MEDICAL DEVICES

It was a tweet that alerted me to a documentary about the dangers of medical devices. The video was released in 2018 on Netflix and, since I'd cancelled my subscription to that service, I had to go looking for it. I found without much trouble on the Internet Archive located at this address. This came as something of a surprise.

It was an unsettling film that focused on what went terribly wrong with particular types of hip socket replacements, meshes, contraceptive devices and robotic surgery The documentary highlighted the glaring deficiencies in the approval process for these devices, the deceptive marketing and poor reporting of adverse side effects in patients.

One person interviewed commented that the medical technology industry had more influence than Big Pharma. Medical devices require only one trial on a group of patients instead of two for pharmaceutical products and grandfathering permits the possibility of no trial at all. If it can shown that a new device requiring approval is not substantially different from an earlier one that has already gained approval, then no trial is needed. This grandfather loophole has been egregiously exploited by those peddling their medical technology wares.

At the heart of the problem lies the so-called "revolving door" that means that highly placed officials at the FDA (or its equivalent in other countries) are given jobs in the medical technology industry after leaving the agency or prominent figures in the industry are appointed to high level jobs in the FDA. This is exactly the same as what happens in the pharmaceutical industry. The industry ends up overseeing itself. 

Some medical devices are useful and even life saving but care needs to be taken before making use of them. The problem is that prospective patients simply take the medical professional's word that the device is safe which can prove a dangerous mistake. As technology progresses inexorably, it's likely that more medical devices will be aggressively marketed without proper safety studies being carried out.

The documentary is just another reminder of how badly the medical "profession" has failed to work in the best interests of its patients. It's therefore up to the patients to work out what's the best solution to their health problems. They need to take charge of their own health and not passively accept the advice of a doctor who may well be ill-informed, acting in their own self-interest or simply uncaring.

The Polypill

Wonderful name and another potential triumph of modern medicine. What is the polypill? Well let this October 13th 2022 article from https://medicalxpress.com/ explain.

Global health has paid a deadly price for not using simple, low-cost blood pressure lowering drugs, statins and aspirin widely in the form of a single pill, also known as the polypill, say two leading cardiologists in a commentary published in The Lancet. Widespread availability of polypills would substantially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and be affordable for most people globally, says their call-to-action.

"Despite substantial scientific evidence of the high effectiveness, safety and affordability of the polypill, few such combined products are available, and in the few countries where they are available, use is low," says Prof Fausto Pinto, President of the World Heart Federation.

"This systemic failure is a global tragedy, as many premature deaths from CVD could be avoided," says Prof Salim Yusuf, Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at McMaster University.

About 54 million people suffer from cardiovascular disease every year—a third of them die from CVD—with 80 percent of them living in low-income and middle-income countries.

Most heart attacks and strokes afflict people who have no prior CVD, meaning that primary prevention of the first heart attack or stroke is essential. Secondary prevention for people who already have CVD is also important but does not have the same impact.

"The current strategy for primary and secondary prevention of CVD has only been modestly successful in most countries, including high-income countries. Even in these countries, fewer than half of patients with prior CVD, and fewer than 20% without prior CVD, receive effective preventive treatments," says Prof Yusuf.

The polypill, also known as fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy—with the combination of blood pressure lowering agents, a statin for lowering LDL cholesterol, and low-dose aspirin—was proposed in the early 2000s as a means to reduce CVD substantially and at low cost.

"The answer is now clear and resounding, with data from three independent, large, and long-term trials in primary prevention and one in secondary prevention showing its life-saving significance," says Yusuf, whose various publications have shown that heart attacks and strokes were cut by 35 to 50 percent by using a polypill.

"It is time to use the polypill widely to save millions of lives each year," says Prof Pinto. He and Prof Yusuf recommend the following new strategies:

Encourage large pharmaceutical companies to invest in developing and testing polypills—in particular, newer polypills with larger blood pressure lower effects (such as combining low doses of 3 or 4 classes of drugs with statins and low doses of aspirin). Manufacturing with generic components, and marketing polypills at locally sensitive prices, would ensure affordability while maintaining profitability for the companies, thereby enhancing use by the majority of people around the world.

