Sunday Ramble
Merry Omicron to all my readers! Our Christmas season seems to have been co-opted by the latest flavor of COVID variant, so it seemed fitting that I embrace it with the season. After all, what would the Christmas holidays be without needless masks, border control friction, and the increasingly present vaccine papers needed to dine, shop, and enjoy the pleasantries of life? I’m sure that Jesus Christ, the actual reason for Christmas, would approve of the vaccine schism and the fear-based excuse to divide humanity. Oh, what’s that you say, Jesus’ most repeated phrase was “fear not”? And he united humanity in his life’s sacrifice on the cross? But, my gosh, don’t tell the folks rushing for their third and fourth vaccine boosters out of fear of death from a virus with a 99.8% survival rate.
Yep, I’m hot and bothered this evening as I type these words. COVID vaccine papers go into effect next week in Peru, hastened by five days due to the Omicron variant. So how evil is the newest boogeyman to freak out the world? Let’s hear it straight from Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the chair of the South African Medical, who brought the variant to light, discovering it in one of her patients:
The fact that the latest variant has become more virulent but less deadly should come as a shock to no one that has spent a whole 15 seconds considering humanity’s survival from pandemics through the centuries — they eventually peter out. If a variant were to become more deadly suddenly, now that would be shocking! Instead, nature handing us what could very well be the easiest route out of the pandemic — herd immunity gained by everyone allowing themselves to experience mild cold symptoms — has been flipped on its head to be the scourge-du-jour.
Why? That’s the real question that I’ve been pondering. I’ve written some thoughts about it in the past. Still, because the problems seem especially acute in the Western Democracies of the world, it’s slowly dawning on me that the Western decline in spiritual faith may be the ultimate culprit. I know that may seem like a stretch but hear me out: if you’re someone that has no sense of an afterlife, i.e., life of a different sort continuing past death, then the end of life is an existential horror. It is quite literally the prime fear. Nothing else compares. If along comes a collective threat to you and everyone you love having their eternal existence extinguished, then, of course, you’re going to do everything in your power to avoid that outcome.
Could it be that the mass COVID psychosis of the Western human is a symptom of a spiritual disorder? Will this be the type of thing that ultimately causes individuals to develop faith and moral conviction? It’s not looking good now, but I suspect we may hear just that in the decades ahead.
It’s particularly not looking great when we see the EU chief stating mandatory vaccinations should be considered to combat COVID and the Omicron boys from destroying us all. What? Did you say that mandatory vaccinations of experimental vaccinations violate the Nuremberg Code developed in the wake of WWII atrocities committed by Nazis? Who cares what we learned from the deadliest war of the last century when we’ve got folks freaked out of their gourds that they’re about to be blanked out?
While we’re on the subject of WWII, the rich irony that Austria, Hitler’s home country, has mandatory vaccinations starting in February, and Germany seems set to make a similar decision has not been lost on me. They say history doesn’t repeat, but it sure does rhyme. But I digress.
I’ve ranted myself into submission. The reality is that I can paddle for the horizon all day, but this tidal wave of fear does not seem to be subsiding anytime soon. Adapting and surviving is what humanity has done best since it became the first set of hominids to tell campfire stories. Until this exhausting global wave of fear peter’s out, I’ll do my best to continue the age old hominid tradition. Merry Omicron to all!
Rad Reminders from the Interweb Archives
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Weekly Range: $39k - $52k
The Omicron holiday blues hit hard over the weekend as global markets again tanked bringing Bitcoin down with it. Yesterday saw price blow through the support at $48k, dipping as low as $41k, only to recover it by the end of the day. Open interest, a measurement of derivatives trading volume, collapsed, and funding rates turned negative for the first time since leaving the $30k region earlier this year. A serious reset on par with the May 2021 and March 2020 sell-offs has now occurred. Fear has overwhelmed the marketplace, and while it’s not clear the bottom is here, there’s been enough carnage created by the sell-off that it’s hard to see where more selling pressure could come from. Institutional buyers seemed to have stepped in when Bitcoin’s price reached the $42k region, eager to pick up cheap Bitcoin. All-in-all, unless the global markets go into an absolute tailspin and there’s a rush to cash by everyone in the world, it’s hard to imagine anything but sideways action for the forseeable future. If you’re looking to create a long term position, this is not a bad area to start stepping into the market.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: What is Bitcoin’s Proof of Work, aka PoW?
A: The heart of Bitcoin.
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I am hot and bothered, too. Been watching an amazing series of interviews of REAL scientists and very smart investigators. Can recommend the website ICanDecide.org, which also leads to a podcast series by Del Bigtree, the founder, called TheHighwire. Just in case anyone else is interested. The video series is called Covid Revealed. Not sure how much longer it can be viewed, but tomorrow starts episode 7 of 9. vrevealed.com. You're welcome.