We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Ah. And this is true about anything. Find out what the person wants, and then appeal to that. This formula applies for those courting an attractive young lady, or a young man trying to get a job. It functions well when you are trying to get customers, or when you just want to get something done. Approach people, and then find out what they want or need. Then you appeal to that side of their personality.
This is one of those chapters where people start screaming that they didn’t realize that you were such a dick, or that you were so cold, callus or calculating. But, it’s really not the case at all. To understand others is to have a strong EQ; a strong Emotional Quotient. Most women (not all, but most) have this. Men, well, sorry to say guys, we don’t. In fact, it’s only after we’ve been around women for long extended periods of time that we finally “get with the program”, and learn a few things.
When someone comes to me for a job, I let them give me their pitch. They tell me about themselves, and all the time I seeing if they can fit in with my little team of go-getters. I see if they will “be a fit”. But also, I am seeing what they can “bring to the table”. What they can give me, as say compared to another applicant.
To get what you desire, you need to make yourself desirable to others. To do that, you need to appeal to their self-interest.
To get what you desire, you need to make yourself desirable to others. To do that, you need to appeal to their self-interest.
LAW 13
WHEN ASKING FOR HELP, APPEAL TO PEOPLE’S SELF- INTEREST, NEVER TO THEIR MERCY OR GRATITUDE
JUDGMENT
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
THE PEASANT AND THE APPLE-TREE
A peasant had in his garden an apple-tree, which bore no fruit, but only served as a perch for the sparrows and grasshoppers. He resolved to cut it down, and, taking his ax in hand, made a bold stroke at its roots. Thegrasshoppers and sparrows entreated him not to cut down the tree that sheltered them, but to spare it, and they would sing to him and lighten his labors. He paid no attention to their request, but gave the tree a second and a third blow with his ax. When he reached the hollow of the tree, he found a hive full of honey. Having tasted the honeycomb, he threw down his ax, and, looking on the tree as isacred, took great care of it. Self-interest alonemoves some men.
FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.
TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW
In the early fourteenth century, a young man named Castruccio Castracani rose from the rank of common soldier to become lord of the great city of Lucca, Italy. One of the most powerful families in the city, the Poggios, had been instrumental in his climb (which succeeded through treachery and bloodshed), but after he came to power, they came to feel he had forgotten them. His ambition outweighed any gratitude he felt. In 1325, while Castruccio was away fighting Lucca’s main rival, Florence, the Poggios conspired with other noble families in the city to rid themselves of this troublesome and ambitious prince.
Mounting an insurrection, the plotters attacked and murdered the governor whom Castruccio had left behind to rule the city. Riots broke out, and the Castruccio supporters and the Poggio supporters were poised to do battle. At the height of the tension, however, Stefano di Poggio, the oldest member of the family, intervened, and made both sides lay down their arms.
A peaceful man, Stefano had not taken part in the conspiracy. He had told his family it would end in a useless bloodbath. Now he insisted he should intercede on the family’s behalf and persuade Castruccio to listen to their complaints and satisfy their demands. Stefano was the oldest and wisest member of the clan, and his family agreed to put their trust in his diplomacy rather than in their weapons.
When news of the rebellion reached Castruccio, he hurried back to Lucca. By the time he arrived, however, the fighting had ceased, through Stefano’s agency, and he was surprised by the city’s calm and peace. Stefano di Poggio had imagined that Castruccio would be grateful to him for his part in quelling the rebellion, so he paid the prince a visit. He explained how he had brought peace, then begged for Castruccio’s mercy.
He said that the rebels in his family were young and impetuous, hungry for power yet inexperienced; he recalled his family’s past generosity to Castruccio. For all these reasons, he said, the great prince should pardon the Poggios and listen to their complaints. This, he said, was the only just thing to do, since the family had willingly laid down their arms and had always supported him.
Castruccio listened patiently. He seemed not the slightest bit angry or resentful. Instead, he told Stefano to rest assured that justice would prevail, and he asked him to bring his entire family to the palace to talk over their grievances and come to an agreement.
As they took leave of one another, Castruccio said he thanked God for the chance he had been given to show his clemency and kindness.
That evening the entire Poggio family came to the palace. Castruccio immediately had them imprisoned and a few days later all were executed, including Stefano.
Interpretation
Stefano di Poggio is the embodiment of all those who believe that the justice and nobility of their cause will prevail. Certainly appeals to justice and gratitude have occasionally succeeded in the past, but more often than not they have had dire consequences, especially in dealings with the Castruccios of the world. Stefano knew that the prince had risen to power through treachery and ruthlessness. This was a man, after all, who had put a close and devoted friend to death. When Castruccio was told that it had been a terrible wrong to kill such an old friend, he replied that he had executed not an old friend but a new enemy.
A man like Castruccio knows only force and self-interest.
When the rebellion began, to end it and place oneself at his mercy was the most dangerous possible move. Even once Stefano di Poggio had made that fatal mistake, however, he still had options: He could have offered money to Castruccio, could have made promises for the future, could have pointed out what the Poggios could still contribute to Castruccio’s power—their influence with the most influential families of Rome, for example, and the great marriage they could have brokered.
Instead Stefano brought up the past, and debts that carried no obligation. Not only is a man not obliged to be grateful, gratitude is often a terrible burden that he gladly discards. And in this case Castruccio rid himself of his obligations to the Poggios by eliminating the Poggios.
Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves. They always think of their own case as soon as ever any remark is made, and their whole attention is engrossed and absorbed by the merest chance reference to anything which affects them personally, be it never so remote.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 1788-1860
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 433 B.C., just before the Peloponnesian War, the island of Corcyra (later called Corfu) and the Greek city-state of Corinth stood on the brink of conflict. Both parties sent ambassadors to Athens to try to win over the Athenians to their side. The stakes were high, since whoever had Athens on his side was sure to win. And whoever won the war would certainly give the defeated side no mercy.
Corcyra spoke first.
Its ambassador began by admitting that the island had never helped Athens before, and in fact had allied itself with Athens’s enemies. There were no ties of friendship or gratitude between Corcyra and Athens. Yes, the ambassador admitted, he had come to Athens now out of fear and concern for Corcyra’s safety. The only thing he could offer was an alliance of mutual interests. Corcyra had a navy only surpassed in size and strength by Athens’s own; an alliance between the two states would create a formidable force, one that could intimidate the rival state of Sparta. That, unfortunately, was all Corcyra had to offer.
The representative from Corinth then gave a brilliant, passionate speech, in sharp contrast to the dry, colorless approach of the Corcyran. He talked of everything Corinth had done for Athens in the past. He asked how it would look to Athens’s other allies if the city put an agreement with a former enemy over one with a present friend, one that had served Athens’s interest loyally: Perhaps those allies would break their agreements with
Athens if they saw that their loyalty was not valued. He referred to Hellenic law, and the need to repay Corinth for all its good deeds. He finally went on to list the many services Corinth had performed for Athens, and the importance of showing gratitude to one’s friends.
After the speech, the Athenians debated the issue in an assembly. On the second round, they voted overwhelmingly to ally with Corcyra and drop Corinth.
Interpretation
History has remembered the Athenians nobly, but they were the preeminent realists of classical Greece. With them, all the rhetoric, all the emotional appeals in the world, could not match a good pragmatic argument, especially one that added to their power.
What the Corinthian ambassador did not realize was that his references to Corinth’s past generosity to Athens only irritated the Athenians, subtly asking them to feel guilty and putting them under obligation. The Athenians couldn’t care less about past favors and friendly feelings. At the same time, they knew that if their other allies thought them ungrateful for abandoning Corinth, these city-states would still be unlikely to break their ties to Athens, the preeminent power in Greece. Athens ruled its empire by force, and would simply compel any rebellious ally to return to the fold.
When people choose between talk about the past and talk about the future, a pragmatic person will always opt for the future and forget the past. As the Corcyrans realized, it is always best to speak pragmatically to a pragmatic person. And in the end, most people are in fact pragmatic—they will rarely act against their own self-interest.
It has always been a rule that the weak should be subject to the strong; and besides, we consider that we are worthy of our power. Up till the present moment you, too, used to think that we were; but now, after calculating your own interest, you are beginning to talk in terms of right and wrong. Considerations of this kind have never yet turned people aside from the opportunities of aggrandizement offered by superior strength.
-Athenian representative to Sparta,quoted in The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, c. 465-395 B.C.
KEYS TO POWER
In your quest for power, you will constantly find yourself in the position of asking for help from those more powerful than you. There is an art to asking for help, an art that depends on your ability to understand the person you are dealing with, and to not confuse your needs with theirs.
Most people never succeed at this, because they are completely trapped in their own wants and desires.
They start from the assumption that the people they are appealing to have a selfless interest in helping them. They talk as if their needs mattered to these people—who probably couldn’t care less. Sometimes they refer to larger issues: a great cause, or grand emotions such as love and gratitude. They go for the big picture when simple, everyday realities would have much more appeal.
What they do not realize is that even the most powerful person is locked inside needs of his own, and that if you make no appeal to his self-interest, he merely sees you as desperate or, at best, a waste of time.
In the sixteenth century, Portuguese missionaries tried for years to convert the people of Japan to Catholicism, while at the same time Portugal had a monopoly on trade between Japan and Europe. Although the missionaries did have some success, they never got far among the ruling elite; by the beginning of the seventeenth century, in fact, their proselytizing had completely antagonized the Japanese emperor Ieyasu. When the Dutch began to arrive in Japan in great numbers, Ieyasu was much relieved. He needed Europeans for their know-how in guns and navigation, and here at last were Europeans who cared nothing for spreading religion—the Dutch wanted only to trade. Ieyasu swiftly moved to evict the Portuguese. From then on, he would only deal with the practical-minded Dutch.
Japan and Holland were vastly different cultures, but each shared a timeless and universal concern: self-interest.
Every person you deal with is like another culture, an alien land with a past that has nothing to do with yours. Yet you can bypass the differences between you and him by appealing to his self-interest.
Do not be subtle: You have valuable knowledge to share, you will fill his coffers with gold, you will make him live longer and happier. This is a language that all of us speak and understand.
A key step in the process is to understand the other person’s psychology. Is he vain? Is he concerned about his reputation or his social standing? Does he have enemies you could help him vanquish? Is he simply motivated by money and power?
When the Mongols invaded China in the twelfth century, they threatened to obliterate a culture that had thrived for over two thousand years. Their leader, Genghis Khan, saw nothing in China but a country that lacked pasturing for his horses, and he decided to destroy the place, leveling all its cities, for “it would be better to exterminate the Chinese and let the grass grow.”
It was not a soldier, a general, or a king who saved the Chinese from devastation, but a man named Yelu Ch‘u-Ts’ai.
A foreigner himself, Ch‘u- Ts’ai had come to appreciate the superiority of Chinese culture. He managed to make himself a trusted adviser to Genghis Khan, and persuaded him that he would reap riches out of the place if, instead of destroying it, he simply taxed everyone who lived there. Khan saw the wisdom in this and did as Ch‘u-Ts’ai advised.
When Khan took the city of Kaifeng, after a long siege, and decided to massacre its inhabitants (as he had in other cities that had resisted him), Ch‘u-Ts’ai told him that the finest craftsmen and engineers in China had fled to Kaifeng, and it would be better to put them to use.
Kaifeng was spared.
Never before had Genghis Khan shown such mercy, but then it really wasn’t mercy that saved Kaifeng. Ch‘u-Ts’ai knew Khan well. He was a barbaric peasant who cared nothing for culture, or indeed for anything other than warfare and practical results. Ch‘u-Ts’ai chose to appeal to the only emotion that would work on such a man: greed.
Self-interest is the lever that will move people. Once you make them see how you can in some way meet their needs or advance their cause, their resistance to your requests for help will magically fall away. At each step on the way to acquiring power, you must train yourself to think your way inside the other person’s mind, to see their needs and interests, to get rid of the screen of your own feelings that obscure the truth. Master this art and there will be no limits to what you can accomplish.
Image: A Cord that Binds. The cord of mercy and gratitude is threadbare, and will break at the first shock.
Do not throw such a lifeline. The cord of mutual self-inter est is woven of many fibers and cannot easily be severed. It will serve you well for years.
Authority: The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours. (Jean de La Bruyère, 1645-1696)
REVERSAL
Some people will see an appeal to their self-interest as ugly and ignoble.
They actually prefer to be able to exercise charity, mercy, and justice, which are their ways of feeling superior to you: When you beg them for help, you emphasize their power and position. They are strong enough to need nothing from you except the chance to feel superior. This is the wine that intoxicates them. They are dying to fund your project, to introduce you to powerful people—provided, of course, that all this is done in public, and for a good cause (usually the more public, the better). Not everyone, then, can be approached through cynical self-interest. Some people will be put off by it, because they don’t want to seem to be motivated by such things. They need opportunities to display their good heart.
Do not be shy. Give them that opportunity. It’s not as if you are conning them by asking for help—it is really their pleasure to give, and to be seen giving. You must distinguish the differences among powerful people and figure out what makes them tick. When they ooze greed, do not appeal to their charity. When they want to look charitable and noble, do not appeal to their greed.
Conclusion
A perfect example of this law is in the television show (a spin off from Breaking Bad) called Better Call Saul. There is a scene (season 1, episode 2) where the big bad Drug Boss, named Tuco Salamanca, was going to kill these two tricksters that got in his way.
What is Tuco doing in the mix here, anyway? As it turns out, the reason is nothing more than a cruel cosmic joke.
Rewind to the premiere: Jimmy hired two skateboarding siblings to pull one over on Betsy Kettleman, the wife of a county treasurer who stole $1.5 million from the state. Their mission was to skateboard into Betsy’s car, set up a situation where Saul can swoop in as her hero, and sweep her off her feet as his new prize client.
The twins played their part perfectly, but they got the wrong car — the very, very wrong car.
Saul convinces Tuco not to kill these two rascals. But to break their legs instead.
.
The car belongs to Tuco Salamanca’s grandmother — his “abuelita,” as he calls her — and when the brothers follow her home, Tuco finds nothing funny about the scam these two “biznatches” are trying to pull.
He beats them down and ties them up, spilling some “salsa” on his carpet as a result. Before long, Jimmy McGill shows up at Tuco’s, and he’s one wrong sentence away from joining the bound-and-gagged brothers in Tuco’s basement.
The second episode got off quickly with Tuco telling his grandma that she should just watch her stories while he deals with the two hustling skaters. Tuco knows how to get rid of a senior citizen in order to lay down a beating to those in need.
The two skaters have no idea who they are messing with still, as they insult Tuco’s granny and show no respect whatsoever to Tuco.
The two skinny boys should learn to read people a bit better if they are gonna be in the con game. When Tuco cracks the guys with granny’s walking cane, they must have realized at that moment that they were in over their nappy heads.
Lesson to all you would be scammers, don’t threaten someone unless you are 100 percent sure they will not attack you physically.
While Tuco is handling his business downstairs, ‘grandma hit and run’ is enjoying a snack on her Hyman Roth lunch tray while watching her stories. She can’t ignore all the thumping and banging going on below her, so she checks it out only to be assured by Tuco that everything is fine and he is taking care of the matter.
