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Friction Matters

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142 Comments

  1. Who chose this symbol, only visible with ultraviolet light, for under-12 national digital identity card in Belgium?
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2-YvFvX0AU3Tkz?format=jpg

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_identity_card
    Belgian eID: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkVeVR0aIiM

    EU Digital Identity proposal:
    June 2021: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_2663
    2019-2024: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/european-digital-identity_en

    https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/eu-set-unveil-plans-bloc-wide-digital-wallet-ft-2021-06-01/
    “The app will allow citizens across the EU to securely access a range of private and public services with a single online ID …The digital wallet will securely store payment details and passwords and allow citizens from all 27 countries to log onto local government websites or pay utility bills using a single recognised identity … Brussels is engaged in talks with member states to provide guidelines on technical standards for rollout of the digital wallet, which is expected to be fully operational in about a year…”

    1. Proposal includes integration of online (e.g. website login) and offline (e.g. payments). T&C will need review to see which entities (private and public) have access to the authentication logs, which would show where/when ID was used. Are there conditions for selective revocation of access? The Belgian national eID video above includes health use cases.

  2. Tonnes to talk about this week? The Fauci news is incredible – so little coverage. Could this be the start of an unravelling?

    1. Unlikely, they are slapping Fauci and Gates around to distract people from focusing on the children injections and consent changes, the mandates and the passports. The implementation of total control does not need Fauci or Gates. They need the mandates and passports implemented. Piling on Fauci is much more entertaining. Clever strategy.

      1. What is clear to me if the past is prologue is that Fauci perjured himself and will he be arrested for it? Not at all. I don’t believe anything serious is going to happen to him, but perhaps on a positive note, it might wake up one more person out there who honestly believed in him, one can only hope.

        One thing is noticeable to me in my neighborhood is that nobody is wearing any masks anymore. It might not sound like much since Abbott rescinded the mask mandate a couple of months ago, but even after he did that, people were still walking around afraid of each other and wearing masks and local governments were still mandating them…until Abbott said he was going to start fining local governments that continued to mandate masks, between that pressure and the popping of the Saint Fauci balloon, now people in my city are behaving normally. In fact, I had to reluctantly take Lyft the other day and the driver was not even wearing a mask and did not care that I was not wearing a mask, which was awesome to me, because Lyft and Uber is still demanding that their drivers and customers still wear masks, so it was a nice FU to them between the driver and myself.

      2. pull gates and fauci before it’s too too messy, insert new talking heads to maintain the narrative.

        oh dear, I had not thought of that, hopes dashed for enlightened re-appraisal.

    2. The entire virology research / industry has known this was gain of function. And if you follow the money, the covering of tracks becomes very obvious. This post lays it out fairly directly. https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=242588

      Left out is some kind of US/Ft Detrick link which could easily become part of this story.

    2. That Pfizer Confidential PDF on lipid nanoparticle accumulation is referencing mice, i.e. animal studies. I thought they skipped animal trials? If that was obtained from Japanese FOIA, could a USA/EU FOIA or lawsuit obtain full documentation for the animal trials?

      1. Looks to me like what is coming out of the Japanese FOIA and government is that the Pfizer injection is likely to cause infertility and that is clearly known by Pfizer and the governments. More confirmation to support Dr. Yeadon. .

          2. Sorry 🙁

            Didn’t pay much attention to those clips when watching the entire series, but they turned up today when I was looking for Utopia samples. Looking at them in isolation, I noticed the “argument” depended on alleged energy shortages (e.g. fossil fuels), but failed to mention new energy sources like solar-beamed-to-earth. Just another book-talking narrative of convenience, as if any narrative could justify those topics of conversation.

            Tangent: while unsuccessfully looking for an example of the previous Belgian Kids-ID card, found this short video on tamper-proof technology (including ultraviolet) for ID cards, which lists the “John Doe” address as Utopia City, Utopia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGdAclh214. Also found shady websites selling Photoshop templates for Belgian ID cards.

