Canada’s economy shrank this last quarter by an annualized rate of 38%. The USA by 33%. Mexico by 18%. Japan by 28% and the European economy by 12%. Even China is down 7%. That is a BIG drop and deeper than recessionary if it carries on for the next two quarters. A global depression looms.
Blake Jacobs, a black man with a family, was shot in the back 7 times by the Wisconsin police as he tried to walk away from a blue-uniformed squad of hyper-insane protectors of the public. He had his kids in the car. That also became BIG. FAST. The national league teams of Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and likely NFL Football have shut down in protest over yet-another blatant incident of police violence.
Armed right wing thugs are provoking Black Lives Matter protests in Portland and, of course, Hurricane Laura laid waste to sections of Texas and Louisiana. As bad as all that was and is, the depth of the past news week was likely the gibbering idiocy and lies of the mob-boss and his minions at the Republican National Convention. THAT was sickeningly bad. The week of August 20th, 2020 was NOT a good one anywhere.
India is counting 75,000 new cases of Covid every day. South America, in the aggregate, is even higher. Even Vietnam is back in the Covid count. Worse, estimates are that all the numbers reported are low. The USA has exceeded 180,000 deaths so far and counting more at a rate of 1000 people per day. The famous and previously respected CDC was pressured to ease C-19 response measures by the White House and their switchboard crashed from people expressing rage. I even wrote to them.
And an armed 17 year-old Dumb Bubba named Kyle Rittenhouse waded into a Kinosha Wisconsin protest crowd and shot two people dead. According to Fox, he was a cop-admirer who decided to help restore law and order. One Fox news announcer defended his actions and another wanted the armed lunatic for president!
Our particular regional district has 12 or so active Covid cases and my family in Victoria’s neighbourhood is posting 30. But drug overdoses are dwarfing Covid in deaths and hospitalizations all over the province. BC is slipping from it’s previously exalted status and I do not see an end in sight. In fact, I not only do not see an end to the madness, I see it potentially accelerating like a forest fire. The November US Federal election may ignite a conflagration. Civil war is being openly discussed (albeit in a worst case scenario).
Where is Henny Penny when you need her?
Idiots want kids back in school. Cretins refuse to wear face masks and there is still no vaccine. China is getting annoyed at the USA (who isn’t?). The Trump led USA is always annoyed at everyone else but Russian and the world is seemingly readying to light their collective hair on fire, too. Venezuela is even blaming Canada for some it’s tragic situation. Belarus is up in arms. The Middle East is always aggravated but currently more tense than usual.
All of the above is now par for the course in any given day. I am not surprised anymore by much of anything although I will admit to feeling increasingly tense as the general ‘climate’ heats up. Which is a nice segue into the additional extreme danger of the real climate heating up.
We are living in interesting times. Typically that pat phrase implies that the interesting times will eventually stabilize but another way of reading it is that we, ourselves, may no longer be living at all.
“Why preach any of that, Dave? It is what it is.” That’s true. But one last surprise: so many people do not, in fact, know half of that. I do not know how people can remain so ignorant of the world around them but I meet them all the time. Our prognosis is beginning to look worse from the added complications of ignorance and apathy.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Anyone else here notice a blog entry just before this one is missing in action.
Surprised how uniformed folks are these days,I had an 18 year old cashier ask if I knew what that vege was called, it was parsley.
Yeah I know, just sayin
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A blog entry missing? You mean MY posts are missing? Or a comment?
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Waiting for corroboration I swear I saw different blog entry right after the pack rat missive,in a short time poof l never saw it again
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Nope. Not another one. I do have a number of blogs that are unwritten-but-in-my-head but good sense and the laws of the land prohibit publishing them. So, I tend instead towards what I self-describe as ‘Digestive biscuit’ blogs. Those are the kind with little to like or dislike but are still easily swallowed and digested. The ideal digestible blog is about dogs, seals, ravens whales and about 500 words long. Going past 750 words begets an acid reflux-like response.
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There is a great deal of good news about Canada and It /might be a non sequitur to compare Canada’s woes as equivalent to the woes of the United States. Yes Canada has problems! For the record ‘Henny Penny’ did speak metaphorically on the COVID-19 virus but her advice was too “old school” to be acted upon by some. It appears that there might be an imperative by some to engage in risk taking activities to satisfy certain urges and proclivities. Dr Henny did put her trust and faith into individuals to do the right things. Many, many individuals listened to Henny but some perplexingly choose to follow the Donald’s advice. I do not care to speculate on why one person’s is advice is followed but not someone else’s advice isn’t followed. This is a mystery!
