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Welcome to The Village Oak Tree
I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.
With the weather outside frightful all across north America again this week, and with all of the chaos Trump and company is still creating all across the world, the average citizens everywhere are starting to feel it.
One again, I have discovered new stories from across the spectrum to point a finger at how all of this is going to affect the average citizens here in the U.S, and this week, Europe.
Once I have brought you the stories and commentary for this week, I ask everyone to stick around through my commercial break, so I can read to you another chapter of The Priest, from Michael Campi.
So, come sit you down next to someplace warm and listen to me tell you a little of what the media isn't telling you.
This week’s video has some extra content added to it as I continually attempt to make things better. For those who would rather read, I offer you my notes from my makeshift teleprompter.
More and more chaos across the world, especially in Europe right now after VP J.D. Vance's inflammatory speech in Munich last week. He basically is telling the EU that the U.S. is stepping back from Europe and Ukraine is their problem now. Meanwhile, Trump is telling Zelensky that he must give fifty percent of all of their mineral wealth in Ukraine to the U.S. to pay back the money the U.S. gave them to fight their war.
Zelensky refused the deal so things are moving around them. Trump and Putin are scheduled to have their first Ukraine negotiation in Saudi Arabia soon, without Ukraine or Europe invited. You have to know this set off a lot of shouting and gnashing of teeth in Europe.
Also from Europe, I started subscribing to a young Austrian lady who likes to give YouTube news reports about the news from Europe. She likes to focus on the politics and economies over there to give everyone an idea of what it's like to live in Europe now. For the average citizens, it's getting pretty bad, according to her. Her YouTube channel is called Survival Lilly. The price of energy and groceries is getting out of hand, and they wonder why AFD is becoming so popular in the rural areas of Austria and Germany. Does this sound familiar?
In Palestine, it’s business as usual. Israel is killing and bombing people still while the ceasefires are sort of holding together by threads. Although, the one with Lebanon is coming up on its deadline very soon. With all of the violations that Israel committed, Hezbollah is likely to come out of the ceasefire swinging heavily. It seems that the Israelis have left, sort of. They pulled back leaving five small outposts behind. Much like they are doing in southern Syria. So the question being asked is now what?
Israel is still tearing up the West Bank with little interference and the ceasefire in Gaza is running on very thin thread.
In central Africa, the war in Sudan is still ongoing as is the one in the DRC. The Democratic Republic of Congo. South Africa is still reeling from Trump's latest deal offering sanctuary to the white Afrikaners in the U.S., all because of that new land law they passed that Trump didn't like. It sounds like a few Krugerrands may have been passed to Trump's campaign and he is doing what he can to keep them happy and the money flowing.
In the U.S., Trump and his crew are still gutting the federal government. Last week I reported that the new education secretary was supposed to be just a figurehead with no real job as Trump wants to close the Department of Education but can't without the approval of Congress. Meanwhile, he is telling his people to shut it all down as much as possible.
Another news article about education in the U.S. Trump is giving schools across the nation two weeks to dump all DEI programs and references to DEI in all of their material or lose federal funding. So, schools are scrambling to comply and everyone is wondering how this will affect college admissions in the future. Is this a deliberate attempt to set up college enrollments for only those who can afford it? No more Pell grants or school loans backed by the federal government?
Other departments and agencies are seeing their staffs being furloughed, laid off, terminated and so on. Then, we have blatantly corrupt officials being installed in positions that are sure to further erode the ability of the federal government to take care of the essential services needed by so many people in the country and abroad.
I found an article in ProPublica about one such man, Peter Marocco. He has been kicked out of several government positions for incompetence, colluding with people in Bosnia behind the ambassadors back, and other things. Now, he is the director for foreign assistance with the state department. He’s in a prime position to dismantle foreign aid to other countries. With his record, there will be some bad things to come out of this before they fire him again.
In New York, the state judicial system took a big hit when nearly all of the state prosecutors, regardless of party affiliation, resigned enmasse and another famous litigator resigned a day later with a fiery letter over Trump's justice office demanded that the corruption charges be dropped for the NYC mayor, Eric Adams, for favors rendered. You can't find a more blatant Mafia styled corruption scandal. But then Trump just pardoned a corrupt former Illinois official, Rod Blagojevich, just recently because he is another loyalist. One thing we can say about Trump and company, they're not trying to hide what they're doing. They don't care if they're breaking any laws. Trump is basically saying I am untouchable and so are my people. Come and get us if you dare.
With all of the firings and terminations going on, I picked one out that will likely go relatively unnoticed. The resignation of the head of the National Archives. This agency keeps the records of government and other historical documents. With Trump in charge, his prosecution for running off and possibly selling of classified documents after his last term now goes away. So, Trump can now rewrite history in his favor and never be prosecuted for hoarding all of those documents down at Mar-a Lago not so long ago. They're not talking about whether he sold any of those secrets to any foreign agents anymore.