What grandma is going to doubt her grandchild, especially after the two skaters have acted a fool at her home.
Our boy Saul, better known as Jimmy McGill at this point, makes the mistake of being the one who knocks on the door of Tuco. Claiming to be an “officer of the law” was not the right move either.
Tuco puts the biggest pistol known to man in McGill’s face and brings him inside. McGill is nervous enough without seeing the blood stain on the rug, which granny is plenty concerned about as well. She just cares about the rug though.
Jimmy uses his bronze tongue to wade into the issue of whether his clients are still alive.
Crazy Tuco seems to halfway believe the story that they just got the wrong house in a zany mix up. Jimmy wants to just leave as if none of this lunacy ever even happened.
It turns out that both clients are still alive and tied up in the garage. That’s good news, but the bad news is that the skaters are still really dumb.
The second the duct tape is off one of the guy’s mouth he starts to blame Jimmy for this entire mess.
If I’m laying on the floor tied up with tape over my mouth, I would take a few seconds before saying anything. The skaters were not doing too well before Jimmy arrived on the scene so they should have given him at least a minute to see where it went.
All three were on their way out of danger, but the loud mouth put them back in mortal danger.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire of the desert went the three scammers.
Tied up in the desert is about 10 times worse than tied up in a residential garage. Neither situation is great, but the former is just more convenient to bury a victim. Jimmy McGill tries something that Saul would not use as much in the future, the truth.
He tells Tuco all about who the scam was intended for and that they just got unlucky by getting hit by his granny. The truth didn’t work very well and Tuco went on the offensive with a toolbox full of torture.
He was convinced that these guys were some kind of undercover police force, so Jimmy told the nut job just that. A man will say anything if he is about to have his fingers disconnected with a pair of pruners.
Lies were about as helpful as the truth since Tuco ordered them killed after Jimmy claimed to be with the FBI.
Lucky for Jimmy, Tuco’s partner Nacho Varga didn’t believe the story and convinced the maniac that they didn’t have to whack the lawyer.
Tuco agreed but still felt the need to defend his granny’s honor by wasting the skaters.
If I’m Jimmy, I just walk away from this mess and get back to another money making idea. And that’s just what happened, except Jimmy felt the tinge of guilt since he was the one who enlisted the skate bros after all.
I was a little surprised at his change of mind, but he is not an evil guy of course.
It would have been a bad look for the hero to let these two get killed because of his plan. To be fair, they were the ones who screwed up and followed the lady and went in her house. I will likely be justifying Jimmy McGill’s actions just as I did with Walter White, all the way to the end.
Jimmy spent the next few minutes trying to convince a neanderthal not to kill his guys.
Tuco is not very reasonable of course, so Jimmy put on quite a show.
He puffs up the drug dealer’s ego by making it out like Tuco is the judge in this case….which he is in fact.
Judge Tuco finally agrees to simply break a leg on each of the skaters after McGill’s impassioned lie about how their moms would be hurt if they were killed off.
Knowing a broken leg is coming isn’t easy on one’s mind and these two weaklings freaked right out. Jimmy carried them to the ER once they were free to go and was insulted by skater #1 saying McGill was the worst lawyer in the world.
Jimmy replied, “Hey, I talked you down from a death sentence to six months’ probation. I’m the best lawyer ever.”
He had a solid point.
-Movie TV Tech Geeks
And so Tuco followed that advice. He spared the crooks, but left them both with broken legs as a warning to others not to mess with him.
Tuco puts the biggest pistol known to man in McGill’s face and brings him inside.
.
What follows is an impromptu trial, with windswept sand and cacti replacing the court room, with Tuco serving as judge, jury and executioner. Jimmy appeals to Tuco’s ego — “You want justice, but you’re fair!” — and talks the psychopath down from giving the kids Colombian neck-ties to a lesser Hammurabian sentence: “One leg each,” they agree.
It’s a lucky break for everyone involved, even if the broken twins don’t immediately agree.
Later, Jimmy goes on a date. It does not go well. Nearby diners crack into breadsticks, and the harmless act brings the sickening crunch of broken legs back to mind.
From there, it’s a quick trip to the bathroom, an unhealthy amount of vomiting, and an even unhealthier amount of drinking.
Such is the price that Jimmy (Saul Goodman) has to pay.
You appeal to peoples’ needs and expectations if you want to see results.
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After a solid year of [1] hate-China spewing from all my feeds, [2] comments that I have made mysteriously being erased, and [3] the most contentious articles being flooded with “likes”… you have to wonder if you are in some kind of fake-mirror world.
It really seems that way.
We, as humans, have feelings and thoughts, ideas, and relationships. We have emotions, both good and bad, and we have desires, goals and yearnings. Yet, if we try to participate in any of the American forums… our opinions are often scrubbed and erased.
I’m not talking about swearing. Nor am I talking about being racist or making threats. I am talking about saying something innocuous like “I like hamburgers”, and then finding that you offended a vegan, who immediately pressed the “alert” button.
Yes, “safe” areas have sprung up all over the internet where people of “like minds” can communicate and put forth their opinions. Such as “Gab”. But even there, you risk banishment if your comments do not fit the appropriate target audience in the associated “news” venue.
Venue Example
Association
Non-compliance result
salon.com
Alt-Left
Ban
Yahoo.com
Mainstream
Ban
freerepublic.com
Alt-Right
Ban
Table of the three major venues for American discussion.
It’s pretty much evidence that people are being put into nice tidy boxes based upon their thoughts.
And this, boys and girls, are how governments isolate, control and manipulate people. Which should give everyone reason to pause and think.
Historically, this has resulted in people's names going onto lists. And then later on, the police and military rounding up people on those lists, and doing very, very bad things to them.
Now, I know it’s hard to absorb if you are right now sitting in the middle of all this. So, instead of looking at the American media reality, maybe take a gander at another nation.
Like India…
If you read (for example) the Indian news media, you would be convinced that India is ready to invade China, and walk straight into Shanghai and no one can stop them. If you read Alex Jones or Hall Turner, you will be convinced that Donald Trump will win next weeks election in a landslide, and if you read CNN you will be convinced of the absolute opposite. Nothing is moderate or neutral. It’s all just nonsense.
Or is it really?
Are we really reading “news articles” and listening to the “comments” by others like ourselves? Or, as I believe, we are reading “fake news” which are really articles designed to manipulate, with comments and opinions and “likes” generated by ‘bots and software algorithms.
No longer “news”; a reporting of events.
Let’s look at the morning Drudge Headliners.
Drudge Report 29OCT20
Instead, of “news”, we now see the generation of “articles of manipulation”. These articles are fully intended to change how the reader thinks. They are not designed to inform. You know, like these…
Oh, every six months of so, someone writes a book, draws a cartoon, makes a statement, writes a poem, and fundamentalist islamic's are enraged and demand death! Is this news?
Oh yeah. This debit clock thingy has been in the read for decades now. Why keep track? No one really cares, at least those who have the power to do anything about it.
The police shoot and kill a black man, and the black folk in ghettos riot. Black folk riot. It's what they do.
It's sort of a cause and effect kind of thing. But is this news? You all ever been to a black ghetto in Philly? Do you know him? Is Pennsylvania on your radar screen?
Seriously?
I think that the real interest in an article like this is how any one can train monkeys to do anything. Than how to create a for-profit model around it.
Of course Drudge must have the obligatory anti-China article. It's a thing in America, don't you know.
So any-day-now Beijing is gonna invade Taiwan! Taiwan is a state of China. Just like Texas is a state within America. The Taiwanese all have Chinese passports, speak the Chinese language, learn Chinese history, and so forth.
It's sort of like "any day now, Washington DC will invade Texas." Silly, I know. But the American audience has been so enormously dumbed-down that they just are not able to discern how ignorant they are.
To me, it looks a lot like a science fiction horror flick where the people haven’t a clue as to how badly they are being manipulated.
America today.
Let’s look at this.
Let’s look at (what I like to call) Internet Forum Manipulation…
Internet Forum Manipulation
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all innocently comment on articles that we read on the Internet, and then our thoughts can be read by others. Others could read our thoughts and there would be a free exchange of ideas and thoughts. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice…
Not so. It turns out that the control of thoughts and ideas is one of the most important tools in the arsenal of power and control. (Not to mention world-line alteration and redirection.)
As such, those in power, whether rich, wealthy, powerful or in government are totally desirous of harnessing this avenue to serve their own purposes.
It’s a horrible reality.
There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of an internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’
Professor identifies “moderate” websites. The only thing is that the websites that he lists are all “Alt-Left” websites. Which is, of course, propaganda. Is this what is being taught in schools today? White is black. Happy is sad. Good is bad. Right is wrong?
.
Let’s look at some of the techniques that those in power use to control us.
PTB - The Powers that Be.
The Oligarchy - The top 1% of the richest in a society.
The deep state - The long-employed unelected government employees.
The elected - The visible face of the government farce.
The caretakers - Actually, they are not involved at this level.
Forum Sliding
If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum – it can be quickly removed from public view by ‘forum sliding.’
A very popular technique on Freerepublic.com.
In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to ‘age.’ Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a ‘forum slide.’ The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public.
To trigger a ‘forum slide’ and ‘flush’ the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then ‘replying’ to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list (“bump to the top” or BTTT), and the critical posting ‘slides’ down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings.
By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.
Altering Opinion & Reviews
Your opinion does not matter. If it did, then you would be able to speak freely and without fear.
There would be no such thing as “freedom of speech zones”, and “no hate” campuses.
The days of the first amendment protections are over. The first amendment only applies to those who regurgitate the narrative as defined by the government, or their owners; the oligarchy.
Here, in this section we discuss just some of the techniques that those in power use to suppress your thoughts, opinions and activities. The reader should be well advised that it is terribly out of date and obsolete. Such is the situation in the United States today.
Who is really in control? Are you?
“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation … The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.
They practically control both parties … [and] control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country.
They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.
It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.”
– John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York City from 1918-1925
It is common knowledge that businesses and even individuals can alter the behavior of those on the Internet. But what is not so well known is that the Government takes this kind of manipulation very seriously and is doing their best to replicate it.
Consider these examples that have somehow become public knowledge.
Facebook Manipulation
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
-George Orwell
Facebook Quietly Admits to Censoring information regarding the WikiLeaks DNC Links, but doesn’t say why.
Well, we know why.
Facebook and the DNC are partners in the collection of raw data of American citizens. I am sure that their efforts are quite extensive, and because of this, I shall only offer one or two examples of their efforts. If the reader chooses to disbelieve my conclusions in this matter, it will make no difference to me. So believe what you want.
Previously, Facebook was discovered to have removed a Live video of Philando Castille dying, and posts of the Bastille Day aftermath were scrubbed from the newswire.
Its news bar has also come under fire for being biased.
Facebook can call the issues disparate, but they’re not — not to users. At some point, the ignorance and blind claims of ‘damn that algorithm’ have to end. If Facebook wants us to turn to it for news and treat it seriously, then it has to be much more open.
Afterall, no one want’s to be spoon fed censored material.
The WikiLeaks link issue has reportedly been fixed, which is great — but also not really the point.
The fact links to the archive was blocked at all suggests there’s a very tight reign on what’s allowed on Facebook across the board, and that’s a problem.
Americans are both figuratively and physically tethered to a unified way of thinking. As time progresses, this system becomes stronger, more invasive and all encompassing.
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Not to mention, that this manipulation can be directed from outside the organization as well, such as from government agencies.
“More than 1,800 requests were so-called “emergency disclosures,” which are granted to law enforcement on a case-by-case basis, and are a subject of some controversy. They include, for instance, requests to suspend someone’s account, as was the case with Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old mother who was shot and killed by police in 2016, after she reportedly threatened officers with a weapon. She was broadcasting her confrontation on Facebook, and police asked the company to shut down her account, saying that other users were egging her on.”
-Hanna Kozlowska in the article titled “Facebook is giving the US government more and more data” (I guess that the First Amendment no longer has any validity.)
Google Manipulation
Google could influence who voters pick to be America’s next president. This is the conclusion that research psychologist Robert Epstein came to after studying the demographics and algorisms used by the software firm. Writing for Politico Magazine, Epstein, contends the Google search engine behemoth (as well as others) has;
"…amassed far more power to control elections … to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs … than any company in history has ever had."
He continues;
"America’s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google’s secret decisions, and no one — except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers — would know how this was accomplished,"
According to Epstein, Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more and even up to 80 percent in some demographic groups.
Even if we ignore that voting is the imposition of a majority’s will on a minority, facilitated by wielding the violence of the state. Even if we disregard that voting only allows its participants the choice between two entrenched, corrupt, archaic political parties (while third party and independent voices are intentionally blocked, ridiculed and plowed under.)
We must then begin to confront the fact that electronic voting is such an openly obvious fraud to any “democracy” that would insanely choose to use it.
To have an unverifiable invisible counting mechanism, a proprietary, secret software and hardware platform, a meaningless archiving and recount system, a closed-source software system that cannot be audited and inspected is essentially and deliberately the worst possible implementation.
Not only does our country have the obvious electronic voting problems to deal with, but we have also implemented electronic voting in the most counter-intuitive, corrupt and problematically designed manner that it can possibly be implemented.
Epstein points to one telling experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups in which search rankings favored either Candidate A, Candidate B or neither candidate.
In the experiment, the participants were given brief descriptions of each candidate and then asked how much they liked and trusted each candidate and whom they would vote for.
Then they were allowed up to 15 minutes to conduct online research on the candidates using a Google-like search engine. Each group had access to the same 30 search results, but the ordering of the results differed among the three groups.
When our participants were done searching, “opinions shifted in the direction of the candidate who was favored in the rankings,” he writes. “Trust, liking and voting preferences all shifted predictably.”
"Perhaps the most effective way to wield political influence in today’s high-tech world is to donate money to a candidate and then to use technology to make sure he or she wins…"
- Robert Epstein
It is interesting to note that while Google had been extremely active in attempting to manipulate the 2016 election in favor of their preferred candidate Hillary Clinton, they ultimately failed.
It was not because of their techniques however, but rather due to their expectation that the race would be close with Hillary leading by five points. Their manipulations did not take into account other scenarios.
Google is facing new scrutiny in the wake of revelations that it stores users’ location data even when “Location History” is turned off.
In the past, Google quietly edited its description of the practice on its own website—while continuing said practice—to clarify that “some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps.”
As a result of the previously unknown practice, which was first exposed by the Associated Press, Google was sued by a man in San Diego. Simultaneously, activists in Washington, DC urged the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether the company is in breach of its 2011 consent decree with the agency.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in San Francisco, attorneys representing a man named Napoleon Patacsil argued that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the state’s constitutional right to privacy.
The lawsuit seeked class-action status, and it would include both an “Android Class” and “iPhone Class” for the potential millions of people in the United States with such phones who turned off their Location History and nonetheless had it recorded by Google.
Further Reading
Google’s new scheme to connect online to offline shopping scrutinized
Also on August 17, attorneys from the Electronic Privacy Information Center wrote in a sternly worded three-page letter to the FTC that Google’s practices are in clear violation of the 2011 settlement with the agency.