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While I can do nothing but agree with your “sense ” of impending doom indicated by all the above and more, I see an upcoming momoment of awakening when the statis quo collapses, people no longer need to worry about work and acquisition they need only work on survival of their families. Yes there will be a “bump” lasting a unpredictable timeline while priorities are rearranged and new social rules form but that could be a great moment for the human race. We the parasites on this planet are in serious need of a “makeover”, this could be the time. Hug your kids and embrace the upcoming changes.
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Agree 100%….even if, at my advanced age, I do not make it, it may be the change we need.
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I also agree 100% with you and Scott, but I want to be just a tiny bit naieve, and hope that during that bump, enough people will have the brains and courage to keep the bump under control and the number of “casualties” as low as possible. So I guess it’s hope for the best but prepare for the worst!
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Pure hyperbolic mental onanism.
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Umh…Onanism…..’mental masturbation’….you see that partial list of threats listed in the blog as self pleasuring? Climate change!? Really? I have a reader who dismisses all that written as a hedonistic waste of time and KY jelly? ‘Splain yourself, oh wise oracle. Whatcha got..?.
….better be good ’cause I find it somewhat insulting so far. You got brains to go with that chutzpah?
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Scott sees the end of the world. How he got to that conclusion required some mental machinations. This is how the world ends…here we go round the mulberry Bush…tired of the “butterfly effect”! A drop of rain hits a mosquito in Texas and the world ends?
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Figurative expressions are not literally true. Nihilism as a world view has its limitations. I am very, very far from dismissing “all that is written as a hedonistic waste of time. The world millions of years ago was hit by a meteor which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs(literally). Yes, I think climate change is a real issue as our North is warming at one of the fastest rates in the world. I’m not a nihilist.
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hmmm….strange reaction by “anonymous”, but on the other hand also as JDC predicted, there ARE different opinions around, and everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion, but a little clarification would surely help, at least we could have a discussion on our different opinions
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I have been wearing gloves when out in public for months.
To avoid touching what thousands of strangers touch.
Door knobs, bank machine buttons, gas pump handles, baskets at Safeway , etc etc etc.
Masks?
Not very often and only when its required by notice.
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I watched the video of Kyle Wittenhouse.
The 17 year old cop wannabe.
He showed up (as many in the alt right have) heavily armed but ….by himself.
Totally out of his element.
In the video……..
He is being chased by a mob of protesters ( one who yells , Get that goof!”)
His rifle hanging from his side by a gun strap.
A skateboarder smashes him from behind and knocks him to the ground and begins kicking him as several others group around.
Wittenhouse is lying on the ground and grabs his rifle lying beside him ( as another man tries to grab it) and fires point blank up into the stomach of the person fighting (assaulting?) him.
That assailant runs away and drops to the ground (presumably mortally wounded).
Another man then runs at Wittenhouse to kick him while he is still on the ground.
He aims and fires and appears to hit that man in the shoulder. The man staggers away wounded
Another man tries to run in and Wittenhouse gets to his knee, aims and shoots him point blank.
I assume that man was also killed.
The rest of the mob back off because he is now standing, rifle at the ready, firing warning shots and obviously ready and willing to use his rifle.
Wittenhouse immediately turns and runs away .
He sees police responding to the “shots fired” call and with his hands raised in surrender to several police riot trucks moving forward.
They drive right past him not knowing his has just shot 3 people.
He disappears and surrenders the next day.
His lawyer is claiming self defense and if you watch the video…… he will win.
Don’t blame a stupid 17 year old with a rifle.
Blame a ridiculous gun happy country with Laws that allow 17 year old kids with assault rifles to walk freely into a public protest that is known to be violent……..
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I agree 99.9% with the conclusion that it is the culture of US gun-lovers combined with a mind boggling national ignorance that is at the root of the shooting. Add in Trump and those kind of walking hand grenades are feeling as if the pin has been pulled and the war is on! Also the dork hung around with the cops who, in fact, thanked him and the other deplorables for being there. The truly gob-smacking stupid meets the truly gob-smacking irresponsible cops. But, but, but….Kyle is 17. Young but not a child. Old enough to drive a car and join the army. Kyle bears some responsibility. And the guys he shot? Hell, they, too, could claim self-defense. Kyle’s first victim was a guy in a parking lot. Just him and Kyle (from what I understand). THEN, as he goes to leave the parking lot, others ran at him. They might otherwise be viewed as heroes who thought that they were saving the crowd from yet another crazed shooter. I feel sorry for the dumb Bubba but he is not an innocent. He is mind-numbingly dumb. And he was in the wrong place at the wrong time but the police are more than guilty of negligence (and even that might not hold up in a state that allows open carry).
