Pentecost 15: It’s Dark, I Know
From the rising of the sun to its going down, Jesus' name is to be praised. ~Psalm 113
It’s Dark, I Know
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is the Biden Administration’s new czar of monkeypox.
It’s a crisis, don’t you know?
The Harvard grad with a penchant for pentagrams is regular guest in the LBTQommunism swingfest. He’s been seen through the years strutting his stuff at pride parades. His ink, including the satanic star, sports an animal’s corpse, a serpent, and a head with three eyes. He is clearly just what a country under dire threat from semi-fascism and a pandemic of the unvaccinated needs to bring us back together.
“I learned my bedside manner from East Village drag queens,” he told the Atlantic in 2014. Maybe that is also where he also came up with the idea for his satanic gym “Monster Club + Studio”? The Manhattan workout facility boasts fetish leather in the lounge, an eleven-foot tall light up pentagram in the yoga studio and Day of the Dead garnishes at the juice bar.
"We don’t worship the devil, we’re not Satan followers,” a female co-owner told the New York Post. “We’re just sort of taking that energy and making it more positive.”
A champion of “safer crystal meth use” from his days as a New York City health commissioner, Daskalakis was the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention prior to his August 2 appointment to the White House. But don’t let his ties to Fauci worry you. It’s not about big pharma profits. It’s about anti-racism.
“To end the epidemic,” he said, “We must have a clear focus on the STI and hepatitis [epidemics] and we must address the systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia that hamper our progress.”
“You’re going to write about hope?” my wife asked me as I sat down to plot out Mad Mondays tonight.
“I’m going to write about truth,” I said.
Sometimes there is nothing you can do but pray.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
The Mad Christian
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In this week's edition..
"Productivity debt"
COVID update
Martha's Vineyard meltdown
Redeeming the time
Two weeks to "stop the spread" really has changed things. One thing that may be changed forever is the workplace. You might remember the Great Resignation, which saw droves of people change jobs, retire early, start businesses or quit outright.
The new buzz word is "quiet quitting" – what Gallup calls "disengagement" – in the workplace. People just don't want to do more than is required. Like the Great Resignation, there are many contributing factors – burn out, disillusionment and confusion over what is expected. Some employees see disengagement as a sort of soft industrial action, making sure the boss realises how valuable they are because of all they used to do.
At the same time that workers are difficult to find and hard to keep, The New York Timesreports (here without paywall) that workplace surveillance is on the rise. When a chunk of the corporate workforce was working from home during lockdowns, employers were keen to make sure no one was goofing off on the company's dime. With inflation, margins are tight and businesses are keen to recover their pandemic losses.
Amazon was criticized last year for its elaborate system of tracking "time off task". It was a bid to meet promised delivery times but also, as it turns out, identify anyone who looked like they might unionize. But even white collar workers are now finding that their hard work is increasingly being condensed down to a "productivity score".
Oliver Burkeman is a journalist who writes about his attempts at being productive, contemplating how to best wring the most value out of our 4000 weeks on this earth (his way of quantifying a lifespan). In a recent post, he observes that a lot of us begin each day as if we have a “'productivity debt', which we must struggle to pay off over the course of the day, if we’re to feel by the evening like we’ve earned our spot on the planet." An interesting observation.
It seems that he is onto something. In modern workplaces, everyone has their KPIs – from the CEO to janitors, managers to car park attendants. It may just be busywork, but at least we can cross some things off our to-do list! We don't like being given a "score", but the drive to feel we are useful, displayed in our "doing" is a strong one - ask any mom or homemaker!
There was once a bumper sticker which warned (or perhaps joked) "Jesus is coming! Look busy." Something inherent in fallen men wants to stack achievements all the way to heaven, assuming we'll be judged according to what we did. But we don't really have a "productivity debt", our problem is much deeper.
Burkeman writes elsewhere that keeping a "done" list is a good way of recording what you've achieved. When it comes to the sin debt owed by every man, Christians know that this is what is found in baptism, in the Supper and in the Word - a "done" list. In the Cross of Christ, it is finished!
A big lie
We at Mad Mondays haven't reported on the pandemic for a couple of weeks. Life has continued on and, unless you're online or watching the news, there is little evidence of the past two years. While the slow drip of clarity seems to be corroding a hole in the narrative, there is still a whole lot of obfuscation going on and people continue to be harmed by half-truths and lies.