Include polypills in the WHO's Essential Medicines List, and in guidelines for both primary and secondary prevention of CVD is an important next step. "This would encourage governments and insurance companies, especially in low-income and middle-income countries to include in their formularies, and clinicians to recommend its use," Pinto and Yusuf write.

Combine the polypill with lifestyle advice for CVD prevention delivered by trained non-physician health workers (NPHWs)—not meant as a replacement for physicians who can use their advanced skills on managing individuals with more complex conditions—thus a combined strategy that would help many more people.

Clearly the time has never been more opportune to push these polypills given the "fallout" from the Covid vaccinations. The time-worn trick is being played again, exacerbate an existing problem via pharmaceuticals and then propose a pharmacological solution. To quote from the article:

Encourage large pharmaceutical companies to invest in developing and testing polypills ...

Let's not forget the WHO. To quote again:

Include polypills in the WHO's Essential Medicines List

These are the sorts of solutions that one would expect from the medical establishment.  No investigation into the reasons for the uptick in CVD, just a new pill. Stay healthy and cheat death (for a while at least) with the help of BIG PHARMA.

The Fuster-CNIC-Ferrer cardiovascular polypill combines three drugs into one pill to make it easier
for patients to comply with secondary cardiovascular prevention therapy. Link.

I think we'll be seeing more of polypills in the future. Here's an October 13th 2022 headline from CNN Health:

Combination ‘polypills’ can help solve world’s heart problems, experts say, if more people can get them

Well, the "experts" are saying so you'd better listen. The pharmaceutical companies will need to come up with new patented drugs to pack into these polypills so as to make them as expensive as possible. As usual, third world countries will need to spend money allocated to their health care budgets to buy these new medications along with all the other crap that the WHO is foisting on them. Even if you're feeling well and are young and seemingly healthy, you'll be encouraged to take them as a prophylactic. The more young people that keep dropping dead on sporting fields or dying in their sleep, the more people will opt to take them. Most of the elderly are already dependent on several medications and will need no persuasion to use them.

Heading Where?

The drought of posts to this blog over the course of the year is quite startling:

It's not that I've lost interest in alternative news but I'm just not motivated to post. I understand what's going on and the reality is depressing. 

The greatest misjudgement that casual observers of the world stage make is in their belief that politicians (especially presidents, premiers and prime ministers) are directing the course of world events. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the hierarchy of power, the politicians rank only the plebs and the police/army. They act out their assigned roles and if they stray too far from the script they are replaced by others who are more compliant.

Is Xi Jinping an exception to that rule? Given that modern China has been created by Western bankers, probably not. Xi's ruthless ascent to Mao-like status is the result of his own psychopathic scheming but now that he has assumed absolute control it is reasonable to assume that his handlers are happy about this and about the direction in which he is steering China.

So where is he steering the country? In this regard, it's helpful to pursue the similarity between Mao and Xi. Mao could have been prevented from taking control of China if Chiang Kai-shek been given sufficient support. The global elite wanted a Communist China in order to exacerbate international tensions. Even after Mao came to power, he was not anti-West but his overtures of conciliation with the West were rebuffed.

Instead the Korean War was concocted by the globel elite shortly after the revolution. The Russians were supporting North Korea and when South Korea invaded and swept toward the Chinese border it was to be expected that a nervous and newly created Chinese government would react. This was an opportunity for the United Nations to intervene militarily but only if the Soviets didn't veto the move. The Soviet ambassador to the UN didn't show up for the vote and so UN intervention was on. 

When the dust settled, things were territorially the same as before but with an enormous loss of life on both sides of the conflict. This of course is never a concern for people with their hands on the levers of power. The point was that the UN had intervened successfully in the conflict and shown that it was capable of acting as a global police force, a first step on the road to a one world government.

For the remainder of Mao's reign, the country suffered enormously but the West remained unconcerned and was happy to keep China ostracised and impoverished. Mao was not following instructions from the global elite during this period, he was on his own and focused on maintaining personal power by all means necessary. During this time Israel was consolidating its position in the Middle East before embarking on its goal of being at the crossroads of a Eurasian Superstate.