In that settlement, Google agreed that it would not misrepresent anything related to "(1) the purposes for which it collects and uses covered information, and (2) the extent to which consumers may exercise control over the collection, use, or disclosure of covered information.
"Until the Associated Press story on August 13, Google's policy simply stated: "You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored."
This turns out to not be true.
Amazon Manipulation
Sorry, but I am going to use an example from politics. Hopefully this one (being so dated) will not be offensive to my readership. Just remember people, politics in America is just a big game of "bread and circuses for the masses". All the participants work together.
Amazon can and will change and manipulate reviews for political reasons. With the proper amount of money, they will do so for ANY reason. (And, we all know, that the United States government has a bottomless supply of money…)
Let’s go back to later 2016, early 2017…
Hillary 2016 Book – Stronger Together
Here’s a funny story that wasn’t reported in the mainstream media. It took place during the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald trump. Both had written books to promote their causes and beliefs. However, Hillary Clinton’s book tanked and was poorly received. Here’s a screen shot;
Hillary Clinton’s book was just not selling.
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As The New York Times reported at the time, the book was a disaster. Both Mrs. Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, have promoted the book on the campaign trail, but the sales figure, which tallies about 80 percent of booksellers nationwide and does not include e-books, firmly makes the book what the publishing industry would consider a flop.
“Stronger Together,” whose cover shows Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine waving, arrived closer to Election Day than most of these types of books. Named after the campaign’s slogan, “Stronger Together” offers readers, according to the book jacket,
“specific and practical solutions, while also articulating a bold and expansive vision of change and renewal.”
Its roughly 250 pages intersperse bullet-point policy ideas, like “launch a national initiative for suicide prevention” and “humanely address the Central American migrant crisis,” with photographs of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine on the campaign trail, charts in the campaign’s signature chunky font and highlights from Mrs. Clinton’s speeches.
Unfortunately the book was a flop.
No one wanted it, and the one’s whom actually bought the book gave it negative reviews. So, as with everything else in this ‘new normal rigged’ world, something had to be done and (Washington Post) WaPo-owner Jeff Bezos’ Amazon reviews appear to have been ‘tweaked’.
They apparently changed the reviews and the stats to reflect a much more favorable view of the book.
Indeed, more than doubling Hillary’s top reviews.
But, as WND.com explains, Amazon’s steps to ‘fix’ Hillary’s book reviews has resulted in 5-star ratings with scathingly negative comments. (I guess that is what happens with the literate masses object to such blatant manipulation.)
If you can’t even win when the rules are changed in your favor, things must be REALLY bad.
That’s how it looks for Hillary Clinton’s new 2016 campaign book, “Stronger Together,” co-authored with running mate Tim Kaine. WND reported this strange turn of events when the book was being savaged on Amazon.com with negative reviews, with 81 percent one-star ratings and an average of only 1.7.
Of course denials were everywhere, and the Clinton organized shrills quickly lashed out at “trolls” they said were criticizing the book only because they oppose the Democrat’s presidential candidacy.
It’s really quite funny.
Once it became news what Amazon was doing, other purchasers of the book had to chime in. WND previously reported there were more than 1,200 reviews, and the number grew to than 2,000.
Zero Public interest did not fit the Public Narrative.
.
However, that just couldn’t possibly stand, and by Thursday afternoon, the amount was yet again culled (again!) until there were only 255 reviews, with many of the most critical reviews removed by Amazon, whose CEO, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, which created an army of 20 reporters and researchers to investigate the life of Donald Trump.
Victory for the Clinton book, however, remains out of grasp, with the negative, one-star responses, outnumbering positive, five-star responses nearly 2-1. The one-star ratings Thursday were 62 percent, to 35 percent for five-star ratings.
And, of course, knowing the DNC manipulation of all their reviews, the book reviewers simply punched the five-star button then made harshly critical condemnations of the book and Hillary Clinton.
That way their opinions were still posted…
"I didn’t buy this book or read this book, but I have read the reviews, and enjoyed hours of entertaining, fun filled reading, expressing the TRUTH, about a crooked, lying, corrupt, terminally ill Presidential candidate, who stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders, and who is about the steal the Presidency with the use of election fraud. 10 Stars to the authors of these reviews. Proof that not only are Amazon.com shoppers of superior intelligence, but thye call it like they see it…. Amazon shows this as a verified purchase, when I didn’t buy the book … how fun!”
- From suz702, who posted a five-star ranking
On and on, there’s pages of this stuff…
“the book confirms the hrc is a racist. every matter in her mind is about racies (sic). but reality is she does not care about the black people. just look at the ever increasing trend of black population that are relying on welfare since the obama rule. the fundermental (sic) cause of this result is the fact that lefties of the country favor the riches by allowing outsourcing jobs to other countries. black people should wake up, stop supporting dnc and hrc, who is effectively a puppet of the elite class. the book is simply a propaganda.”
- Ian alexander, another five-star reviewer said.
Just two days earlier, out of 1,244 reviews, 81 percent were one-star and 16 percent five-star. The book plunged from No. 840 earlier this week to No. 1,538 on Thursday. It was No. 5 in the subcategory “Books-Politics & Social Sciences-Politics & Government-Elections & Political Process-Leadership.”
The reviews dripped sarcasm, both before the Amazon edits to the reviews and after.
“I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted ‘How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit.’ Also, would like to have seen a chapter on ‘Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom,'”
-Elaine.
And, here’s another…
“Not only no but hell no. I’d rather read Mein Kampf,”
- Anthony Messina.
Chjhores said:
“Pre-ordered an autographed copy but had to return it after this week’s announcement as I was worried it was contaminated with pneumonia bacteria. I didn’t want to end up exposed to the illness like her grandkids in Chelsea’s apartment she was playing with on 9/11 after she collapsed, or the little girl she was hugging in the street afterwards. Thought about ordering the Kindle version but I thought it might open my device up to being hacked by communist countries. I wasn’t too surprised to see Tim Kaine on the front cover giving the traditional National Socialist salute (“Heil Hitler!”), I felt it fitting.
Strongly recommended for those who believe the USA isn’t anything special and should be more like the peaceful utopias of North Korea, Iran, or Cuba.”
And kpm said,
“Imagine my dismay when key parts of her life were omitted, would have made for far better reading if she had included all of the below starting with flunking the D.C. Bar Exam to:
Was removed from her House Judiciary Committee staffer job because of incompetence and lying.
The Whitewater scandal.
Married a serial liar and cheater, who occasionally had sexual encounters with nonconsenting partners.
Lied about “sniper fire” in an attempt to simulate exposure to danger in a war zone.
The subject of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that led to the impeachment and disbarment of her husband
Took crockery, furniture, artwork and other items from the White House — had to return and/or pay for them.
Said “what difference, at this point, does it make” about four brave people killed in Libya as a direct result of her failure to protect them on the anniversary of 9/11.
Totally ignored the structure and rules for the handling of sensitive national security information.
Amassed a personal fortune with “speaking fees” and payments from private sector political donors and foreign governments into transparent “foundations” in obvious exchange for future political favor.”
Nearly 1,500 people found that review “helpful.”
But more than 3,400 found helpful the comments from Daniel B.:
“I was going to read this book … I really was. But just as I got started, I found myself under sniper fire, passed out, and fell and hit my head. After that I got double vision and had to wear glasses that were so damn thick I couldn’t even see to read. As if that wasn’t enough, I then had an allergic reaction to something and started coughing so hard I spit out what looked like a couple of lizard’s eyeballs, my limbs locked up, and I passed out and fell down again, waking up only to find out I had been diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days earlier. Somehow I managed to power through it all, but it’s a good thing I was able to make a small fortune on this random small trade in the commodities market (cattle futures or some such thing) and then, miracle of all miracles, a few banks offered me a few million to just talk to their employees for a few minutes – and all that really helped out because I swear I was dead broke and couldn’t figure out how I was gonna come up with the 6 bucks to pay for this book, let alone pay the $1,500 for my health insurance this month. I still want to read it, but, honestly, what difference at this point does it make? I hear it sucks anyway.”
Clinton’s 2015 book, “Hard Choices,” received an average of only three stars despite garnering 2,460 customer reviews.
Here’s some screen captures of the “Stronger Together” reviews, because by the time this manuscript is released all of these reviews will be erased to fit the new narrative.
Of course Bezo would manipulate the data his company controls. It is in his own best interests. WND also has documented Bezos’ interest in the election outcome, with the Post’s army of investigators looking into Trump’s life.
As WND reported this summer, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward told the National Association of Realtors Convention in Washington Wednesday:
“There’s a lot we don’t know. We have 20 people working on Trump. We’re going to do a book. We’re doing articles about every phase of his life.”
Woodward said he has been investigating Trump’s real-estate deals in New York. Why a book on Trump and not Hillary and her 22 biggest scandals?
“[W]e have years and years of reporting on Hillary Clinton to draw from, including her last presidential campaign, her time as secretary of state, and her position as U.S. senator, Because Trump’s involvement in political life is far more limited, the Post newsroom decided to embark on a book as a special project. In order to complete the book in a timely fashion, reporters from throughout the newsroom have been assigned to work for a brief period on particular aspects of his life and career.”
Coratti explained.
The one-star reviews for the Clinton book also continued. All were dripping with sarcasm. Just Thursday afternoon, Jimsdun wrote:
“Well I’m disappointed. This doesn’t tell me how to create a faux charitable foundation and then use it for money laundering.”
Hillary 2017 Book – What Happened
You would think that Amazon would know better than to repeat their manipulative techniques, but obviously they do not read alternative media. They are still drinking off the teat of mainstream media and are completely unaware of the public knowledge of their actions.
In what many have dubbed a flagrant intervention by Amazon itself to seemingly boost the rating of Hillary Clinton’s new book “What Happened“, the Telegraph first reported, and subsequently many others observed first hand, that Amazon has been monitoring and deleting 1-star reviews of Hillary Clinton’s new book “which was greeted with a torrent of criticism on the day it was released.”
Reviews of What Happened have been mixed, with some accusing Clinton of using it as an opportunity to blame others, such as former FBI head James Comey, Bernie Sanders, Vladimir Putin, social media and pretty much everything else, for her failure, rather than herself.
Even The New York Times, which supported Clinton’s campaign, wrote that the book is “a score-settling jubilee”.
What is fascinating, is how few one-star reviews have remained on the website amid reports and screen-grabs showing that reviewers used the space to criticize the former First Lady. One 1-star review, which remained on the website earlier, read:
"Read all the promotional excerpts, which combined come close to book length – pretty good novel. It is fiction, isn't it? Surely, someone is playing a joke."
"Picked this book up at Wal-Mart out of sheer morbid curiosity. Returned it, claiming I bought the wrong book"
While this is not the first time Amazon has intervened to “adjust” the ratings of its products, in November negative comments under a book by anti-Trump broadcaster Megyn Kelly appeared to be removed by the retailer, it has rarely “adjusted” reviews of such a prominent product so publicly.
"In the case of a memoir, the subject of the book is the author and their views. It’s not our role to decide what a customer would view as helpful or unhelpful in making their decision. We do however have mechanisms in place to ensure that the voices of many do not drown out the voices of a few and we remove customer reviews that violate our community guidelines."
So how does this change reality….
Well just look though the lens of a clock.
And then seven hours later…
What Amazon.com shows as of today 29OCT20;
A best seller!
Yes, it’s a best seller!
Man! If only my writings could become a best seller. What’s her secret? Are her ghost writers all that great. Truthfully, I am terribly jealous.
Hillary Clinton is obviously a well-beloved and liked person, who is an excellent writer and who has made the world a better place for everyone.
Twitter Manipulation
Perhaps one of the most manipulated social media platforms is Twitter. I don’t use it. I signed up for it when it first came out, and then lost interest after two days. That is the sum total of my twitter experience. However, I am an outlier. Others, such as Donald Trump, use it quite frequently.
Let’s look at some of the ways it is manipulated to serve the needs of those in power.
Twitter Manipulation – Shadowbanned
Following the permanent banning of [1] conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos from using its service; the [2] suspension of the account of Glenn Reynolds, aka @instapundit and creator of the Instapundit blog, a University of Tennessee law professor and a conservative columnist for USA TODAY; and [3] blocking veteran reporter Mahir Zeynalov after bowing to pressure from Turkish president Erdogan; October 2016 saw the [4] ‘shadowbanning’ of thoughtful – non-violent – twitter-er Scott Adams – the creator of the Dilbert cartoon character.
Scott Adams asked his followers for examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supports in public… which seems to have ‘triggered’ some people and got Adams “Shadowbanned” from Twitter…
“This weekend I got “shadowbanned” on Twitter. It lasted until my followers noticed and protested. Shadowbanning prevents my followers from seeing my tweets and replies, but in a way that is not obvious until you do some digging.
Why did I get shadowbanned?
Beats me.
But it was probably because I asked people to tweet me examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supporters in public. I got a lot of them. It was chilling.
Late last week my Twitter feed was invaded by an army of Clinton trolls (it’s a real thing) leaving sarcastic insults and not much else on my feed. There was an obvious similarity to them, meaning it was organized.
At around the same time, a bottom-feeder at Slate wrote a hit piece on me that had nothing to do with anything.
Except obviously it was politically motivated.
It was so lame that I retweeted it myself. The timing of the hit piece might be a coincidence, but I stopped believing in coincidences this year.
All things considered, I had a great week. I didn’t realize I was having enough impact to get on the Clinton enemies list. I don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about any of this, but that’s not how I’m wired.”
Twitter Manipulation – Bots
“Or take the right to vote. In principle, it is a great privilege.
In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty.
Therefore, if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum, break up modern society’s merely functional collectives into self-governing, voluntarily co-operating groups, capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Government.”
-Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World Revisited (1958)
In a 2014 report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the social networking site Twitter estimated that more than 23 million of its active user accounts were being run by “bots” — software agents or bits of code that act on their own to respond to news and world events. They interact with real users, never revealing their true nature.
Bots of this kind have been used in efforts to sway public opinion in Central America already for a decade. The hacker and political operative Andrés Sepúlveda claims to have employed armies of bots to influence at least a half-dozen major election results in Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and elsewhere.
Could the same happen in the U.S. and Europe?
Probably so, given findings on bot activity ahead of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. As part of the Computational Propaganda Research Project at Oxford University researchers looked at some 300,000 Twitter accounts and found that a mere 1 percent of them generated about one third of all tweets relevant to the Brexit debate.
1/3 of all Brexit debate were generated by 1% of accounts.
They believe that many of those accounts were run by bots, because human users could not have sustained such a level of activity without the help of automation. It’s not clear whether the activity swayed the result, though the Leave campaign did generate more automated tweets.
This issue is far bigger than Brexit: The disturbing reality is that computational propaganda is already with us.
In the 2016 U.S. presidential race, Twitter bots support both Trump and Clinton. Bots of various kinds live on cloud servers and operate 24 hours a day, and account for about 50 percent of all activity on the web.
According to the Central American hacker, Sepúlveda, peoples’ opinions tend to be swayed more by views they see as coming spontaneously from real people than by views expressed on television or in newspapers.