Dr. Harvey Risch, an MD and epidemiology professor at Yale, was recently asked what he viewed as the biggest lie of the pandemic and his answer is a great summary of how we got here. Professor Risch says that the demonization of hydroxychloroquine early in 2020 set the tone for the rest of the pandemic. He is baffled that medical practitioners acted as if there was nothing that could be done to treat COVID and let people die rather than use cheap and readily available drugs and supplements. That all this happened while pharmaceutical companies enriched themselves with a patented vaccine is unconscionable.
Risch was blackballed by the medical establishment and media early in the pandemic for insisting that hydroxychloroquine was a safe and effective treatment for early-stage COVID. He also spoke out against the media obsession with randomized control trials. Although such trials are handy when you can get them, Risch explains that unless studies are well-designed and include tens of thousands of participants, randomization is of no benefit. It is interesting to watch a heated TV interview with Dr. Risch from two years ago, remembering that COVID vaccines were not subject to the FDA's own "gold standard".
Doctors continue to speak out against medical tyranny, with one group calling for an end to COVID vaccines and more investigation into safety. While most places are lifting restrictions, California's lawmakers have sent a bill to Governor Newsom which would see doctors deregistered for offering advice outside of the approved medical "consensus". Elsewhere, concerned doctors who believe that physicians are too influenced by pharmaceutical interests have formed a telemedicine company.
In other COVID news:
A new study of randomized trial data from Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA COVID vaccines claims that the risk of "severe adverse events" associated with the drugs may be as high as 36%. (Science Direct)
Denmark has stopped offering COVID vaccines to anyone under fifty years of age. Healthcare and aged-care workers are still required to take booster shots. (Western Standard)
Embalmers are finding blood clots in the blood of the dead. Teenager in Ohio has to rethink his football career after six feet of blood clots were removed from his body. (Epoch Times, WTOL)
Twitter sleuth, Eugyppius says a study from Italy is evidence that Sars-CoV-2 outbreak started earlier than Wuhan cases. (Substack)
A quick tour
The governors of Texas and Florida showed they weren't kidding around last week. Governor Abbott dropped busloads of illegal immigrants outside the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor de Santis flew 50 people to the wealthy enclave of Martha's Vineyard. The Twitterverse was equal parts freaking out and smug as the MV community rallied, fed them, and then sent them away with hugs and tears to a military facility at Cape Cod. Community spokesmen chastised the governors for using migrants as pawns in their "sadistic" political stunt.
It certainly was a stunt, but it has forced a conversation which many lawmakers and elites seem reluctant to have. The White House continues to insist that the southern US border is secure, but those on the ground say that people are still pouring in (here and here). The fire warden of one border town said their mortuary is overwhelmed with bodies plucked from the Rio Grande.
Although the people of Martha's Vineyard insist they "stand with migrants" and are against racism, when it comes to really keeping their word, it proved too much. Kyle Mann of the Babylon Bee made an interesting observation. More than just promoting virtue signaling, a woke worldview deludes its adherents into feeling they have done good just by supporting the "collective systems that purportedly help people".
Tipping your hat to the right stripe of political action exonerates you from showing real mercy or sacrificing for a neighbor. The harm created by their grandiose ideas affects those less fortunate, while they remain shielded by wealth and power. It is like the indulgences of Luther's time, like the Pharisees of Jesus day, who contended that they didn't need to look after their parents since they had the loftier claim of giving to God.
We gotta pray against these manmade religions! True repentance and true charity will only come with the recognition of real sin. That can only come through the hearing of the word of Christ, the Scripture which is able to make men wise for salvation. Pray that politicians will put aside their bluster and deal with the crisis as they ought.
Hey Hey we're the Bureau!
The FBI continues to be in headlines... Mickey Dolenz, the last remaining member of The Monkees filed to access a dossier on the band. The FBI has a history of tracking rock stars, but The Monkees? The Bureau document said these "beatnik types" were using subliminal "anti-US messages on the war in Vietnam" during their concerts and in their lyrics.
The latest court filing from Special Counsel John Durham revealed that the FBI funded a disinformation campaign against former President Trump. Margot Cleveland reporting at The Federalist says that when it comes to "Russian collusion", the FBI should admit the call is coming from inside the house.
What is clear is that those who wish to see America, indeed the world, pushed in a progressive direction are doing their homework. And we should be wise to their schemes, and work against those who would destroy the church, the family and freedom.