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True.
Too many guns and almost no regulation.
Canada isnt perfect but we dont have armed protesters mingling with the other protesters.
I noticed tonight the NBA is considering allowing the basketball Stadiums to be used as polling stations in the US elections to “get the vote out” and avoid the US Postal debacle.
Trump must be livid.
He will be a national embarrassment wehn he loses in Nov and then spends the next 2.5 months spewing vitriolic blame at everyone except the mirror….
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Well said noncon!
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I have never been called a crafty scheming evildoer before, here I was just expressing a very possible outcome to the earths turmoil. Has a nice ring to it though!
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Oh, man. Crafty, scheming, evil-doer does you no justice. You are WAY worse than that! Rebellious, by-law breaking wino who sends drones out to spy on things…..sneaky, community contributor, helper of the lonely, rescuer of orphan dogs…..if the world only knew……..
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wow, and you want me to come to read island :-)???
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I think I might fit in 🙂
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Interesting blog with a time line of events in the Rittenshouse shootings With vidoe clips from differentt angles and time lines.
The police actually stopped and talked to a group of armed “militia” earlier in the night and thanked them for helping.
Rittenhouse escorted a wounded person to safety and when attempting to return to the business he had been protecting was spotted and chased.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/08/ny-times-reconstruction-of-kenosha-rittenhouse-shootings-point-to-potential-self-defense/
The 1st victim was a convicted sex offender.
The second victim(skateboard guy) was convicted of domestic assault.
The third victim(wounded in the arm) was aiming a handgun at Rittenshouse when he was shot and commented later that “His only regret was he didnt kill him”.
Oddly enough. All the victims and the shooter were….young white men …. at a Black Lives Matter protest/riot.
I’m thinking that self defense argument might be valid.
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I suppose. But, in the US, the records of the miscreants are not admissible – often not, anyway. So, for the sake of the court system, they are just victims. Full stop. And, even tho there is little doubt that KR was, in fact, acting out of self defense at one point, prior to that he was a gun-toting wanderer into an armed area of chaos. He WENT to them. Plus he was ‘lookin’ for trouble. Or better put: lookin’ to be a macho man without fully realizing how that might turn out. I do not see that video as evidence of anything except what it was – a guy way out of his element who shot a guy who was yelling at him and then other stupid guys gave chase…..so he shot them, too. Put another way: the first mistakes were Kyle’s. From going there, to carrying an AR, to ‘walkin’ the walk’ like at the OK Corral and then, finally, by shooting the first guy. After that, he was panicking and, altho being chased, he still added to the result by shooting two more. So maybe 2nd degree murder of the first and manslaughter of the second and armed assault of the third. Why? Because none of the 3 were armed except the skateboard wielder (armed with a skateboard). To my mind, there is an added element to the situation since KR was armed and the others were not. I believe that they did NOT knock him down, he fell. And then, being heroes (says the defense) they rushed in to disarm him. I think it would be easier to prosecute than defend. But maybe NOT in the land of the free (but brainwashed and unemployed) and the home of the brave (when armed to the teeth).
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I think the sense of impending doom is becoming more widely shared. I now know two women who have chosen to terminate their pregnancies because they would prefer not to sentence their offspring to living in the new world order. Can’t say that I blame them at all.
Now, from what I have read (unless it’s fake news), Trump is anti-abortion. Just for that he needs to be voted out. Can you imagine being forced to bear a child in these times? BC, quite sensibly, makes abortion available at no charge. I would guess Everywoman’s Health Centre and such places will be keeping busy from now on.
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I do not believe Trump cares a fig for the issue but says it to garner ‘evangelical votes’. How can a multiple-married, self-confessed sexual-assault man with hundreds of 000’s of dollars spent on prostitutes muster any feeling whatsoever on abortions? To be fair, Donald Junior and Eric should have been aborted and they were not so maybe that is what he means.
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I am glad that in Europe it is forbidden to have and/or carry guns. Only in very specific cases you are allowed a weapon permit. At least this prevents this kind of incidents where everyone wanders around on the streets. And police thanking them for helping out….man…I am glad I am not a US citizen
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Me, too. Sal and I have discussed it and we will not likely ever go back to the US. I mean, I should ‘never say never’ but I think I can say NEVER if Trump gets back in. I am too old to have that many more trips in me anyway. And I can most confidently say ‘not bloody likely’ about ever going there again. What a mess of a country!
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