Twitter Exposed by the NY Times
Most of the reports regarding the manipulation by the media are buried deep down in the lower nooks and crannies of the mainstream media. Obviously they do not want people to know how they manipulate and conspire to alter viewpoints and opinions. Yet, occasionally an excellent article comes out that just “kicks the door down” regarding just this type of activity.
The New York Times wrote just this kind of article regarding Twitter. It’s worthy of a read. Here is what political commentator Rush Limbaugh (The New York Times Exposes the Fakery of Twitter, on 29JAN18.) has to say about this article;
Folks, I have to tell you something. The New York Times put on their website late Saturday and published in their newspaper on Sunday one of the most phenomenal stories. Now, I know. I am on record as having lost respect for the New York Times, and I am on record as having said many times that my instinctive reaction to anything in the New York Times is not to believe it. However, this story I happen to know is true — and it is phenomenal.
It is a very, very long story. I would recommend that you read this story on your computer so that you can benefit and experience the amazing graphics that they use to illustrate the point. The point of the story is that you, anybody, can buy followers on Twitter and Facebook. You can buy retweets. In other words, you can buy fake human beings and have them reported as following you. The names of people who have done this are listed in the story. They run from actors, to athletes, to pundits, to journalists.
These are bots. You know, I’ve found a lot of people — when I say a Twitter bot or a Facebook bot — say, “What is that?” Well, the easiest way to explain it is it’s just an automatic script. It’s just a little piece of code that is triggered by anything the creator wants it to be triggered by. It’s called a robot or a bot because there’s no real person behind it. It’s a fake. It’s made to look like an actual human being with a Twitter account but no human being exists.
It’s totally fake, made up. Some of these bots are actually based on real people whose identities are stolen and modified ever so slightly so that you wouldn’t notice it to the naked eye. And others are just manufactured out of whole cloth. There’s an actor mentioned here in this story that has 975,000 followers with the vast majority of them unreal. They have been purchased. The number one company selling these bots is right here in West Palm Beach, above Rocco’s Tacos on Clematis Street!
Not to be confused with the Rocco’s Tacos on PGA Boulevard. The Rocco’s Tacos on Clematis Street is where this little guy’s office is. He’s 27 years old. He makes people think that his office is in Manhattan. It’s exceedingly cheap. You can buy 100,000 followers for 10 bucks. The guy has earned six to $7 million selling fake followers. My friends, what this means is that very little is real on Twitter, ditto Facebook when you can buy followers.
Ray Lewis, future Hall of Fame linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens is listed as one who has purchased followers. Now, some of these people are gonna say, “I — I didn’t know! My agent must have done that.” But the bottom line is, you can create bots to do anything. The reason I know this is true is because — as I have shared with you on countless occasions — we have run up against this procedure, this technique trying to damage our business here. And we have found out in our investigational research, it is exactly what happened.
In our case it was 10 people who were flooding our advertisers with massive amounts of emails made to look like it was coming from tens of thousands of people, and it was 10 people creating fake Twitter users, fake customers, fake everything. So it’s one thing to create bots to bombard your enemies. It’s another thing for you to knowingly go out and purchase followers. So what it means is that when you’re on Twitter and you’re looking at somebody that is somewhat known, not the well-known at all, a YouTube star that has millions of followers, the likelihood it is it is nowhere near true.
But look at the influence that it has had. This is why followers are purchased. Look at how often the Drive-By Media quotes Twitter in every story they do. How many times have you heard in reaction to a story “Twitter is melting down”? And you are being led to believe that a story happens, whatever it is, and on Twitter there is this massive reaction to it, either positive or negative — and then you are further led to believe that that story is huge and that millions of Americans have an opinion on it.
And the likelihood is that very little of that is even true. Now, you might be asking, “Why would the New York Times be doing this?” It’s very clear to me. The New York Times had to weigh a couple of things here. On the one hand, these bots can be used to really damage your enemies — business enemies, business opponents, political opponents, political enemies, personal enemies — because you can create fake bots, and you can make it look like a person is literally despised and hated when that person isn’t.
And you can turn it around. You can make it look like a person is universally loved and adored and renowned by gazillions, and that isn’t true. It’s a way to earn fake popularity. Everything is fake on this social media. Not everything. So much of what social media is is fake. So much of it is unearned. So much of it is the result of shortcuts. I’m certain the New York Times did this because they’re fed up with Twitter having more influence than they do. “The New York Times is the paper of record!
“The New York Times is the media of record. Who the hell, what the hell is this Twitter business?” they have probably been saying themselves. I mean, it is a long story. It has many different writers and reporters on it. The evidence is pretty clear. As I say, if I didn’t have firsthand knowledge of this, then I would be highly suspicious of the reporting, of the agenda, the whole narrative. But since I know that this stuff happens. Now, by the way, I have to tell you, I did not know — and I’m happy admitting this.
It makes me sound like I’m a bit naive. I did not know you could buy followers. I didn’t know that. But a lot of people have found out you can buy followers. Do you realize the power of that, folks? Let’s say you’re a B actor or a B pundit, you’re a YouTube star. In reality, you don’t have millions of people watching. Ridiculous! Streaming hasn’t grown that much yet. But yet there’s all these “YouTube stars.” Can I give you some evidence of this? There was some YouTube guy. I forget his name.
I don’t mean this to be critical of the YouTube guy. Please do not misunderstand. But some YouTube guy was creating very clever videos. I don’t even know what the genre was. His first name was Casey. So CNN thought this guy had this massive Millennial audience. And they signed this guy up to start producing videos for them. And they got zilch. The guy finally had to admit that he didn’t know how to do what CNN wanted. He didn’t know how to… So… Well, what the real problem was, the guy didn’t have anywhere near the number of followers and audience that it was made to appear that he did.
See, when did you live by the fake sword, you die by it. When you want fame but it isn’t real, it’s gonna come back and bite you. When you want wealth but that isn’t real — you’ve stolen it, you’ve cheated it, you haven’t earned it — that’s gonna come back and bite you. You want popularity. And everybody on social media does. And this is just one side of social media that’s bad. The other side is just the absolute sewer that it is with the cultural-destroying language and behavior that is used on these social networks, the discourse and all of that.
And then the third element of this is all the lying about what great lives people have and how exciting their lives are. And people read this and think their lives are miserable and they get depressed. I mean, this is… It’s bad all the way around, and now adding this buying followers to it. So how many people have now comfortably gotten a false, totally incorrect opinion of the popularity of certain issues, of the popularity of certain people, when you can go buy it all? And I’m telling you, it’s cheap.
You can buy 100,000 followers for 20 bucks, folks. All you have to do is know where to go do it. Some of these bots are actual real people who do not realize they’re being used. Their e-mail address is changed with one letter. A capital I might become a small I so that nobody would notice it. The user photo might be compressed a little bit so that it looks slight different color but not enough so you wouldn’t notice it without a side-by-side comparison. They make up people and they take actual people and steal their identities, ’cause you have to have some legitimate feel of the follower scam to work.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This Twitter debauchery is even worse. You can kill a stock. You can drive a company’s stock down or the other way with some of these fake bots, the followers and so forth. I’ll tell you what. James O’Keefe, folks, his latest book involving his expose on the political nature Twitter and how they literally ban conservative thought is called American Pravda. It’s been outs a couple of weeks. If you read books, and if you want to learn — at least get a primer on what Twitter really is and how it operates — James O’Keefe, American Pravda.”
Altering Product Reviews
Talk about a glowing review: one five-star review given to a light-up USB cable for sale on Amazon had a headline claiming that this product “has lit up my life.” That review was not only glowing, it was steaming, Amazon says.
In today’s world, anything can be bought for the right price.
This includes written opinions about products and services. One particularly worrisome example is with the book reviews on the website Amazon.com. It turns out that there is a high percentage of them (relatively) that are fake; fabricated and simply made up to deceive either one way or the other.
In the case of the glowing review of the light-up USB cable; The review was fake, purchased by a third-party Amazon seller, the online retailer claims, and probably cost the manufacturer between $19 and $22 (£13 and £15) to write it and have it listed on the Internet for (assumingly) forever. Those are the accusations Amazon has made in its first-ever lawsuit against sites that sell reviews.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Seattle’s King County Superior Court, accuses Jay Gentile, a California resident, and the websites [1] buyamazonreviews.com, [2] buyazonreviews.com, [3] bayreviews.net and [4] buyreviewsnow.com, of trademark infringement, false advertising and violations of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
The sites sell packages of reviews, from as few as 3 to as many as 100. Promises include “drip-feed delivery” that won’t raise Amazon’s suspicions and a “100 percent stick guarantee” for reviews, promising to replace any that Amazon deletes or filters out.
One of the sites Gentile is accused of running, buyazonreviews.com, sounds like it’s on the up-and-up:
“We use real people that are sourced from all around the world to deliver high quality unbiased reviews on your products.”
The fine print sounds just as legit:
“We are not receiving any money for your reviews nor are we paying reviewers. Your payment goes towards review sourcing, database management, and operation costs. “
But Amazon says that the reality “is far different.”
In this, its first ever crackdown on fake reviews since it debuted the review platform 20 years ago (with its first review of Dr. Seuss’s “The Butter Battle Book”), Amazon accuses Gentile of promising to “provide as many five-star reviews as the purchaser wanted” and to “slow drip” them onto Amazon’s product pages so that the company would have a “more difficult time detecting them”.
In the complaint, Amazon also accuses Gentile of advising his customers to “do a few verified purchase reviews … so as not to raise any eyebrows with Amazon.
"The reviewers don't actually have to receive the products, Gentile allegedly told customers. Rather, his clients could just send empty boxes to try to fool Amazon into thinking that the reviewer was a "verified purchaser."
The complaint quotes the advice Gentile allegedly gave:
Note: You do not have to actually ship the item unless you want to. We suggest that for tracking purposes is that you just ship out an empty box or envelope, this will show [A]mazon that the item was actually shipped.
When one clueless reviewer working for buyazonreviews.com complained about not having actually received a product, Gentile allegedly reassured his client that she’d be brought in line:
“All our reviewers know of the process and I am not sure as to why she sent this to you but I will ensure it does not happen in the future.”
Amazon gave a number of examples of what it says are phony reviews, such as the USB cable five-star review:
This has lit up my life
By j9 on March 31, 2015
Verified Purchase“Review: I was kinda doubtful about the "electroluminescent technology" of this USB cable. That it actually would work. But it actually did. Not only did the blue light function as they should, they were clear and bright, plus they turned off when the charge was finished. It's rad. They should make them in other colors too. Let's just say we're really impressed and are going to order a few more...”
Amazon is bringing claims of [1] trademark infringement, saying the websites are using the company’s name and logo without authorization. It’s also accusing the websites of [2] cybersquatting by hosting sites with names “identical to or confusingly similar to” Amazon’s own site. Amazon has asked the court to force the various websites to stop using its name and trademarks and to stop selling Amazon reviews. It’s also seeking triple damages and attorney’s fees.
Imagine a world where if individuals can set up a cheap website and system to do this, what powerful and well-funded governments can do.
It should not be believed that they would do nothing, for the maintenance of those in power (regardless of where they reside) are all heavily dependent upon securing the mass opinions of the populace. The reader should view everything on the Internet with suspicion, from news reports, to product reviews. The Internet is a wonderful tool, and it’s use in shaping your opinion on various matters is a well-honed and well-sharpened skill.
Flooding the Forum with “Likes”
In most forums, those posts with the greatest number of “likes” are presented first (or at the top of the forum). By controlling and altering the number of “likes” by various computer bots, one can effectively control the postings on a given internet forum.
This is a very common practice, and is common at Facebook, and Google where the actual software companies takes control of the forums in this manner. However, outside entities can also manipulate the forum using this technique.
Bangladesh “Click Farm”
The idea behind a click-farm is simple, but it takes a little explanation to understand how they came to be.
In the old days, when social media likes and website views were incredibly valuable, many webmasters turned to the dark side of the Internet to find ways to inflate them. Earning 1,000 likes or 1,000 website hits was a tough process, but it could be made a lot easier by setting up a program to refresh the page over and over. For Facebook, those bots would register accounts and use them to like the page.
Robots are easy to detect.
Facebook fan page likes could easily find these fraudulent accounts and remove them. Something needed to be done to make those number-inflating accounts less visible. Something to make them look more legitimate.
The answer, as it turned out, was just to make them legitimate – or as legitimate as it was possible to make them, anyways.
Bangladesh “Click Farm”
.
Webmasters pay people in developing nations like Bangladesh, where an annual income of $120 is acceptable, to create Facebook accounts. Or, more likely, webmasters pay a company that in turn pays these people.
These people register accounts, sometimes dozens, and sit idle until the money comes in. They receive a payment and a target Facebook account, and they relentlessly like the page with their accounts.
Even this was fairly easy to detect.
After all, if 10,000 accounts all mobilize in the span of a week and they all like the same selection of 10 pages, those ten pages very obviously purchased likes from a click farm.
At one point, Facebook purged so many fraudulent accounts it totaled nearly 10% of their entire user base. Unlike YouTube wiping views, however, Facebook’s deletions didn’t remove fake likes.
The modern version of a clickfarm still works the same way, only the people running the accounts take steps to obfuscate their traffic.
In addition to liking the pages they’re paid to like, they also click through ads and related pages on Facebook and like pages they aren’t paid to follow. This is how your page, running legitimate Facebook ads, can run afoul of a click-farm. The flurry of “organic” likes makes it much harder to pick out the mobilization of a click-farm for purchased likes.
The Chinese “Click Farm”
In 14MAY17, an unnamed person disclosed the operational details of a Chinese “click farm” used to manipulate the number of “likes” on a given Internet forum[i]. Photos were provided and some details were presented. From the article;
Chinese “Click Farm”
The bizarre ‘click farm’ of 10,000 phones that give FAKE ‘likes’ to our most-loved apps
Pages on social media websites are given fake ‘likes’ to make them look more popular by thousands of phones
“Footage has emerged of a giant "click farm" that uses more than 10,000 mobile phones to give product ratings and pages on social media websites phoney "likes".
Companies reportedly pay thousands to get their apps more likes by using services like this massive plant offers.
This covert clip in China shows rows and rows of like-making machines all wired to other devices in a factory. And there are said to be thousands more phones in the same building all made for the same purpose.”
The reader should note some details regarding all of the cell phones. They are all smart phones, typically generic or “off make” brands (probably due to cost considerations).
Note that the camera is covered by tape so that if any agency wanted to turn on the camera, it would not be able to record any video. Notice the screens, all of them are slightly different, but the forum that they are posing on is identical. The computer software provides a kind of software personality that automates the clicking algorithm.
A Russian man took video footage of the like-making machines and shared it online. But social media users reacted angrily to this clip. One viewer wrote: “Is everything in the modern world ‘fake’?” While, a third furious user shared: “Is anything actually real anymore?”
To which I must educate the reader.
Yes. Everything on the Internet is fake.
The Thailand “Click Farm”
Three Chinese men arrested in Thailand have acknowledged that they were operating a “click farm,” using hundreds of cellphones and several hundred thousand SIM cards to run up “likes” and views on WeChat, a Chinese social media mobile application, Thai police reported on 13JUN17.
