Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
A number of readers have been asking me for my take on the various “conspiracy theories”? For example, is the virus a bioweapon? Did the US release it on China or China on the US? As Bill Gates and the US military ( http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55003.htm ) knew in advance or predicted the pandemic, why weren’t preparatory steps taken? Why are we caught with no plan, no protective gear, shortage of ventilators and no treatment? ( https://stephenlendman.org/2020/04/us-knew-of-novel-coronavirus-threat-failed-to-prepare/ ) Is the virus a plot by the global elite to reduce the population, especially older people on Social Security and Medicare, in order to free more public money for subsidies to the One Percent? Is it a plot to install tyranny?
Some of the “conspiracy theories” lack plausible motive. Others lack evidence. Others have circumstantial evidence—for example, a meeting of the global elite conducted a simulation of a pandemic a few weeks prior to the outbreak. Why? And some of the circumstantial evidence looks more real than circumstantial. For example, this: https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/newsfromunderground/24dOim8rSvc/8zEtMrmcCwAJ
What is the point of blocking information about a successful treatment of Covid-19 other than to keep the profit opportunity open for a vaccine? The more people who die from the virus, the more acceptance a vaccine will have regardless of its effectiveness or danger.
I appreciate readers confidence that I know so much. But I don’t. I cannot answer the questions. However, I do appreciate the questions, because they provide an opportunity for me to draw an important lesson. Let’s begin by calling the conspiracy theories alternative explanations. What all of the alternative explanations have in common is distrust of the authorities and the official explanations. This is the fault of the authorities and the media, not of those with alternative explanations. If the public had confidence in the authorities, there would be no scope for alternative explanations. By not being forthcoming up front, by polticizing the virus against Trump and against China, by taking so long to acknowledge the seriousness of the threat while doing nothing to prepare, the authorities have harmed public trust in them.
Trust in public authorities and the media was already thin. The lies about Washington’s wars—“weapons of mass destruction,” “Iranian nukes,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons”—and the Russiagate hoax, have undermined the credibility of Washington and the US print and TV media.
Now with the virus, denial and unpreparedness and the impact on the economy and people’s economic condition have further eroded confidence in authorities, thereby producing a receptive audience for alternative explanations. But those with alternative explanations are themselves undermining confidence in public authorities. Yes, questions are in order. There is no doubt that we are confronted with large scale failure by an unprepared government and health care system. Capitalism with an inadequate public sector has exposed us to both health and economic failure. These are all legitimate points to be made. However, the purpose of some alternative explanations seems to be to attract attention to a website or to a person with a podcast, and others produce division that prevents a coming together and leadership, however belated, from public authorities by discrediting such leadership in advance.
Thus, the alternative explanations can be just as debilitating and irresponsible as the authorities prevarications.
If the virus is used for self-interested purposes by the many interests affected, no common interest can form that would provide a basis for leadership by authorities. To survive as a society, we need realism, decisive action, and commitment to everyone by public authorities without favoritism. From doubters, we need questions in place of the denunciations and explanations that imply our doom. If we believe we are doomed in advance, it will be hard to muster the will to prevail over the health and economic challenge.
The challenge from the virus might be greater than we know, for example: https://stephenlendman.org/2020/04/new-covid-19-outbreaks-in-china/ . If we are discouraged in advance, the catastrophe will be greater.
As we experience the shortcomings, and perhaps the failure, of our health and economic system, we should be prepared to demand and force through substantial reforms, reforms even more far-reaching than those brought by the Great Depression. The neoliberal globalism of recent decades has left the United States and Europe extremely vulnerable. We must not contribute to making this vulnerability worse, and we must replace neoliberal globalism with a less dysfunctional system at the earliest opportunity.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
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It’s good to hear what Reagan-era big government-hack boomers have to say.
It’s even better to ignore them.
Fully agree.
Nice to see someone keeping a cool head.
First, forget about theories, lets just put this into perspective:
These numbers are from the CDC, so, must be true, right? this data is from 2019, so sill relevant.
1. Daily Heart Disease Deaths: 1,773
2. Daily Cancer Deaths: 1,641
3. Daily Medical Malpractice Deaths: 685
4. Daily Accident Deaths: 465
5. Daily Lower Respiratory Disease Deaths: 439
6. Daily Stroke Deaths: 401
7. Daily Alzheimer Deaths: 332
8. Daily Diabetes Deaths: 229
9. Daily Drug Deaths: 192
10. Flu: 152
Now, ask yourself, how many are dying daily from this new form of flu?
Bloomberg say US tally is 6,602 total. not daily.
lets say this happened over the last 60 days, 6602/60 =110
even if we pretend this happened of the last 30 days (220)
Thats’s right,
so for number 11 on our list:
11: Covid-19: 110 (possibly 220)
Less than the number of deaths due to the majority of daily causes of death, in the US.
possibly even a normal number of deaths due to the flu.
People,
we are being lied to by our government, this has to be the greatest psyop ever perpetrated.
And it is of global proportions.
yet it is really only impacting a small percentage of the population.