          3. Just WOW. Scripted world we live in. I always say in America fact is fiction and fiction is fact.

    3. Also, what about those of us who didn’t take it, in an emergency situation receive blood transfusions from those who are vaxxed…seems like another way to get it in us without our consent. ?

  4. Hey everyone!
    Truth Stream Media just dropped a new Teaser:
    “Dark Investments” from their upcoming Central Banking Series!
    https://youtu.be/3Dp6WF5b-Dc

    Their previous film from several years ago “The Minds of Men” about the history of mind control is especially relevant today. It’s worth watching again if you havent done so lately.
    Here’s the link:
    https://youtu.be/LQucESRF3Sg

  5. Another food for thought regarding CBDCs. At least among the software developer community, CBDCs will not be accepted just like the Petro was not accepted in Venezuela. Why? Because while Bitcoin may be the prototype for money used to control us, Bitcoin can only be mined into existence, thats where the trust in it comes from, not just that its private and decentralized, there is the, you cannot produce them out of thin air piece of it.

    Without that piece, CBDCs would be a joke among the software developer community and blockchain developer communities. While I am sure a ton of software developers went to work for JP Morgan this past decade to develop a blockchain for them, we all gotta eat right. Anyone in that community that is or used to be a miner will not adopt or take CBDCs seriously. Even if they are a holder of Bitcoins, does not mean they will trust CBDCs. Why? Because the Fed has a reputation of creating what in the early Twentieth Century was called “book-entry money”, in other words money that only exists once they arbitrarily enter it into a ledger. True die-hard Bitcoin fans of a decade ago when Bitcoin was only worth two dollars, will not be buying into CBDCs.

    So with Bitcoin it has to be mined into existence, with a labor-backed currency, it has to be worked into existence, in other words someone has to perform a service for someone else for it to exist, but with CBDCs, how does it come into existence? Can anyone share a CBDC white paper that explains that? What is it backed by? How does it come into existence? Even if its forced on people, especially if its forced on people, there will be blowback, especially from die-hard true Bitcoin fans, because that would be totally different from how Bitcoin works. How would it be more successful than Venezuelas Petro without the use of force and coercion, I don’t see it. It is going to get the middle finger from software engineers who truly understand what made Bitcoin successful in its humble beginnings before it just became another asset to be traded on Wall Street.

    I am sure the Anglo-American Establishment to quote Carrol Quigleys book will come up with another Masonic game to get the most uneducated of us on board. Just like I noticed that among becoming part of the Covidian Cult are people who have never read a single medical journal in their life or taken a single capsule of Vitamin C. Education is so important.

    1. If 2025 is target date for rollout of a “final solution”, there is time for multiple prototypes which could converge at some point on the spectrum between 2010 “crypto” (bitcoin & derivatives) and 2020 “CBDCs”. Always good to have a few technological and policy strawmen to collapse in the face of public feedback.

      The history of both currencies and “credits at the company store” is that adoption will depend on utility. If supply chains can be centralized, then supply chains can mandate a small set of officially-sanctioned payments. If (big IF) supply chains can be decentralized, then individual nodes of each chain can choose freedom-enhancing payment systems.

    2. take a look at how over the past 3 years, china has successfully clamped down on cryptocurrencies which would compete with the mainstream financial system and the digital yuan.

      https://www.loc.gov/law/help/cryptocurrency/china.php

      “In the wake of the regulatory measures the government has instituted since September 2017, Bitcoin traded with Chinese yuan has dropped from over 90% of global Bitcoin trading to under 1%.”

      and this just recently:

      https://qz.com/2013354/chinas-inner-mongolia-issues-tough-rules-on-bitcoin-mining/

      “Under the rules, big data centers and cloud computing firms will see preferential policies from the government withdrawn, while telecommunication companies, internet firms, and even cyber cafes will have their business license revoked or operation suspended if the entities are found to have engaged with crypto mining, according to a notice (link in Chinese) from Inner Mongolia’s Development and Reform Commission. Additionally, companies or individuals that are found to have used cryptocurrency to conduct money laundering will be handed over to the judicial authorities, while government employees who have either participated or facilitated the practice will face scrutiny from the country’s anti-corruption agencies.”

      say you are a bitcoin bro, but now you can be charged with money laundering for trading bitcoin, and no financial institution will accept it anyway; moreover the value plummets as normal joes pull their money out due to the new regulations; and within months it’s just you and a few other bitcoin bros engaging in easily traceable /through internet traffic or electric consumption/ illegal activity that no longer has such a good margin.

      actually it’s amazing how quickly and efficiently this was done. this is one of several examples where the US govt will follow china’s lead. the world really has changed, although you wouldn’t know it watching CNN.

