protect their sources and they knew they are part of the elitist elite who are also exempt from Covid rules.

I discussed this on 12/16/21 in my post Still more flaming hypocrites get caught, this time including Prime Ministers of England and Finland.

The Prime Minister’s press spokes-liar at the time, Allegra Stratton, is on video laughing in a mock press conference that they would call this a “business meeting” and therefore could continue partying.

Just to be clear, multiple staff working for the Prime Minister were laughing at us because they can get away with whatever they want.

Oh, at the time the Prime Minister staff was partying hearty, Christmas parties were explicitly banned. In addition, no more than two people were allowed to get together, even indoors.

Senior leadership were laughing at you and me. Well, not me because I am a free American citizen not personal property subject of the Queen.

The story has gotten a lot worse for the Prime Minister in the last week or so. The extent of flagrantly ignoring Covid restrictions has expanded.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Um…About the effectiveness of the vaccination…Let’s look at data from North Dakota.

Might want to not tell your vaccine hesitant friends and family about this discussion.

I have been tracking a lot of data about Covid since the start of the pandemic.

Why? The data is subject to interpretation, misinterpretation, delays, and manipulation.

So again, the question is: Why?

Publicly available data is what our supposed leaders are using to make decisions. By watching the public data we can maybe guess what they are about to do to us.

Anyway, I have been watching the data. Also have a large number of graphs set up so I can better see data and trends.

Something weird is happening with the vaccination.

Fully vaccinated people are getting sick. Lots of them.

People I know who are vaccine hesitant are noticing.

This is where hard numbers come into play.

I don’t know what these numbers tell us about what may happen soon, but the picture I see is distressing to me.

One set of data I have been watching is from North Dakota.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Record high inflation is going to continue and likely get worse.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are a lot of indications the inflation rates we’ve seen in the last year or so are going to continue. My guess is we will see higher inflation in the next year than we did in 2021. Author of the article discussing PPP says he expects a shock in the CPI sometime in the next few months.

Merely a few recent items pointing towards sustained and even increasing inflation:

  • Dollar Tree is now $1.25 Tree.
  • Experienced farmer describes how severely inflation is hitting his operations. Those increases are going to appear on the store shelves soon.
  • Producer Price Index is accelerating. Indications that unprocessed and intermediate goods are going up far faster than what we’re seeing at retail, so expect accelerating inflation.
  • Unusually high lumber prices are back.
  • Decent prices on cars will be harder and harder to find.

Dollar Tree is now Dollar and a Quarter Tree – Bought a couple items at Dollar Tree. They all rang up at $1.25. Glanced around the store noticing all the signs said $1.25.I asked the clerk about it and he said everything in the store is now a dollar and a quarter.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Why have we knowingly caused so much harm to children? Better question – Why are we allowing our alleged leaders to inflict another round of devastation?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Evidence has been present for well over a year that remote learning, economic shutdowns, and general panic is causing severe harm for kids.

In spite of this our so-called leaders in the political realm, public health world, and educational circles have started another round of school shutdowns.

Even The New York Times is catching on to the devastation inflicted on children. The New York Times!

It is well past time to stop the destruction we are inflicting on children.

Merely three of a growing string of articles pointing out the destruction willfully visited on school children:

  • Twitter string from New York Times outlining the devastation inflicted on children.
  • Column by medical doctor wondered why we have inflicted such harm on children.
  • Research by NBER identifies adverse educational outcomes are a direct result of school shutdowns.
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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Flaming hypocrisy: “It’s good to be the king” of Netherlands or Prime Minister of England edition.

Demonstrated attitude of large portion of our political leaders here in the United States and around the world. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Today’s illustration of leaders blowing off Covid restrictions include the British Prime Minister and the Dutch Royal family.

That reminds me of a line from one of Mel Brooks’ movies, which I quoted above. More on that in a moment.