Immigration Police Capt. Itthikorn Atthanark said the men explained they were paid according to how many likes and views they generated, each earning 100,000-150,000 baht ($2,950-$4,400) per month. Click farms are hired to inflate an online site’s viewership for prestige and profit.
Thailand click farm.
Some politicians boast of how many followers they have on social media, while clicks can generate ad revenue.
WeChat is China’s most prominent online social media platform, incorporating a text-messaging service as well as marketing for online stores.
Police seized 476 cellphones and around 347,200 SIM cards during the arrests Sunday at a house in Sa Kaeo province, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Bangkok. The men, identified as Wang Dong, Niu Bang and Ni Wenjin, were charged with working without a permit and importing the phones without paying taxes.
Itthikorn said the arrests followed a police stakeout at the Sa Kaeo house after receiving reports of suspicious activity. He said a police search Monday at another residence believed to be engaged in the same activity came up empty-handed, though police believe others connected with the business are still at large.
Russian “troll farm”
Not only can you find “click farms” in Russia, but they are also used with ‘bots to flood the social media with trolls and other denizens of internet discussion. These farms park themselves and place ‘bots fully intended to disrupt the discussion on social media sites.
And what’s more, they are open for hire, and will do so for any social media. Apparently some of their biggest clients reside in the United States where they make princely amounts disrupting discussion as tolls on social media. So in Russia, not only do you have click-farms, but they also double as ’bout farms, and bit-mining operations.
A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at www.abovetopsecret.com) is ‘consensus cracking.’
Pig Farts are destroying the Ozone Layer
Posted by Trustworthy Joe Average
Everyone knows that XXXXXX. It has been proven that XXXXXXX. And since XXXXX is a Y-chromosome, and Brando is good for plants, that DNA is great with JAVA, and the study clearly indicates that bovine farts are safe, while pig farts are dangerous.
To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made – but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting.
Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favor is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger ‘evidence’ or disinformation in your favour is slowly ‘seeded in.’ Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped.
This works on most websites, such as Facebook.
However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then ‘abort’ the consensus cracking by initiating a ‘forum slide.’
In April 2020, my LinkedIN feed was filled with articles stating that the Italian government was being overwhelmed with lawsuits against China for "mishandling" of the Coronavirus.
The only thing was, all of Italy was in lock-down at that time, and mail, servers and the Judicial apparatus were not functioning. They didn't even begin to resume operation until July.
Obviously it was a big lie.
No legal actions were taken inside of Italy against China at all, but you would never realize that if you were not aware of the situation within both Italy and China, and how the legal systems works. Things that most Americans are unaware of, which is why this technique is so prevalent in America today.
Topic Dilution
Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues.
This is a critical and useful technique to cause a ‘RESOURCE BURN.’ By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a ‘gossip mode.’ Which is the ideal outcome.
In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion.
The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in.
Caution is often warranted. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to ‘drive in the wedge.’ By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.
Information Collection
Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them.
In this technique in a light and positive environment a ‘show you mine so me yours’ posting is initiated.
From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your ‘favorite weapon’ and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favorite ‘technique of operation.’ From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.
This method has become famous by various anti-gun groups who intentionally collected information on gun owners in selected cities in anticipation of a anti-gun government.
Anger Trolling
This technique is known as anger trolling.
Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction.
From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking.
To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes – without the requirement to ‘stage’ a fake abuse video.
This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to ‘lead’ the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you ‘do not care what the authorities think!!’ inflammation.
By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.
JTRIG
One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.
Over a period of several weeks, NBC News published a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance.
As of 2015, another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.” Was published with goes into great detail how the United States government intentionally smears and destroys the reputation and credibility of anyone whom it wants to. It does this through pure application of honed Nazi and KGB techniques.
By publishing these stories one by one, NBC reports highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: [1] the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, [2] the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, [3] the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and [4] destructive viruses. But, here, specifically, lets focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two primary tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: [1] “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), [2] fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and [3] posting “negative information” on various forums.
Gaining Full Control
It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavorable postings – and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public.
The goal is to only have forum postings favorable to your desired point of view present.
This is the ‘ultimate victory’ as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed.
However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a ‘honey pot’ gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes. The object is to gain full control.
Prohibit Non Approved Opinion
The powers-that-be understand that if the government can control speech, it controls thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry. In fact, some of this past century’s greatest dystopian authors warned of this very danger.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, reading is banned and books are burned in order to suppress dissenting ideas, while televised entertainment is used to anesthetize the populace and render them easily pacified, distracted and controlled.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, serious literature, scientific thinking and experimentation are banned as subversive, while critical thinking is discouraged through the use of conditioning, social taboos and inferior education. Likewise, expressions of individuality, independence and morality are viewed as vulgar and abnormal.
In George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother does away with all undesirable and unnecessary words and meanings, even going so far as to routinely rewrite history and punish “thoughtcrimes.”
And in almost every episode of Twilight Zone, Rod Serling urged viewers to unlock their minds and free themselves of prejudice, hate, violence and fear. “We’re developing a new citizenry,” Serling declared. “One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.”
Conclusion
Yes, the manipulation of speech is an important tool for the control of people.
And we see a lot of this in regards to politics. Specifically in politics related to “democracies”, which pretty much rely upon “mob rule” to select the leadership. Thus we see that data in democracies are subject to popular opinion and thus must also be manipulated.
So, we see that in a “democracy”…
Leadership and politics are heavily involved in censorship and manipulation.
And in data sets and metrics of success, leadership also manipulates heavily.
But this is not the case in other forms of governance.
In totalitarian, and Republic forms of governance, there is no need to appease the population, thus there really isn’t a need to manipulate or censor. You can use China as a good example.
China
There was an outbreak of COVID-XXX in ZhangXin on March XXXX. 2,338 were infected, 388 died, and 78 were arrested for non-compliance with the mask law.
The Chinese don’t need to lie about these figures, or the presentation of them. They are facts. And whether you like them or not, agree with them or not, or anything else has no bearing on the issue. They do not CARE about your opinion.
Compare that to America, where mob opinion is very important and can result in positive or negative opinions of the leadership. Eventually resulting in their termination if things go bad.
USA
COVID-XXXX hits Boston. 456 infected, 34 deaths. But these figures are not verified by a secondary source and there are indications that they might be artificially enlarged by confusing it with the influenza. A government spokesperson admitted that there were a "few" deaths, but that everything was under control and a vaccine is under production right now to prevent further infections. Further, the vast majority of those that died had prior conditions, were old and feeble, or had other complication.
Sound familiar?
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM.
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM.
.
Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precedence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my Functional and practical notes section of my SHTF Index…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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I’ve been in a kind of strange funk lately. It’s difficult to put my finger on it. It could be anything. It’s really just been a strange year all in all.
Those of us expats that applied for our Federal Government Coronavirus checks never received them and we can’t seem to figure out why. Everyone else in the world got theirs. But a quick review of the news explains it all. [1] If you don’t have a social security number tied to a bank account, you just aren’t going to see the money. Or, [2] if you use a bank account not on SWIFT, or [3] if you have a family bank account with a non-citizen. If you want a stimulus check, no matter what anyone says, it must be deposited in an account that the US government can tax. It’s something that we suspected all along, but nothing hits home hard, then having money denied to you.
I’ve been terribly nostalgic for Boston, and the surrounding environs lately. I go to Visitnewengland.com and check out my old stomping grounds and some of my favorite restaurants and pubs. Sigh. There I can see that some of the places are still standing and I look at the fine blue skies of Massachusetts and the fall leaves, and just… well…
And…
.
Yah. While I do enjoy where I live, I have to admit that I really, really loved living in Boston, and the surrounding area. As you can well guess, I used to live in Milford, Walpole, Woonsockett, and Uxbridge. I wonder what it must be like now. I’ll bet that it is glorious. That’s what, and probably really nice for a nice little walk in the Wrenthan state forest.
F. Gilbert Hills state forest.
.
Anyways, I feel (you know “feel”) it’s time to wind some things down, pause a while, regroup and contemplate new directions. It’s a strong feeling. And I cannot explain it, except to say that my “feelings” and “hunches” have merit and are illustrative of other things.
Whether it is only personal, or suggestive of other things, bigger things, in a more expansive Geo-political arena is unknown. It’s just a really persistent, super odd feeling. Really.
When you get into these kinds of funk, the first thing that you want to do is hide. You go into your attic and read old magazines, you get the tackle box out and go fishing, or you hop in your truck and go on long rides in the countryside. You try to settle yourself. But it’s difficult.
It’s sort of like you are a (old fashioned) peculator coffee-pot and you are sitting on the stove and the water is starting to sizzle and a few pops of coffee are hitting the glass bulb on top. It’s almost exactly like that.
A peculator coffee-pot.
.
It’s a strong feeling that I cannot shake.
The thing about these feelings, for me, is that I am unable to discern what’s going on. Is it [1] me personally? Is it [2] something having to do with my latest affirmation campaign? [3] Is it part of my MAJesic mission parameters? [4] Is it a trend or series of changes that I am sensitive to? [5] Is it something having to do with our benefactors?
I really do not know.
Jeeze!
These feelings pretty much come and go with me all the time. You get in tune with yourself and your body, and you can feel when you need to rest, or you need to exercise, or when an organ is going to give your trouble, or when you should avoid doing certain activities. It’s an internal awareness of self. These feelings, well, they are like tides or swells with the ocean. Only this time, it’s really, really, REALLY strong and persistent. Gosh darn it, I might need to go ahead and drink some VSOP and some beer to chill way the fuck down.
This reminds me of something…
You know, my first wife, well she had a mental illness known as schizophrenia. And she was the sweetest and kindest girl that I have ever met, but when the illness would hit her, she was unmanageable and needed to go into seclusion in a mental hospital staffed with trained and experienced doctors. And the thing about this illness is that while she had it, she was also really seriously super psychic. She could see things, predict things, and experience things hours or days before they occurred.
Good and bad.
Drove her crazy. Or, according to the doctors; crazier.
Anyways, this feeling that I have right now reminds me of an event years ago.
On October 17, 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 67 people and causing more than $5 billion in damages. On October 17, 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit ...
-San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 - HISTORY
On October 16, all day long, I watched her experience this kind of discomfort that I am kind of feeling now. Now, we were not living in California at that time, we were living in Indiana, but she had this desire to call our friends in San Francisco and talk to them. Just talk. She didn’t feel anything bad. She just wanted to talk.
…
Weeks later the friends (in San Francisco) called us and told us that when the power was eventually restored they found my wife’s messages on their answering machine asking if they were all all-right. They all asked “how did you know?”
…
Anyways, I’m just throwing this all out there. It’s probably nothing for you all to be concerned about. Just go about your daily lives. Just remember that isolation is a danger. Get out and be with friends. Be social. Don’t trap yourself in a place or within a isolation bubble.
From Robert Greene…
LAW 18
DO NOT BUILD FORTRESSES TO PROTECT YOURSELF— ISOLATION IS DANGEROUS
JUDGMENT
The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere—everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it Protects you from—it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.
TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW
Ch‘in Shih Huang Ti, the first emperor of China (221-210 B.C.), was the mightiest man of his day. His empire was vaster and more powerful than that of Alexander the Great. He had conquered all of the kingdoms surrounding his own kingdom of Ch’in and unified them into one massive realm called China. But in the last years of his life, few, if anyone, saw him.
The emperor lived in the most magnificent palace built to that date, in the capital of Hsien-yang. The palace had 270 pavilions; all of these were connected by secret underground passageways, allowing the emperor to move through the palace without anyone seeing him. He slept in a different room every night, and anyone who inadvertently laid eyes on him was instantly beheaded. Only a handful of men knew his whereabouts, and if they revealed it to anyone, they, too, were put to death.
The first emperor had grown so terrified of human contact that when he had to leave the palace he traveled incognito, disguising himself carefully. On one such trip through the provinces, he suddenly died. His body was borne back to the capital in the emperor’s carriage, with a cart packed with salted fish trailing behind it to cover up the smell of the rotting corpse—no one was to know of his death. He died alone, far from his wives, his family, his friends, and his courtiers, accompanied only by a minister and a handful of eunuchs.
IIII MASQU I OI IIII. RI.DDI ATH
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatur and its seal—the redness and horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.... And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half-depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knight, and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtier.s, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. Theyresolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. Theexternal world could take care of itself In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence. It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade.... ... And the revel went whirlingly on,until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock.... And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked fzgecre which had arrested the attention of no single individual before.... The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features ofthe face, was sprinkled with the scarlet horror ... ...
A throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And oneby one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEAIH, EDGAR ALLAN POE, 1809-1849
Interpretation
Shih Huang Ti started off as the king of Ch’in, a fearless warrior of unbridled ambition. Writers of the time described him as a man with “a waspish nose, eyes like slits, the voice of a jackal, and the heart of a tiger or wolf.”
He could be merciful sometimes, but more often he “swallowed men up without a scruple.” It was through trickery and violence that he conquered the provinces surrounding his own and created China, forging a single nation and culture out of many.
He broke up the feudal system, and to keep an eye on the many members of the royal families that were scattered across the realm’s various kingdoms, he moved 120,000 of them to the capital, where he housed the most important courtiers in the vast palace of Hsien-yang. He consolidated the many walls on the borders and built them into the Great Wall of China.
He standardized the country’s laws, its written language, even the size of its cartwheels.
As part of this process of unification, however, the first emperor outlawed the writings and teachings of Confucius, the philosopher whose ideas on the moral life had already become virtually a religion in Chinese culture.
On Shih Huang Ti’s order, thousands of books relating to Confucius were burned, and anyone who quoted Confucius was to be beheaded. This made many enemies for the emperor, and he grew constantly afraid, even paranoid.
The executions mounted.
A contemporary, the writer Han-fei-tzu, noted that “Ch’in has been victorious for four generations, yet has lived in constant terror and apprehension of destruction.”
As the emperor withdrew deeper and deeper into the palace to protect himself, he slowly lost control of the realm. Eunuchs and ministers enacted political policies without his approval or even his knowledge; they also plotted against him.
By the end, he was emperor in name only, and was so isolated that barely anyone knew he had died. He had probably been poisoned by the same scheming ministers who encouraged his isolation.
That is what isolation brings: Retreat into a fortress and you lose contact with the sources of your power. You lose your ear for what is happening around you, as well as a sense of proportion. Instead of being safer, you cut yourself off from the kind of knowledge on which your life depends. Never enclose yourself so far from the streets that you cannot hear what is happening around you, including the plots against you.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
Louis XIV had the palace of Versailles built for him and his court in the 1660s, and it was like no other royal palace in the world. As in a beehive,
everything revolved around the royal person. He lived surrounded by the nobility, who were allotted apartments nestled around his, their closeness to him dependent on their rank. The king’s bedroom occupied the literal center of the palace and was the focus of everyone’s attention. Every morning the king was greeted in this room by a ritual known as the lever.
At eight A.M., the king’s first valet, who slept at the foot of the royal bed, would awaken His Majesty. Then pages would open the door and admit those who had a function in the lever. The order of their entry was precise: First came the king’s illegitimate sons and his grandchildren, then the princes and princesses of the blood, and then his physician and surgeon.
