August 2020 – Sommer Season all year

What is Really Going On?

A commentary on the Epstein story

In my last post, Selective Pandemic Attention, I (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) questioned whether the Mainstream Media (MM) is intentionally promoting fear of covid as a way of distracting us. I recently saw this meme, which got me wondering even more.

When you search hashtags such as, childrenslivesmatter, saveourchildren, SaveOurChildrenWorldwild, and others like it, you will see numerous videos and posts about protests happening around the world to bring awareness of human trafficking and missing children. What I don’t understand is why the MM is relatively silent about these protests. I did find one article in the Times West Virginian titled, Protest raises awareness about human trafficking. Why is this? I thought the job of the news media was to report news. I wanted an explanation, so I did some research. Wikipedia’s topic: Concentration of media ownership says:

Canada has the biggest concentrated TV ownership out of all the G8 countries and it comes in second place for the most concentrated television viewers.

Business Insider’s article, These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America, shows a graphic called the Illusion of Choice, which shows who owns the Mainstream Media (MM) in the US. It shows the 6 corporations, all owned by billionaires, who own all the big media companies. Could this explain why the MM is silent? Could that explain why the MM is distracting us from things such as more people die of drug overdoses and suicide than from covid as I talked about in my last post? Are they intentionally distracting us from the bigger problem of human trafficking and missing children which is bullying (#bullying #antibullying) on a massive scale and of the worst kind? Abusing innocent children is bullying at its worst.

The International Labour Organization’s report, Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour, says of the US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year from human trafficking, US$ 99 billion came from commercial sexual exploitation, while US$ 51 billion resulted from forced economic exploitation. Human trafficking is a massive issue! This should be a huge story for the MM. Why are they silent? Are they being directed on what to report? Before calling me a conspiracy theorist, which is fine by me, it might be interesting to note that according to Paul Craig Roberts, chairman of the Institute for Political Economy, says:

The Term “Conspiracy Theory” was invented by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) in order to prevent disbelief of official government stories.

Now isn’t that interesting. I remind you, Readers Digest lists conspiracy theories that turned out to be true. Their article, 12 Conspiracy Theories that Actually Turned Out to be True lists 12. Another, 15 Conspiracies That Turned Out To Be True, lists 15. Still, in another article, 11 Unbelievable Conspiracy Theories That Were Actually True, describes Operation Mockingbird, an CIA operation in which they carried out a secret campaign to influence media around the world. The article says, by the 1950s, there were about 3,000 CIA employees and dozens of large global media outlets working to maintain a complex propaganda machine. Could it be that Operation Mockingbird never stopped?

The MM is silent on the topic of human trafficking and missing children. They continue to be solely focused on covid for six months now? I also have to wonder why the MM is so relentless in making Donald Trump look bad? Now, I’m no Trump fan, but is there more going on than what we’re led to believe? Do they see Trump as a threat to them? Does the media have an agenda to keep us focused on covid? I decided to look into this topic, and the more I researched, the more alarmed and disturbed I got; to the point where I was literally losing sleep. This topic is unsettling on so many levels. Don’t take my word for it. Do your own research; in fact, I urge you to. Become informed about what is really going on. When I started looking into this topic, I would often stop researching, saying to myself, “This can’t be true!”

Sometimes when a core belief that is very strong is presented with evidence that goes against that belief, we are unable accept the new evidence. It creates a feeling that is far too uncomfortable for us to stomach, and this is called, “Cognitive Dissonance.” This happens because we have a need to protect the core belief, so we rationalize, ignore, and even deny anything that does not support that core belief. I experienced this, and you will too if you accept my challenge to do your own research.

Now I had two choices. I could say this is conspiracy and leave it, or I could seek truth. I delved into the topic. I started by watching the Netflix mini series called: Jeffery Epstein, Filthy Rich. I encourage you to do the same. It’s disturbing and writing this post has been probably one of the most difficult for me to write thus far.

According to the mini series, multimillionaire Jeffery Epstein systematically abused girls in his homes in both New York and Palm Beach, Florida. He recruited victims as young as 14 from area high schools and other places, offering underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash to give him “massages.” Then he would molest and sexually assault them. To maintain and increase his supply of victims, Epstein paid certain victims to recruit additional girls, typically their friends, to be similarly abused by Epstein. He essentially fashioned a pyramid scheme to create a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit. Epstein was a registered sex offender, and clearly a pedophile. He has a sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object.

