An interesting study from Johns Hopkins University [DATA HERE] shows the 2021 government lockdown did virtually nothing to stem death from the pandemic, but likely created more adverse “social ills” and long-term negative health outcomes.

WASHINGTON – […] The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies.

“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote. But the research paper said lockdowns did have “devastating effects” on the economy and contributed to numerous social ills.

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

“Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument,” the paper concluded. (read more)

(more…)

The latest BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report [DATA HERE] reflects a headline of 4.3 million U.S. workers quitting in December.  However, that number is 161,000 fewer quits than November. The job openings are starting to fill up.

While there is evidence the mandatory vaccine requirements are still working through the job market, we are still about another month away before the fog clears from the private sector employment data.

This Friday we will see the unemployment data from December, but in the interim this JOLT’s report is tracking with CTH expectations.

The primary driver of the quits rate has been inflation.  Workers seeking higher wages in an effort to deal with inflation can get faster paycheck results by switching jobs rather than asking current employers for more money.

We have been watching this trend for several months.  However, the rate of job-jumping is slowing down as the available jobs to jump into are fewer, and the vaccine mandate impact is settling down.

Despite the number of job openings, blue collar workers are starting to see job vacancies decreasing.  The service industries around accommodation, food services and basic dirty fingernail positions still have many vacancies; this is the epicenter of where the job jumping takes place. Employment in durable goods manufacturing is at that phase where things are about to get sketchy for tradespeople and union workers.

The white collar jobs are static and/or slightly downsizing.  The total number of hires was 6.3 million for December, a drop of 333,000 from prior month.  The number of people hired in professional and business services dropped by 159,000.

(more…)

One of the lesser discussed BIG PICTURE stories being missed within the people’s revolt against totalitarian government under the guise of this pandemic, is the abject void of pragmatic conservative leadership in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

As the working class Canadians rally behind their blue collar truck drivers, the invisibility of strong, opposing voices to the leftist government they are challenging is brutally obvious.

It is almost painful to watch this play out.

Where are the men of courage?  And, that question has nothing to do with gender.

I generally try to stay out of the issue of questioning representative government in other nations; however, when you see the people of Canada crying for freedom, trying desperately to take back their individual liberty, there comes a time when all the free people of the world have no more tongue to bite.

The voice of Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre is what many people point toward when identifying a “conservative‘ within the parliamentary system of Canada.  Forgive my criticisms, but if this is the strongest representative voice of middle Canada, this too is pathetic.  WATCH:

What the hell kind of high school nonsense is this?  A debate about tone, sensibilities, portrayals?  If the goal was to miss the entire moment, skip the point, talk in circles as if the media was the audience, and put on a performance focused on the totally irrelevant; then, mission accomplished.

As a patient and frustrated pragmatist would say, (deep breath) … “When you’re done with all that, can you please address the central need of the voices assembled a few meters away shouting at you?”  Good grief, and this guy is presumably ‘strong‘ compared to Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole.

There comes a time when you need to channel the raw frustration of your constituents – put them into articulate voice and focus – not pontificate about their delicate humanism in your arguments.

(more…)

The border crossing between Coutts, Alberta (CA) and Sweet Grass, Montana (USA) continues to be blocked as truckers allied against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine passports are united.  The Alberta protests are in support of the larger trucker protest taking place in Ottawa.

Canadian authorities in the province of Alberta have tried and failed to get the Canadian truckers to back down from their border blockade.  The U.S. truckers are supportive of their Canadian allies, and both groups are united in the effort. The blockade is a protest against US and Canadian governments mandating that truckers must be “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19, which came into effect on January 15.

According to Coutts Mayor Jim Willett, about 100 trucks were blocking Highway 4 on the Canadian side, causing a miles-long backup on Interstate 15 in Montana. About 50-100 trucks have reportedly been stuck on the US side since Saturday.

In an effort to remove the blockade, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have cut off the supporters who were bringing food and supplies to the truckers.   The familiar and typical ‘cut off the supply line‘ maneuver.

Rebel News via Convoy Reports has more.

(more…)

For those who have been following closely, the economic data releases over the past several months have been almost impossible to reconcile from a Main Street perspective.  Additionally, the scale of inflation is skewing everything that stems from dollar valuation.

CTH is certain the fourth quarter GDP statistic (+6.9%) is useless and was an outcome of several flawed metrics: (1) the import data was misrepresented and not accurately deducted (supply chain issue); (2) the value of building inventories was over calculated as an outcome of inflation; and (3) the value of all economic activity was subsequently skewed because the economic outputs (goods and services) were recorded at higher prices.

It has been our estimation that Main Street economic activity was substantially less than the data discussed by financial pundits.

