Reflections from the Heart of the Empire: Downward Spirals

• A new study on the Covid “vaccines,” sponsored by things like Pfizer and the CDC, confirms that they did nothing to stop infection or transmission, and that there are all sorts of deleterious side-effects, such as heart problems, and a feeling that one cannot think or go for a walk. (Source: Russell Brand)

• Personal anecdotes—Both my wife and I definitely have had the brain fog and a resistance to exercise things, which have slowly faded over time. We both had the first two shots. In retrospect, a mistake on our part.

• As Russell Brand said, to all of you who questioned the Covidiocy from the beginning, to all of you who said the lockdowns and mandates were authoritarian grifting schemes for astronomical profit, you were right.

  

• The US Empire is telling us that a nationalistic Russian Nazi and obvious CIA asset(hat tip to

  EuroYankee on Substack
  ) who died in a Russian prison is a martyr for democracy, while ignoring the death of Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian prison, the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange, and the murders of over 200 journalists in Gaza.

• Farmers in 20 European countries are now protesting against the Green Grift. (

  Peter Imanuelsen
  has a good short article on the subject).

  

• Nikki Haley proved to the world just how much her home state would love to see her just go away by losing the South Carolina Republican presidential primary to a New Yorker named Donald, of all things. She really should relate to this guy now.

  

• According to Seymour Hersh, the two Navy SEALS who died trying to board a Somali dhow suspected of smuggling weapons to Yemen died for absolutely nothing because the little ship was carrying cigarettes, booze, and porn. The dhow was something like this,

  

Join the Navy, see the world, and get killed doing utterly pointless things.

• Commercial banks are losing deposits at a rate not seen in 40 years. The commercial real estate collapse is coming. Don’t worry, all that money we saved by not having a right to health care or housing or education will undoubtedly be used to bail them out.

  

• Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy to protest the genocide in Palestine three months after receiving orders to stand by for deployment to that region in support of the genocidal regime.

• The US Empire media has done its typical thing and largely ignored Airman Bushnell, but that is not important, only expected. What is important is that the story is all over social media, and it has cracked the kleptocratic blackout. Fox 8 News in Cleveland ran a “just the facts, ma’am” story on his “extreme act of protest” this morning.

• Fun facts: Bushnell grew up in Whitman, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Community of Jesus, which describes itself as an ecumenical monastic group in the Benedictine tradition. Bushnell probably attended services here;

  

• Liberal media reports insinuating Bushnell was from Texas were dog whistles to the DemCult base. He was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for several years, where he met local people, called himself an anarchist, and worked with community groups to do things like distribute free food. Sounds like a man with conscience and integrity. New York Magazine has a lengthy article on him. Here he is in happier times; RIP, Aaron.

  

• Rebel forces in Myanmar, which I still want to call Burma, have taken control of 45 large towns. Apparently, the rebels against the military junta are homegrown, and make many of their own weapons, including drones, which right now are defeating government forces in the field.

  

• Russia has proven that American tanks burn just as prettily as German tanks. I’m so glad. I’d hate to think we weren’t #1 at something.

  

• 10 provinces of Argentina are threatening to cut off oil supplies to the rest of the country. It seems that the much ballyhooed he must be smart because he’s so rich President Milei retained a bunch of oil revenue that was supposed to go to those provinces, and they’re not having it. Oops. Viva Patagonia?

  

• I always said that I knew of no hard evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. Now, along comes Tucker Carlson interviewing this guy named Renz, of whom I’ve never heard, saying that the Federal government(ie the permanent or deep state) threatened social media companies with anti-trust action if they didn’t censor any stories about suspicious ballot drop boxes or huge numbers of mail-in ballots showing up on election night, which they all did. Check out Russell Brand’s take on this if you have time and let me know what you think.

• Personally, I hope it’s true. I never wanted to believe that a record number of my fellow Americans actually voted for two clowns named Trump and Biden. Maybe they didn’t.

• Speaking of clowns, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were children under Alabama law. The Chief Justice even quoted the Bible in the decision and Democrats raved and rejoiced, for this issue may be their only salvation come November.

• In a classic case of unintended consequences, in vitro fertilization clinics quickly suspended operations and transport companies said there was no way in hell or Alabama they would ship the things. Donald Trump quickly called on the Alabama Legislature to do something about it, and they appear they are going to.

• Finally, in news of the self-deprecatingly weird, the first Florida Man Games were held in St. Augustine. For only $55, one could marvel at feats of skill such as seeing who could spill other contestants’ beer the fastest, or the police evasion obstacle course, or a mullet contest.

• All is not lost so long as we can still laugh at ourselves.

Thank you for reading. Good night, and good luck.

**********************************************************************Note to readers: Reflections from the Heart of the Empire is based on whatever news catches my fancy that I can condense into about 5 minutes of reading time, and should appear at least once a week. Some weeks, there’s more going on than in others. This is one of those weeks. Thank you for your time and support.