      1. Bitcoin can be brought to zero in less than 24 hours if and when the central bankers want it to.

        1. I suspect this is true of any and all crypto-currencies. Am I correct?

        2. It looks like TOR may be in the crosshairs at the moment. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
          https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/paypal-shuts-down-long-time-tor-supporter-no-recourse
          “Larry Brandt, a long-time supporter of internet freedom, used his nearly 20-year-old PayPal account to put his money where his mouth is. His primary use of the payment system was to fund servers to run Tor nodes, routing internet traffic in order to safeguard privacy and avoid country-level censorship. Now Brandt’s PayPal account has been shut down, leaving many questions unanswered and showing how financial censorship can hurt the cause of internet freedom around the world.”
          If they can take down crypto, nothing is safe.

    3. Jerome Powell has said that the Fed will go to congress to get authorizing legislation for CBDCs in the U.S. It’s a very safe bet that the resulting statute will confer full legal tender status on U.S. CBDC. If so, creditors will have no choice but to accept U.S. CBDC. CBDC will also be acceptable for payment of federal taxes and fees etc.

      Legal tender status means basically that if a debtor offers to retire a debt with a legal tender, the creditor must accept it or risk waiving his right to collecting that debt.

      1. You may be interested in an interview, paper and articles by Marcelo Prates, a central bank lawyer associated with the Brazilian central bank and Duke U:

        Coindesk articles (9 through May 2021) on CBDCs: https://www.coindesk.com/author/marcelo-m-prates
        Video (can be sped up): https://ryanresearch.substack.com/p/central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc
        Paper (in peer review) for Ohio Law Journal: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3781269
        Twitter: https://twitter.com/mmprts

          1. Moral-hazard relativism.

               Make America (Boys Of) Brazil Again

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyzNQfaQR8
            “A world divided into progress and devastation. The link between the two sides – Offshore and Inland – is a rigorous and painstaking system called The Process. Everyone in Inland has a chance to go through The Process to live a better life in Offshore. But only 3% make it through. 3% is the first Brazilian original series of Netflix.”

      2. Somewhat tangential :
        https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/lagarde-powell-clash-over-role-central-banks-fighting-climate-change
        “”We’re undertaking a broad plan of careful analysis, significant public engagement, and great transparency with regard to our role in addressing climate-related financial risks. You asked about monetary policy, well there’s no question that climate change…can effect the outlook for the economy, can affect monetary policy…but I would say that today climate change is not something we consider when setting monetary policy. We are exploring what climate change’s implications are for our supervisory, regulatory and financial stability regulatory facilities,” Powell said.

        Tett responded by doubling down, asking Powell “you don’t think you have a mandate to act as a cheerleader…” for policy choices that the private sector can use to fight climate change?

        Yet, Powell insisted “we are not, and we do not seek to be, climate policy makers as such. We have a very specific mandate, and precious independence…which has served the public well…that’s not up to us…but nonetheless I do think our work can indirectly educate the public and also I would think inform other parts of the government in the actions they are assigned to assess.””
        “Of course, if the Fed changes its mind and decides that it is, in fact, obligated to engineer monetary policy with an eye toward supporting Biden’s “green agenda”, he could simply hike interest rates, which would hammer the coal industry.”