Life and marriage
Indiana's near-total abortion ban has gone into effect , while West Virginia's governor, Jim Justice signed off on a similar law in his state. Senator Lindsay Graham has written a bill that would see abortion banned nationally after 15 weeks pregnancy. Meanwhile, the US Army says they will consider requests from soldiers who don't want to be stationed in pro-life states.
County school board in Florida has agreed to comply with state law, saying they won't hold their planned LGBTQ month.
After floating a bill to codify gay marriage into law, Democrats have said they will delay a vote on it until after the mid-term elections. Supporters of the bill say extra time will give them opportunity to garner support. Given that a number of Republicans are rather squishy on the definition of marriage, it may be time to write to your Reps!
So long, Facebook?
Facebook is under fire once again after a spokesman admitted that the social media platform does censor "constitutionally-protected" speech. The New York Post reported that Facebook spied on the private messages of users who questioned the results of the 2020 US election and reported them to the Department of Justice. As it stands, the market may sort it out. CNBC says that large companies are removing Facebook log in buttons on their sites as consumers demand better privacy.
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Texas law which prohibits social media platforms from "censoring users based on political viewpoints". Commentators believe the case will eventually reach the Supreme Court.
Pitching in
Kanye West is doing his bit for the economy. The rapper announced he was cutting tieswith Gap clothing and intends to manufacture his designs in America. Yeezy objects to offshoring production to China and in his characteristically humble style, he said "Everyone knows that I’m the leader, I’m the king. A king can’t live in someone else’s castle. A king has to make his own castle." True dat.
While he's busy saving America, Ye built a school. It has teachers and students but is not registered with education authorities. It may be a bit like his presidential run, but we wish him well..
CNBC is reporting that the stock market had its worst day in quite a while last week. The White House assures us that prices have essentially been "flat" for two months, but Barron's says that the market is just facing up to the reality that Federal measures have not tamed inflation and "recession risk" is high.
AmTrak suspended all long haul freight trains earlier in the week, as a rail strike looked inevitable. The White House announced they have reached an agreement with rail unions and companies, avoiding a shut down of key freight services.
In other financial news...
Visa, AmEx and Mastercard to implement a new merchant code to make it easier to track gun and ammunition purchases (Bloomberg)
White House makes more provisions for potential Central Bank Digital Currency (White House)
President Biden is limiting chip exports to China (Reuters)
Special memories
We came across a heartwarming story from CNN. A Canadian couple Edith Lemay and Sebastien Pelletier found that three of their four children would likely lose their eyesight in adulthood, due to a genetic condition. Once they grappled with the diagnosis, the Edith and Sebastien decided to trip around the world with their children, filling their minds with "visual memories". Edith says, "There are beautiful places everywhere in the world, so it doesn't really matter where we go". We may not be facing loss of vision, but it makes us want to get outside and see some of God's creation!
In other health news...
A new study claims that gas stoves may lead to childhood asthma and cancers in adults
President Biden hopes to halve cancer diagnoses by 2025
Headlines from far away
Armenia and Azerbaijan have engaged in a fresh round of fighting over disputed territory (AP)
The UN says that as many as 50 million people are currently in slavery globally (Blaze News)
Putin is being criticized by a group of Russian officials (Axios)
India's Prime Minister Modi says Russia should end its war on Ukraine (Reuters)
Iran: Woman died after police tortured her for not wearing her hijab properly (PJMedia)
Sweden: conservative coalition government wins election (Remix)
John Michael Jones Gets a Life is produced for Mad ⳩ Mondays by E. Darwin Hartshorn. Episodes can also be found on Tuesday, along with previous episodes, on Bunny Trail Junction at bunny-trail.com.
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
🔺 Gravity-defying street performer
🛳️ Where cruise ships go to die
🪙 How to vanish a coin
🏁 F1 drivers try driving backwards
😍 Armadillo going into his shell
🍞 When America banned sliced bread
🌕 Moonshot: Dubai's newest crazy idea for a hotel
🛟 WWII rescue buoys were miniature floating hostels
🏂 Pyrenees snowboarders slide over sand blown from the Sahara
♟️ World of chess is a-buzz after world champion loses
👔 Fancy way of tying a necktie
A Good Word: Links from the Show Notes
Without Flesh: Why the church is dying even though Jesus is still alive
In American Christianity, the "change or die" refrain has become a creed. Unless the Church finds a way to adapt to a changing culture, Christianity is fully and rightly doomed. Our times are nothing new. And Jesus gave us a specific plan.
Not a guess. Not a gimmick. Not a gamble.
A plan.
"Do this," He said.
Promo of Friends