“oh, it’s not the deaths, it’s the hospitals, they are running at full capacity, oh the terror”
get over it, anyone who went into health care, knew this was a possible outcome,
so why did no one ever plan for this, and stockpile equipment to deal with it?
(cause that cost money, and hospitals are businesses first, healthcare operations 2nd,
and now they are a Eugenic operation, for the elderly and those with underlying issues)
it is not about hospitals, and it is not about death rates, its about power, control, and money,
constructs that all governments wish to maintain, and increase their share of.
How about we take the 152 flu deaths per day times 365 days, so 55,480. Subtract the 6,602 current count to get 48,878. So if that 6,602 is for 2 months an average of 4,888 per month over the next 10 months will have to occur just to reach average flu numbers.
It’s possible, maybe even likely since they seem to be counting all deaths as attributed to COVID right now. I just don’t believe that we will get there.
Bankrupting the country and it’s citizens seems like a steep price to pay for these average numbers. There are more aborted babies than that even while PPH asserts that they are an essential service that shouldn’t be shut down.
All those numbers are but “estimates”, there is no empirical truth behind them. Don’t believe me? Here’s the CDC admitting it:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/how-cdc-estimates.htm
Very true but we’ve got no better estimate to use. There are probably people who spend years debunking CDC “models”. I don’t have the time or inclination to become one of them just now.
Still, it’s a very good point that should be remembered when using their guesstimates.
the top 9 on the list are not contagious–
CDC puts the number of deaths at 5,443.
When all are using different numbers, and some (Bloomberg) are inflated by 20%, comparisons and common perceptions become difficult. When official numbers could themselves be inflated, it’s near impossible.
But when you spread flu deaths over the whole year, it can sometimes miss the point that we are – right now – in the depth of a very bad flu season. Here’s the deaths for the 3 weeks in March.
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html
week 11 37,641
Week 10 47,917
Week 9 51,721
A total 0f 137,279
6537 per day for 21 days
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/#S2
I’m not sure what the start and end dates of these “weeks” are.
How many deaths, hospitalizations, and intubations for ventilators are caused by flu but attributed to Covid because of a positive test? If all Covid deaths were misattributed, what percentage of actual recent flu deaths would that represent? Seems to me that understating flu deaths for three weeks in March by about 5% would equal all Coronavirus deaths thus far.
I’m not saying that’s the case, but the flu “curve” could be ending around the same time the virus curve “flattens”.
When, not if, the coronavirus curve flattens it will all be chalked up to the extraordinary measures taken.
If the virus deaths are legit, and extraordinary measures are taken, the curve flattens.
If the virus deaths are legit, and NO extraordinary measures are taken, the curve flattens (sooner or later).
If virus deaths are inflated by misattribution, and extraordinary measures are taken, the curve flattens.
If virus deaths are inflated by misattribution, and NO extraordinary measures are taken, the curve flattens.
There is no case where the excuse for extraordinary measures doesn’t work..
There is no consensus on how to put the country on a proper footing however that “footing” can be described. There might be a consensus to split the country up so that at least the blue and red each have a government they can even tolerate. One can wish for anarchism, but the blues and reds are too numerous to allow it. Roberts is dreaming as he theorizes the formation of a less corrupt government. As Milton Friedman said so often, “Where are you going to find all these angels to run the government you have in mind?” Paraphrase.
“split the country up so that at least the blue and red each have a government they can even tolerate”
would a farmer tolerate the cattle seceding and setting up their own government? the blues will never accept separatism. the blues are fundamentally parasitic and their lives consist of running everyone else’s, they won’t tolerate any secession. for them they either own it or they destroy it, and they’re quite serious about both.
gman,
i was about to write the same thing,they will never accept separation–
we could give the blue staters 90% of the country & agree to a 100% tax rate but as soon as the separation occurred they would be ranting about how we racist,sexist,xenophobic,homophobic deplorables need to be fixed or else–
Even if the country were to be split the bankers would control both pieces within a generation. And if one of them doesn’t submit to the yoke of the bankers they will be quickly crushed.
The actions taken over the past three or four weeks is equivalent to someone seeing a candle flickering in your home and deciding that the possibility of your home burning down justifies them bulldozing it to the ground to prevent the fire from spreading and then sending your kids the bill for the service.
And that’s as apt a metaphor as I am likely to come up with today.
And sending the parents to jail for leaving the flame unattended.
And then there was this…..
that shit will kill you faster than drinking draino.
I usually agree with PCR but the lies from govt, media, etc have become to brazen and dystopic.
Now seeds can’t be purchased. What on earth could be a legitimate justification for that and a new onerous gun bill be introduced with 30% surcharge on the weapon and 50% on ammo because of the “epidemic of gun violence”. There is no epidemic of gun violence. More are killed with hammers than long guns.
13 mar 2020 was the day the USA ended as a constitutional republic (arguably before).
We are financially devastated, unable to feed or protect ourselves. What’s next? Just wait. What the hell does this sound like and mean to you?
Who said seeds can’t be purchased? Ever hear of Lowes or Home Depot?