There followed the grand officers of the wardrobe, the king’s official reader, and those in charge of entertaining the king. Next would arrive various government officials, in ascending order of rank. Last but not least came those attending the lever by special invitation. By the end of the ceremony, the room would be packed with well over a hundred royal attendants and visitors.
The day was organized so that all the palace’s energy was directed at and passed through the king. Louis was constantly attended by courtiers and officials, all asking for his advice and judgment. To all their questions he usually replied, “I shall see.”
As Saint-Simon noted, “If he turned to someone, asked him a question, made an insignificant remark, the eyes of all present were turned on this person. It was a distinction that was talked of and increased prestige.” There was no possibility of privacy in the palace, not even for the king—every room communicated with another, and every hallway led to larger rooms where groups of nobles gathered constantly. Everyone’s actions were interdependent, and nothing and no one passed unnoticed: “The king not only saw to it that all the high nobility was present at his court,” wrote
Saint-Simon, “he demanded the same of the minor nobility. At his lever and coucher, at his meals, in his gardens of Versailles, he always looked about him, noticing everything. He was offended if the most distinguished nobles did not live permanently at court, and those who showed themselves never or hardly ever, incurred his full displeasure. If one of these desired something, the king would say proudly: ‘I do not know him,’ and the judgment was irrevocable.”
Interpretation
Louis XIV came to power at the end of a terrible civil war, the Fronde. A principal instigator of the war had been the nobility, which deeply resented the growing power of the throne and yearned for the days of feudalism, when the lords ruled their own fiefdoms and the king had little authority over them.
The nobles had lost the civil war, but they remained a fractious, resentful lot.
The construction of Versailles, then, was far more than the decadent whim of a luxury-loving king. It served a crucial function: The king could keep an eye and an ear on everyone and everything around him. The once proud nobility was reduced to squabbling over the right to help the king put on his robes in the morning. There was no possibility here of privacy—no possibility of isolation.
Louis XIV very early grasped the truth that for a king to isolate himself is gravely dangerous.
In his absence, conspiracies will spring up like mushrooms after rain, animosities will crystallize into factions, and rebellion will break out before he has the time to react. To combat this, sociability and openness must not only be encouraged, they must be formally organized and channeled.
These conditions at Versailles lasted for Louis’s entire reign, some fifty years of relative peace and tranquillity. Through it all, not a pin dropped without Louis hearing it.
Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue....Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad.
-Dr. Samuel John son, 1709-1784
KEYS TO POWER
Machiavelli makes the argument that in a strictly military sense a fortress is invariably a mistake. It becomes a symbol of power’s isolation, and is an easy target for its builders’ enemies. Designed to defend you, fortresses actually cut you off from help and cut into your flexibility. They may
appear impregnable, but once you retire to one, everyone knows where you are; and a siege does not have to succeed to turn your fortress into a prison. With their small and confined spaces, fortresses are also extremely vulnerable to the plague and contagious diseases. In a strategic sense, the isolation of a fortress provides no protection, and actually creates more problems than it solves.
Because humans are social creatures by nature, power depends on social interaction and circulation. To make yourself powerful you must place yourself at the center of things, as Louis XIV did at Versailles. All activity should revolve around you, and you should be aware of everything happening on the street, and of anyone who might be hatching plots against you. The danger for most people comes when they feel threatened. In such times they tend to retreat and close ranks, to find security in a kind of fortress. In doing so, however, they come to rely for information on a smaller and smaller circle, and lose perspective on events around them. They lose maneuverability and become easy targets, and their isolation makes them paranoid. As in warfare and most games of strategy, isolation often precedes defeat and death.
In moments of uncertainty and danger, you need to fight this desire to turn inward. Instead, make yourself more accessible, seek out old allies and make new ones, force yourself into more and more different circles. This has been the trick of powerful people for centuries.
The Roman statesman Cicero was born into the lower nobility, and had little chance of power unless he managed to make a place for himself among the aristocrats who controlled the city. He succeeded brilliantly, identifying everyone with influence and figuring out how they were connected to one another. He mingled everywhere, knew everyone, and had such a vast network of connections that an enemy here could easily be counterbalanced by an ally there.
The French statesman Talleyrand played the game the same way. Although he came from one of the oldest aristocratic families in France, he made a point of always staying in touch with what was happening in the streets of Paris, allowing him to foresee trends and troubles. He even got a certain pleasure out of mingling with shady criminal types, who supplied him with valuable information. Every time there was a crisis, a transition of power—the end of the Directory, the fall of Napoleon, the abdication of
Louis XVIII—he was able to survive and even thrive, because he never closed himself up in a small circle but always forged connections with the new order.
This law pertains to kings and queens, and to those of the highest power: The moment you lose contact with your people, seeking security in isolation, rebellion is brewing. Never imagine yourself so elevated that you can afford to cut yourself off from even the lowest echelons. By retreating to a fortress, you make yourself an easy target for your plotting subjects, who view your isolation as an insult and a reason for rebellion.
Since humans are such social creatures, it follows that the social arts that make us pleasant to be around can be practiced only by constant exposure and circulation. The more you are in contact with others, the more graceful and at ease you become. Isolation, on the other hand, engenders an awkwardness in your gestures, and leads to further isolation, as people start avoiding you.
In 1545 Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici decided that to ensure the immortality of his name he would commission frescoes for the main chapel of the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. He had many great painters to choose from, and in the end he picked Jacopo da Pontormo. Getting on in years, Pontormo wanted to make these frescoes his chef d’oeuvre and legacy. His first decision was to close the chapel off with walls, partitions, and blinds. He wanted no one to witness the creation of his masterpiece, or to steal his ideas. He would outdo Michelangelo himself. When some young men broke into the chapel out of curiosity, Jacopo sealed it off even further.
Pontormo filled the chapel’s ceiling with biblical scenes—the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark, on and on. At the top of the middle wall he painted Christ in his majesty, raising the dead on Judgment Day. The artist worked on the chapel for eleven years, rarely leaving it, since he had developed a phobia for human contact and was afraid his ideas would be stolen.
Pontormo died before completing the frescoes, and none of them has survived. But the great Renaissance writer Vasari, a friend of Pontormo’s who saw the frescoes shortly after the artist’s death, left a description of what they looked like. There was a total lack of proportion. Scenes bumped against scenes, figures in one story being juxtaposed with those in another, in maddening numbers. Pontormo had become obsessed with detail but had lost any sense of the overall composition. Vasari left off his description of the frescoes by writing that if he continued, “I think I would go mad and become entangled in this painting, just as I believe that in the eleven years of time Jacopo spent on it, he entangled himself and anyone else who saw it.”
Instead of crowning Pontormo’s career, the work became his undoing.
These frescoes were visual equivalents of the effects of isolation on the human mind: a loss of proportion, an obsession with detail combined with an inability to see the larger picture, a kind of extravagant ugliness that no longer communicates. Clearly, isolation is as deadly for the creative arts as for the social arts. Shakespeare is the most famous writer in history because, as a dramatist for the popular stage, he opened himself up to the masses, making his work accessible to people no matter what their education and taste. Artists who hole themselves up in their fortress lose a sense of proportion, their work communicating only to their small circle. Such art remains cornered and powerless.
Finally, since power is a human creation, it is inevitably increased by contact with other people. Instead of falling into the fortress mentality, view the world in the following manner: It is like a vast Versailles, with every room communicating with another. You need to be permeable, able to float in and out of different circles and mix with different types. That kind of mobility and social contact will protect you from plotters, who will be unable to keep secrets from you, and from your enemies, who will be unable to isolate you from your allies. Always on the move, you mix and mingle in the rooms of the palace, never sitting or settling in one place. No hunter can fix his aim on such a swift-moving creature.
Image: The Fortress. High up on the hill, the citadel be comes a symbol of all that is hateful in power and authority.
The citizens of the town betray you to the first enemy that comes. Cut off from communication and intelligence, the citadel falls with ease.
Authority: A good and wise prince, desirous of maintaining that character, and to avoid giving the opportunity to his sons to become oppressive, will never build fortresses, so that they may place their reliance upon the good will of their subjects, and not upon the strength of citadels. (Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527)
REVERSAL
It is hardly ever right and propitious to choose isolation. Without keeping an ear on what is happening in the streets, you will be unable to protect yourself. About the only thing that constant human contact cannot facilitate is thought. The weight of society’s pressure to conform, and the lack of distance from other people, can make it impossible to think clearly about what is going on around you. As a temporary recourse, then, isolation can help you to gain perspective. Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think. Machiavelli could write The Prince only once he found himself in exile and isolated on a farm far from the political intrigues of Florence.
The danger is, however, that this kind of isolation will sire all kinds of strange and perverted ideas. You may gain perspective on the larger picture, but you lose a sense of your own smallness and limitations. Also, the more isolated you are, the harder it is to break out of your isolation when you choose to—it sinks you deep into its quicksand without your noticing. If you need time to think, then, choose isolation only as a last resort, and only in small doses. Be careful to keep your way back into society open.
Conclusion
Whenever you feel strange, or are angry, fearful, or upset, or confused… don’t isolate. Reach out to others, and get with your friends and support network. It might be the local watering hole, or your extended relatives. It might be some friends, or if you have no-one then just get out in nature and take your favorite dog with you.
Everyone has times where things “don’t feel right”. And it is at those times that we need to get in touch with what is going on, calm the fuck way, way down, and get with others. Others that care about us.
For me, this is one of those times. You all shouldn’t read more into this than what it probably is. Nothing. But use this as a reminder that we are all part of an environment with a complex social structures and a network that involves others. tap into that network and you will mitigate any negative concerns or worries that you might have.
For me, I’m going out to eat some delicious food, have a smoke or two with some friends, and gonna eat some fine delicious food. I’d suggest you all do the same. God Bless.
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Or, some history on how my knowledge about affirmation prayer campaigns developed and evolved over the years. With intentional omission of the the primary drivers – my MAJ involvement, and the need to maintain my sanity. This write-up provides some insight in to how they work, and involves a span of time going back four decades.
Here are just some stores about some of my experiences in conducting prayer affirmations campaigns. They are in no particular order, and have no other ranking aside from their personal illustrations. I think that I have learned lessons from them, and I have applied what I have learned to all my subsequent affirmation campaigns. I think that if I were to relate my stores, you too (dear reader) might learn a thing or two that you can use to put your efforts and your own affirmation campaigns into better focus.
We will begin with a campaign that I had almost completely forgotten about. As it was initiated a decade or more ago, and it was something that I did WHILE I was still within MAJestic. (Performing prayer and affirmations campaigns during my operational years greatly assisted in me keeping my sanity, and being able to have and hold some degree of control over my life.)
So let’s begin with…
Big house, one the beach, with a wine cellar.
Yup. That’s exactly what I asked for. I did so way back in the late 1980’s to middle 1990’s. And since it didn’t materialize within a few years, I thought that it would never materialize.
I was wrong.
It materialized in 2017.
And it was exactly as I specified. It was huge. I mean HUGE (by Chinese standards), perhaps six times larger than the typical middle class household, with an enormous yard (porch). Yes, it overlooked the ocean. Yes, it was roomy and airy, and the walls were white and off yellow-white exactly as I specified (back in the day). And, yes, it even had a wine cellar! In a land where cellars are a rarity, let alone a wine cellar, this one had it, and it too was enormous!
And I loved it when I got it, and I loved the location. I loved how the air moved about the house, the cool and calm location, and my neighbors.
But…
A number of things happened. (And that is life don’t you know.) Nothing bad, or good. Just “neutral”.
First off, let’s confront the “elephant in the room”…
Why did it take 20 to 30 years for this affirmation to manifest?
Best I can figure out is that my goals were way, way outside of my abilities and my lifestyle track. You can ask, wish and dream for all sorts of things, but if your current lifestyle cannot not support them, then you would have to go through some changes to get to that state, and at that time, I was happy with my life.
I asked for all sorts of things, on the condition that my life would not change.
WTF?
Yes, you read that correct. To make and achieve your desires you will need to go through changes, and changes are always never comfortable. So what you need to do is come up with a staged set of affirmation objectives to get to that point.
In my life, I had to...
[1] Change my relationships.
[2] Move to the coast.
[3] Change my occupation.
[4] Change my attitude about life.
An only once I had achieved these interim stages were my base line desires and objectives able to materialize. This is true. Don't think that you are going to suddenly have a "lifestyle of the rich and famous" without moving out of your mobile home first.
And then,
Why aren’t I living in this house now?
This is what is funny about life. You think you want one thing, and when you get it, you discover that there are other things that you do not like, or that does not appeal to you.
For me, when I made the affirmation, I was living in and around Boston. It was a beautiful area, most certainly, but a ride to the beach was a two to three hour drive, and thus I could only go to it on the weekends, and for all practical purposes limited my beach excursions to maybe four times or so a year.
Truthfully, a beach-side home in Massachusetts, even the cheapest and most remote run down broken homes would have run me millions of dollars. It was way, way beyond my means at that time. (And true, it still is. Which is why I don't own a beach-side home in Massachusetts.)
Now, once you get a beach-side home you learn a few things about home ownership on a beach. Things, I dare say, that I was unaware of at that time.
Everything gets wet.
Everything.
Condensate collects on the walls. Art, paintings and pictures, warp and get ruined. Clothes never fully dry. Door knobs get sticky with clammy residue, and winter down jackets and clothing starts to deteriorate when stored in plastic bags.
Screws rust.
Mattresses get cold and clammy. Even on sunny warm days. Fog isn't just something that is outside, it is something that you find in the hallway and closets. Tools all rust out. And sand gets into everything.
And while I did enjoy my time in that house, after a while I decided that some place close to the ocean, but not on the beach was more desirable for me, and my family, personally.
So let’s look a little deeper into the drivers behind our desires, and what we want.
It wasn’t what I thought it was.
This is a theme that will come up time and time again when your dreams and wishes manifest. You have one image, one vision of what you want, and when it happens it just isn't the "same thing". Even though it might look and feel just absolutely identical to what you desired.
Somehow I absolutely pictured a cross between the images of Miami Vice, the homes in Cape Cod, and a Hodge-podge of "homes of the wealthy" on television and movies. If you were to quiz me back in 1998, what I wanted, you might see one of those Miami Beach-front homes that resemble a LA mansion overlooking a long stretch of white sand under a blue - blue sky.
Do not laugh.
The television show Miami Vice defined American culture in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Miami Vice.
No television series represented the style or dominant cultural aesthetic of the 1980s as fully or indelibly as Miami Vice. A popular one-hour police drama that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989, Miami Vice was in one sense a conventional buddy-cop show—not unlike Dragnet, Adam 12, and Starsky and Hutch —featuring an interracial pair of narcotics detectives who wage a weekly ...
-Miami Vice | Encyclopedia.com
Television heavily influenced what I thought what I wanted. Scene is a beach-front mansion (with a wine cellar) on the 1980’s hit television show “Miami Vice”.
Now, you all might think that I was crazy for wanting such a thing. I was doing fine. I had a nice home, cabin, in a small town outside of a state forest in Massachusetts, and it was cozy, nice and I loved Massachusetts.
And that's the way it is.
When you are bombarded with culture and contemporaneous television and movies, you start to see other things, and they are always portrayed in such a way that you can relate to the characters in those flicks. You end up saying "hey! I'm just as good as that guy. Why can't I live that kind of lifestyle, like him?"