  6. In the prototyping toolbox for new city-states are “charter cities”, following in the footsteps of the special economic zones of Hong Kong, Dubai and Shenzen.

    http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj/about
    “Founded by the Institute for Competitive Governance in 2019, the Journal of Special Jurisdictions is an international peer-reviewed journal founded to advance knowledge of Special Economic Zones and other special jurisdictions … Worldwide, there are about 4,000 Zones spanning 130 countries. This number continues to grow. SEZs are one of the most consistently used tools for economic development and have become a mainstay for national policy. Special jurisdictions are not limited to SEZs. These include Charter Cities, indigenous tribes, and private communities. Additionally, they include non-territorial systems, such as alternative dispute resolution systems and online or Distributed Ledger Platforms.”.

    Non-Territorial Governance (2020)
    http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj/issue/download/1/Special%20Issue%20on%20Non-territorial%20Governance

    Honduras ZEDEs (2021)
    http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj/issue/download/4/Special%20Issue%20on%20the%20Honduran%20ZEDEs

    Prospectus on Prospera (April 2021)
    https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/prospectus-on-prospera
    “Próspera plans to be the first polity to allow complete medical reciprocity with all developed nations (plus Honduras). That means if you’re an American/French/Japanese/etc doctor with a valid American/French/Japanese/etc medical license, you are licensed to practice medicine in Próspera … Próspera has 100% drug approval reciprocity. If a drug has been approved in an OECD country (eg by the FDA), it’s approved in Próspera … you can choose what country’s regulations you want to operate under, with your options being Honduras or a list of Best Practice Peer Countries including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Dubai, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America”

  7. ASK CATHERINE:

    How do we parse the lifestyle differences between the “rock ‘n roll” strategy and building resilient local systems?

    Farming, for example, is a notoriously immobile lifestyle. Yet if everyone decides to become a cosmopolitan vagabond until the dust settles, there will be no resilient local environments to retreat to.

    This is especially prescient for the youth, as many people “holding down the fort” in agricultural rural communities are unfortunately elderly and have sent their kids off to serve Babylon in one way or another.

    Is there a formula or a set of conditions that you use to guide your decision to stand and build vs. rock ‘n roll?

    1. Related topic: case studies of TIs who do/did not have economic mobility.

      1. Rich,

        What is the acronym “TI” in this context?

        Would be interested to learn!

        1. “Targeted Individuals”. See the “Deep State Tactics” 2019 Wrap up reports:

          https://home.solari.com/deep-state-tactics-101-part-i-with-catherine-austin-fitts/
          https://home.solari.com/deep-state-tactics-101-part-ii-with-catherine-austin-fitts/
          https://home.solari.com/deep-state-tactics-101-part-iii-with-catherine-austin-fitts/
          https://home.solari.com/deep-state-tactics-101-part-iv/
          https://home.solari.com/deep-state-tactics-101-part-v/
          https://home.solari.com/the-2019-annual-wrap-up-deep-state-tactics-101-parts-ix-x/
          https://home.solari.com/the-2019-annual-wrap-up-deep-state-tactics-101/

          https://youarenotmybigbrother.blog/2019/06/08/bigger-than-snowden-whistleblower-website-taken-down-fb-page-has-over-18000-likes-18000-followers/

          2. Ahh, thank you. Very familiar with the targeted individual phenomenon, just not used to seeing it as an acronym 🙂

          3. > just not used to seeing it as an acronym ?

            A little friction for bots putting in a hard day’s work 🙂

    2. Joshua

      That is a fantastic question I wondered about as well. Came to the conclusion that having real food and a like minded community is a solution to avoid most of the unpredictability. Having a plan B is the hard part…

      1. it’s pretty simple about plan B – you guys mentioned it a few weeks back. get an RV!

        when the whim strikes you, go out and see nature! depending where you choose to go, you can rent an RV space for between 500- 3000 USD a month (rural nowhere to beachfront LA), utilities included.

        ask your neighbors to tend to your garden or water your lawn or whatever while you are out exploring nature. come back when you are ready. that’s one idea for a plan b.

        1. Was thinking more about long term. RVs sound great, but how does one create something substantial and permanent from being mobile? If focusing on local survivability doesn’t work, the other alternatives seem to be a last ditch, ultimately temporary measure to me. Have I misunderstood your comment?