For the time being, China would remain in the cold. Once Israel's survival had been assured following the Yom Kippur War, the rehabilitation of China began in earnest. It would take decades for China to rise from its ashes and in the meantime Israel's grip over the United States would tighten and it would use the latter's military might to destabilise its neighbours.

What is Israel's connection with the so-called "global elite" and who in fact comprise this elite? This is never an easy question to answer because its members prefer to remain in the shadows but essentially its comprised of Anglo-European banking families who maintain an iron grip over the world's financial system. Many but not all of these families are Jewish. The Jewish elite have always prioritised their own survival and prosperity over the welfare of their rank-and-file brethren. 

Israel is a complex country and has been overrun in the past few decades by Russian Jews, many of whom don't even identify as Jewish and some of whom are not Jewish at all. The Zionists are those who believe that Israel has the right to dominate the Middle East and who aspire to create a Greater Israel that extends from the Nile to the Euphrates. Many are Jews but not all and many Jews outside of Israel do not support the actions of the Israeli government. 

Over the course of the twentieth century the goals of the global elite and the Zionists have converged. Initially, the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine was viewed with suspicion by the Jewish banking families like the Rothschilds but they eventually gave their support. They helped Adolf Hitler rise to power knowing full well that his hostility to Jews would drive them toward either Israel or the United States with both countries becoming inextricably linked.

The cold war extended from 1945 to the late 1980's and was designed to maintain fear and apprehension in the West. The Russian government had only survived the post-revolutionary period thanks to Western support. The intent was to build up both Germany and Russia and pit one against the other, as happened. Postwar, Russia was quickly built up as a sinister threat to democracy and China soon followed.

The Russia-China axis of evil was effective in boosting arms sales and maintaining international tensions but with the intentional collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening up of China, a replacement had to be found. Islamic terrorism was chosen. That phase is ending and a new cold war is being activated. China and Russia are once again becoming the axis of evil, with Iran being included.

This time however, I think that Xi is complicit. He has been told of the course of action he is to follow. Why else would he have engaged in the obviously distastrous covid-zero policy that represents a great leap backwards economically akin to Mao's initiative of the late 50's and early 60's. Clearly there is a bigger picture to discern in all of this apparent madness. 

There's no doubt that the government's of the world are envious of the degree of control that China has over its massive population. The country is a giant social experiment. How do you get vast swatches of the population to line up for Covid tests every two or three days in all sorts of weather? Well, China has succeeded and the governments of the world have taken note. It can be done. 

Xi and China will be well rewarded in the long term. In the new financial order that is emerging, China will have far more influence than it now has. The United States dollar will lose its reserve status and the Chinese yuan will form an important part of a basket of currencies. The world will begin to look increasing like China in terms of social control as the impact of Central Bank Digitial Currencies begins to bite. China will of course have a significant head start. 

China will form a crucial part of the Eurasian Superstate and trade will flourish between the other countries that comprise it. Russia will turn increasingly away from Europe. Perhaps this was not always the plan. According to Brendon O'Connell, Trump was brought in to oversee the withdrawal of the United States from NATO and to tolerate the increasingly close ties between Germany and Russia. It was hoped that Trump would usher in a period of increasing US isolationism and the buildup of an accelerated economic ties between North and South America.

This has not happened. The intervention of the US and NATO into the Ukraine-Russia conflict indicates that the United States is not willing to passively withdraw from Europe and that it is determined to maintain its presence there. In this sense, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is an indirect war against Germany by the United States. I can't help but feel this was planned and that Putin, like Jinping, is following instructions but was perhaps misled as to the response from the US and NATO. Was he told that there would be little resistance? The result has not turned out well for Europe or Russia.

Like Xi Jinping, perhaps Putin is playing the long game. He has told to maintain the pressure on Ukraine so as to destabilise the European economies and thus make a financial reset more justifiable. Like China, Russia will be rewarded by making the rouble part of the basket of currencies that will replace the US dollar as the sole reserve currency. Neither Jinping's zero covid policy nor Putin's war in Ukraine have made them popular in their own countries and yet they both are uncontested in their leadership. This fact is suggestive of a long term strategy that is more important to them than short term unpopularity. 

