Who/what exactly is Continental Europe? Does the Czech Republic count? Because the Czech Prime Minister announced last week that "vaccines" would not be mandated. He said he didn't want to deepen division in society. So, I'm cautiously optimistic for CZ, even though we're still dealing with the mask theater, twice per week testing at work and the like.
The interesting thing about CZ is that the old government passed "vaccine" mandates back in December (not universal, but for the over-60's and people in certain professions), just before handing over power. The new government (which came into power something like a week after the mandate) said it would get rid of the mandate for the over-60's, and that it would see about professional groups. This was right when Omicron came onto the scene. Well, now the vaccinators are looking silly, and the new government (being new) is able to roll back the mandates without losing face. After all, they are the *old* government's mandates. (They're still saying that you should get "vaccinated" and blah-blah-blah, but no mandates.)
I should also say that the old government's election loss had nothing to do with the mandates. They lost the election in October. Then the President (who's somehow involved - mostly ceremonially - in naming the new government) landed in hospital and stayed there for over a month, and so the transfer of power got delayed. Fortunately!! If it hadn't been, maybe the new government would have passed the stupid mandates itself, and we'd be right where Germany is.
Lesson? Austria/Germany/France need a new government. The people who imposed mandates cannot roll them back without losing face, but a new government might be able to (even if they said stupid things in the past, they didn't actually implement them, since they weren't actually in power).
Lots of good stuff here--first of all, hi Irena! I'm glad you're doing fine, comparatively speaking.
Re your 'who's in' question, well, the short version is: part of the Czech gov't might wish to be in the in-group, but the Czechs as a people are just a tad too smart to do so. Judging from my personal contacts, the 'older' generation does remember the 'bad old days' of Communism (cue former PM and president Václav Klaus remarking that the 'social distancing' reminded him of pre-1989 insanity) and expresses a marked disdain with their younger, almost entirely brain-washed countrymen. Yes, part of this may be a 'classic' generational issue, but my colleagues all decried the decay of civil liberties when I last visited Prague in November.
Remember that quip about 'the small non-historic peoples' who were destined to be 'assimilated'? Well, that was Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of what eventually became the nightmare of Soviet-style communism (although the 19th-century garden variety of Communism must certainly be differentiated from the abominations of Lenin, Stalin, and their ilk), and Engels--much like Marx--was also infused with Greater German arrogance.
Sidenote: try chatting about 'Communism' and 'Greater German Arrogance' with self-declared leftists for a fascinating, if maddening and mind-blowingly stupid, conversation about the intersections of 'class' and 'race'. But I digress.
Part of the Czechs, I think, wish to participate because they confuse compliance with this 'western' madness as 'being part of the West' (but they may also be correct about that, by the way), hence they will continue to do so. Functionally, I think the Czechs are fundamentally more pragmatic (and far less ideological) than their German-speaking neighbours to the south and west, hence they will be more amenable to chaging course.
Same with Boris Johnson, by the way. Yes, he's all the things we know he is, but given his status as a bumbling honcho who wasn't to be taken (too) seriously in the first place, him shrugging his shoulders and telling everyone that he changed his mind won't be a surprise. In fact, this is--as the end to the mandates shows--BoJo's MO, it would seem, and he correctly read the mood of the electorate.
(Personally, I can already see the billboards of his re-election campaign: 'Brexit: done! Covid: defeated! BoJo is the New Churchill'. Awesome.)
Still, ask yourself: do you see any 'core European' politician being able to pull that off? (By the way, Biden has the same problem as them: he's too far gone down this particular rabbit hole to pull out now.)
Austria keeps changing PM's, but it's the same party. So, that doesn't count. Isn't it the same in Germany (I haven't been following the matter very closely)?
As for France: we'll have to wait and see! Macron clearly thinks that doubling down will win him the election. We'll see if he's right.
Not buying it: "Austria keeps changing PM's, but it's the same party. So, that doesn't count."