Our review also sees the employment situation on Main Street as considerably less optimistic than claimed.  Bolstering that point, in a very weird and structured preview from the White House, spokesperson Jen Psaki made an odd statement today.  WATCH (14:35 prompted):

Psaki is prepositioning a narrative that employment data in January will be lower than expectations, perhaps considerably lower, as a result of “workers calling out sick” from COVID, ie. the omicron variant, during the time when employment polling was conducted.  That is a very unusual proactive narrative.

(more…)

In a remarkable effort to Alinksy the voices of those who oppose the Canadian government COVID restrictions and mandates, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims the truck drivers in Ottawa are stealing food from the homeless while flying racist flags.

This entire tweet thread statement by the Canadian Prime Minister is just bizarre in the extreme.

(LINK SOURCE)

The need for control is a reaction to fear.  However, this type of lashing out, an effort to create a completely alternate reality of actual conditions on the ground in Ottawa, is indicative of a profoundly unstable person.  These are the extreme messages one would see from a person carrying pathological traits of borderline personality disorder.

Perhaps, due to the ideological nature of the echo chamber around him, this may be the first time Trudeau has witnessed a gathering of people who do not agree with his worldview.  Obviously, he doesn’t know how to handle what is in front of him.

Something is very unstable, creepy to a level of visible discomfort, in the way Prime Minister Trudeau is attempting to message to his national audience.   Put another way, this guy is losing his s**t, in public.  This level of public breakdown should be the number one story on the world stage.

(more…)

In a rather remarkable doubling-down against his own people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to the microphones today to denounce the protest group that threatens the institutions of his government. [Video Below] Trudeau said the group does not represent truckers or responsible Canadians.

Introducing his position against the truckers and the Convoy for Freedom, who have demanded the government remove COVID-19 mandates and forced vaccinations, the Canadian prime minister portrayed the movement as an irresponsible minority of angry protestors who have defiled monuments in the capital.

Trudeau said he would not meet with the group, because they do not represent “true Canadians,” and are not worthy of recognition.  Trudeau contrasted his prior support for the Black Lives Matter protestors and cast the Freedom Convoy as filled with “hateful rhetoric.”  He further stated they were attempting to “incite violence” and said the movement did not deserve support.  WATCH:

The smug and condescending tone in the delivery of his official position toward the protest was quite remarkable. The prime minister also warned politicians not to support this group and demanded that all supporters of the convoy reflect on their association, as the protest group is viewed by the government as hateful and without concern for the greater good of Canadian society.

(more…)

A cross-border trucker unity rally in Alberta Canada, a show of support for their brothers in Ottawa, has triggered the ire of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

Apparently, when government officials lock down their citizens, the complaining voices of the people are irrelevant.  However, when the tables are turned and the people lock down the government highway in protest, the state officials don’t like it.  Go figure.

CANADA – […] The protest along Highway 4 south of Lethbridge began Saturday in support of a national anti-mandate convoy that arrived in Ottawa earlier in the day.

The movement was sparked by a federal mandate that came into effect this month requiring unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to get tested for COVID-19 and to quarantine.

Vehicles remained parked on the important southern Alberta trade route, blocking traffic to and from the border and the Village of Coutts on Sunday. Mounties said they were continuing negotiations with the protesters to re-establish highway access. (read more)

(more…)

During testimony last week, attorney Thomas Renz gave testimony {Direct Rumble Link} on behalf of whistleblowers inside the military medical system who have access to vaccination data that is withheld from the general public.

The data on adverse medical conditions that surface after vaccination within the military is contained on a system called the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED).  The documents that were released to Thomas Renz are now being reviewed {Direct Rumble Link}.  The resulting information is very disturbing.  WATCH:

The research took five-year averages of medical conditions and then compared the track record to the results after the mandatory military vaccination program was initiated.  The results are alarming:

(more…)

The wrong thinking “fringe minority” have raised over $8.6 million [LINK] in support of their trucker Freedom Convoy as the massive assembly protest continues in Ottawa, Canada.

The truck convoys started from British Columbia in the west, Newfoundland in the east, and Windsor, Ontario in the south.  On every highway along the journey, crowds cheered and waved support for the Truckers.  Now they are inside the capital city.

Tens of thousands of Canadians protesting the oppressive government rules around COVID-19 have converged on Parliament Hill. The demonstration is expected to continue throughout the weekend, and likely the truckers will not leave until government officials remove the COVID-19 mandates. Livestream Links Below:

https://youtu.be/Gc2JBQqZfB4

.

After the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) originally tried to downplay the size and scale of the protest, yesterday they changed their perspective to the massive protests being extremists who were supported by Russia.  Subsequently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was evacuated from the capital city.

Canada-Unity Site Here ~ Rebel News Site Here ~ Facebook Group Here

(more…)