There's no doubt that the global elite and the Zionists want to see the breakup of the United States. They desire an end to the unipolar world order that exists at the moment. Neither Russia nor China pose a serious threat to the United militarily and while the United States military continues its domination, the establishment of a multipolar world order is thwarted. With the increasing emphasis on city states, it is possible that the cities on the east and west coasts of the country as well as Chicago might be drawn into a northern alliance with Canada. Europe and Britain might join this alliance.

The central and southern parts of the countries, the Red Zone, might align with Mexico, Central America and South America. Russia would continue to be the bogeyman and Europe would look to the alliance with Britain and the United States for protection. So Blue Zone cities in the United States, along with Canada, Britain and Europe form one pole. The Red Zone of the United States along with Mexico, Central and South America form another pole. A fake war between Israel and Iran will lead to the creation of Greater Israel and a much enlarged Iran that includes Iraq and some of Saudi Arabia (including Mecca and Medina). Iran's sphere of influence will extend into the "Stans" and it will be another pole. Israel will then be at the hub of the so-called world island. China and India with their massive populations will be poles in themselves. Africa will continue to be exploited.

Australia and New Zealand will continue to remain safe havens for the global elite and ageing Zionists. Accordingly they will prosper. The Islamic countries such as Turkey, Pakistan and others will remain a problem. One thing that the global elite fear is a strong and vibrant religion that puts God first and mankind second. The global elite believe that they have justifiable rulership over mankind and God does not have any say in the matter. Thus they will do all in their power to weaken religions in general and Islam in particular because it is the most vibrant. 

One way to do this is to exploit the split between Sunni and Shia moslems and to encourage separtist movements that will fragment the countries in the which moslems live. It remains to be whether the global elite will succeed in this and their other agendas. It is a grand plan and plenty of things can go wrong. One thing is certain. If they succeed, the results will be not all that dissimilar to the fate that overtook the Russians and Chinese following their respective revolutions. The disappearance of religion, a crushing of the human spirit and an iron control over a cowering humanity.

Chinese Covid Vaccines

This article from The New York Times really woke me up to the fact that China is not using an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19.

To quote from the article: "Unlike traditional vaccines that use an inactivated virus to trigger a response by the immune system, mRNA vaccines use a genetic molecule that assists cells to make proteins that can set off an immune response in the body. This response creates antibodies that are then used to fight the virus."

It's clear from the article that this is a deliberate policy. The government has had the opportunity to manufacture them but have not done so. Again, to quote, "It wasn’t that long ago that China appeared ready to introduce an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, BioNTech’s Chinese partner, told investors last year that regulators would approve its mRNA vaccine for use in China by July 2021. The company, which had conducted clinical trials in late 2020, said that it could make as many as a billion doses a year. That optimism has since faded. Chinese authorities now say they are still reviewing documents in order to “make a final decision on the approval of our vaccine,” a spokeswoman for BioNTech said."

The above graphic and this article from July 30th 2021 is informative as to what other countries are using the Chinese vaccines:

Malaysia and Thailand announced this month that they were phasing out the vaccine. While the former will switch to Pfizer and give out its remaining Chinese shots as second immunizations, the latter is going one step further by offering mix and match vaccines with AstraZeneca to those which are still awaiting their second Sinovac shot. Both Thailand and Indonesia have said they will offer a third booster shot to those who have received the Sinovac vaccine. Both will use a different vaccine than Sinovac for this program. Singapore meanwhile does not count Sinovac recipients – many of them healthcare workers - in vaccination statistics anymore and does not exempt them from being tested, for example when attending events ... Sinovac has been widely used in Asia and countries like Cambodia and the Philippines are sticking to it so far despite some protests. Sinovac and another Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, are also in use in South America, Mexico and the Middle East. Several countries in Africa have also authorized one or more Chinese shots, according to Our World in Data.