Another set of agencies that have been gutted in this rolling purge, are the health agencies. Both the ones associated with USAID and the WHO, but also the ones that receive support for researching infectious diseases and providing medical assistance.
I have another article from my favorite doomer, Jessica Wildfire about how to take care of ourselves when H5N1 bird flu finally breaks out everywhere.
As I mentioned in a post on her article, I think we may already be there. My son was fighting a bout of the flu recently, according to my daughter in-law, and my very good friend in Florida had to back out of a podcast with me recently for the same thing. He told me he had tested for flu. My wife reported to me recently that the rate of recorded Covid infections was through the roof in my state, according to one of her friends on WeChat.
So that begs the question, how bad is the flu virus around the country right now? It's still winter in most of the northern hemisphere and that's keeping people inside a lot this time of year. Colds, Covid and flu viruses are being passed around like crazy when school age kids bring it home and infect everyone in the house. With everyone staying inside due to the cold and snowy weather, it only gets worse.
Anyone who has ever raised kids knows what I am talking about. My question is, just how bad is it right now? With the CDC gutted, no one is making reports to the governments anymore, according to Ms. Wildfire. So even if you do get sick, who're you going to tell? There is no one left to tell anymore apparently.
So what is going to happen when, I say when because we are past the if stage, bird flu starts killing a lot of people like back in 2020 during the Covid pandemic? How many flu victims actually have bird flu and don't know it? There have been a reported 67 people so far that have contracted H5N1 bird flu but, how many are going unreported? Or misdiagnosed as regular flu?
With the federal government kicking everything back to the states to take care of now, we all know how Trump would handle a new pandemic from the last time we endured one back in late 2019 and 2020. My advice, is for everyone to check out this article and click the links with lists of things you should use to protect yourselves.
My daughter in-law complained of having Pink Eye in both eyes when I talked to her a couple of weeks ago. Bleeding eyes, which is commonly mistaken for Pink Eye, is one of the symptoms of bird flu, according to Jessica Wildfire. Did my son and daughter in-law have bird flu and it wasn't diagnosed correctly or at all?
With medical services being severely diminished in the U.S. and around the world actually, what few doctors that are left are being overworked in rural areas and the not so rural anymore. The health care systems in the U.S., and other countries such as Canada and the U.K. are collapsing due to a severe shortage of qualified doctors.
Add to that all of the losses of health care administrators, being able to take care of yourself is becoming more paramount all the time. If you can go out and scavenge up some medical books written for the average person to put in your homes for future use, you might be able to survive the coming collapse. It has already started in earnest in the rural areas of north America and the U.K. Soon, it will manifest in more suburban areas and after that, everywhere.
Doctors are retiring and young people do not have the resources anymore to pay for medical schools. For most of the Americans, venture capitalism is where college students are going after graduation, and to a lesser degree, the tech industry. The medical profession requires too much work and money to get into anymore and the affluent kids who could be doctors would rather get rich quick by getting into the finance investment industry and tech. That is where they think the money is now. Law school is probably still popular with the rich kids as a law degree helps with getting into politics and to a degree, finance.
I have seen quite a few urgent care facilities close up over the last few years as they can't afford to stay open. Lack of doctors and nurses for one thing, is creating a severe shortage of health care everywhere. Equity management companies buying up the real estate out from under these facilities is also becoming a big issue. Then they raise the rent so high, the facilities have to close.
There are no good answers for this other than for us to learn how to take care of ourselves for anything other than the most serious medical issues. Because, pretty soon, the nearest hospital may be a very long ways away if you live in a rural state. My sister in-law is going through that now. She had something she needed a specialist for because of an injury from a car accident. They had to drive over an hour away, one way to see a doctor in her state. This is becoming the new normal in the U.S. and Canada.
Canada has such a severe shortage of family practitioners, that wait times for appointments for family medicine in the poorer provinces can be up to months away.
I have basic medical books in my house to manage the smaller things. We have a couple of books on Chinese herbal medicine and some survival guides with basic first aid procedures in them if things get really bad where I am. I was trained in basic combat first aid in the military as well so I can manage on my own if I have to.
Not everyone is trained or that capable but you can be, if you want to. There are a lot of YouTube videos out these days that can help. There are also local institutions like the Red Cross and others, that still teach some classes but the grant money for those will probably dry up pretty soon. I recommend books though, because if the grid collapses, so will the internet. You don't need electricity to read a book.
When I was growing up, reading by lantern and candlelight was a real thing. We used to experience lots of power outages in rural Maine. I grew up on an old farm back in the 1960's and early 1970's and we always kept oil lanterns, candles and flashlights around because of the frequent outages.
In later years, when I moved back home after my military career, I still experienced occasional power outages in the 21st century, as once again, I was living in a very rural part of Maine. Although rarely reported, this is apparently a fairly regular occurrence in the poorest parts of the states in the richest country in the world, or that's what they tell us we are anyway.
