{"id":2352,"date":"2020-04-07T13:34:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T17:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2020-04-15T21:55:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T01:55:38","slug":"pay-no-attention-to-that-man-behind-that-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?p=2352","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s the famous line from the Wizard of Oz.\u00a0 The Wizard is putting on quite a show for Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion, filled with smoke, lights, a large and scary projected picture of himself on the wall, while he is sternly shouting loud and bullying threats over a loudspeaker.\u00a0 They get really scared and the masquerade continues, unrecognized, until &#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h5>A little innocent dog grabs the curtain in its teeth and pulls it back&#8230; revealing the simple old man working a set of levers and controls to put on the show which was mesmerizing&#8230; <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">but it was all a show<\/span><\/strong>.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And this can be said about the COVID-19 pandemic as well.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t make the mistake of reading this as COVID-19 is fake.\u00a0 It is very real, and is more dangerous than a standard flu. But our perception of reality is so influenced by our source of information, we can not forget the need to step back and ask ourselves what have we been looking at.\u00a0 AND DISINFORMATION IS A WAR TACTIC, so evaluating everything with a highly critical eye is important&#8211;especially looking for things not being shown.<\/p>\n<p>Also remember that the term &#8220;false flag&#8221; does not mean fake.\u00a0 It means that whatever flag is being waived (real or generated), it is being used to distract attention from something else.<\/p>\n<h3>This virus is a bio-hazard level 2.\u00a0 The media has been showing people wearing level 3 and even Level 4 (Ebola-level) protection.<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Putin01.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2357\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Putin01-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Putin01-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Putin01.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ChineseAirportProtection.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2442\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ChineseAirportProtection-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ChineseAirportProtection-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ChineseAirportProtection-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ChineseAirportProtection.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Vladimir Putin visiting a laboratory in Russia supposedly with Corona virus (from Rossiya 1), and Chinese police in an airport.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Corona virus is nothing new.\u00a0 It is simply a strain of virus which is normally found only in animals, but sometimes appears in humans.\u00a0 Bird Flu, SARS and MERS are also from the same strain.\u00a0 But look at what the media chooses to put in front of people.\u00a0 Vladimir Putin (pictured during a visit to a laboratory above) is visiting in a level 3 protective suit.\u00a0 Did you notice the others with him simply have standard masks, not a sealed suit with filters as Putin is wearing?\u00a0 You could argue that Putin is being given extra precaution being a national leader, but I also find the yellow suit and red sign more likely placed there to grab people&#8217;s attention.\u00a0 For those of you not in the marketing world, red and yellow are the two colors used for grabbing your attention.<\/p>\n<p>This type of media-driven exposure is playing out everywhere, and worse&#8230; it is louder than ever before because of social media.\u00a0 I have long pointed-out that one of the most poisonous things I have seen in news reporting (apart from the line between information and entertainment being ever more blurred), is that even reputable newspapers and television news have stooped to allowing National Enquire-like click-bait on the margins of their web pages to finance their operation. Those emotion triggering headlines make money, and with a hyped up situation like this, why wouldn&#8217;t they participate in the same type of rib-poking journalism as their click-bait ads do.\u00a0 It obviously generates income.<\/p>\n<p>The news media has traditionally only reported the facts, then shut up and let people evaluate and form their own opinions.\u00a0 Nowadays, countless talking heads are interviewed to sway a person to an opinion&#8211;and not let the viewers form their own.\u00a0 A perfect scenario for creating propaganda.<\/p>\n<p>It is not called TV Programming by accident.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, at the peak of the virus epidemic in China, President Xi Jinping just wore a simple RM1 facemask to visit those effected areas.\u00a0 \u00a0That&#8217;s part of level 2 protection, and a common practice in Asia when the other strong flus (like SARS and MERS) broke out in that area.<\/p>\n<h3>The virus is constantly compared to itself.