State of Play

I’ve not made an alternative news post for quite some time, mainly out profound disillusionment with the state of the world. However, it’s time to take stock and assess the state of play in the world today. Brendon O’Connell, whom I follow on YouTube, feels that the tide has turned and that the USA is finally asserting itself and confronting the forces that seek to undermine it. Brendon thinks that Putin was lured into attacking Ukraine in the expectation that the country would offer little resistance. However, with NATO and United States support, Ukraine has pushed back and Putin’s plan to take the country has been thwarted. I don’t see it that way at all.

In my mind, Putin was very much following a script he had been given. If he had really wanted to take over Ukraine, he could have done so easily but instead he dithered on the border for quite some time before attacking and even then only half-heartedly. The purpose of the invasion was to disrupt the supply of grain to the outside world and to drive up the price of natural gas. The Chinese lockdowns had already seriously disrupted the world’s supply chains and so the Ukraine invasion exacerbated an already bad situation. Russia and China have adequate food but not so the rest of the world.

Rising prices of all commodities around the world are driving more individuals and small businesses into bankruptcy and this is very much in line with Agenda 2030 where individuals are envisaged as owning nothing and being happy. More and more wealth will flow to the already wealthy while the 99% sink into neofeudalism. Russia and China are playing the long game. The former has become a global pariah and the latter seems to be shooting itself in the foot with its lockdowns and incessant testing but both countries can ride out the storm that will engulf the world and, with ample gold reserves, are well-positioned to benefit from the new global currency that will replace the ailing US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

I think both Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi are both doing what the City of London and the European banking cartel have instructed them to do. Their actions are bringing the world to its knees but in the long term their countries will emerge stronger and part of a trading block that will include Iran and Pakistan and perhaps other countries. Putin must have known that his invasion of Ukraine would drive countries like Finland and Sweden into the arms of NATO. That is the intention of the global elite who are playing this chess game. Tension between Russia and its European neighbours and between China and its southeast Asian neigbours is vital to maintain arms sales and keep global citizens in a state of apprehension.

Organisations such as the WHO and WEF will dominate nation states, dictating policies that all nation states must follow or suffer the consequences. In the next year or so, as the economies of more countries implode, the level of indebtness to the IMF and World Bank will soar and economic independence will plummet. Even more so than now, politicians will simple follow instructions issued by their overlords and individuals will suffer helplessly as each country’s police enforce the implementation of these instructions. For example, the WHO may declare another pandemic and issue instructions regarding vaccines, lockdowns etc. that the politicians in each country must implement, having signed the pandemic treaty.

Brendon seems to have succumbed to a Q-Anon type of delusion, wherein he anticipates that the United States will be great again and live up to the ideals of its founding fathers. He sees the country as the only one with a real committment to individual freedom and, if it loses its superpower status, we are all doomed to live in smart city gulags under constant surveillance and our freedom of movement dependent on our social credit score. He hopes that the United States has realised that it has been compromised by a foreign power (Israel) and take appropriated action, including occupation of Palestine. This to me seems unrealistic.

However, there is an growing awareness within the United States that its partnership with Israel has benefited only the latter. Whether it generates enough momentum to cause a foreign policy reassessment is doubtful. It seems that the US is breaking apart and that the goal of Israel, to weaken the country and promote migration of wealthy or talented Jews to Israel, is well underway.

The End Goal

Mother/Android is not a great film by any means but the plot twist in it is memorable (spoiler alert). It's hinted at in something that the android said after helping the mother. In the following dialog, the mother still thinks the android is human:

Android: But you need to get with the program here. They're not butlers anymore. They're killing machines. And they've jumped the evolutionary chain. They've hacked our programming and they'll use it against us until we're all dead.

Mother: "Hacked our programming", what do you mean? We're not robots, you can't hack us.

Android: Love. I know it sounds dumb but that what it is. Human beings are programmed through hormones and primal urges to have emotional connections. It's what kept us alive this long. Parents, spouses, children. But an android doesn't have that. An android is expendable. They don't have self-preservation and they'll sacrifice themselves and others if it brings them closer to their goal. They can reason past sentiment and emotional bond. It's love. Love makes us selfish. Love will kill us all.  