Mirror – 12/16/21 – Boris Johnson “joined No 10 staff for a Downing Street party during first lockdown” – Allegations have been raised Boris Johnson attended a pizza and wine party on May 15, 2020, yes a couple months into the pandemic. Reports claim 20 staff were present at the party with some of them staying until late at night. Get together took place after a press conference.

Mild denials suggest the P.M. only dropped by for a bit and left early.

My guess? This will be blown off as a staff meeting.

No biggie.

The Guardian, sourced to Agence France-Presse – 12/15/21 – Dutch Royals sorry for Princess Amalia birthday party that broke Covid rules – Royal family of Netherlands held a birthday bash to celebrate Princess Amalia’s 18th birthday. Reports claim at least 21 people were present.

At the time rules in the country prohibited having more than four guests in your home who were over 13 years old.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Still more flaming hypocrites get caught, this time including Prime Ministers of England and Finland.

The Department of Hypocrisy is well staff in the U.S., England, and Finland.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The roster is continually growing of flaming hypocrites who routinely ignore they rules they demand we follow. Just a few of the most recent illustrations of our ruling overlords exempting themselves from their dictats:

  • Prime Minister of Finland kinda’ sorta’ blew off instructions to isolate because of covid-exposure and instead partied the night away. She is part of the ‘new generation’ and therefore she can do whatever she feels like. She is doubly exempt from any rules because she is Prime Minister and she is also 37 years old which means she can do as she wishes.
  • Prime Minister of England held a Christmas party last year when such gatherings were explicitly banned and his spokesperson laughed as she explained the party would be categorized as a “business meeting.”
  • Dr. Fauci parties at a book signing; is quoted as saying he takes his mask off whenever he feels like it.
  • Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer parties at a DC bar without a mask when mask was required except when eating or drinking. Staff at the bar say she was neither eating nor drinking while maskless.

Do our ruling overlords actually believe there is danger?

The only conclusion we can draw from this nonstop stream of in-your-face hypocrisy is our alleged political leaders don’t really believe Covid is dangerous. By their behavior they show the rules they require or endorse or enforce are not really necessary.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

More indications the supply chain crisis will not be going away anytime soon.

Illustration of supply chain. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are lots of reports out with tidbits of information which combine to paint a picture that the tangled supply chain is not going to untangle anytime soon. For your consideration:

  • New system to allow cargo ships to register a scheduled arrival time will make it look like the number of ships waiting to unload has decreased.
  • Big increase in the number of people who started their own business since start of the pandemic, becoming self-employed.
  • Your favorite restaurant may stop taking delivery orders during crunch time.
  • Pay and working conditions for truckers are horrible – no wonder there aren’t enough of them.

FreightWaves – 12/1/21 – Ships in California logjam now stuck off Mexico, Taiwan and Japan – You may have heard the number of ships parked off the coast of ports in Southern California has dropped recently.

Good news, right?

Well, not so fast.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

More reports on health damage caused by government action during Covid pandemic.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

So many reports are pointing to the damage caused by government actions during the pandemic.  I can’t possible discuss all the news. Here are a few articles for your consideration

  • Lack of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malaria in sub-Sahara Africa has caused the death of 47,000 more people than would have died otherwise. Government actions are killing people.
  • Governor of New York orders elective surgeries be halted because hospitals may become overloaded. This will kill people from lack of treatment.
  • A medical doctor indicates we will deal with increasing Covid infection rates by repeating the steps that didn’t work before.

Foundation for Economic Education – 12/6/21 – 47,000 More People Died of This Disease in 2020 Due to Lockdowns, World Health Organization Reports – The concept of “excess deaths” is something we all need to become familiar with. This is the idea of some event or circumstance killing more people than would otherwise have died without that circumstance having taken place.

It will take five or 10 years to identify all of the excess deaths which were directly or indirectly caused by government actions to shut down the economy in 2020.

The current data point is 47,000 people dying because of malaria who would have otherwise lived apart from the government lockdowns across the world.

47,000.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago