Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
Last night I dreamed that I was at the local supermarket. The weather was dark and overcast and there was a cold drizzle falling as I walked across the parking lot. As I got closer to the entrance I saw my neighbor, an elderly woman I have known almost as long as I have lived here standing outside of the doors, waiting to go in. Something compelled me to go to her and as I came up behind her I reached out and took her hand in mine, gently, like you would hold a baby chick.
Her hand instinctively clasped mine tighter and as she turned to look up at me her wrinkled face lit up. We stood there for an instant looking at each other and both of us broke into smiles to see one another again and almost before I could sense what was happening, she pulled me towards her and embraced me with her frail arms and I hugged her back, the two of us under a slate gray sky, damp from the rain. Even now, half an hour after waking I can remember what she felt like, her body shuddering with relief at some human contact.
In the dream we were surrounded by onlookers, heavy women with chopped grey hair and angry faces, lifting up their hands and pointing at us as they stood in a line waiting to get into the store, each one ten feet apart from the next. They began to shout at us, to shame us for this moment of humanity and compassion. They called out for the police, said awful things and made accusations, all of them pointing their fat fingers like witnesses to a crime, eyes filled with a blind, white hatred while the two of us stood there in mutual defiance of their anger and wrath as the cold rain fell.
The past month has been a surreal mix of pure joy and a deeper sort of fear that edged towards paranoia whenever I’d read a story about the maelstrom of toxic politics and a spread of some invisible contagion that has taken place, seemingly all over the world. On the farm we’ve been calving and sugaring, collecting eggs and splitting wood. We make sausages and smoke sides of bacon, jar pickles and clean equipment, an endless cycle of chores and tasks that keep us firmly rooted not only to the soil upon which we live, but to purpose in this world.
My son and I work together every day; we’ve slaughtered some hogs and we bottled some syrup and all the while we do these things side by side, talking constantly and then lapsing into a reflective silence. We placed an ad for the piglets on Craigslist and almost immediately the calls came in followed by the arrival of buyers to pick up two or four at a time. We’d help them load them up and take their cash and exchange a few words about the farm or the view and eventually there’ be some discussion about what was happening- not the spread of the virus, but the descent into madness that seemed to grip the entire world.
It would be easy to miss it all here on the farm. This is the way we live already, apart from the rest of the population in a spot with a 360 degree view of nothing but forest and fields, not a single house in sight. My wife continues about her business caring for the vacant Summer homes of the wealthy along the shores of the big lake. My daughter chats with her friends on Skype while she does the dishes and fills out the mailing labels for the syrup.
My youngest son spends his days collaborating with a small group of boys by computer, writing script for some interactive game they’ve come up with where they build multi-level environments for animals that float in the ether of digital space until he grows bored and then heads outside to jump on the trampoline for hours at a clip, surrounded by his dogs that lay on the lawn beneath him. We take turns with meals each night using a wide variety of ingredients and then we either play games or read books in the circle of our home and our love for one another. This was the life we wished for and through some inexplicable gift from God, it has been given to us.
During the British occupation of India in the Colonial era there were concerns about the venomous cobras and the threat that they posed to humans. The British, never known to pass up a plan from inside some office where tea was sipped in equal measure with gin, placed a bounty on the snake and soon the locals, eager to make a farthing so as not to starve to death, arrived at the headquarters with baskets full of dead cobras.
This continued until it was discovered that some of the more clever wogs had begun to breed the cobras in captivity in order to meet the demand and to reap the reward. The British, unhappy with being taken advantage of by lesser men, rescinded their offer and the cobra market crashed. The cobra breeders quickly adapted to the directives of their overlords and released their snakes back into the wild, leaving the resident of Delhi to deal with a tidal wave of deadly vipers.
This is the cobra effect. An unintended consequence of turning natural processes into an economic proposition based on the double-edged sword of hubris and selfish interest.
For ten years our family has been working towards the goal of becoming self-reliant in a world that has been racing in the direction of global dependency. We work from the ground up while the powerful elites have been working against people from the top down. We have tried to follow the lessons taught by nature while they have built a panopticon to control and direct every aspect of life on Earth. Their desire for dominion and their complete divorce from the natural world has delivered to us a fractional reserve banking system, quants and tranches, endless surveillance, and an ever increasing involvement in our lives inside and out.
The wildest fever dreams of Orwell and Huxley could not have envisioned a world where obese men and bitter old women would be able to order- and be obeyed by entire populations- such draconian infringements as mandatory lock downs and stay at home orders over fears of a natural process that has existed since human beings first became a species. The spread of any influenza results in death, it always has. The weak, the sick, the addicted and malnourished, the diseased and the elderly are the victims as they have always been because the virus stresses the immune system.
Those who live in close quarters, like our modern metropolises and their wide spreading metroplexes are at risk not because this outbreak is fundamentally different than any other, but because the conditions are. Our nation, once whip thin and fit from hard work and good food has become toxic, where 8 out of 10 Americans are overweight and nearly half are obese. One half of our citizens are on some form of prescription medication and nearly a third use illicit drugs.
The foods we eat do not come from gardens, but are churned out by an industrial mode of agriculture that looks only to the most efficient means of delivering calories to consumers regardless of the processes, no matter how inhumane and destructive. Our entertainments are a mix of degradation and violence, pornography has replaced traditional bonding of men and women and almost weekly we are exposed to concepts like sex robots and replacing our entire workforce with automated systems that leave us without meaning, alienated from even the most basic human interactions. We have created a global cobra effect that threatens not only to enslave us all, but to dehumanize every step of the way.
My cousin still lives in my hometown and we have remained close despite the distance. Two years ago his father died and last Fall his mother suffered from a heart attack that required her hospitalization. It has been a difficult couple of years, but he has remained upbeat throughout it all and we talk every couple of days to make sure we maintain that attitude. His mother’s operation did not go well and she has been in the ICU for almost three months now, on a ventilator, unable to speak. He visited her daily to keep up her spirits until they decided last month to move her out of the hospital and into a private care facility to “make room for the expected COVID-19 patients”.
Since they moved her he has not been allowed to visit because of the quarantine, but because she cannot speak, he has been cutoff from even making a phone call to her and she lingers on, alone, kept apart from the ones she loved and raised and would have given her life for and likely will. The rules in New Jersey would make it impossible for us to even attend her funeral should she pass away from her condition, which seems more likely day by day and it is slowly killing my cousin as well, I can hear it in his voice.
I am not an important man and I hold no degrees, no office. My take on what is happening today is not one shared by many and I share it only with those I know and trust. There is no way to know what part of what we are being told is true and what part is false. The story has changed so often and with so little thought to it’s reason or logic that no rational being could be expected to understand what is actually happening, but I can see the effects even from my little farm on the edge of the mountain. The virus is real, I do not contest that point, but the reaction has been a form of collective madness only read about in stories from the Dark Ages.
Our observations are a modern day Decameron, a human comedy. The effects of these insane decisions have barely been spoken about above a whisper, but they aren’t debatable. We’ve been sent to our rooms by our betters for something we didn’t do, told to maintain our distance from one another while they monkey hum one another on podiums nightly, standing so close to one another they can tell what each one had for breakfast. They have destroyed our economy, shuttered virtually every privately owned business, repealed our right to peaceably assemble, to worship, to marry in front of witnesses, to mourn our dead.
They have pointed at an unseen pathogen as an excuse to attack the population, to threaten them with imprisonment and fines for simple going outdoors, where sunshine, God’s natural disinfectant would do us the most good. They’ve separated friends and families, emptied the retirement accounts of tens of millions, left families destitute, seen to the greatest layoffs in our history, told us what we can buy or sell and for how much and when, while they hand out trillions- yes, trillions of dollars right back to the very people who just wrecked the entire economic system so they can be made whole, and then promised a mess of pottage to the ones they stole everything from.
All of the lies that we’ve been sold for the past quarter of a century have been exposed for everyone to see, borders that we were assured could never be controlled are suddenly shut up tighter than a well diggers ass. Criminals who prey on the weak have been released en masse onto our streets, while the military has begun to be deployed in order to control the law abiding citizens who simply want to buy some food for their families. We’ve been told that all of the sacrifices Americans made in the service of a global economy was worth $1,200, but that we should stop expecting anything else in the future as supply lines collapse under the weight of their callous indifference and hubris.
During the past month or so there has been a steady stream of young people coming up to the farm to pitch in. All of my son’s friends who went off to college are back now, with diplomas and zero job prospects. The ones who were employed in an effort to pay back their student loans are now jobless and they have had it. They work side by side with us learning new things, how to butcher a hog, how to cure a side of bacon, how to start seedlings, run the evaporator that turns out sweet syrup, the difference between hardwood and softwood and how to split and stack it.
One of them has moved onto the farm in his van and asked us last night if he could stay on through Summer and pay for food and lodging with his labor and we gratefully accepted. One of my friends drove up from Boston yesterday to help me package meat for the freezer and to pay me for a freezer full for his family. He said that the roads were empty and it felt good to make the drive out, but he also noticed that while he is unemployed currently, the toll taker were still at their jobs raking in the revenue for the hungry State that must be fed no matter the risk to the poor woman who has to take the money from those fleeing the lock downs.
I can see the silver lining in all of this- the time people are now spending with families they hardly knew because of their workload, the dawning realization of just how important it is to depend on oneself rather than a corporate boss or a government agency and it gives me hope. There is the awareness of just how poorly everything has been handled, the incompetence and arrogance that always seem to travel together when these poobahs speak, a day late and a dollar short at every juncture.
There has been an endless string of missed opportunities and failed missions, the squandered resources and emptied budgets that despite the billions spent year after year couldn’t manage to keep a ready supply of something as simple as filter masks. And all of this is on view for everyone to see if only they open their eyes.
Last night I had a dream. And when I awoke I lay there in the dark before the dawn and I let the dream run through my mind until I understood it, and then I wrote this before I could forget, but there is still one thing I have to do. I will go out to the sugarhouse and put together a box of things for the old woman down the road; pickles and hamburger, a box of eggs and a jar of sauerkraut. And then I will drive it over to her house and if she doesn’t mind I will give her a hug.
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Beautiful.
A paean to what is important in an increasingly dark time.
Bittersweet, beautiful and terrifyingly accurate in a sentimental sort of way.
“They have destroyed our economy, shuttered virtually every privately owned business, repealed our right to peaceably assemble, to worship, to marry in front of witnesses, to mourn our dead.”
Until we say it, loud and clear, to ourselves first and to one another, WE have been complicit. Unless we accept responsibility for our situation, identifying the true cause, we will NEVER be able to change course. The “They” is “US.”
I believe…….(and NOT in an Obamanation kind of way)
A line from the Pogo cartoon decades ago comes to mind. We have met the enemy and he is us. That may not be word perfect but that is what I remember.
Yes. We’ve been warned for a very, very long time. But we keep on believing it’s someone else’s doing or responsibility. When we admit WE fuct up because we let “THEY” take control, little by little, then by leaps and bounds, ONLY then can WE cancel “THEY.”
See Bee..
Right you are.
OWG, that is a proper and exact quote from Walt Kelly’s POGO. Dad and i used to read that back in the day when he was trying to teach me how the world works.
Speak for yourself SeeBee. I have asked questions and held ideals that have earned me further psychological abuse, ostacization, sabotage, futility, and complete failure as a man. What you propose is more guilt, more psychological debt.
“Unless we accept responsibility for our situation” Define ‘our’. Universal morality is total bullshit. It is Jewish debt that can never be paid. The sucker is the borrower to the lender who is the master.
If that is the royal we or the Christian we, which I think it is, then what you say is couched sophistry and psychological abuse. Not the sort of virus you should be spreading. Healthy bigotry would have easily ended this 50 years ago, easily enough 40 years ago, feasibly enough 30 years ago. Don’t give me that team bullshit now that I’m old and have nothing at my disposal but dependency. I explained the situation and I thought you agreed. Don’t spread this bullshit, SeeBee. Anyone else, don’t buy this bullshit. The coming organic filter filters at the granularity of the individual. This sort of foolishness will be killed off. I doubt I will survive, but I am glad the foolishness will be killed off. I woke up from the neurosis too late, but perhaps I can warn those not so far down this well of woe.
First define the self and then define the we. Hugging the enemy is stupid. You folks know my views. If this heats up, the chaff will charge into the fire. See ya. No good deed goes unpunished until you are done with your charities, proprieties, and proclivities.
Some of us have not been complicit. Solipsism is soon to be death. I do not wish to pay for your narrative any more, and I pray others will find their mental superiority and do the same. I write for them.
To the men of civilized mental capacity I say: Your cooperation is hunted every day along a thousand dimensions by thousands of predators of innumerable styles and techniques. Beware the heart hooks. It’s not only women.
You are missing the spirit in which “We” is used. There have been people throughout history who were aware, awakened and abused. But there have been more who have refused to defend , legally, verbally and righteously what is truly ours. yours. mine.
SeeBee, a people are defined by a culture. That culture requires an organic process of retaliatory violence to ‘vote’ on what the rules of reciprocity will be. You do not seem to qualify the we. Who is this we? That which is truly ours starts with who we are. I don’t understand what you are saying, and I am not convinced you do either. On the previous post you said the ‘old paradigm needed to die’. Correct, but only for a certain us. We who need the old paradigm to die are not those who need it to live. Furthermore, having the same established enemy does not make us the same people, does not make us compatible. Will we voluntarily reciprocate? There are thousands of details that matter, and they vary from one culture to the next. Your we is vague because you won’t assert the ‘I’. What good is ‘we’ without the ‘I’s. No good. Man becomes the cell of an organization, and the life of the organization is all that matters. That is how the shit wins. That is the common enemy we face, a power structure for the sake of a power structure. The purpose is moar, and that is a wonderful gravy train for shit Americans low and high. It is easier to conquer than to govern. A people are governed by their own culture, or they are a collective of oppressors and the oppressed appealing to bureaucracy and the all-might guns of state. Reflect more deeply on the definition of ‘we’ and you must reflect on the definition and worth of yourself. That is why I hate Christianity. It is only one contemptible ideology of world conquest and dehumanizing subjugation in a crafted series of them that starts with Judaism. Guess the rest if you can.
I’ve been an I way before I’ve ever been a we. But I can only do so much. Which I do. But with a “cultural we, ” I and we could do much better.
If the we is bad enough, the wise man goes into the wilderness alone. What you want versus what you can get.
R D
WE in the sense he used it is a form of humility but I’m not surprised you didn’t recognize it. It’s a polite way of saying I warned you instead of “I told you so”. You said who here will take a stand in another reply as if to say none of us have. In the next breath you say you are too old. You seem quick to criticize everyone in detail but are you out getting arrested? Give us a list of what you’ve done to sacrifice time and freedom for the cause. If you are your only cause then tell us so we can better decide how serious to take you. Have you been married or have young children? It makes a difference in how much the average TBP’r can do. Jeopardizing ones home or income without the spouses permission has long lasting blowback.
Another anon,
Aiding and abetting the enemy is not humility, it’s stupidity. You cucks give the Left social standing to complain, to speak words of war, and then you rally to stop my inquisitions.
I refused to play office politics. I refused to follow narrative. I presumed civilized cooperation was the norm. How else is the United States a super power. The answer is that Americans used to be independent for lack of infrastructure, which is lack of government control. The Dutch Republic/Empire and the British Parliament/Empire and American Republics/Empire. Sure follows the model of the Roman Republic/Empire. I presume even you were interested in the truth. That presumption is why I have never had a career, no friends that are deeply my friends, no wife, and no children. Being responsible for ‘our system’ is to be the fool.
I was maintaining ‘our system’ and you were going along to get along, wisely it turns out. You get married and have children and your priorities change. I get that. I also get that married men at work are dangerous, whereas single men usually are not. You play the game. I thought the game was not only beneath me but beneath us. Everyone I ever met never said, “I am inferior to you.” Think deeply about that. This is or was the greatest country in the world and by evolutionary social process the inferiors have taken over. Everyone is worthy of a college education, a white collar job, a house, car, retirement, etc. Most people of stupid fucks that played liquidate the country better than me. They are smart animals. I chased and chased, and defended and defended. They never stood on principles. They stood on power. Christians do to. Its a herd, a social group, protection. The narrative is incidental, an identity politics. What you herd animals shop for is the herd power. Great job. By ceding ground and getting the best of me as I presumed to advance, I was the fool. Soon enough, the rest of you will be fools. Keep going with your faith. I want you too. I write for those who can think without emotional policing.
My parents and others psychologically abused me. It’s hard to explain how it works, but look at how conformity is for the advantage of the Left but never for the Right. How diversity is always strategic as entropy to weaken the Right but never the Left. How it’s about the Constitution when it’s for the Left. Imagine someone doing good works for you as your parents, and then finding emotional attachment points, probing, and obligating you to many, many balls to keep in the air, many things that must be done and must not be done, just to make me suffer. Just to make compliance impossible. You can’t imagine it. Imagine Rachel Maddow as your mother in the privacy of her home. Imagine a father that want to be king and mate guard and have his ego blown up. That’s how I know you are not human. Your narrative is you conscious image, and that structure has policed limits. Parents can’t be psychologically abusive, turning anything into fault for thee but never me. This so-called country runs on psychological abuse. You folks hardly notice because it suits you. You only notice the part that does not. I notice it all.
You narrative people do that. You shoehorn objective thinkers into narrative. You don’t buy all narratives, but you buy some. My naivety was trusting that others were like me and were open to the truth rather than tearing me down to build themselves up. What a lie. It is a hell of a realization that others are the problem, and it’s true. It’s red pill awareness.
The socially well-adjusted ARE the decline. If you have a wife and children, you are apparently adjusted well, though a register debt slave with a female overlord. You go along to get along to keep you job. I had neurotic mandates from my mother to be honest and I presumed honesty was objectivity from facts not power plays from narrative, which is what Christianity is. I was taught that all gains by conflict were wrong. I always gave back to break even. Others always took what they can. That’s Left and Right. That’s not just the Left.
I’ve said my peace. I appreciate this platform. You don’t get it. You can’t get it. I write so that perhaps, just perhaps, some will get it, maybe 100 years from now. My success does not lie here or with you. I know that. What keeps me coming back is dumping out shit I need to dump out to people who understand. This is the best I can do. I need to stop. You would like me to stop. That’s good. We agree. Pray I find the strength to quit this nonsense. Banning me would be a favor. You might understand if I balk at trying anything IRL. There is always the social barrier. You can’t understand what you don’t experience, and you can’t objectively suppose for the sake of intellectual exploration. You subconsciously revolt at the idea. You couldn’t suppose something original if your life depended on it. The narrative wars of attrition. Of, by, and for the subhumans. What a great country we are. Ha, ha, ha. I’m locked into the least favorable position. I could have been great, but I cared about us as Americans, us as human beings. That trust was violated from the first day of my life. There is not awakening of the subconscious darkness. It just is that way in those who are that way. Human progress is human evolution. What you are about to experience is a cleansing of humanity. You folks should have elevated those you pushed aside and forgot to have your narratives.
I cringe at the many children of psychological abuse trapped in their homes with abusive parents because of this evil government. I pray for them as a Christian. Not of religion, but as a Christian. Love your neighbor.
And eat bacon. It’s good for you. Thanks HSF.
No matter what’s been done to you, no matter what you have done, the Peace of Jesus is in reach. You can have peace, RD, you just have to accept it. Accept free grace. Not humans professing peace, for most are just assholes, but spiritual peace that transcends this hurt world you are in. Prayers, not hate. Peace be with you. (and stop hating on us Christians, we are not all the same my friend).
Brilliant! I think we both came from the same family.
Well said sir. Unfortunately the average citizen does not possess the intellectual ability to see the truth you so ably expressed.
A few of us can see through the fog of BS Old
That’s what old white guy said.
As HSF so eloquently put it, 1/3 of the peoples are stoned.
I think you mean ‘should be’. Your lack of pragmatic tense is disturbing.
Excellent
Great rant.
I think it goes far beyond a rant.
Then why the royal we a la SeeBee?
Amen HF,
My aunt recently passed in Missouri from cancer. No funeral, no service, nothing. The inability to take my 89 year old father there, from Colorado, to say a final good bye weighs heavy on his shoulders. Be glad you are where you are, on the farm. Many of us are jealous.
That is the worst part of this. Making people who are mourning be alone. They are the ones who should be shamed, not the people who want to comfort the mourners.
My mom passed away in a memory care facility. I am so thankful that she passed away before this bullshit. I cannot imagine not only not being able to see her, or her me, but not being able to check up on the folks claiming to be caring for her. The state would have us believe that because they licensed the facility, it is a safe place to live. It was a good, safe place, but you always had to let them know you were watching. The toll this will take on millions will be enormous.
I stopped by the Veterans Memorial Cemetery because I saw hearse and a single limousine. I walked in with my camera and filmed the loneliest tribute to a veteran I’ve ever filmed. The driver of the car was standing at the car.
I turned my camera off and stood silently by the driver at the car, twenty feet from the graveside service.
As the pastor who held the graveside service walked away, I turned my camera on and asked if he had a “word.”
He did.
Strongholds.
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.”
— Samuel Adams
That is some mighty fine prose.
Tight, tight, tight as Tucco would say.
Thank you for sharing that image and for allowing us to attend his service by proxy.
My old writing mentor (co-chair of my abandoned thesis with CS Rosenthal, both of OU) Deborah Chester wrote in red ink again and again and again: Write tight active voice.
What I see is Maggie approaching. The dead soldier patiently waiting her arrival. A woman’s presence at times cheers a fallen spirit. A woman was there at your birth and should be there at your funeral. Thank goodness Maggie answered the call.
I so appreciate you I will send you my first jar of “not really mole sauce” rabbit sauce unless your wife thinks it will be too stringy with rabbit.
I thought I answered this. But it’s gone.
Am emailing you a link to videos. Plop them where you want. I’m putting the road guard in charge for a while. He probably needs a login code.
Unless he wants to be me sometimes.
It wouldn’t be the first time people have pretended to be me.
Even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes….I’ve stumbled across this little nugget, it should answer some questions as to what is happening and why. Scroll down to bottom of the weforum page, see the About section? Look at who the players are.
This whole shit pile has been planned for years and this is the year the plan has been put into action. These are the people who are putting the plan in action….Wonderful propaganda BTW, great use of weasel words and Social Justice Warrioring to fight ‘inequality’and stop all that wicked nationalism and protectionism.
They have answers for our Covid problem, they’ve been working on it for awhile now. In fact, they have defined the media’s role in this epidemic..
The current coronavirus challenge only emphasizes the indispensable role that media play in society today. With the value of content growing, the industry needs financial models that enable them to fulfil their social functions while still supporting widespread access to critical content. This can’t happen in isolation: it requires dialogue, including with regulators, to find solutions that balance innovation, consumer welfare and corporate responsibility of every stakeholder in the media industry.
— Kirstine Stewart, Head of Shaping the Future of Media, Entertainment and Culture, World Economic Forum
Then there is this little gem about the role media plays in promoting “information”….
Moreover, the challenges associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are coinciding with the rapid emergence of ecological constraints, the advent of an increasingly multipolar international order, and rising inequality. These integrated developments are ushering in a new era of globalization. Whether it will improve the human condition will depend on whether corporate, local, national, and international governance can adapt in time.
These are the ‘in-your-face’ elitists and this virus is created/used to push the globalist agenda…banks and corporations get the money stolen from the peons (again) while stolen peanuts are tossed to the peons. Small business is destroyed to enrich and solidify the power of massive corporations. They are even touting the theft of personal data to solving the Covid 19 problem.
“How personal data could help contribute to a COVID-19 solution”
Lots and lots of articles all pointing to the benefits of Covid 19 for the elites, the massive technology companies, media et al.
In addition to all the wonderful benefits of Covid 19 there is also the ‘digital’ identity needs which the virus has created and which can be solved with the RFID chip….
ID2020, helping governments become more totalitarian…..
“The ID2020 Alliance is setting the course of digital ID through a multi-stakeholder partnership, ensuring digital ID is responsibly implemented and widely accessible.”
It’s not a reality yet. For now, the ID2020 Summit is pointing to India as a case study of what a world with a digital ID could look like.
In 2009, India launched Aadhaar, a digital ID program in which citizens voluntarily enroll name, birth date, gender, address, phone number, email, 10 fingerprints, two eye scans and photo. In exchange, they can use the digital ID to sign documents online, apply for credit and jobs, go to hospitals and exchange money, among other features. Pramod Varma, the chief architect of the program, believes that India will become “data rich” in a few years
https://id2020.org/digital-identity
https://www.weforum.org/platforms/shaping-the-future-of-cybersecurity-and-digital-trust
https://www.weforum.org/platforms/covid-action-platform
A lady I know died a few days ago (good old fashioned old age, not flu related). She was one of five siblings, had five children of her own and had adopted about 20 over the years. All in all she had about 800 – 1000 rello’s. Seriously.
Guess how many were allowed to attend the funeral?
Hint: less than 99%. ie, almost none of them.
Like ‘social distancing’, it’s inhumane.
As an aside, if someone ‘important’ like Boris croaks it, would they still hold a state funeral? How could they possibly get away with that?
I thank all of you. The only Aunt I knew on my Father’s side. The oldest died when I was young and I don’t remember her. The loss of my Aunt weighs heavy on my shoulder’s as well. I saw her last at my niece’s wedding last October. Her loss will forever haunt me. She was diagnosed with cancer in January. She believed deeply in Jesus and I was hoping she would last long enough for me to make the sojourn hike to get her a replica photograph of Jackson’s the Mountain of The Holy Cross here in Colorado before she passed. Still 180 inches of snow on the trail.
“The more you tighten your grip Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers”
Wonderful sentiments. I personally feel exhilarated and oddly freed by this circumstance. I and my family have 70 acres of farmland and woodland to work. Now that the gangsters in d c have forced us into self incarceration my grown kids are busy building fences, tending the garden and enjoying family like never before. I don’t give a shit about following their dictates so go anywhere I wish and do whatever makes sense to me. I was born a rebel and that did cost me on occasion but it’s the perfect training for when THEY are corraling the livestock.
Vote, my ass.
@CCRider. That’s all good for now, and likely for a few more years. However, eventually we will all be forced to take the vaccine or be prohibited from leaving our property or from accessing our funds if we don’t? What will be your plan then?
Or what is your plan when the government comes to confiscate what you worked to produce because the rest of us need it?
How will your grown kids respond when government requires them to report their neighbors compliance or be just as guilty of violating “morally necessary” (WA Gov Jay Inslee phrase) edicts?
Eventually we will be compelled to turn on either our neighbors or our government. We will be “oddly freed” only by violent resistance or death.
I live in Argentina, one of the most over-governed nations on earth with a public sector among the world’s largest. We have total national lockdown which has been extended. I live in a rural village and this morning I noticed that many have stopped paying attention to the demands of the urban center of the nation. Folks out and around, maskless, gloveless, even we oldsters. The fedgov will at some point realize that the control experiment is leaving it with some serious scrambled egg on its collective face. At that point, losses of face will be cut and regulations relaxed.
The scenario you’re describing might work here, but I strongly doubt it. Do you honestly believe the USA (its inhabitants, that is) is so far gone that folks will simply roll over? I certainly hope not!
I am not optimistic as to any real resistance in the US.
Hasta la vista US civil liberties
I think we will see some pockets of resistance but they will simply close us off like they did Ruby Ridge and the rest of the country will keep their eyes on the market and hope their retirement savings can be salvaged.
It is what sheep do.
I agree, let it not be ewe and me.
All good questions there are no satisfying answers to but one can surmise and adjust as facts present, Davido. A couple of thoughts: Get as self-sufficient as possible so as not to work your cash flow negative. What we know about bureaucrats is that you can buy them. They’ll be hurting for cash and we can be sure they’re affordable dirtbags because of who they serve. Same answer about drinking their vaccine lemonade. They’ll be some way to fuck the system. I’ll make a sport of it. What’s dumber than some low-level bureaucrat?
Your premise is, in the worst-case scenario what do you do? My vote: Fight for your life. Although I’ve been antiwar my entire adult life, hate violence (including football) turn away at car crashes and could faint at the sight of blood, if some cocksucker(s) tries to deprive me of tending my family, I’ll shoot him between the fucking yes.
Good luck and I hope this helps.
“If I do not need help, I will find someone who does and help them.”
Simply brilliant, as good and down-to-earth a synopsis of this madness as I’ve seen anywhere.
Thank you, and God bless.
nice rant, indeed.
it is now starting to get as ugly as your dream, the last time I went shopping, strangers actually yell at people “stay 6 feet away”. Other run around with rubber gloves and ill fitting masks. at least the shelves are no longer stripped bare (another tell that this is a manufactured event)
I hear they now want to make wearing masks mandatory, and if that is the way things go, I will have to start living like HSF, and put the 5 acres to work, which seems like a lot of effort, when all I want to do these days is drink the night away until this nightmare ends.
sorry for sounding so depressed, this shit is getting to everyone at some level.
“… when all I want to do these days is drink the night away until this nightmare ends… this shit is getting to everyone at some level.”
You said that right, brother.
My wife and I, both in our 70s, are reasonably well stockpiled and secure money-wise, but we both know that something is, has been, dreadfully wrong out there and that so many of the good things we took for granted for so many years won’t be coming back. We recently lost our moms too. Carlos Castaneda’s benefactor Don Juan Matus called this kind of wake-up the “sting of finality.”
Matus was a fictional character and not much of a benefactor, he was simply a teacher of the Yaqui way of knowledge by way of magic ‘shrooms and peyote.
Are you a fan of Ruiz’s Four Agreements? I am, but I don’t talk about it. People are prejudiced, you know.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4402.Miguel_Ruiz
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6596.The_Four_Agreements
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
by Miguel Ruiz
4.15 ·
Rating details · 175,857 ratings · 9,827 reviews
In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don’t Take Anything Personally, Don’t Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best. (less)
Am a fan. You or your lucky wife?
The shrooms and peyote were a tool to teach you, that you don’t need crutches to learn the way, the magic. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clark. He was also part of “Project Disclosure”.
Great essay, HSF. We have kids and grand-kids who live 12 miles away and my wife refuses to go to see them due to the constant fear mongering in the media. We are both old and she has chronic bronchitis, so is at risk, but what good is life if you cannot enjoy your family?
“fears of a natural process that has existed since human beings first became a species. The spread of any influenza results in death, it always has. The weak, the sick, the addicted and malnourished, the diseased and the elderly are the victims as they have always been”
Our betters in government control think they can outwit Mother Nature, but I sense she has a few more tricks up her sleeve. We may dodge the bullet this season, but next year, when it rears its ugly head again, we will not have built up a herd immunity and will face additional lock-downs, punishing the herd to save those most at risk.
Same here, I want to go see the kids, sexy mulatta refuses. I offered a compromise, say hi to them through the window. There’s got to be a way. So far, I have had to settle for facetime and sometimes a 30 second vid from their mom.
We went by today to drop off a b’day card to the grandson and much to my surprise, she got out and hugged everyone. We stayed and visited for about 30 minutes. It was nice breaking the law and seeing the kids.
Not to dis your sexy mulatta but kids need hugs. I didn’t get out today because really nasty weather around here. 70 yesterday and freezing rain and down to 30 tonight. (I hope our lavender survives) Tomorrow we will get out. I’m going to see my problem daughter. I will not let this shit stop me. Who is it that said I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees? I bet you know.
That’s attributed to Zapata. Maybe others.
I rebel from the terror propaganda, too. There will be no mask for me, and no gloves, and I am considered at risk because of my age. I still go to work (in an “essential” construction small business). I wash my hands all the time and only talk to customers outside, from a distance.
I last had the flu in the ‘80s and have never had a flu shot. My tactic now is keeping immune system strong with extra C, D3, zinc, magnesium, and shots of elderberry juice.
My daughter and son-in-law are both nurses, and there was a boy in their house turning 11 one day last week. I did the unforgivable: I went to the house, exchanged big hugs with the kids, and enjoyed some games with lawn dice in the sunny, breezy back yard. A simple but uplifting event in these gray days.
I tried to plan some relief for four friends of mine who get together regularly for wine and chatter. They are all seriously quarantining themselves and are getting restless. I said bring your own food, beverage, blanket to sit on, and whatever else you need. Come directly to my back yard and let’s have a picnic on the lawn in the fresh air and sunshine. Air hugs only. Two of them were too terrified to risk such an event, so it didn’t happen. These are pretty cocky ladies, but I think they fear being even 6’ away from me because I am still functioning in the regular world. So be it. I just refuse to be completely cowed by the authorities who have been lying to me daily since , oh, 1947.
Awesome! My step-daughter and her husband lived here until my little guy was 1 and 1/2. I used to chat with her as she washed dishes and I swear the little boy recognized my voice because of it. He was my gift, a relief from the daily ball-cutting I got courtesy of the blonde bitch.
We had so many adventures. When he was old enough to crawl, I don’t know if he was 6 or 8 months, he would come to the bedroom door and call me – Da! Later on, his mom taught him to say grandpa which he pronounced – Appa.
What a great communicator you are. Your understanding of the natural world and ability to relate it to our circumstances is nothing sort of wonderful. May God bless you and your family.
People’s source of revenue has about stopped for many. The bills keep coming. I still think the beer virus is much more than the common flu. The need for so many ventilators shows it. While the normal flu is bad and yes it kills many I don’t remember people needing ventilators in mass. I guess many are kidding themselves about how deadly this virus is and how long it will stick around.
Try washing your money in a warm bowl of water and see how nasty it is, or imagine how many cards go into an ATM machine. The article was good though.
The ventilators are a scam-within-a-scam. The majority do not make it off them alive, and those that do often have brain and lung damage of varying severity.
If I get this thing, I am not going to the hospital, much less going on a ventilator. I don’t perceive an improvement in outcome from doing so, and I don’t want to leave my spouse in the poor house.
Very touching! Thank you.
No touching!
Just try and stop me you corona cop.
‘If you see something, say something’
I started reading this and I thought- ‘is this how it works with those genius type?….have a vivid dream then leap outta bed, land at a laptop and bang out a winner like this?’
Then, I finished it and thought- ‘evidently it is….’
“I can see the silver lining in all of this-…”
Looking at the same storm cloud from a different view – a view where no farm exists to rally ’round, no ‘home stead’ to return to ….only rent to pay and windowsills for tomato plants.
“There is the awareness of just how poorly everything has been handled, the incompetence and arrogance that always seem to travel together when these poobahs speak, a day late and a dollar short at every juncture.”
The ‘incompetence and arrogance’ description masks the real dilemma. This is a calculated and deliberate deliverance of humanity to worldly powers…………no dens or caves to seek for shelter.
Only the gift of Grace-shed blood will cover what’s coming
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<—–==
How about a little follow up after you pay the lady a visit ?
I started reading this and I thought- ‘is this how it works with those genius type?….have a vivid dream then leap outta bed, land at a laptop and bang out a winner like this?’
I keep waking up and it’s like a waking nightmare to realize, another day of more corona coverage.
I’d been dreaming of my work buddies. Although there is no story I can recall, I remember the secretary, a Korean lady, looked very glamorous while the old biddy with the long blonde hair (sounds like a song title) now wore a short do painted a bit darker. Wherever we were, I was absorbed with the way they had bulldozed an entire block of small businesses. There was no talk of social distancing and my dream must have reflected my longing for people.
People draw the eye and women primarily. We are programmed to notice people, and like a wise man once said, greeting them is an acknowledgement of their existence. We (meaning everybody, RD) have a need to be acknowledged also, else how do we know we exist?
I don’t remember the last time I got more than 4 hrs at one stretch, or the last dream I had….
“I keep waking up…..”
haha….me too !
I remember little ma and pop grocery stores in about every neighborhood, with nickel bottles of pop and a front stoop or table off to the side for sittin and drinkin it……
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<<——–=== Infected Froghides….
Thank you for that recollection. The Maggie effect is pretty strong now. Boomerlandia is fading quick. Quick, do you remember 3V Cola? I think the marketing strategy was to give you more soda for the nickle.
If Maggie can keep it alive, I will surely enjoy more boomer tales on this article.
The coonskin has become my “wilson” you must realize. Like “wilson” he doesn’t talk back, but he tells me things.
Do you remember when I got all fired up about Holly O’s bravery over there in the UK and decided to prove I could get out of my husband’s truck in Cape Giradeau and walk rather than sit in a traffic stop while policemen walked up and down the road looking in cars coming off campus?
Well, as you must realize, that was true as well and I did end up a bit bruised and battered, but wiser.
If you do remember, you remember that you thought it weird that I saw my Uncle Tyree walking in among the cops surrounding me on the ground. He was grinning and pointing at his head. I thought I was having hallucinations.
He was a volunteer firefighter in the community and was a consultant to many of the police and firefighting agencies in the region. He was a geologist who attended the School of Mines at Rolla. Which is now the University of Science and Technology. I wasn’t able to attend his funeral. I was preggers with a kid named Joe.
But, what’s in a name?
Dreams are not funny things when you are having them while awake.
My uncle Tyree and my father could read each other’s minds. As my father could read mine. And I his.
Is why I did not see him after he became senile. He could hear my thoughts and it made him angry that I could no longer read his.
Maggito, even Red Ropes have to submit to a higher authority. You could have used your rope to tie them up, Wonder Woman. I have been reading The German Girl a couple of pages at a time while in the bathroom. (Old Mike called such books, shit manuals). Anyway, the missing dad writes in a letter to his wife, the woman who could share his solitude. I spend a lot of time in my head and Wilsona, the Salvy Queen, is a perfect match.
https://youtu.be/CB_cCvxqTcs
Gee, I thought it was just the flu.
Get out there and lead by example, show the populace they have nothing to fear. Dont let a little social shaming stop you from riding into the night screaming”The British are coming!” Hey, try a covid ward at the hospital, they’d love to hear how this is all about increasing draconian goverment control over our lives. As if Gov could even do that right.
Fucking tard.
The purpose of people discussing and sharing thoughts and ideas is to help us all learn and in some cases survive. HSF is about as far from a F…… tard as anyone I read.
There is a serious debate under way and in this debate he has taken the side that this trip may not have been necessary. The plethora of issues he raised will be with us regardless of the body count and no one should disregard that.
you’re a sick pervert chuckie.
he does make one good point ” As if Gov could even do that right.” however if you take the view they are going to get us all killed, looks like they are winning. So maybe they can get it right this time. just for arguments sake.
Killing is one of the things they usually get done even as they make a mess of it.
Ah, yes, Incompetence Theory.
You know what they never seem to get wrong?
Remaining in power, creating money out of thin air to pass out to their compatriots, and controlling our lives.
In those ways they have been singularly apt.
FU chuckie. Where are you? I’ve been reporting from NYC for weeks..out and about…getting close and personal. and you?
Name the hospital.
Specifically, name one where anyone would be allowed, physically, to enter. Is filming and interviewing doctors, nurses, and patients allowed.
One wher you wouldn’t be thrown out physically, and then arrested.
Because having people arrested for going to a public place isn’t odd at all.
Listen, the narrative isn’t going in your direction and the almost vitriolic desire for some people to have this be a mass die off is really off-putting to reasonable people. Are you unable to see that?
Influenza epidemics kill people, especially the sick, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems and right now America is a petri dish of those kinds of people. Immortality is not a thing, life is finite and as sad as it may be on a personal level when loved ones die, collective punishment of the entire population in order to prevent that is a form of mass hysteria.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/29/108-year-old-spanish-flu-survivor-dies-of-coronavirus/
This is a perfect example of the delusion in full effect.
Because having people arrested for going to a public place isn’t odd at all.
Because having stray people going into an area where vulnerable people are attempting to survive a highly infectious disease should mean open doors and a welcome mat instead?
Because anyone and their dog should be allowed into ICU’s and not letting them in is unreasonable and mean spirited.
“Listen, the narrative isn’t going in your direction and the almost vitriolic desire for some people to have this be a mass die off is really off-putting to reasonable people. Are you unable to see that?”
Then there are those people who DON’T WANT A MASSIVE DIE OFF who have to contend with selfish and self absorbed people who take NO precautions because they believe the entire virus is bullshit and these assholes are the ones infecting those useless old people that you think should die already.
Are you unable to see that?
Why can’t you be reasonable and accept those irresponsible people who infect and kill old people? It’s only the flu so why should anyone care if old and sick people die?
Would collective punishment be necessary if people were responsible and showed some respect and care for the vulnerable instead of selfishly demanding they do whatever the hell they want and fuck old people, who needs them?
Mygirl…maybe
anon
There are videos all over the net showing empty hospitals and empty ER’s and you know it if you are online. Being a Covid bed wetter is a daily choice that requires a daily commitment to avoid truth at any cost.
But China is only strong today because the West allowed it grow economically many fold over the past forty years, due to our short-sighted stupidity and our lust for ever-cheaper consumer goods, and even for cheaper medical supplies. In the new environment of a global pandemic originating from China, that paradigm is over. Now China has no choice except to make both regional and global military advances while it is able. If it does not, it will soon be in a strategic position similar to Japan in 1941 after harsh Western economic embargoes were imposed, particularly those which cut off Japanese access to American petroleum and iron.
By accident or on purpose, Pandemic World War One has already begun, even if we don’t fully realize it yet. A few examples to make the point: the American super-carrier Roosevelt is in Guam, with over 100 of its crew infected after a scheduled port visit in Vietnam, and half of its 5,000 member crew under quarantine. Parris Island, the USMC’s east coast boot camp, has many troops infected, with no new recruits inbound, and graduating Marines quarantined on base indefinitely. Our thousand-bed USNS hospital ships Mercy and Comfort are deployed to Los Angeles and New York. U.S. military medical personnel are being sent to American Coronavirus hot spots to augment their civilian medical staffs.
HSF …. Amen Brother, God’s words on paper for us to read, reflect upon and to THIS TIME live.
Well done keep on bringing out the truth our world needs it now more than ever before.
4th of July Soirée still on?
Of course.
@HSF Thank you. Both moving and heartening. So many great people reach out to you as well.
re: “There is no way to know what part of what we are being told is true and what part is false.”
Simple verifiable facts do tell us what part of what we are being told is true. None of it -except the exceptional power grab by government.
Both currently and eventually, when looking back from the perspective of the future, it is (will be) clear that Coronavirus has not increased the death rate per 100,000 population in any nation.
Further, even though cases of coronavirus infection have been reported in every country of the world, less than half the world is on lockdown. There never will be a statistically significant difference in the death rate between the countries that choose harsh lockdowns and those that chose not to lock down.
Both currently and eventually, when looking back from the perspective of the future, it is (will be) clear that Coronavirus has not increased the death rate per 100,000 population in any nation.
Can people here name the top 5 or 10 historical things that happened in 1968? In 1957?
.
.
.
.
.
Did anyone put “nearly the entire U.S.(and world) economy shut down completely”?
I ask because these things happened in those years:
1968 Pandemic (H3N2 virus)
Español
woman working in lab
The 1968 pandemic was caused by an influenza A (H3N2) virus comprised of two genes from an avian influenza A virus, including a new H3 hemagglutinin, but also contained the N2 neuraminidase from the 1957 H2N2 virus. It was first noted in the United States in September 1968. The estimated number of deaths was 1 million worldwide and about 100,000 in the United States. Most excess deaths were in people 65 years and older. The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus. Seasonal H3N2 viruses, which are associated with severe illness in older people, undergo regular antigenic drift.
U.S. population in 1968 = 200.71 million
61% of current 330 million
1.64 x 100,000 = 164,000 equivalent with 330 million people
—————————————————-
In February 1957, a new influenza A (H2N2) virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic (“Asian Flu”). This H2N2 virus was comprised of three different genes from an H2N2 virus that originated from an avian influenza A virus, including the H2 hemagglutinin and the N2 neuraminidase genes. It was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, Hong Kong in April 1957, and in coastal cities in the United States in summer 1957. The estimated number of deaths was 1.1 million worldwide and 116,000 in the United States.
U.S. population in 1957 = 171.98 million
52% of current 330 million
1.92 x 116,000 = 222,720 equivalent with 330 million people
Bless you for not submitting to the overlords. I’m trying to remain optimistic. It’s hard when you are a realist and all you can see in the glass is piss. But we haven’t canceled any of our plans for Independence Day. I’m pulling together as much evidence as I can to prove to people that this is a plandemic, thanks to Richie from Boston, here are a couple of links.
Here Dr. Fauce, aka the Keebler Elf, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 27th:
Totally opposite of what he is saying in the daily press briefings.
And this rather long read, I won’t highlight it but Richie recounts some of it in a recent vid.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2008/ssi_freier.pdf|||Known%20Unknowns:%20Unconventional%20’Strategic%20Shocks’%20in%20Defense%20Strategy%20Development
This is Richie’s vid that will highlight what is in that document.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnRzKj6zPU
There is more, but Richie has done a great job of pulling this together. Watch a few of his latest vids and you will get an idea of what we are up against.
Later today I’m going to try to convince my better half to drive into the city to see what is going on around here. It sounds like Vermont is really caving in. You might be able to find out more about that since you are not far from there.
HSF has set the bar high for himself. Expectations are high for his offerings. Damned if he didn’t meet those expectations again.
HSF smoked bacon? My mouth is watering.
How does he get it in the little papers?
You make very thin sausages, then smoke it.
Thanks!
You, Sir, are an amazing person, and a huge inspiration.
Good write, it says a lot of what many of us are thinking about the way things are going. So many lies being put out by MSM but the fear keeps people hesitant to speak up. The line between the lies and the truth is so blurred that it is very difficult to know where the middle ground is. Thanks HF!
Solid essay Mr Farmer.
It’s printed and in the lunch room.
HSF, your essay survived in the lunch room all day, normally when I place articles in there they are thrown into the garbage can in a few hours. I don’t do it often, every few months when I can put something in there ” think pieces” I like to call them.
I was leaving about 7pm and went to check and a younger guy was just finishing reading it and I asked him if he liked it? He said can he get another copy, I said just keep that one, he wanted to really share this with others ( I love planting seeds) I then told him where to find it on The burning platform and he pulled it up on his phone right there, he was super jazzed with finding a new source of info. You know what? That made my shitty day at work worth something.
Thank-you for that.
This is what I was trying to get at, I think. We have way more going for us than against us and the future is on our side. We just have to keep planting those seeds.
My other half doesn’t share much but he shared your essay today. Not that should make you feel special because he helped you slop the pigs so he is a pig slopper?
Slop them hogs, Ray Deene. – Doc Pangloss
Outstanding piece.
Superb, HSF. Superb.
If you still have a newspaper that people read (paper or online), you should be on there banging the drum as often as they will let you publish a letter. This one is for all the marbles and it is just a game of numbers right now; not about the virus, about the tyranny.
People need to be reminded the government at all levels has been talking about a pandemic for a generation, yet now we need AMC Rambler Ventilators by Executive Emergency Order.
Scream it out. Don’t worry that a month or two from now you may look like a crazy. Call it out, scream it out so everyone can hear the message.
When they mention the Axis of Assaninity (CDC, Johns Hopkins, Fauci) for credibility, call out the distortions, the academic dissenters, the lowered lethality projections, the lack of any plan in place to handle it, the incompetence, the greed. Work in that the corporate bailouts seem to be running smooth as butter, it’s only unemployed Americans who experience “complications” in the process.
Be incendiary. People need a voice to galvanize them and a spark to light their minds. This is the moment. In our county, with an infection rate of .0009 of inhabitants, everything is closed down. It feels like we are dying, not from a disease but from the leaching of all humanity, all goodness, out of our lives.
PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK, FURLOUGH THE POLITICIANS. LOCKDOWN GOVERNMENT NOW.
Thank you HSF for providing clarity to the insanity that is this moment in history.
My wife and I have been trying to square the actions of our local governments in the Northwest with the reality of the virus. As an example how can it be that Walmart and Home Depot are open for business as usual and filled with shoppers yet the malls and small shops must be closed? None of this makes any sense. Parks and boat ramps are closed yet you are free to walk in your neighborhoods and come in constant contact with everyone else doing the same thing. Madness.
Anything run by government is shuttered. I went to emissions test place on 30th and it is chained closed. I get a month grace but figure I will be cop bait if it doesn’t open up this month. Gov has state shut down till 11th. Most likely will extend it. I left home/lockup today to buy coffee as Boyer’s coffee burned to ground Tuesday in Denver and thought I would stock up on a couple bags. (don’t plan on becoming an ebay millionaire selling the beans). Went to big box store and got them. As I walked towards check out the toilet paper aisle had 3 boxes of Pom 45 big rolls left. Lady was standing guard with her shopping cart as her companion was sizing up which box to heft into the cart. People in store were bandanaed and scarfed up as we hadn’t any masks before hoarders bought em all up. Gov just announced we have to mask to be outside.
Thanks HSF. So far I’ve seen one bright spot from this hysteria, and as strange as it sounds, being locked down has inspired people to reconnect with others. I’ve had video calls with family members, old coworkers and friends who I haven’t seen or talked to in years. Maybe that is how this Corona virus changes us for the better- maybe, just maybe, people will finally figure out what is truly valuable in their life and that those they can rely upon are close family and friends and not some corrupt bunch of asshole bureaucrats in DC.
Hardscrabble Farmer, I’ve been a reader of Jim Quinn’s since he was writing for The Automatic Earth. I’ve been lurking at The Burning Platform since inception. And yet, today is the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to join the community and post a comment.
Your article today so perfectly captured my own sentiment to the craziness that is perpetuating itself around us all. ” a form of collective madness only read about in stories from the Dark Ages” encapsulates the way I’ve been feeling about these developments so accurately. Thank you!
I’ve also enjoyed reading everything you’ve published here and I’ve grown to admire and respect you. I was hoping to actually show-up for this summer’s gathering of TBP readers and I do hope that those festivities will still happen.
I am now at that point I am packin, pissed and not willing to take any more crap from idiots, feds, staters, etc. I will do as I please, and to heck with the over zelus creeps around me. There are no cases of C 19 in my county. I will hug or shake hands with my friends, I am not sick, I have GODs protection on me, and I refuse to get sick. FEAR NOT FOR I AM WITH YOU…
Must be Harney, it’s about the only one left without a case.
Great one HSF!
Living far out in the desert seems the same these days, but any news from the cities is a little scary. We wouldn’t notice any difference if we just stayed home.
All these years of expecting that one day “it” would happen. Here we are, and now all of those folks that scoffed at living away from the action & convenience of the city, are now trapped like rats on a sinking ship.
Ironically, in our part of Arizona, land has been getting steadily lower in price, yet it’s beautiful here. We have decent groundwater in some areas, and ample sun for solar. The soil is poor, but with many years of organic materials added, and green crops when not in use, we now have lovely dirt. All those years of buying seeds, and practicing seed saving may save us all here in the end. Good neighbors that you actually know, and a do it yourself attitude ’cause mostly you have to do it yourself here anyway.
Suddenly, all of those mundane paperwork tasks seem to pale before the importance of real food.
Trying to pass on knowledge and wake others i wrote this to a friend recently,
I related the story of Edward Abbey and his end.
when abbey was at the end of his life for esophageal hemorrhaging, and in the hospital bed, he removed his tubes and his friends took him out to the desert where he passed away in there presence, his friends buried him in a unmarked grave in the wilderness
on federal land without a permit
can you imagine the laws broken that day, for a natural occurrence of the human condition of the past 100000 years
somethings will be more important and carry more significance than any government decree, that is the human condition if you are alive
You know more than you let on, Hardscrabble Farmer. You have your family, your own relatively safe place, and young men eager to take your advice and identifying knowledge. I wish I were a great man like you (after at all). Maybe you could ease off on the self-effacement and lead more. If you are chocking back the fire and brimstone in your throat, know that there is a season for everything, and you aren’t in idyllic Kansas. Who’s judgement is better than yours when SHTF. If you are the smartest guy in the room now, you are. Preparedness may for some of us come down to our own leadership. Lord knows we could afford some turnover. If you are placed in a fated position to effect it, no looking that horse in the mouth.
“I am not an important man…” aye, but you are to us. Thank you for your posts and what you do. Cheers!
What a nice story. I think people are simply trying to be responsible during this situation with all the conflicting information. That will end soon enough and we the people are going to take back our country and those that participated in this shindig are going to get their just desserts.
“MEN, IT HAS BEEN WELL SAID, THINK IN HERDS; IT WILL BE SEEN THAT THEY GO MAD IN HERDS, WHILE THEY ONLY RECOVER THEIR SENSES SLOWLY, ONE BY ONE.” ― CHARLES MACKAY, EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS
Brilliantly written …… and you are important.
WORD UP, HSF!
A term of journalism wherein one asserts a neologism or neophilology or neophilosophy or some such. Let’s value the opportunity to do what we ought to have been doing all along; living within our means on the basis of our skills and property, not necessarily in that order.
I am reminded of a Wendell Berry quote from The Unsettling of America (a tale of the industrialization of farming https://www.amazon.com/Unsettling-America-Culture-Agriculture/dp/161902599X), wherein he said:
“If we could just stop doing 90% of what we are doing now, the world would be a much better place.”
Any 90% that we don’t get from people we see or trust everyday ought to be viewed with MALOCHIO, the evil eye.
The Goddess’ niece gave birth to her second son just a couple of hours ago, and all are happy and well, though the little man put his hand in front of his eyes when the phone was pointed at him (i cautiously advised parents to not give phone till at least 10yrs). We just took them a load of ready-cook homemade dinners yesterday and just in time.
Tomorrow will be warm and calm and we will go out on foot from the house for a few miles.
This is the life, and with some effort, it may be preserved, though we must support our local producers and retailers for the things that matter as best we can.
Love in the time of coronavirus, a virus of the soul of humanity
A 360 degree of view of forests and fields with not a house in sight, I thought the old lady was your neighbor?
She lives about a mile and half down the road. People are a bit more spread out and New Hampshire is a knobby bit of real estate. But in answer to your question, yes, she is our neighbor.
Was that all that you were able to get from this?
That’s a shame.
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Sharpe and flanking, with deft footwork.
I must say for having never put out an article (I think) your prolific pontificates have become bedrock.
I’m not a pool player but it’s easy to look good when playing with a pro and likewise, difficult when playing with a novice.
Hardscrabble, your pen has put to paper, words that my heart hasn’t quite known how to say…….
Thank you and God speed to you and yours.
That was out of the park, Hardscrabble. You do write so as not to offend. Tighter than a well digger’s ass I read as nun’s ass.
“I am not an important man”. Yes you are. You’re important to your wife, your kids, your extended family, and the family you’ve found here at TBF. I for one would miss you, so stay safe.
So, California is going to put a man who defied their stay at home order in jail for six month, (and he social distanced himself by a half of a mile in all directions on his paddle board in the Pacific Ocean) while they release convicted murderers already in jail because of their rights..Fuck me Dead. Go figure. Same in New York..
“I noticed that many have stopped paying attention to the demands of the urban center of the nation. Folks out and around, maskless, gloveless, even we oldsters.” – Monte
It’s a contradiction to threaten honest people with jail for violating quarantine when they are at the same time releasing convicted prisoners. What’s the point of continuing to obey when our national Diamond Princess will sink soon? And she will sink if the quarantine is extended beyond April as Bill Gates recommends.
That’s the Diamond Princess strategy. Letting doctors get overwhelmed with corona virus victims will not help people who need other medical services. Hiding out will not get people over this situation. Newly unemployed citizens can take the time to visit, assess and call in medics to handle the sick at large.
What China did was deploy citizen cadres to observe and enforce containment policies. They labelled places with infected individuals and prevented them from leaving their homes.
What we need are more leaders like Captain Brett Crozier with the balls to call out a failing strategy. At some point, young people will have to stop listening to the old geezers and start taking point. Armed with PPE and basic test equipment, they may enter hostile territory and radio back with their cell communications to other units. It is that group who must test for infection with infrared thermometers and close observation.
Letting Big Brother handle this will only lead to more dependence on clueless old geezers whose only interest is to save face and win the next election for their Wall Street masters. When the ship sinks, it will be every man for himself.
Ship is down at the bow. IMPERATIVE get the economy back to work QUICK QUICK, as killing the patient to save a few frost bite dead fingers is DEADLY. Must stop the INSANITY!!
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Metallica
HSF,
When i went grocery shopping to shore up what i could i bought a tremendous amount of large bags of pancake mix. I just realized i have maybe 32oz of Canadian real maple syrup left. Then i remembered i bought the large order from you. Cant wait for it to arrive! My wife complained we don’t make pancakes often….. But i told her, just wait…..HSF gonna make you slap yo mama next pancakes we have….Got more silver eagles today…
Update! My coworkers nephew is currently positive for covid. Said he is having mild symptoms like a flew. And has a cough. Nothing more….
I wonder if historians looking back on this time will comprehend the paradoxes: In a time of social distancing, families were brought together; and, as headlines screamed…, people smiled in gentle sunlight, at hushed whispers in pines as streams rippled over rocks. Long walks and good talks and dystopian drives through cities that stood silent.
In the here and now, while standing outside last evening, I looked up at the stars and they felt more intimately near for some reason. Was thinking of summer coming, heat lightning, and quiet evenings. I don’t know why, but was also considering Winnie the Pooh, ancient Babylon and Roman violence. India and Africa, Sinbad, Hercules, Shakespeare, and Charlie Brown and the gang.
The joy of childhood.
Even the Bible stories: About those who built their houses on sand compared to those who built on a solid foundation. How the storms came and the wind blew, and all was carried away for some. Also Noah’s Ark and the fate of those drowning unprepared.
Neo in the Matrix, too. How my kid and I were experimenting with Zoom, exploring privacy settings and such, while on two separate floors of the same home. I wanted to see some of the hosting configurations so I stepped away from my office to go look through the other system and there I was, peering back into my own tiny world. Without me, my office looked like a set on a Hollywood stage. It was surreal. Like I had passed on and was floating above or peering back into memory. What difference would it make?
The virus has driven more and more into the grid – where gnostic spirits, and snakes with eyes, can see. And hear. Each camera peering into private honeycombs all throughout a great hive of lives separated.
My own custom-built system has no camera or audio capabilities, but I can hook up a video/audio feed through USB and disconnect when not in use. Of course, all the Zoom settings default away from privacy; like our (smart?)phones and all of the other apps in the Matrix.
It won’t be a virus that kills us in the end. History will show we died of convenience.
The Cobra Effect. Indeed.
A sublime article, Hardscrabble. Thank you
High praise indeed, Doug.
I went to visit my neighbor about an hour ago. She opened the door with a smile and before I could say anything she leaned into me and wrapped her arms around me holding that box of food and I started to cry. It was just like the dream and for a moment I wondered if I made it come true on purpose by going over there, or if maybe the dream was some kind of gift from God to allow me a solitary glimpse of what was waiting for me.
She led me into the kitchen and made us a pot of tea and then she went through the box like it was a Christmas present. I felt bad for coming over dirty at the end of the day, but she treated me like I was special and I couldn’t stop smiling while we talked. She said she thought this was all nonsense and she wasn’t about to get worked up over something she had no power over and that was all we said about it, chatting about the new calves and the sugaring season and how the water table looked to have recovered from the drought we’d had a while back. There was no TV, just a old transistor radio like the kind I had back in the 70’s playing classic rock, which was a nice touch. I finally told her I had to get home and we said our good-byes, her thanking me again for thinking of her and I almost told her about the dream but decided not to.
It feels like this is a war against whatever good is left in the world, a punishment for those who haven’t turned into drug addled zombies or perverts and that if it weren’t for people like her who just kept their heads down and the wheels on the bus they might just win, but I don’t think they will. The good people have something that they don’t, some sense of balance, a foundation with roots so deep that nothing will ever knock them down no matter what they throw at us.
For me, I refuse to give into this. I won’t fear what comes for us all and I would rather die choking to death from some virus than to cower in fear like a rabbit because how you live is far more important than just staying alive, at least for me. And as I pulled out of her driveway she stood in the doorway waving and smiling this beautiful smile for such an old woman and I knew why I liked her so much.
We’re cut from the same cloth.
May blessings rain down upon you.
That’s awesome, man. Truly, what we do along the way is all that matters. And beauty kills the beast
That was awesome wasn’t it! It gives me strength to not give in to hysteria and makes me think I am crazy after all….
You reminded us to check on my husbands Uncle Ronnie. Not that we forget about him, but a reminder is always good. He is truly the salt of the earth. 80 yr old bachelor we made him leave the family farmhouse he has lived in all of his life last year because of a number of things, like heating it with the gas oven for instance. Moved him into the very humble senior living apartments in town. He gave Mark his tax returns to burn. Mark could not help but look. $7000 in 2017. His sister and brother in law, (Marks Aunt and Uncle) are taking advantage of him. For instance: wanted to sell his old farm truck. Sis said “No, we need it.” They already have 3 other trucks. He is a gentle giant. Has stories that will captivate you. Actually plowed with a mule back in the day. It makes me want to cry. We are always checking on him but we are going out tomorrow since we didn’t get out today because of bad weather. Called to ask him what we could pick up for him. He just wanted some Lite Spam..lol! low sodium. But then he kept coming up with some other things. We will pick up tomorrow.
Back to the truck he could not sell because of his selfish sister. Mark went out to the farm (she won’t let him sell any property,either) to pick up some fencing. Dropped by Ronnie’s and gave him $150 for the fencing and Mark said he nearly cried, sayin how much he needed the money. Is it wrong for me to want to strangle his sister…not my aunt. Sorry, I digressed.
That is terrible. Most places have Elder Services with social-worker types who might be able to intervene. I know that’s a gov. thing, but it could serve a purpose here.
Thank you for Part Two, HSF.
Wonderful place to call home, ‘ey?
There’s no place like it.
Amen! Chip
Beautiful. Bless you, Mr. Farmer for your compassion and caring. My insistent harpings are because I do believe that the virus is real and dangerous and not to be taken lightly. I also believe the government reaction is so far over the top that it defies belief. This virus fulfils many agendas, too many.
It’s being used as an opportunity to create a ‘progressive utopia’ and a cover for a financial collapse, it is also a godsend for those who are bullies, autocrats, didacts and dictator wannabees. It serves a purpose and, if one were so inclined to believe, it was released on purpose to further many agendas. There are also massive cover ups happening to hide layers and layers of incompetence and grift. It seems that China is using this virus as a weapon too.
This is from an article written in 2008….
Yet even the U.S. is disturbingly vulnerable—and in some respects is becoming quickly more so. It depends on a just-in-time medical economy, in which stockpiles are limited and even key items are made to order. Most of the intravenous bags used in the country are manufactured in Puerto Rico, so when Hurricane Maria devastated the island last September, the bags fell in short supply. Some hospitals were forced to inject saline with syringes—and so syringe supplies started running low too. The most common lifesaving drugs all depend on long supply chains that include India and China—chains that would likely break in a severe pandemic. “Each year, the system gets leaner and leaner,” says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It doesn’t take much of a hiccup anymore to challenge it.”
Thanks for article. It was sublime.
I’m a little late today .Been very busy .Alot of people out on the road where I am so you would never know anything was wrong Restaurants are open but only for take out.
Interstate I 80 is wide open and that’s good for us truckers .If they start closing the interstate system then I will ” fear “for our nation but so far so good.
Hardfarmer , glad you had a good.I enjoy your stories so keep them coming if you can .
God bless.