Mother: I can't leave him to die.

Android: You wanna live?

Mother: Of course.

Android: Save yourself. That's what they would do. They have strategy like you wouldn't believe"

The last line is the most telling: "They have strategy like you wouldn't believe". It's the strategy that takes the mother's breath away when she finally realises that the android has played her big time.  The twist struck a chord with me because I was reminded of the grand chessboard and the game being played by the members of the global elite, a game designed to bring them closer to their goal.

"They'll sacrifice themselves and others if it brings them closer to their goal". There is a similarity between androids, psychopaths and true believers: "they can reason past sentiment and emotional bond". Not all members of the global elite are psychopaths but those who are not are true believers who believe in the goal of a technocratic world in which everyone and everything is monitored and controlled. 

This technocratic elite, whether driven by true belief or the psychopathic love of power, are masterful strategists whose tactical moves can divert and confuse us if we lose sight of the big picture (something that they never do). For example, the dream of global governance demands the subservience of nation states and yet the puppet leaders of those very nation states can at times be encouraged, prodded or blackmailed into defiance of international norms by their puppet masters.

With Russia  and Ukraine, the former serves as an example of what a rogue nation state can get up if not properly controlled by an overarching global government. The villain, Russia, is the target of unrelenting main stream media attacks but villains are carefully chosen. The egregious invasion of other countries by the United States, with Israel pulling the strings of its leaders, does not qualify it for villain status. Thus the current vilification of Russia is tactical and Putin has certainly not embarked on his current adventures without getting the nod from his superiors.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict will disrupt global supply chains even further, undermine trust in the US dollar as a reserve currency, increase inflation and move the world closer to a global digital currency. It seems to be phase 2 of the Great Reset, with the "plandemic" being Phase 1. It will be interesting to see how Putin emerges from the current conflict. It's certain he has been promised much in terms of long term compensation but he may well be sacrificed if necessary.

What's conspicuously absent from the global strategy of the technocrats is love. "Human beings are programmed through hormones and primal urges to have emotional connections. It's what kept us alive this long. Parents, spouses, children." The technocrats, like the androids in the movie, don't have that. The family is an impediment to their dream of total control and they must do all they can to undermine and destroy it. So far, they have been doing a good job.

Perhaps when the android says that "love will kill us all", he is speaking about his own species. Love will certainly eventually triumph over the global elite. In the meantime, it is important not to be deceived by polarising propaganda spewing forth from mainstream media sources. 

ADDENDUM

The day after I created this post, I came across the following quote:

“They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.” 

George Orwell, 1984

It fitted in so well with the content of this post that I thought I'd add it in. There is even a pictorial version. See  Figure 1.

Figure 1

Given that I had a digital copy of 1984, I thought I'd look up the quote and see in what context it appeared. A search for the sentence or even part of it came up blank. The quote seems to appear about the middle of 2021 and keeps getting recycled without any due diligence as to its provenance. Interesting. It just shows how misinformation can proliferate. In this case, it's quite harmless but the lesson is that you should always check your sources.

On Being Sane In Insane Places

In 2021, I made 38 posts to this blog and that translates to slightly more than 3 posts per month. So far, as the middle of February 2022 approaches, I've made only a single post: BISHOP RICHARD WILLIAMSON. Why so?

First up, you have to be careful what you say. The following February 9th 2022 article reporting on a DHS (Department of Homeland Security) announcement presages clearly what's coming:

DHS warns against mistrust of US government in latest terror bulletin

​The Department of Homeland Security’s latest terrorism threat bulletin includes a warning against “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.”

The bulletin, issued Monday and in effect until at least June 7, blamed an “online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis-, dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.

“These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence,” DHS went on. “Mass casualty attacks and other acts of targeted violence conducted by lone offenders and small groups acting in furtherance of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances pose an ongoing threat to the nation.”