\u00a0 No side-by-side numbers are compared against another virus outbreak.<\/h3>\n<p>Forerunner Church in Kansas City, Missouri, recently hosted a Q&amp;A on the virus with Dr. Kenneth Lim, Harvard University Fellow (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ihopkc.org\/resources\/asset\/BB4bA7A5883C1771334dB87DFAAE\/auto\/true\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forerunner Church COVID-19 Panel Discussion)<\/a>. There is a section of that discussion (from 52:45 to 1:11:04) where Dr Kim elaborates on the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How it impacts the body compared to a normal flu, and how it spreads.<\/li>\n<li>Survivability of the COVID-19 virus in various environments.<\/li>\n<li>The lessons learned by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore from Bird Flu (SARS).<\/li>\n<li>The lessons learned in Philadelphia and St Louis during the 1918 Influenza (the origin of the social distancing strategy).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>COVID-19 is dangerous and has a higher mortality rate than a normal flu, but don&#8217;t make the mistake of thinking that&#8217;s lots of people don&#8217;t already die every year from a flu virus. As of Saturday, March 28, there have been 30,300 deaths caused by COVID-19 worldwide.\u00a0 But during the 2018-2019 flu season, the CDC estimates that 61,099 people died from the various flu outbreaks.\u00a0 Wow, that&#8217;s a lot&#8230;. and that number is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">just the flu cases in the United States<\/span> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/about\/burden\/2017-2018.htm#table1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CDC 2017-2018 Flu numbers<\/a>).\u00a0 The worldwide fatalities were in the range of\u00a0290,000 to 650,000 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6815659\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NIH site: &#8220;Global mortality associated with seasonal influenza epidemics&#8221; by the University of Edinburgh)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is not any attempt to desensitize the value of life or downplay COVID-19, but to give some perspective.\u00a0 Today, everyone puts everything on a graph&#8211;which is good to visualize data.\u00a0 But a graph causes a loss of perspective if it not compared with the same graph of something else similar in nature.\u00a0 John&#8217;s Hopkins University (and some others) have made very good graphs that would make someone in a War Room of the 1950&#8217;s jealous, because the information on those graphs is so much richer and more up-to-date.\u00a0 But taken at face value without context or comparison, it is easy to become mesmerized. Something similar happened with the 24-hour coverage of Operation Desert Storm back in early 1991.\u00a0 People were getting so wrapped up in it, many forgot to shut off the TV and go live their lives.<\/p>\n<p>The constant focus on the media&#8217;s portrayal of the virus (and it is intentionally hyped, make no mistake about that) induces internal panic and disruption. And that is a recipe for abuse.\u00a0 This is also the purpose of DISINFORMATION: it is to draw attention away from things which are supposed to be &#8220;under the radar&#8221;, and are thereby missed by the people who would oppose them.<\/p>\n<h4>So what&#8217;s going on behind the curtain?<\/h4>\n<h5>One very real possibly is a direct, planned attack on the world economy by a number of players: China, Russia and their allies.<\/h5>\n<p>The reasons for this take some research, but look at how China arrested a whistle-blower in December for attempting to warn the press about the existence and spread of the COVID-19 virus.\u00a0 Also look at how long China did not report it to other countries.\u00a0 They still may not be reporting all the numbers.\u00a0 But more importantly, look at how quickly the Chinese infection rate turned around compared to other countries.<\/p>\n<p>China has huge tension with the United States because of the trade war, and the United States stands in the way of China&#8217;s goal of being the next world superpower. And what better time to launch an economic attack than during the year of a Presidential election in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Creating panic is critical to causing the fear, worry, doubt and panic necessary to disrupt the normal flow of money and productivity in our already very fragile economy.\u00a0 The West is an open society, and with the free flow of information and disinformation through news and social media&#8230; creating confusion and panic is all too easy.<\/p>\n<p>Also, if you missed it, Chinese investment firms swarmed the United States stock market when it took its dive, and bought a very large number of US Corporate stocks.\u00a0 They&#8217;ve gained a larger influence and income stake (not just ownership) in our assets.<\/p>\n<h5>Several attempts have been made, and they won&#8217;t be the last, to attach bills to the economic relief packages which would not otherwise survive proper review.<\/h5>\n<p>Back in 2001, there was a bill which had been drafted months before the terror attacks of September 11th.