          1. maybe i misunderstood your question. the ‘permanent’ option and the ‘rock n’ roll’ option are more like plan a and plan z. two opposites of the continuum, in order to hedge your bets. in case the permanent option doesn’t work out, a person can pretty painlessly revert to a mobile option.

            such as what happened in california during the fires. those who could move quickly were spared a lot of misery and danger, not to mention financial loss /having to pay for secondary housing while rents skyrocketed due to sudden demand and less rentals/.

            but i think your question is different. it’s a good questions and am curious what others think.

            here is one thing i noticed: people in /esp less developed/ asian countries tend to have a generational perspective on family-owned businesses. they spend their lives building a business which will be passed on to their children. often these people live and work in the same place (like living above a storefront, or having a house on the same land as the factory, etc.) the parents evaluate potential partners for their children based on how they would fit within the business. they encourage their children to become experts in fields which will complement the family business. they share duties for elder care and child care. often they live in multi-generational compounds /like a big plot of land with several houses/, which saves costs and time for everyone.

            at first the parents support the kids while they are young, and once the kids take over the business, the parents can live off the residual income of the business as a sort of old-age pension, and they can also help out with the grandkids and household.

            they have a 40-50 year long perspective on life and business, which in the west we really no longer have. it’s a huge benefit for ‘babylon’ to get hungry workers which have been raised and educated on someone else’s dime (how much does raising a decent human being cost today? i would bet at least $350-500,000 USD from birth to BA). and on the other side, it’s a huge financial loss for parents to spend this money to raise and educate the child, only to have that child move away to babylon and everyone be on their own again. and both the parents and the children lose resiliency by becoming dependent on the system instead of each other.

            obviously this family stuff comes with its own set of issues. and it really requires a different perspective – even a change in culture. but at least when you lose money in a family business, most of the time you lose it to the family.
            which is only half-bad.

            i’ve seen some of these family businesses from the inside, and they are much more financially robust than you would think; whereas driving by it may look like some old run-down warehouse with piles of random goods, compared to a brand-new storefront, the financial situation inside is different: the building and equipment is already fully paid off, there is significant inventory there, the land serves as housing as well, and the value of the land has appreciated many times since the parents bought it decades back. so the old run-down shop may be sitting on millions of dollars of equity, vs. the brand-new shiny storefront is really just a pile of debt with the owner struggling to cover the costs of the loan each month.

            and it’s ‘real’ money too; some of the places i have seen which look like dumps are providing the owners with a salary in developing asia which is greater than the american kids are earning working away in NYC. with more flexibility, resilience, and peace of mind.

            anyway, i hope that was relevant. just wanted to share this.

          2. Very useful. The advantage around building in a real economic situation is your ability to build real resilient equity – nothing wasted on appearances if unnecessary. Often times appearance are best left modest.

      2. Craig,

        I came to the same conclusion, mate! Went “all in” on a small farm in rural Michigan. We’re focusing specifically on animal protein and products as that seems to be where the most pressure is being applied by Mr. Global.

        …but we tried the “rock ‘n roll” method before. Worked remote and lived abroad in low-cost jurisdictions, mostly in Latin America. Both lifestyles had their ups and downs. Still keep the Passports up to date, just in case.

        Living on the land is antithetical to mobility. At this point, only our local farmer friends could even hope to run our small operation if we left for more than 48 hours. If we left permanently, it would mean culling our flocks and herds or re-homing in short order, likely at a loss.

        I’m reminded of the amazing local food systems we took advantage of in Mexico – fresh, affordable, and with relatively short supply chains. Far more robust than what I can find Stateside, but at the same time, I could only take advantage of them by virtue of intergenerational and localized food systems as a cosmopolitan interloper.

        Having lived both lives, it strikes me that “rock ‘n roll” utterly undermines the ability to build robust local systems. I would go so far as to say they are mutually exclusive strategies.

        So like yourself, I hope Catherine can shed some light on these competing lifestyles as the Hour is Late and the ability to flirt with both of these “worlds” is rapidly coming to a close.

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