The documentary references his social circle which included Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Andrew. It also mentions Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor, famous for defending celebrity clients such as OJ Simpson, and Leslie Wexner, the billionaire behind the Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain. Wexner hired Epstein in 1991 to manage his money, giving him vast power over his investment and tax affairs. It also mentions Woody Allan. His ex-girlfriend and longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was his chief recruiter of underage girls.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a felony charge of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor. A plea deal, overseen by Alexander Acosta, Trump’s former Secretary of Labour. At the time, Acosta was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Acosta made the deal without the knowledge of the lawyers for Epstein’s victims. With this deal, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in a county jail; serving 13 months, and granted work release, which allowed him to commute to an office outside the jail six days a week. Why was his sentence so lenient? Was it his connections to powerful people?

Epstein’s US Virgin Islands property and main residence, known as “Orgy Island” by locals, was referred to as “Little St. Jeff’s by Epstein, and is probably what he is most well-known for. The series explains how he forced young women, many underage, into participating in sex orgies with his famous friends.

On August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell. His death was officially ruled a suicide, however, there were violations of normal jail procedures on the night of Epstein’s death and alleged malfunction of two cameras in front of his cell, according to the Netflix series.

According to the article, Ghislaine Maxwell Bragged About ‘Pal’ Jeff Bezos, Epstein and Maxwell ran in the same circles as tech giants including Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Tesla chief Elon Musk. The article also says Epstein was introduced to Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg. Maxwell even spoke at the United Nations (see Ghislaine Maxwell Speaks at the United Nations). According to Vanity Fair’s article, How Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell’s Friendship Became a Scandal, Maxwell socialized with actor Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, an American former film producer and convicted sex offender.

My question is: What does it mean when Epstein, a convicted pedophile, and Maxwell, his right-hand person, have ties to billionaire tech moguls, Hollywood celebrities, high level politicians, and royalty? I saw a meme that someone posted that said:

The Media isn’t silent on Child Sex Trafficking because of the Children, it’s because of who the Customers are. Read that again please.

Could that be true? I am merely asking. It is interesting that MM, owned by billionaires, is silent on human sex trafficking. It is interesting that the Hollywood elites have been silent on the topic of human sex trafficking. They weren’t after George Floyd, the African American man who allegedly died by a police officer kneeling on his neck. Many celebrities in Hollywood tweeted, posted and spoke out against the atrocity (see 21 Celebrities Who Participated In The George Floyd Protests). Why are the Hollywood elites silent on human trafficking? Do they believe black lives matter more than children’s lives? I just want to know what is really going on. Don’t you?

Selective Pandemic Attention

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, and later as Osho, was an Indian mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was asked about 40 years ago during AIDS: How do I avoid an epidemic [pandemic]? “You’re asking the wrong question,” Osho replied, “the right question should be: How to avoid the fear of dying caused by the epidemic [pandemic]? Because it is very easy to avoid the virus, it is very difficult to avoid the fear in you and in the world. People will die more from this fear than from the epidemic (pandemic). There is NO virus in this world more dangerous than FEAR. Understand this fear, otherwise you will become a dead body before your body dies. It has nothing to do with the virus. The scary atmosphere you feel in these moments is collective madness…It has happened a thousand times and will continue to happen. And it will continue if you don’t understand the psychology of crowds and fear. You usually keep your fear at bay, but in the moment of collective madness, your consciousness can be completely lost. You won’t even know when you lost control of your fear. Then fear can make you do anything. In such a situation you can also take your own life or the lives of others. So much will happen in the coming times: Many people will kill themselves and many people will kill more. Attention, be mindful. Don’t watch news that triggers fear. Stop talking about the epidemic [pandemic], repeating the same thing over and over again is like self-hypnosis. Fear is a kind of self-hypnosis. This idea will cause chemical changes in the body. If you repeat the same idea over and over again, a chemical change is triggered that can sometimes be so toxic that it can kill you. During an epidemic [pandemic], energy around the world becomes irrational. This way you can fall into a black hole anytime. Meditation then becomes a protective aura into which no negative energy can penetrate.” (Source: Journalist Eye)

Osho’s answer to the questions makes a lot of sense. Are we being ruled and controlled by fear of this pandemic? I wrote about this in my last post The Real Pandemic. The mainstream news media is solely focused on the pandemic, instilling fear into the masses. As Osho said, “Don’t watch news that triggers fear.” My question is: Is this intentional? Are there people who want to keep us in fear? That is the question that needs answering.

It reminds me of something I (#blogger #blog #somseason #authors #YA) used to do with my students when teaching about the brain. Watch the video below and follow its directions.

The first time I saw this video, I failed to see the gorilla, and the majority of my students did as well. When we focus exclusively on one thing, we fail to see what is really happening. Could people be so focused on Covid; so caught up in the fear of dying from Covid, that they miss things? When we’re solely focused on Covid, we fail to notice that more people are dying of suicide and drug overdoses than Covid deaths. Isn’t this what Osho said, “Many people will kill themselves…” I mentioned in my last post, the US director for the Center for Disease Control, Robert Redfield, says,

“We’re seeing far greater suicides’ and ‘deaths from drug overdose’ than deaths from COVID, and prolonged school closures may be more dangerous than coronavirus.”