Well?
Isn’t that the way it is?
Like all those Instragram Influencers that everyone is jealous of?
Would you believe that I actually owned a (red) convertible with a phone just like this and cruised around back and forth to work wearing a similar style of attire? Yeah. It’s strange, but it was on my affirmation campaign, and so it did actually happen! Just not at the same time as my beach house.
What we think we want, and what we actually (deep down inside) want is often polluted by the media, culture, society and popular culture.
It shapes our thoughts.
That's a DANGER.
For me, I was heavily influenced by the Miami Vice television show of the 1980's. As well as most of America. This influenced what I believed that I could be, aspire to, and what kind of lifestyle that I felt was deserving for me and my family at that time.
Instead of saving money, building a family like what was depicted in television shows of the 1960's...
Leave it to Beaver
The Brady Bunch
The Andy Griffith Show
My Three Sons.
Bewitched
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mayberry R.F.D
A new kind of narrative took hold. It was one of bright blue skies, fast and expensive cars. Beach houses, attractive girls in bikinis and live fast. It's a narrative where you could like a billionaire while you were still in your 20's. After all, how did some detectives (Miami Vice) get to drive around in a Ferrari?
Anyways, you become what your environment influences you to be….
The 1980s were called the Reagan years, because he was president for eight of them. During his first term, the recession ended. Inflation was controlled. He reduced taxes. Americans felt hopeful that they could make money again.
Observers created several expressions to describe some groups of people at that time. One expression was “the ‘me’ generation”. This described Americans who were only concerned about themselves. Another expression was “yuppie”. It meant “young urban professional”. Both these groups seemed as if they lived just to make and spend money, money, and more money.
Entertainment in the 1980s showed the interest society placed on financial success. The characters in a number of television programs, for example, lived in costly homes, wore costly clothes, and drove costly automobiles. They were not at all like average Americans. They lived lives that required huge amounts of money.
Two of these television programs became extremely popular in the United States and in other countries. They were called “Dallas” and “Dynasty”.
At the movie theater, a very popular film was called “Wall Street”. It was about a young, wealthy, dishonest — powerful — man who traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Power was a popular program idea in action films, too.
And what did this all get me?
Yes…
It got me a corporate life that pretty much fit that image plastered and burned into the skull of just about everyone in the United States.
When television, the most popular television shows, portrayed a working environment with whites and greys, where the management lived inside these white rooms, and you sat facing computer screens, and had projects in big empty bare chambers… they begin to manifest all over America… as a REALITY.
It’s not just work.
It’s everything.
You see, our brains take what we see and watch and change our reality to fit those images. And this can be anything from a desire for a certain kind of house, to a way of dress, and an office space. But it can be anything. Like food for instance…
Other examples of reality deviance from expectation
This next example is a perfect example of how what you wish for might not match what you ask for.
Ah, we all like fine delicious food. And when we think of the wonderful food we have images of our “comfort” foods. Those foods that we grew up with, and that which gave us pleasure and enjoyment. For me, growing up in Western Pennsylvania, these images have always been of pizza, hamburgers, fine Polish – Italian food. Hot crusty buttered rolls.
And of course, being who I am, I wanted MORE!
More is better, right?
Bigger is better? Eh?
Lots is better than a few? Eh?
A few years back I added a simple line statement affirmation to my affirmation lists. I have kept this statement in over the years and I have watched it affect my life. The statement is very simple, but…
But…
… the results were unexpected.
Unexpected.
The statement is…
I eat fine, delicious and healthy food all the time.
Oh, what a change that it has made in my life. I am not at all kidding. It really changed my life. And since I added this statement the number of hamburgers that I would eat, the plates of spaghetti, and the other types of deep fired American food just about “dropped off the cliff” to a point where I rarely eat those items at all any longer.
What!
Is that what I wanted?
No. No. No.
Something else materialized, instead.
Instead, I find myself eating delicious Thai and Hunan food, with imported wine and beer. If I eat Western and American food, instead of it been greasy or fatty deep fried delicious goodness, it’s mostly steaks and fresh sea food.
Fine. Delicious. Healthy. Food.
I said it.
It materialized.
Since I added this singular affirmation to my various campaigns, my quality of eating has increased enormously, and the type of foods that I used to eat have become fewer and far between. I eat fresh fish, steaks and cooked vegetables. Not so much deep fried chicken and french fries.
Now, I will tell you, the reader, that I was NOT expecting this. Actually, I was expecting a nice run of delicious think subway sandwiches, large platters of delicious mac and cheese with tons of gooey cheese, and deep pan pizza. But that is not what happened. instead, I now find myself eating a higher quality of tasty food with enormous quantities of delicious vegetables, top and choice cuts of meat, and very little in the way of fats.
Funny how things work. Eh?
Remember… what your eyes see, what your thoughts create, and what those around you think about… becomes what you will experience.
Typical small town Southern community. This is in Georgia.
Deviance is obvious when it involves material objects
The difference between what you ask for, and what you actually get is obvious when your affirmation revolves around material objects. This can be a car, a home, a location, a boat…
Here we look at how thoughts change your reality and generate new ones. And it's any thoughts, and any passions. Not just those associated with prayer campaigns.
This one is seemingly about boats. Ships. Sailing.
Seemingly.
When I lived in Indiana, I had this dream about sailing to the South Pacific and exploring the islands there. At that time in my life, I worked in the “corporate world” and it was every bit as real as the movie “Office Space”. It was the same. The same bland colors, the same irritating people, the same grayness.
And like “Joe”, in the movie “Joe vs the Volcano”, I longed to escape it.
The movie “Office Space” has a cult following simply because it is more than just a comedy. It is a snapshot of what American corporate life was like for millions of us back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It was awful, and the truth is that many of the “so called” humorous” elements in the movie actually occurred to us on a regular basis.
Ah, but sailing…
Now that was an adventure.
So, I read a ton load of books, on the subject and subscribed to all sorts of magazines related to sailing and the cruising lifestyle. And many a cold frosty day stuck in the icy sub-arctic weather of a horrific Indiana winter was spent thinking, reading, day dreaming and planning of traveling all over the world in a boat.
No. I did not devise an affirmation campaign to manifest this desire.
But I thought about it all the time. I talked about it all the time. It was not just my hobby at that time, it was my obsession.
Now, thoughts create your reality.
Right?
Thoughts create your reality. Whether they are planned and formalized as in a prayer campaign, or just seemingly “random” as in a passion or an obsession.
For millions of us “cubicle warriors” the type of lifestyle that was depicted in the movie “Office Space” was a reality. It was a harsh reality, and what made the money such a hit is that it gave us participants a chance to step back, and look at the lives that we were living from a third-person perspective.
And while I argue that you need to utilize formal affirmation prayer campaigns to focus your desires into a materialization of your desires in the reality, you can use many other techniques to make this happen. Often, you aren’t aware that you are manifesting and creating such realities.
Now, all this focus and all these thoughts had created various manifestations.
I ended up meeting people who were building and constructing their very own ocean-sailing yachts. yes! In rural Indiana of all places. They would be building these large metal vessels in their back yards, in barns and on flatbed trucks. Each time I met them, I felt closer to my dream, and felt that I could live a more rewarding life than what I was on track for…
…the clutching for the almighty dollar.
Scene from the movie “Joe vs the Volcano”. Joe arrives at work. And deals with the stress at his job, his company and his life.
It was great seeing other people who were working on their “escape plan”. Many of them had formulated their dreams and desires over the years and had spent decades building their vessels from which they could change their lives and go onto adventures with.
So, naturally, something happened.
I bought a boat.
No, not an ocean sailing yacht. I was in Indiana, for goodness sakes! But I bought a power boat for the local lakes in Indiana. It was a 18 foot ski-boat, and it was beautiful. We (my wife and I) named it “Going Coconuts”, and we kept it at a large lake about an hour drive North of where we lived in Kokomo, Indiana.
And even though it was a small ski boat, it taught us things about the boating lifestyle that we were not thinking about all the times we read, and lived the dream of sailing. All sorts of things. And things that we were unaware of while we were sitting and reading those fine glossy magazines on sailing.
Boats require licensing just like cars do.
They require loan payments as well.
And insurance.
And you only get to ride in them a few precious times of the year…
But you need to store them somewhere, and that costs money.
They need more care and maintenance than a car requires.
And they are a lot of work to keep clean.
Somehow, all those articles kind of glossed over these points. And while they talked about doing this repair, and paying that cost, We were unprepared for the shear magnitude of time, effort and cost to maintain the boat. It was almost like a big hole that you ended up throwing your money into.
"A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money” is a popular saying that has been printed on gift items, such as T-shirts and posters. “A yacht, they say, is a hole in the water surrounded by wood into which money is poured” has been cited in print since at least 1961 and is of unknown authorship.
-The Big Apple: “A boat is a hole in the water into which ...
After buying the boat, I was beginning to think that my thoughts and dreams were misplaced. That perhaps I was yearning for something that the purchase of THINGS cannot repair…
Let’s talk about the movie “Captain Ron”. You see at that time, in my life, I yearned for a life that was more adventuresome and exciting than living the “Office Space” existence that I had at Delco Electronics.
Delco Electronics designed and developed automobile electronics, computers and systems for GM. It was an enormous facility that was the absolute clone of the horror of (the movie) "Office Space". It had the worst aspects of the enormous General Motors culture in the nightmarish existence of Silicon Valley smack dab in the middle of the flat corn belt of Indiana.
And then the movie “Captain Ron” appeared.
This is wonderful movie, and one of my favorite movies of all time!
A family inherits a sailboat and decides to flee the urban rat race. They don’t realize that they will have to over come many hurdles, including aspects of them selves, Capt. Ron, the boat and the environment. It’s a movie about adventure, change, and a reappraisal of your values and why your work so hard for what you think is important to you.
Captain Ron discusses one issue or the other with the new owners of the schooner.
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Captain Ron Rico is about as laid back as laid back can be.
[as Ben, who's 12, moves Captain Ron's beer]
Captain Ron:
Hey. Get your hands off that.
Benjamin Harvey:
I was just moving it. I wasn't gonna drink it.
Captain Ron:
You bet your little booty, you wasn't. You want a beer, you get your own beer.
-- Captain Ron
He’s an ex Navy carrier driver whose been through one too many squalls, not to mention a stint in rehab.
A treasure chest of worldly knowledge, he’s never at a loss to relate his exploits even when it comes to his glass eye, “Won it in a crap game a few years back.”
Yah.
[Lost in a heavy storm]Captain Ron:
The boss is right. We should be okay. 'Cause I know we're near land.
Martin Harvey:
Great, Cap. Great. Ya hear that? We're almost there. Explain to the kids how you know that, Captain Ron. Someone translate for General Armando.
Captain Ron:
Alright, now stay with me: When we left, we had just enough fuel to make it to San Juan. And now... we are out of fuel!
At first glance he’s a man you wouldn’t trust to float an inner tube, but as he proves to Martin Short throughout the course of the movie, he’s “far more cunning than first suspected.” After all, you gotta love a guy who as he’s sipping beer with Short’s young son, he tells the young lad that he just caught his parents “Playing hide-the-salami in the shower.”
Martin Harvey:
Slow down! There's boats all over the place!
Captain Ron:
Don't worry. They'll get out of the way. I learned that driving the Saratoga.
The daughter plays a teenager that is simultaneously apathetic and nearly out of control. The son is a kid who hasn’t taken an interest in life until now. The father assumes that Capt. Ron can’t know anything while the family begins to believe that it’s the father who doesn’t know anything.
Captain Ron:
[telling how he lost his eye] Yeah, it happened when I went down off the coast of Australia.
Katherine Harvey:
Your boat sank?
Captain Ron:
No, no, no, no. Not my boat. My boss's boat. Yeah, we hit this reef. Huge son-of-a-bitch. Ran the whole coast.
Katherine Harvey:
Wait. The Great Barrier Reef?
Captain Ron:
You've heard of it, huh? Smart lady.
After a while the Influence of Captain Ron affects everyone, and even the son seems to have been influenced by the antics and behaviors of Captain Ron.
Captain Ron:
[to Ben] Hey swab. C'mere. Listen up. Now, the way it works shipboard is, you do your job. You do it good, you get a better job. Maybe you get promoted from swab to mate.
[Ben nods]Captain Ron:
Alright. Get on it.
Captain Ron:
[to Martin] Sort've an incentive kind of a deal, huh?
Martin Harvey:
Ah. Good.
Captain Ron:
Yeah, incentives are important.
I learned that in rehab.
By the end of the movie, I actually found myself nostalgic for the sense of freedom and fun that only Captain Ron can steer you towards…
This movie was one of the triggers to me moving away…
…far, far away from the corporate life, and mindless pursuits of more and more money, and more and more things.
[Approaching Martin and Katherine in a holding cell on San Juan]Bill Zachary:
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey? I'm Bill Zachary from the U.S. State Department. I've got some good news for you.
Katherine Harvey:
Oh. You found our children.
Bill Zachary:
No. But you're not being charged with subversion.
What’s really going on?
Was it really that I wanted to build a boat, that I wanted to sail the world? That I wanted to partake in the adventure of skippers and the ocean breezes? Or was it something else?
Was it that I was so tired of the bland corporate life…
And the sterile sameness and pleasantries of Central Indiana…
… flat…
…bland …
Typical Indiana.
… pleasant ….
…made “good” money….
…that my soul was screeching and screaming for some “LIFE” and some excitement! That maybe I just wanted some “color” in my life. Some fun. Something different. Something that would alert my senses…
…something “real”…
…anything, really…
…and without anyone to guide me…
…I reached out to things that appealed to me, but that weren’t really practical and in tune with my real and direct needs.
Long story short…
I conducted an affirmation prayer campaign, and within a very short period of time, say nine months…
…I moved.
And I moved to really interesting places. And my first stop was the very unique and colorful Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And let me tell you’se guys something serious. This is a great and unique and super dooper colorful area.
Doc Hollywood
We generally do not know where our affirmation campaigns will take us. That is, unless we are specific in our destinations. At that time, I knew in my heart and soul that a serous change was required and that I was unhappy where I was, and while I was eating and sleeping well, I was also miserable. It was not the life that I wanted. It was far too clean, far too boring, and far too bland.
So I wanted excitement.
Or, maybe, not “excitement. I wanted a change. I wanted a more colorful area, with more interesting people, more tasty choices in food instead of the McDonald’s, or other clone restaurants that had displaced all the family diners and changed them to Applebys, and Pantera Bread chains.
I was tired of manicured lawns. Cinder-block stores, with the same prices, the same canned music, the same types of cars, in the same colors and shapes. I was tired of every house having a red door, a General Motors made car, and a mail box that they bought from Lowe’s.
I was tired of McMansions.
I was tired of corporate life. Corporate radio (and at that time, big corporations bought all the radio stations in Central Indiana, and played a rotating 50 songs over, and over, and over…)
And what manifested was sort of unexpected. It was very much like a cross between Mayberry RFD (The television show.) and the movie Doc Hollywood.
Like I said.
Unexpected.