Before too long, simply questioning the official narrative may flag you as a terrorist in most countries of the world. Once social credit scores are in place, even seemingly mild criticisms of governments will cause you to lose points and just following certain people, groups or causes will negatively impact your score, even if you say nothing yourself. Right now, even quoting Government issued facts and figures, can lead to censorship on social media platforms (because it has not emanated from the government itself).

In such a climate, as already exists in China at the moment, criticism of the government cannot be explicit or else there will be consequences. Resourceful citizens have created workarounds. For example, using images or references to Winnie the Pooh in place of Xi Jinping worked for a while until the CCP clamped down. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: source

So, to connect to the title of this post, it is humour (or humor as the Americans say) that can help one to remain sane in insane places (and the whole world is an insane place today). Cartoons have always been a popular means of lampooning politicians. While composing this post, I suddenly thought of a clever modification of the well-known triple j logo in Australia. Figure 2 shows what I came up with:

Figure 2

I posted this to Facebook with the comment:

I couldn't resist creating this. Non-Australians may not have heard of triple j but most Aussies have. Should my modification of triple j's logo be interpreted as promoting public health or as taking the piss out of government directives?

PS: it's telling that 17 hours later the post has a mere 4 likes with no comments whatsoever. So much for stimulating debate.

An important aspect of humour is that it's not too in your face. The graphic in Figure 2 can be taken at face value or it can be seen as sarcasm. It's in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. In the future, if criticism of government is to survive, it will need to be nuanced and double-edged.

A second reason for my paucity of posts is simply a sense of defeatism. Why bother? When you realise you are sane in an insane place, it is tempting to just give up and keep quiet. Creating a disturbance in the insane asylum will not make your stay any more pleasant.

Whether this blog will survive or not is questionable. It began on November 20th 2015 with a post about The Corbett Report that I'd only just discovered. In 2016 I made four posts:

• New Polio Vaccine in April
• The Hidden Agenda Behind Free Trade Agreements in May
• Steemit and Beyond the Zika Freakout in September

After that the blog gathered momentum with an average of 32 posts per year over the next five years (2017 to 2021). Maybe I should read back over these past posts in order to remind myself where I've come from and thus help me get some idea of where I might be headed.

Looking back to the middle of 2015 when I retired and before I started this blog, my only contact with alternative media had been via discursive viewing of YouTube videos on various topics such as 9/11, the death of Diana etc. I had this to say about James Corbett in my very first post:

In my quest for alternative media sources, I recently stumbled upon The Corbett Report's YouTube channel and watched several of the videos there. I was impressed. He expresses himself very clearly and logically with supporting documentation taken largely from publicly accessible, verifiable sources.

It's only since becoming acquainted with Brendon O'Connell that I've had to admit my naiveté concerning James Corbett. He has been dubbed "Tokyo Rose" by Brendon who regards him as controlled opposition. Banished from YouTube, James has become a dominant and widely respected figure in alternative media circles. While he has an annoyingly didactic and condescending style of speaking, I still enjoy watching his content. 

The powers-that-be recognise the need to create spaces where those who are disaffected with and disbelieving of the mainstream narrative can gather and vent their spleen. These places become echo chambers where nothing much happens and the discontent is contained, not disrupting the roll out of Agenda 2030. 

It's not that James has signed a contract to become a member of the controlled opposition. Instead, he operates within certain boundaries. There are lines that he dare not cross. His reward is that he lives a comfortable lifestyle in the "sunny climes of Western Japan". Were he to bring up topics like Israel's control of cybersecurity or the secret deal between Iran and Israel or the real implications of the belt and road initiative, he would find that the flow of funds would quickly dry up and somebody else, more compliant, would be promoted to take his place.

David Icke, Alex Jones and others are also controlled opposition, attracting a certain demographic and creating their own echo chambers where there's a lot of froth and fury but little action that would disrupt the "Agenda". While I can still watch James Corbett, I can't stomach watching Icke or Jones or most of the other controlled opposition personalities. I enjoy "New World Next Week" in which he teams up with James Evan Pilato. The latter is more inclined to cross boundaries but has learned to keep his tongue in check most of the time, although he clearly has lapses and even mentions "Israel" from time to time!