Interestingly, the mainstream media is relatively silent on this topic. Why is that? Do they want us fearful? I’m merely asking the question.

When we exclusively focus on the pandemic, we fail to notice that our rights and freedoms are slowly being taken away from us. We no longer have the freedom to gather in large groups. We no longer have the freedom to enter many places without having to wear a face mask. We no longer are able to run our businesses and schools as usual. Numerous countries have suspended fundamental democratic rights such as freedom of assembly, freedom of movement and protections against warrantless searches and warrantless arrests (source Forbes).

When we’re solely focused on Covid, we fail to notice that our democracies are threatened. In my province (Alberta) the government passed Bill 32 which reduces picketing rights, limits arbitrators’ discretion, lowers the legal age of work to 13 years old, and provided employers with opportunities to evade paying overtime premiums. According to research from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, at least 56 countries have delayed national or regional elections due to the coronavirus pandemic (source Infogaphic). Here in Canada, the House of Commons voted to suspend full parliamentary sitting until September. The argument is the virus is too dangerous for elections and for parliament to sit. Is this pandemic so dangerous that democracy has to be suspended, or even removed?

When we exclusively focus on the pandemic, we fail to notice that humanity is more divided than ever; pro-maskers verses anti-maskers, pro opening the economy verses keeping it closed, those who believe the media verses those who are accused of being conspiracy theorists, and pro police verses those who advocate defunding the police. TMZ reports that the pro-police group, Back the Blue, and some Black Lives Matter protesters brawled in Fort Collins, Colorado. It reports the Back the Blue crowd went after the BLM protesters. If ever there was a time for humanity to be united and working together, it is now.

There is something else we’re missing when we solely focus on Covid; something that I have been reading a lot about recently, and once again the mainstream media is silent about it. What I’m referring to is human trafficking and missing children. According to The National Crime Information Center (NCIC), 448 090 people under 21 and 161 108 over 21 went missing in 2019 in the US. In Canada, with a much smaller population of 37 million (2019) 40, 425 reports of missing children in Canada was reported by the RCMP using numbers provided by the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) in 2019. (source the Missing Children Society of Canada). One child missing is too many as far as I am concerned.

Fact Retriever’s article, 56 Little-Known Human Trafficking Facts, says:

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years, over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking.
Nearly 80% of human trafficking is for sex, and 19% is for labor exploitation.
Human trafficking around the globe is estimated to generate a profit of anywhere from $9 billion to $31.6 billion. Half of these profits are made in industrialized countries.
Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be sold repeatedly.
Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years.

Now I can only speak for myself, but these statistics are alarming! This is bullying (#bullying #antibullying) on a grand scale. What I don’t understand is why this is not being reported by mainstream media. I do not understand why there is not a huge outcry on this planet, like the one we saw with ‘black lives matter,’ over missing children and human trafficking. Black lives matter! Indigenous lives matter! Don’t Children’s lives matter? (#ChildrensLivesMatter #SaveOurChildren #ChildTrafficing)

The Real Pandemic

A commentary on the affects of pandemic fear

I (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) was recently sent a song video called ‘Covid 19’ that, in my opinion, speaks of the real pandemic. There is a line in the song that says “fear is the real pandemic.” A line that jumped out at me is “Let’s kill the fear that the news spreads.” Here is the song I am talking about.

What I find most interesting is that the mainstream media is focused on Covid and the alleged deaths caused by the virus, when there is a far worse pandemic happening. Covid restrictions and government control is mentally harming people. The truth is, fear is causing suicides, drug overdoses, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and bullying which all kill more people than the virus. The song refers to a pandemic of fear; that is the real pandemic. Let’s address how this media fear mongering is affecting the masses.

First, there is a huge increase in bullying (#bullying #antibullying). I’ve written about this in previous posts. Most recently relates to the mask debate where masking is dividing people into two groups: Those who feel safe when they, and those around them, are wearing masks, and those who want the freedom to choose. The differences of views between these groups results in bullying. Check out some of my previous posts for further clarification.

Second, is the increase in drug overdoses. CBC News’ article, B.C. records highest number of fatal overdoses in a single month, with 170 deaths, reports that British Columbia’s (BC) Coroners said May had the highest total ever recorded for a single month in provincial history, and more people have died from drug overdoses than from COVID-19 in B.C. all year. The article has a graph comparing Covid deaths to drug overdose deaths in 2020. It is quite striking to see the comparison. Partnership to End Addictions’ July article, Drug Overdoes Increasing and Accelerating During COVID-19 Pandemic, says this about the US:

…suspected overdoses soared 18% in March compared with last year, 29% in April and 42% in May, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program, a federal program that collects data from ambulance teams, police and hospitals.