I am not talking about when the power grid goes down due to an extreme weather event. I am talking about everyday life. Old power pole transformers going out in a thunder storm or a heavy snow storm, for example. Trees falling on power lines and the crews no longer available to take care of things anymore and other weather related infrastructure failures. We can expect to see a lot more of this starting this year.
This is what happens when people like Elon Musk are allowed to gut the civil service to make the government run more efficiently. Essential services end up not being there anymore.
So, you had better get used to more things like extended power outages, lack of health care providers and other essential services no longer available in the near future. The infrastructure in the U.S. is failing everywhere. And now that the federal government is being gutted to make it more efficient, there will be fewer and fewer people to repair things like bridges, electric power transmission systems, internet infrastructure, roads, and other basic things we take for granted every day.
Without the federal government to oversee these things, private corporate providers will not be held to task if they fail to provide something to somewhere. This means, that without the federal government, services will fail and only be provided to areas that can afford to pay whatever the corporations want to charge. No money, no services. For those very rural areas of the country, sorry Charly. If the state or local municipalities are broke, there will be no electricity, water, health care, internet or other essential community services anymore.
Maine just went through this and lost the argument a year or so ago. They wanted to move away from private corporations owning their electric power grids but they couldn't convince enough voters to go along with it. Such is the power of the lobbyists. Wait until these providers run the utility prices up beyond the ability of the consumers to pay. States like Maine will end up back the way they were when I was a kid. The local communities will have to get used to frequent power outages once again.
I mention Maine a lot because I lived there a number of years and I know firsthand what that is like. But there are a lot of other poor states that will also start experiencing this as well, if they aren't already, once Trump and company completely guts the federal government and fills the ranks with unqualified butt lickers. He has already filled a lot of seats with idiots already but more are coming, as per this Project 2025.
If anyone has actually read this thing (I have), and you're willing to step back and compare what Trump and Musk are doing with the Project 2025 template, you can see that this blueprint is underway. You just have to see the forest for the trees.
If you want more evidence that the corporations don't care about the little people, take a look at this story I found about Boeing corporation. Yet another one for this beleaguered corporation that can't seem to figure out how to keep their planes from crashing and burning all over the world.
In this independent article, the journalist tells us how a design flaw is killing people and the federal government keeps bailing this company out. Just because they're such an integral part of the U.S. economy and military industrial complex that the government can't afford for them to go under. Much like what Obama told us about the banking industry he bailed out back in 2008-2009. Meanwhile, people are dying and their airplanes, including the infamous F-35, are junk.
This is one of the main reasons I don't fly anywhere anymore unless it's an emergency or near to one. Between the lax Covid protocols, rude people and now, and a bigger potential for planes to kill people, I will drive, than you very much or not go anywhere at all, other than local shopping.
That’s all I have for everyone this week. It’s quite a lot to digest as it is. I’m sure there will be more as there are breaking news stories nearly every day now.
If fortune smiles on me, I will be bringing everyone another conversation with my friend Mitch next week. It all depends if he has recovered from his bout with the flu. If he is up to it, we are planning a talk about eugenics, from an article he wrote recently. I think it will open some eyes to what’s been going on in the history of the United States, and what may be coming in the near future.
Thank you for listening to the show today. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll return again to talk about the world we live in.
Please like, subscribe, reply and share the videos or audio podcasts, however you watch or listen. The goal here is to resist the people who want to take our freedoms away from us. I appreciate everyone around the world, no matter who or where you are. Together, using independent media like this, we can resist the authoritarian oligarchs in the west.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as we try to survive another week of mayhem. "In this season of Imbolc, may the warm winds of spring finally find their way to you and push the Cailleach away from your doors ." Slán go fóill.
References:
Trump wants US troops to guard Ukraine’s rare earths – NBC
Washington reportedly indicated it wants to control 50% of the country’s mineral wealth as reimbursement for aid
From RT News via U.S. NBC News
“We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump
Since Inauguration Day, the Office for Civil Rights has only opened about 20 investigations focused on Trump’s priorities, placing more than 10,000 student complaints related to disability access and sexual and racial harassment on hold.
From ProPublica.org
Trump administration gives schools deadline to cut DEI or lose federal funds
Education department gives ultimatum to stop using ‘racial preferences’ as factors in admissions or risk losing money
From The Guardian/US News
Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad in Defiance of U.S. Policy
by Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester for ProPublica
Another Lead Prosecutor in Eric Adams’ Corruption Case Resigned. Read His Stunning Letter.
“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
Arianna Coghill for MotherJones.com
National Archives Head Resigns as Trump Takes Control of Records
Sources name conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt and far-right journalist John Solomon as potential replacements.
From MotherJones.com
The Priest
Formerly known as Bob (part 26)
In Medium.com
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