Of course it counts. It offers a succeeding leader the opportunity to change course. To disassociate themselves from their predecessor.
In Germany there is a new coalition Government with a new Chancellor. In their election campaigns all new goverment parties forswore the need for vaccine mandates. They then did a u-turn after gaining power.
But anyway, I think you have to have a government change at just the right time. It's a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. If the French can get rid of "Napoleon," I think there's a decent enough chance the circus will end in France. Germany and (especially) Austria may be too far gone to turn back without some really big mess.
To be sure, BoJo seems capable of rolling back stupid policies of his own making, but BoJo is clown, and no-one is more aware of that than BoJo himself. So, the UK is a bit of special case in this regard.
We still have the pass (alas). I'm hoping that, too, will end in the not-too-distant future. But, not yet.
Me, I technically have a pass from my bout of COVID in October. But the only time I ever used it was to get out of testing requirements at work for a while (and now testing is mandatory for everyone). I certainly won't patron restaurants and the like if I have to show the stupid pass to go in. It would be like paying to be interrogated by the police.
As for how many are injected: a quick Google search tells me 63% with at least two doses. I'm not sure if that's 63% of the whole population, or of the adult population only...
Much like the 'official' numbers are cooked on all matters Covid-the-disease, my take is that these official data on vaccination are cooked like the books of Enron.
Still, given the comparatively high rates of (chronic) illness across the West in combination with age limitations, I'd say there's some 10-20% of the 'eligible' population who refuses to submit; add to that the number of too ill people and those ineligible (another 5-15%), and you'd get to numbers in the 60-75% range of the entire population.
I suppose that this number won't budge much, and any jab mandate will further depress it as scores of people will 'lose' their 'vaccination status' if they refuse to comply with additional jabbing requirements.
I wrote this comment on Eugyppius’s substack but I’d love your thoughts if you don’t mind.
Here’s a question: This feels like we are running down the clock. If we hold out and this goes bust…will the EU go up in smoke? If Kennedy is right and this is about digital currency ( makes sense - the two economies too big too fix, they’ve already failed: Italy and France- they seem to be the most aggressive in pushing vaccine passports) Is this a play to save the European economy? I’m just not making sense of Germany doubling down while England loosens up. What’s going on?
there's a long answer (coming one day as an article, I guess), but the short one goes like this: nope, quite unlikely, for the more likely consequence of the current--overextended and under-committed--member-states calling it 'quits' (of sorts) will be: retrenchment, following by a 'deepening' of the remaining participants.
This means: a 'core' will get together 'ever more closely', and I'm guessing this 'core' will include Germany, Austria, Benelux, France, Italy, and perhaps Spain, too. They will 'further integrate' themselves while the 'remaining' EU members will become more or less close 'associated' countries within the larger 'tent' (and which will further incl. 'associative' planks for the Schengen countries, for the Eurozone, the EEC, etc.).
In short: while I think RFK may be correct about the digital central bank currency--and abomination, if there ever was one--the 'bust' will more likely result in a 'more integrated core' (or whatever fancy name they will think of).
I'm inclined to agree with Eugyppius. IF the truth comes out widely and the masses understand how they have been deceived, it will be a huge blow to public confidence in elected officials and the so-called experts. It could shake the very legitimacy of these modern tecnocratic states.
This is why they have desperately tried to paint the protest movements as far-right radicals threatening the stability of the state (accuse others of what you are actually doing?). This is why they are trying to push forward with insane vaccine madates - to eliminate the control group, those crying that the emperor has no clothes. They are terrified of being exposed, of losing power, of admitting their stupid mistakes. So they go on the offensive and attack the unvaccinated. It's classic projection and diversion, scapegoating to cover up your own inadequacies and failings.
My thinking is premised on the idea that the euro skeptic parties are also by and large opposed to mandates? If corona politics is a bust wouldn’t that make the skeptics correct by default according to the various electorates? Just an idea. Not without merit, no?