The US director for the Center for Disease Control, Robert Redfield, says, “We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID.” (source)

Another CBC article, Pandemic worsens Canada’s deadly opioid overdose epidemic, says Alberta, BC and Ontario have all seen increases in overdoses. It makes sense. When the media spreads fear, people become stressed and anxious, and use more substances to cope.

Third, is the increase in drug and alcohol use during Covid. Forbes’ article, Covid-19 Is Helping Make 2020 A Record Year for Cannabis Sales; a headline that says it all. The University of Southern California has an article, Pandemic drives alcohol sales — and raises concerns about substance abuse, which again isn’t surprising because fear perpetrated by the media drives people to use drugs to cope with the stress. 70 per cent of Australians report drinking more alcohol than usual since the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia (source). More than 1 in 5 Canadians who drink alcohol and have been staying at home report drinking once a day since the beginning of May (source). Clearly, Covid is causing a substance abuse problem, and substance abuse gradually kills.

Fourth, is the suicide problem. National Review’s article, Lockdown Suicides on the Rise, quotes CDC director Robert Redfield as saying,

“There has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools. We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID.”

Another article, Suicide deaths higher than COVID-19 deaths amid lockdown, CDC chief warns, says the same thing. Mr. Redfields is quoted saying, “We’re seeing far greater suicides’ and ‘deaths from drug overdose’ than deaths from COVID, and prolonged school closures may be more dangerous than coronavirus.”

New York Post’s, California doctor claims he’s seen more deaths by suicide than coronavirus, validates what the CDC director says.

An August research paper titled, Projected increases in suicide in Canada as a consequence of COVID-19, conducted an analysis of suicide and unemployment rates between 2000 and 2018 in Canada. Suicide mortality in 2019 was predicted using the 2019 unemployment rate of 5.7%. Suicide mortality in 2020 and 2021 were projected for three scenarios of change in unemployment rates: no change (i.e., 5.9% in 2020 and 6.0% in 2021 as published in the 2019 Federal Budget), moderate increase (i.e., 7.5% in 2020, 7.2% in 2021), and extreme increase (i.e., 16.6% in 2020, 14.9% in 2021). Clearly, with all the unemployment happening because of Covid lockdowns, Canada’s suicides will increase.

Fifth, is the increase in domestic violence. The Foundation for Economic Educations has an article titled, Domestic Violence More Than Doubled Under Lockdowns, New Study Finds. The National Bureau of Economic Research, an American private non-profit research organization, released a paper which analyzed government-mandated lockdowns in India. It found evidence of a 131% increase in complaints of domestic violence in May 2020 in “red zone districts, which are those that experienced the strictest lockdown measures, relative to districts that had less strict measures (“green zones”). Canada’s Globe and Mail News outlet reports that at least nine women and girls were killed in domestic homicides in Canada during the pandemic as of May 12 (source). I’m sure that number has increased since.

The Medical Press says the COVID-19 pandemic has led to higher levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and psychological trauma among American adults during the early months of its spread; that’s according to three new studies published by University of Arkansas. The article also says;

“Fear is a pretty consistent predictor…What we found is that fear, coupled with a range of social vulnerabilities, consistently and significantly predict a range of mental health outcomes.”

The Star’s article, COVID-19 having ‘profound effect’ on Canadian lives, especially psychologically: survey, says Canadians have anxiety about their loved ones’ health, fears of Canada’s hospital system becoming overwhelmed, and an alarming number of women (one in 10) are afraid of violence erupting in their home.

A RedState article says the head of CDC admits lockdown is killing way more Americans than COVID. This is the real pandemic. If this is indeed true, which seems to be the case according to my research, then why is the mainstream media solely focused on Covid numbers as opposed to the psychological trauma that Covid restrictions are causing. Do they have an agenda? Is there intent to spread fear, and if so, why? Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Is that what is happening? One has to wonder if the virus is as deadly as the media wants us to believe. It seems to me that the real pandemic is one of fear; a pandemic that is killing and harming more people than the Covid virus.

As the song says, “Let’s kill the fear that the news spreads.” It is very simple; STOP WATCHING THE NEWS, because as long as the mainstream news spreads its fear–the biggest bully of all–society will continue to become more mentally unwell. That leads to more people experiencing bullying because people are pitted against one another, and some people die because of it. Suicides, drug overdoses, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence are all on the increase, and even the CDC is admitting more people die from the fear spread by the news than the virus itself. Why aren’t we hearing more about this in the news? This is the real pandemic!