\u00a0 After the attacks, the bill was quickly formalized and named &#8220;The Patriot Act&#8221;, and was passed because of the panic and fear created by those attacks.\u00a0 After all, who could stand out in public and decry a bill which overrode most Constitutional protections (allowing courts to be bypassed in the name of national security) when it had such a hallowed title of &#8220;Patriot&#8221; in its name, and Patriotism was enjoying a great resurgence.\u00a0 Without the attacks, that bill would have had no chance of passing.\u00a0 And with the passing of time, newer generations are only aware of it and not the damage it did to us as a country.\u00a0 In my opinion, the bill did far more long-term damage than the attacks themselves.<\/p>\n<p>So what is being passed now.\u00a0 Well, the answer is to watch any bill being passed with &#8220;economic relief&#8221; in the title.\u00a0 Attempts so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was a recent Supreme Court decision which ruled against public funding of abortions, and the decision stopped millions of taxpayer dollars per year from going to Planned Parenthood.\u00a0 An addition to the Corona Virus economic relief act was attempted by several members of Congress (Senator Nancy Pelosi was among them).\u00a0 It was removed after a public outcry.<\/li>\n<li>In addition, many items for funding the Green New Deal were also thwarted.\u00a0 These items sought to channel a significant portion of the money into a project called the &#8220;&#8230; New Deal&#8221; which borrowed the term from President Franklin D. Roosevelt&#8217;s project to steer the economy out of the depression.\u00a0 <em>Remember what I said about using the term &#8220;Patriot&#8221;?<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Many local governments are struggling to keep their executive orders at the level of &#8220;strongly recommended&#8221; without going to &#8220;mandatory&#8221;.\u00a0 One of the biggest dangers of this virus isn&#8217;t the outbreak, but people trying to use people&#8217;s reactions as leverage to toughen the laws.\u00a0 Some places, Vermont in particular, went to marshal law.\u00a0 I completely disagree with their action: it was unwarranted, and should serve as a major warning of the true danger of letting ourselves be worked into a frenzy over this outbreak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>The strongest indication of how healthy a republic is, can be seen by the will and ability of its free people to self-govern.\u00a0 President John F Kennedy phrased this as &#8220;ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I want to leave you with a perspective on this.\u00a0 In the early 1980s, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration addressed the issue of ultralight aircraft (hang gliders, etc) due to a few reports of some near misses with private and commercial aircraft. The ultralight industry was gaining in popularity.<\/p>\n<p>After numerous meetings and public comments, the FAA released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usua.org\/Rules\/faa103.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Part 103<\/a> of its regulations for these aircraft.\u00a0 It is an interesting regulation for two reasons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First<\/strong>, there are numerous statements about understanding the needs of certain things (like pilot licensing, maintenance, aircraft certification. etc).\u00a0 Almost all of them basically end with the statement that the agency does not see the reason to regulate this at this time.\u00a0 <em>The document is labeled as a regulation, but it actually only regulates the size of the aircraft and its use<\/em><em>.<\/em>\u00a0 It&#8217;s rare to see a regulation which contains so many things which are only suggestions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Second,<\/strong> an interesting statement came from the FAA administrator at the time they released the regulation. He stated the purpose of the regulation was actually &#8220;don&#8217;t get our attention.&#8221;\u00a0 His statement truly reflects that content.\u00a0 He was warning that while the FAA was trying to let the ultralight community self-regulate, any pattern of failing to self-regulate would require them to come back&#8211;and regulate.<\/p>\n<p><em>Has it worked?\u00a0<\/em> There has been no change to those rules in 37 years since they were released in July of 1982.<\/p>\n<p>Keep this in mind as you navigate this pandemic. There are plenty of people at the top (or who like to think they are at the top) who will have an answer.\u00a0 The more we can respond with &#8220;Thanks, but no thanks&#8221;, the more this situation will have a good ending.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s the famous line from the Wizard of Oz.\u00a0 The Wizard is putting on quite a show for Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion, filled with smoke, lights, a large and scary projected picture of himself on the wall, while he is sternly shouting loud and bullying threats over a loudspeaker.\u00a0 They [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,30,19,21,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-life-events","category-non-technicalthoughts","category-politics-and-public-policy","category-just-on-my-mind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}