The notion that If they are right about this then they must be right about other things too.
It’s not sophisticated decision making but I don’t think humans are as sophisticated as they’d like to believe either.
That’s a line. That’s pretty much all of everything right there.
Looking forward to your next Austrian dispatch.
Also according to latest AB substack Israel has had more covid infections in a week( last week) than it had in all of 2020. Amazing. I had hoped my life would be interspersed with the gentle drama of a Terence Malik movie. But it’s gone full Sci-fi.
Covid is, literally, a coup d'état, by the state, for the state, and against the citizens.
I've seen AB's pieces: just imagine for a moment that the pressures by Omicron would be with Delta, which should be enough to send shudders of trepidation down anyone's spine. Fortunately, Omicron appears to be less of a threat (we'll see about that) than Delta, but just think about it: if the original strain was as contagious as this one, we'd all be in deep shit now (or beyond that, however our societies would look like).
As to the sci-fi angle: so true, but as a parent I can only say--I know the hill I'm willing to die on. In dark, weak moments I do pity all these 'hipster left-liberals' who eschew children (and spirituality), for they have nothing to live--and die--for, except maybe someone else's 'cool' Twitter feed.
Also, not all sci-fi is bunk, and I call on everyone who's willing to bear the burden of self-respect, active citizenship, and self-government to join together in building a society worthy of our descendants.
Who/what exactly is Continental Europe? Does the Czech Republic count? Because the Czech Prime Minister announced last week that "vaccines" would not be mandated. He said he didn't want to deepen division in society. So, I'm cautiously optimistic for CZ, even though we're still dealing with the mask theater, twice per week testing at work and the like.
The interesting thing about CZ is that the old government passed "vaccine" mandates back in December (not universal, but for the over-60's and people in certain professions), just before handing over power. The new government (which came into power something like a week after the mandate) said it would get rid of the mandate for the over-60's, and that it would see about professional groups. This was right when Omicron came onto the scene. Well, now the vaccinators are looking silly, and the new government (being new) is able to roll back the mandates without losing face. After all, they are the *old* government's mandates. (They're still saying that you should get "vaccinated" and blah-blah-blah, but no mandates.)
I should also say that the old government's election loss had nothing to do with the mandates. They lost the election in October. Then the President (who's somehow involved - mostly ceremonially - in naming the new government) landed in hospital and stayed there for over a month, and so the transfer of power got delayed. Fortunately!! If it hadn't been, maybe the new government would have passed the stupid mandates itself, and we'd be right where Germany is.
Lesson? Austria/Germany/France need a new government. The people who imposed mandates cannot roll them back without losing face, but a new government might be able to (even if they said stupid things in the past, they didn't actually implement them, since they weren't actually in power).
Lots of good stuff here--first of all, hi Irena! I'm glad you're doing fine, comparatively speaking.
Re your 'who's in' question, well, the short version is: part of the Czech gov't might wish to be in the in-group, but the Czechs as a people are just a tad too smart to do so. Judging from my personal contacts, the 'older' generation does remember the 'bad old days' of Communism (cue former PM and president Václav Klaus remarking that the 'social distancing' reminded him of pre-1989 insanity) and expresses a marked disdain with their younger, almost entirely brain-washed countrymen. Yes, part of this may be a 'classic' generational issue, but my colleagues all decried the decay of civil liberties when I last visited Prague in November.
Remember that quip about 'the small non-historic peoples' who were destined to be 'assimilated'? Well, that was Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of what eventually became the nightmare of Soviet-style communism (although the 19th-century garden variety of Communism must certainly be differentiated from the abominations of Lenin, Stalin, and their ilk), and Engels--much like Marx--was also infused with Greater German arrogance.
Sidenote: try chatting about 'Communism' and 'Greater German Arrogance' with self-declared leftists for a fascinating, if maddening and mind-blowingly stupid, conversation about the intersections of 'class' and 'race'. But I digress.
