I am a biologist, if nothing else. One of the many blessings of being a biologist is the wide range of metaphors for human group behavior which flow from this field. And of these, pondering the various adaptive strategies which species interacting with other species employ can be particularly productive.
I like to use metaphors as an insight engine. A sort of mental bridge from one field of knowledge to another. Reasoning by analogy, insights and knowledge from one discipline can often be used to break open new ways of thinking about another.
If you think of humanity as like a virtual ecosystem, then the ways that social groups (or tribes?) interact with each other can be considered similar to the way species interact in a physical ecosystem. This is one door that can be used to pass into the thought space of sociobiology. E. O. Wilson, a central figure in the history of sociobiology, defined the field as “the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization”.
Parasites, through release of complex chemical cocktails, employ mind control techniques that put politicians and alphabet agencies to shame
Some parasites know how to zombify their hosts, change their gender, make them alter their behavior and appearance, and even commit suicide
The better known mind-controlling parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, tricks infected rats into being attracted to cats, the parasite’s final hosts
People infected by toxoplasma tend to act more reckless and distracted, and there is a strong correlation between toxoplasma infection and schizophrenia and other mental disorders in humans
Behavior of biological parasites offers insights into social interactions in human society and highlights the importance of protecting ourselves from predators, both physically and spiritually
This story is about the stunning, Hollywood-worthy mind control techniques employed by parasites in nature that turn their prey into obedient, self-destructive slaves.
I became interested in the topic as I was pondering the effectiveness of COVID propaganda and deceit in general. I then started researching parasites in detail and discovered a whole world of deceit that politicians only wish they could pull off.
And people wonder why bankers are hated. Real median household income is lower than it was in 1999. Wages are stagnant. Young people are stuck with a trillion dollars of student loan debt and part time jobs at TGI Fridays. Average Americans don’t have money left to consume, so retailers are being destroyed and closing thousands of stores.
Too Big To Trust Wall Street Mega-Banks have been handed billions of newly printed dollars on a daily basis by the their wholly owned central bank to gamble with no risk of loss. They can borrow at 0% from this same central bank and then deposit those funds back with the central bank to earn .25%. This generates billions in risk free profits.
These same banks can mark the toxic loans on their balance sheet at whatever they choose. This allows them to release billions of loan loss reserves every quarter, generating accounting entry profits. They have no interest in making loans to small businesses or little people. That’s old school banking. Gambling with derivatives knowing the Fed has their back is how it’s done today.
What a business model. These parasites on the ass of America add absolutely no value to society. NONE. They have destroyed our economic system and won’t be satisfied until it is a smoking ruin. For this they reward themselves with $26.7 billion of bonuses for a job well done. There aren’t enough lampposts for what needs to be done.
Wall Street bonuses rose 15% in 2013 to post-financial-crisis high
The average person working in the securities industry earned a cool $164,530 bonus last year — 15% more than a year before.
An aggregate $26.7 billion was paid out in 2013 bonuses to the industry’s 165,200 employees, the highest figure since the 2008 financial crisis, according to figures released Wednesday by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
To put that bonus-pool figure in perspective, it would be enough to more than double the pay of the more than 1 million full-time workers earning the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
The bonus increase on Wall Street is a result of firms’ engaging in deferred compensation, according to the comptroller’s report. Financial firms are now paying out a smaller share of bonuses immediately and are instead deferring a larger share into future years.
DiNapoli’s office noted that the securities industry “navigated through some rough patches last year” and yet was profitable. “Although profits were lower than the prior year, the industry still had a good year in 2013 despite costly legal settlements and higher interest rates,” said DiNapoli. “Wall Street continues to demonstrate resilience as it evolves in a changing regulatory environment.”
Major regulatory reforms since the financial crisis have changed the way the industry does business. Firms are now required to maintain larger reserves, and proprietary trading has been limited, while additional changes are aimed at reducing unnecessary risk and enhancing transparency, the report notes.
The statue of the Wall Street Bull, on Bowling Green in New York
Several firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM and Citigroup Inc. C, have indicated weakness in these areas.
Total Wall Street profits for the broker-dealer operations of New York Stock Exchange member firms were $16.7 billion in 2013, the comptroller’s office said.
Other nuggets gleaned from the report:
• The average salary, including bonuses, paid to securities-industry employees in New York City in 2012 was 5.2 times the average pay in the rest of the private sector, which was about $69,200 as of 2012.
• The securities industry, considered one of the city’s major economic engines, accounts for 22% of all private-sector wages paid in New York, despite accounting for just 5% of the city’s private-sector jobs.