And that gun/ammo bill has less than zero chance of getting out of committee. Be real.
You’re right about the U.S. being broke. We need an old-fashioned “JUBILEE”!
Yep, a less than zero chance of getting out of committee …
Kind of like the fag/lezbo marriage bills that had a zero chance of getting out of committee 15 or 20 years ago … Now the shit is being stuck in our faces.
Given the warp speed that change is accelerating, this gun-ban shit will be in our faces in a year. Fuck them and they can fuck off when they try to enforce this affront to the FUCKING CONSTITUTION, which these fuck nuts swear to “preserve, protect and and defend … against all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.”
They can suck a big d*ck!!!
“They can”
now now. use that energy to take positive intelligent action.
Agreed … I’ve taken a decent amount of positive intelligent action at the individual level … Just ROYALLY pissed that this once great country has apparently been brought to its knees.
I realize that so much of it has to do with failure at the collectively individual level … and really not surprised to see this happening, now … but still so sad to watch this shit crumble in slow motion.
one is reminded of the scene in atlas shrugged, where the survivor is walking through a land filled with destroyed magnificent cities and fallen great giants, expecting to see some hugely powerful killer – only to see nothing but rats scurrying through the wreckage, celebrating.
identify the rats. both those who live that way, and in yourself.
All of this is absolutely true. All conspiracy theories are accurate. All attempts to disprove them are no more than Nazi Communist Satanic propaganda.
“even more far-reaching than those brought by the Great Depression” – we are ALL still being screwed over 24/7 by the “reforms” brought on by the FIRST Great Depression. We do not need REFORM. WE NEED ABOLITION….starting with the Federal Reserve.
“starting with the Federal Reserve”
that would be the half-way point. expelling/deporting all the owners would complete the job.
“conspiracy theories”
china appeared to be under biological attack last year with pig ebola, corn crop diseases, poultry diseases, etc, all then followed by an apparently semi-effective chinese people disease that proved only mildly effective on non-chinese. it seems the chinese have decided the attacks were launched by israel and to respond symmetrically with a bio attack again ashkenazi jews – thus the high casualty rates in new york (many jews), spain (many jew-to-catholic converts centuries ago), and northern italy (recent genetic studies have demonstrated that ashkenazi jews are in fact italians – specifically from the po valley in northern italy), with only mild casualties elsewhere. observe how israel sealed its borders at the very first hint of a problem – they knew. thus the economically destructive response to an otherwise normal flu epidemic – economically destructive for us, many subsidies for them.
if the war escalates we can expect serious growing worldwide involvement.
How and where it started, and how serious it is, is a lot less important than what the end result is going to be. This situation is obviously being used by the NWO to bring in their One World Government (1984 meets The Hunger Games), and they are doing it at breathtaking speed. And they are encountering almost no resistance. The Right in this country has been successfully neutralized by having Trump as the president. Most of the Right would be aware of what is happening except for the fact that many of them think that Trump has everything under control, e.g., that this is a battle for him to take out the Deep State, and the bailout bill that was just passed was Trump taking over the Fed, etc. Basically a bunch of Q-Anon nonsense. In fact in hindsight it is now obvious to me that that was one of the reasons that Trump was selected to win in 2016.
“In fact in hindsight it is now obvious to me that that was one of the reasons that Trump was selected to win in 2016.”
the “deep state” has not been acting like trump is in on their game. they’ve been acting hysterical about him. hard to see what you’re saying.
You have been listening to Sean Hannity too much. That moron wouldn’t know what the Deep State was if it bit him in the ass. The Deep State is essentially the lower hierarchical levels of the NWO. It is basically the enforcement arm of the NWO, and consists of select members of various entities both in and out of government including the following:
1. Many government 3-letter agencies and cabinets – CIA, FBI, NSA, State Dept, Treasury Dept, etc.
2. A few members of Congress and some presidents (e.g., George H. W. Bush).
3. The too-big-to-fail banks and the Federal Reserve (which is private, not part of government).
4. The higher level positions in the Mainstream Media, especially the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, etc.
5. The Israeli lobby, Zionists, Mossad, many neocons, etc.
6. The military-industrial-security complex, including the DoD and various defense/security contractors.
7. Various other corporate leaders, including especially some Silicon Valley leaders.
8. Various think tanks, lobbyists, and presidential advisors.
Trump is not fighting the Deep State. He is either a minor player in the Deep State, or is a puppet of the Deep State. I haven’t figured out which yet. The only people who are acting hysterical about Trump (not counting the left portion of the general population) are people like media anchors/pundits, government bureaucrats, congressional Democrats, and various other useful idiots and low-level Deep State people who don’t know the big picture.
Exactly. It’s not hard to differentiate between reporting and propaganda; because there’s an agenda behind propaganda. Always an agenda.
If someone wants the truth they can simply click the remote to MSNBC, or any of the Big Three networks, see what’s being presented, and know the truth is the opposite.
The authorities and official explanations should rarely be trusted. Because even broken clocks are wrong 86,398 times a day