Part of the Czechs, I think, wish to participate because they confuse compliance with this 'western' madness as 'being part of the West' (but they may also be correct about that, by the way), hence they will continue to do so. Functionally, I think the Czechs are fundamentally more pragmatic (and far less ideological) than their German-speaking neighbours to the south and west, hence they will be more amenable to chaging course.
Same with Boris Johnson, by the way. Yes, he's all the things we know he is, but given his status as a bumbling honcho who wasn't to be taken (too) seriously in the first place, him shrugging his shoulders and telling everyone that he changed his mind won't be a surprise. In fact, this is--as the end to the mandates shows--BoJo's MO, it would seem, and he correctly read the mood of the electorate.
(Personally, I can already see the billboards of his re-election campaign: 'Brexit: done! Covid: defeated! BoJo is the New Churchill'. Awesome.)
Still, ask yourself: do you see any 'core European' politician being able to pull that off? (By the way, Biden has the same problem as them: he's too far gone down this particular rabbit hole to pull out now.)
Germany already has a new government. They took over the reigns start of December. They are pushing mandates anyway!?
Austria has had 2 new prime ministers (same government party) one start of October, one start of December. They are still pushing mandates anyway!?
France - presidential elections start in April. Macron has ratcheted up his rhetoric against unvaccinated. I guess he thinks this a winning recipe!?
Austria keeps changing PM's, but it's the same party. So, that doesn't count. Isn't it the same in Germany (I haven't been following the matter very closely)?
As for France: we'll have to wait and see! Macron clearly thinks that doubling down will win him the election. We'll see if he's right.
Not buying it: "Austria keeps changing PM's, but it's the same party. So, that doesn't count."
Of course it counts. It offers a succeeding leader the opportunity to change course. To disassociate themselves from their predecessor.
In Germany there is a new coalition Government with a new Chancellor. In their election campaigns all new goverment parties forswore the need for vaccine mandates. They then did a u-turn after gaining power.
It doesn't count enough. ;-)
But anyway, I think you have to have a government change at just the right time. It's a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. If the French can get rid of "Napoleon," I think there's a decent enough chance the circus will end in France. Germany and (especially) Austria may be too far gone to turn back without some really big mess.
To be sure, BoJo seems capable of rolling back stupid policies of his own making, but BoJo is clown, and no-one is more aware of that than BoJo himself. So, the UK is a bit of special case in this regard.
We still have the pass (alas). I'm hoping that, too, will end in the not-too-distant future. But, not yet.
Me, I technically have a pass from my bout of COVID in October. But the only time I ever used it was to get out of testing requirements at work for a while (and now testing is mandatory for everyone). I certainly won't patron restaurants and the like if I have to show the stupid pass to go in. It would be like paying to be interrogated by the police.
As for how many are injected: a quick Google search tells me 63% with at least two doses. I'm not sure if that's 63% of the whole population, or of the adult population only...
Much like the 'official' numbers are cooked on all matters Covid-the-disease, my take is that these official data on vaccination are cooked like the books of Enron.
Still, given the comparatively high rates of (chronic) illness across the West in combination with age limitations, I'd say there's some 10-20% of the 'eligible' population who refuses to submit; add to that the number of too ill people and those ineligible (another 5-15%), and you'd get to numbers in the 60-75% range of the entire population.
I suppose that this number won't budge much, and any jab mandate will further depress it as scores of people will 'lose' their 'vaccination status' if they refuse to comply with additional jabbing requirements.
Hey,
Great article.
I wrote this comment on Eugyppius’s substack but I’d love your thoughts if you don’t mind.
Here’s a question: This feels like we are running down the clock. If we hold out and this goes bust…will the EU go up in smoke? If Kennedy is right and this is about digital currency ( makes sense - the two economies too big too fix, they’ve already failed: Italy and France- they seem to be the most aggressive in pushing vaccine passports) Is this a play to save the European economy? I’m just not making sense of Germany doubling down while England loosens up. What’s going on?
Hi Ryk,
there's a long answer (coming one day as an article, I guess), but the short one goes like this: nope, quite unlikely, for the more likely consequence of the current--overextended and under-committed--member-states calling it 'quits' (of sorts) will be: retrenchment, following by a 'deepening' of the remaining participants.
This means: a 'core' will get together 'ever more closely', and I'm guessing this 'core' will include Germany, Austria, Benelux, France, Italy, and perhaps Spain, too. They will 'further integrate' themselves while the 'remaining' EU members will become more or less close 'associated' countries within the larger 'tent' (and which will further incl. 'associative' planks for the Schengen countries, for the Eurozone, the EEC, etc.).
In short: while I think RFK may be correct about the digital central bank currency--and abomination, if there ever was one--the 'bust' will more likely result in a 'more integrated core' (or whatever fancy name they will think of).
I'm inclined to agree with Eugyppius. IF the truth comes out widely and the masses understand how they have been deceived, it will be a huge blow to public confidence in elected officials and the so-called experts. It could shake the very legitimacy of these modern tecnocratic states.
This is why they have desperately tried to paint the protest movements as far-right radicals threatening the stability of the state (accuse others of what you are actually doing?). This is why they are trying to push forward with insane vaccine madates - to eliminate the control group, those crying that the emperor has no clothes. They are terrified of being exposed, of losing power, of admitting their stupid mistakes. So they go on the offensive and attack the unvaccinated. It's classic projection and diversion, scapegoating to cover up your own inadequacies and failings.
My thinking is premised on the idea that the euro skeptic parties are also by and large opposed to mandates? If corona politics is a bust wouldn’t that make the skeptics correct by default according to the various electorates? Just an idea. Not without merit, no?
The notion that If they are right about this then they must be right about other things too.
It’s not sophisticated decision making but I don’t think humans are as sophisticated as they’d like to believe either.
A large proportion of the Brits almost managed to convince the British that they, too, lost WW2 as well!
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/
Apologies to the British, but as painful as it may be to admit: the dcision to pull out of this shitshow (EU) was correct.
Now, the next step would be to return to self-rule, isn't it?
I agree
The EU can not and will not negotiate!
The free movement of european people is inviolable!
Except for some who might want to go to the pub or restaurant or take their kids swimming or visit a museum or use a train or or.
What a mess.
History repeats itself. Over and over and over again…
First time's a tragedy, the second time a farce, but still tragic.
Good morning epimetheus,
“…power grab against its own people”
That’s a line. That’s pretty much all of everything right there.
Looking forward to your next Austrian dispatch.
Also according to latest AB substack Israel has had more covid infections in a week( last week) than it had in all of 2020. Amazing. I had hoped my life would be interspersed with the gentle drama of a Terence Malik movie. But it’s gone full Sci-fi.
Hi again, Ryk,
Covid is, literally, a coup d'état, by the state, for the state, and against the citizens.
I've seen AB's pieces: just imagine for a moment that the pressures by Omicron would be with Delta, which should be enough to send shudders of trepidation down anyone's spine. Fortunately, Omicron appears to be less of a threat (we'll see about that) than Delta, but just think about it: if the original strain was as contagious as this one, we'd all be in deep shit now (or beyond that, however our societies would look like).
As to the sci-fi angle: so true, but as a parent I can only say--I know the hill I'm willing to die on. In dark, weak moments I do pity all these 'hipster left-liberals' who eschew children (and spirituality), for they have nothing to live--and die--for, except maybe someone else's 'cool' Twitter feed.
Also, not all sci-fi is bunk, and I call on everyone who's willing to bear the burden of self-respect, active citizenship, and self-government to join together in building a society worthy of our descendants.