Doc Hollywood
Hattiesburg, MS resembled the scenes within the Movie Doc Hollywood. It was uncanny. What’s more, it wasn’t Mc-anything. Everything was authentic. Everything was “real” with substance, and a genuine nature that was the opposite of “corporate”.
I have to laugh!Thubanstar8 December 2004
I have to laugh at all the comments on this board which say this movie's plot or the characters are not "plausible".
I live near the town this movie was shot in, (I was an extra for one day, and a "stand in" for two days on this film. It was neat!) and believe me, the characters are not only believable, you can meet versions of them in small towns all through the south.
There is a big difference between city and deep country life. Maybe people in very urban areas and countries tend to forget that. Quite honestly, I know several people down here in the boonies who make the folk of "Grady" look downright sophisticated.
That criticism shot down, I just have to say it's a really sweet film. It has a lot of atmosphere and some good character development, even in the minor roles. It portrays small, small town America pretty accurately and with a great deal of charm.
Dr. Ben Stone is leaving DC for a job doing plastic surgery for celebs in LA when he runs into a picket fence in a small Southern town and has to do 3 days of community service at their clinic as penance.
His fancy sports car is totaled anyway and he has to get it fixed.
Miffed at being waylaid in such a hokey place, he tries to get through the next few days in time for his new job.
There’s a real charm in the deep South. And it was like a refreshing burst of fresh air compared to the stifling conformity of corporate life in Indiana.
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He meets a wide cast of characters — and to their credit, not everyone in a small town is so gosh-friendly. Some are mean, some are troubled, some are nice — like any other array of people. Ben meets Lou, a single mother who drives the ambulance, as well as Nancy Lee Nicholson, a confused beauty who wants him to take her to LA.
In a town full of colorful characters, two ‘stars in the making’ stand out; Woody Harrelson, as ‘Lou’s’ suitor, Hank Gordon, a country variation of his bartending character from ‘Cheers’, talks dumb but has a knack for selling, only lacking a place to make big money at it; and Bridget Fonda, as Mayor Nicholson’s oversexed but ‘out of place’ daughter, hopes Stone will take her away to the bright lights of Hollywood.
For me, the movie was a representation of my life in Hattiesburgh.
Actually, if you all want to get "technical". I lived in Pervis. Which was a small town outside of Hattiesburg.
Yes. The citizens of Hattiesburg Mississippi pretty much resembled those portrayed in Grady in the movie “Doc Hollywood”.
I have watched Doc Hollywood umpteen times and like it more each time .macpherr20 October 1999
To most people this movie is about a small town in the South. To me that one small town street is the place where my husband and I used to day dreaming about buying antique furniture after he would finish graduate school at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida.
The movie location, the one street town of Micanopy, is just a few miles away from Gainesville.
They show the entire downtown!
As I have watched Doc Hollywood umpteen times, I love to see the corner store, which was a jewelry store called the Strawberry Bank specializing in antique jewelry about seventeen years ago. I would put stuff on lay-way as graduate students could not afford the luxury of buying something faster.
Then we would drive around those back roads full of trees and Spanish moss and eat an early dinner: fried cat fish, fried okra, rice, and whatever fresh thing they had that our small stomachs could contain.
It was such a great time in our lives!
That area is surrounded by students. I guess we did not realize how little we had as graduate students, since we were even able to afford an off-campus apartment! Everybody else had about the same youth and enthusiasm and we were looking to our bright futures.
I would go to the library and get books on antiques furniture, old lace and antique jewelry. I would audit French classes, take classes in jewelry making techniques: such as lost wax and casting.
I learned so much about life in that town, and biked until I ended up tan without ever sitting in the sun.
Like Michael J. Fox (The American President) "Dr. Benjamin Stone," I was fascinated with the big city. Coming from one of the largest cities in the world, I just wondered what I was going to do after I finished my classes as a Visiting Student at the UF.
Well after living there for about four years, I learned much more than what graduate school could ever teach.
Like Dr. Stone, I fell in love with the place, I would not mind having a pig named Jasmine, I fell in love with the quilt making, the silence, the southern hospitality, and how "they all" thought I had an accent.
I can even do a pretty good southern accent now myself!
Every once in while a celebrity would come to town like Sally Fields (Forest Gump) raising support for a project that her brother a physics professor at UF was working on. Those college folk, they sure come up with strange ideas. That was so cool!
Julie Warner (Mr. Saturday Night) "Lou" was so adorable with her down to earth attitude.
A mainstay meal in Mississippi; the fried catfish dinner with chips, slaw, and pickled tomatoes with hush-puppies.
I loved to see the Mayor dressed like a squash. That is the South!
This is an excellent movie.
It has values. Ben Stone realized that being a Doctor in a small town might even mean having to read to your clients personal letters to them because they could not read.
He in the end realizes that being needed is far more important than money.
My favorite quotes: " Watch your language Doc, you are in the belt of the Bible belt."
Stone: "There were cows in the middle of the road! I told you my insurance company will be happy to pay for that fence."
Judge:"I built that fence myself. Neither you, nor, your insurance company can pay for a fence that I built myself."
My favorite scenes: the one street in Micanopy, the cute wooden cabin, the little old ladies quilting and arguing.
Ben Stone and Lou driving around on that old huge ambulance, and acting like real animals demarcating their territories by scent. They would urinate and distribute the liquid around to detract deer that would attract the hunters.
My husbands favorite scene is Julie Warner slowing rising from under water when she was skinny dipping. Not lewd, but enchanting.
Well we are going to "visit all " the relatives down south and eat fresh catfish in some back road "ma &pa restaurant." I guess " you all" have to go buy or rent this movie.
This movie is great because it is about many people deciding for themselves how they want to live — whether in a big city or in a small town — and why they value what they do. It is also about an epiphany for Ben Stone and changing of his ways internally.
And that’s pretty much what I moved to.
A super nice small community with it’s own unique (and very different) culture, society and food. And it was refreshing! Absolutely and positively refreshing!
The point here is that you need to leave your affirmation campaigns wide open so that things that you are not aware of, but that meet your deepest desires are able to manifest. If you are too specific, you might end up with a house like what you see on television, and not like one that your really want.
Here’s what Hattiesburg was sort of like…
Rural Mississippi. Very nice.
Now…
There’s many things that I can say and lessons to be learned. But at this point we will park this conversation here for a spell.
And the rest of the story here…
Eventually, I had to leave my position in Hattiesburg. Which was really sad. It happened when there was a restructuring in the corporate office (in Chicago) and they input new management in (from Silicon Valley) who remade the entire working environment…
…wait for it…
…yet another clone of “Office Space”.
Ugh!
And suddenly, just like that (snaps fingers) I was living in corporate America all over again, as a “power” yellow-tie corporate executive remade my Mississippi company into a clone of Silicon Valley.
So…
Some trends are too large, and too invasive to escape from. It’s like trying to run away from sweat. It will form, and the only thing that you can do is try to get / make yourself comfortable.
Ugh.
Conclusion
My skills in regards to affirmation / prayer campaigns were honed over four decades out of necessity. It was like I was on this churning, bobbing, sea of turmoil that was frequently trying to push me under. And my only way to maintain sanity was to take control of my thoughts and actions. And over time, I realized just how critical the control of my thoughts were.
Indeed, if I were not careful others, and other things would change and alter my thoughts to something else, and something quite different. And I didn’t want anything to do with it.
Gosh and golly, there are so many lessons here, some of which I spelled out to you, the reader, and others that you might be able to see if you read between the lines. It is our thoughts, and the shadow thoughts of others which can make our lives great, or a Hellish experience. Our only recourse is to control the barrage of thoughts to something that we can manage.
Be careful of your affirmations. What you think you want, might not be what you earnestly truly want deep down inside. It’s like the guy who says that he want’s a “big dick”, when in reality, he just wants a lot of sex. Be real, and be truthful with yourself.
This was my story.
I am sure that you have your own stories that you can add to this. For life is a very interesting journey. And learning, and experiencing life is our duty.
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No, I am not talking about Donald Trump. Though he might be a symptom. I am talking about everything. (Well, maybe I’ll mention him later on. HE is, after all, a very colorful figure.) But, yea. Everything in the USA today is either full-on idiocracy or on transition towards it.
Gosh, and by golly, look at the latest news for “Heaven’s sake”…
But one that ended up reflecting what America has turned into.
Idiocracy
This movie was supposed to be a comedy about a far future in XXVI Century. From the perspective of 2019, it is a documentary of contemporary society proving that the biggest damage has already been done.
-a documentary that should win all the movie awards!aglowacka3 March 2019
“Idiocracy” is a film that came from Mike “Office Space” Judge, and it certainly follows a similar theme of that film in the fact that it is an observation of stupidity and how mediocrity can overcome adversity… relatively speaking.
You can read all kinds of references into the world of Idiocracy. A futuristic world populated by pampered, self-indulgent morons spoon-fed by the technology of a bygone era: this idea has its precedent in H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” amongst other satires.
In many, many ways, the movie “Idiocracy” seems to depict modern 2020 America.
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Early in the film, a narrator explains the quick degradation of humanity over five hundred years, but does not fill in the gaps of where all the futuristic technology came from in the meanwhile. Most of the criticism of this very fun (and funny) film seems to surround this omission, and the resulting complaint that the world isn’t “realistic”. As if “realism” has ever been a necessary quality of satire. Is “Brazil” realistic? How about “Futurama” or “Transmetropolitan”? Hell, how about “Gulliver’s Travels”? I thought not. “Idiocracy”, while maybe not as pointed as the best of the genre, hits the same notes and generally does so successfully.
It is a story about Joe Bauer (Luke Wilson), who is, quite literally, the most average guy in existence. Joe, and a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph), become the test subjects for a military project of a hibernation chamber. They were to remain suspended for only one year, but due to lack of oversight, Joe and Rita are forgotten about and accidentally wake up 500 years in the future.
Here’s the scary part: This film explains, in a very realistic and plausible way, how the entire population of 2505 became absolutely retarded.
Of course, if the US government would have a time machine, this is what it would look like.
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With no natural predators, the evolution of the human species does not necessarily favor the quickest, smartest, and strongest people for progression of genes… just the people who breed the most.
Unfortunately, those people happen to be welfare-sucking, trailer trash idiots who breed like rabbits.
The r/K situation of survival.
The Administration that controls the United States in the White House. My! Doesn’t it resemble who and what is in there right now?
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In the movie, this abundant reproduction of the stupid people has caused an adverse effect on societal growth and now Joe and Rita are the two smartest human beings on the face of the planet.
As in “Brave New World”, the society in the film seems to have reached a point of automated self-sufficiency at some point in the past (apparently created by the now-extinct ‘smart people’ in order to placate an increasingly stupid populace), leaving the remainder of humanity free to indulge all the worst, most selfish impulses they can come up with, and grow even stupider. The film just happens to take place during the last gasp of humanity, as everything begins to fall apart for good. It may still be “unrealistic”, but if so, it’s a remarkably well-presented brand of unrealism.
The Movie pretty much depicts where America is heading, if not already there today.
This is a hilarious satire. It takes the “What if” situation to an extreme and it doesn’t pull any punches (or kicks to the groin).
A lot of the best jokes are word/sight gags in the background, so you really have to pay attention to get some of them.
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
I even had to pause and zoom in for a few of them (like when Joe got his government ID and for “hair” it said “yes” and for “eyes” it also said “yes”). Also, the prison has engraved on the front “House for Particular Individuals”, since the cops in the movie (much like real life cops) call everyone “individuals” instead of people, etc. Again, this was on the screen for just a moment…this is one of those movies you can watch again and again and dissect it to get through the layers of funny.
It makes you think… what is to become of this empire once we’ve gotten totally to lazy and stupid? Everyone gets hit in this one esp. a number of major corporations, and even Fox News takes a punch(which is probably why the movie never had a proper release – other than the marketing department over thinking the campaign and not knowing how to market it “so we’ll just give up!”) Some may find the movie sophomoric, due to the groin kicking, and farting, but the movie is much more than that. You either get what Mike Judge is saying, or you don’t.
The Presidential caravan moving ahead and working to solve the issues of the day. Most certainly it resembles modern contemporaneous America.
The stupid people take up most of the screen time, of course, but they’re just the victims — they don’t know any better. Mike Judge saves his real hate for the intelligent people in power who are dead by the time the film begins, but who are very much alive right now, in the 21st century…
People like scientists who chase “hair growth and prolonged erections” for no other reason than the possibility that they’ll turn a profit on their snake-oil treatments.
People like politicians who let corporations simply purchase the FDA and FCC.
People like media executives and their yuppie stooges who promote stupidity — who enable the destruction of all culture, morality and health to make a quick buck.
American Media.
If it helps, imagine the entire population as just a hybrid of rednecks, jocks, cholos and hoochies.
Seeing this nightmarish dystopia, Joe learns of and attempts to track down a time machine to see if he and Rita can get back to when they came from, and that’s basically the whole plot.
But despite how one-dimensional I may make it sound, this movie is higher brow than you can fathom.
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
Nuances are everywhere and anyone can see glimpses (warning signs, if you will) of modern day dumb-ciety permeating facets of everyday life and turning it into the train wreck on display in “Idiocracy.”
The President of the United States during one of his frequent meetings with Congress. Kind of reminds you of Donald Trump.
The film has some truly awesome showcases of realistic retardedness put on a pedestal. I don’t want to give anything away and ruin jokes for you, but let’s just say that it is pretty thorough.
I can see how some would say that it is just a lot of toilet humor, but it, odd as it may seem, has a purpose; to show how dumb and crass these people are.
Brawndo is good for you. Children cry for more. Just try it. Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
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After all, who is really to blame, the Morlocks or the Eloi? The Paris Hiltons of the world, or the brilliant executives and advertisers that put her on TV and lowered our cultural standards enough to leave her there?
This is all implicit in “Idiocracy”, though.
A line here, a hint there (witness the hilarious auto-doctor which literally does all the work in the health care system). It’s one of the few aspects of the movie that’s NOT pounded into the ground by the unnecessary narrator.
It’s just there for the viewer to pick up, or not, but it is one of the most interesting themes in a movie that’s much smarter than any other comedy of the year.
Incarceration in the “land of the free”.
This film, unfortunately, is destined to see the same fate as its predecessor, “Office Space”; no one will see it in theaters, but everyone will brag about discovering this awesome/funny movie when it comes out on video.
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
My only complaint for the film would be that the flow of the narrative sometimes gets broken so they can do a Hitchhiker’s-Guide-to-the-Galaxy type exposition on how things got to be where they are, but it is a necessary evil and is implemented better here. Other than that, good characters, funny jokes, and better-than-average social commentary wrapped up in a funny bow.
The Administration in the White House (in the movie) looks a lot like who is there right now. Like this fellow. (I particularly like the Jack Daniels on ice. and the carton of cigarettes on the table next to the “snow globe”.)
I saw this film in 2006, after a friend recommended it to me. Back then, I considered it an interesting commentary on society, but one that was too exaggerated to really mean much.
Fast forward 10 years and I'd completely forgotten about it, until seeing it on TV recently. In hindsight, it no longer seems all that exaggerated. The character flaws associated with the stupid people in the film are more prevalent than ever, so it does make you wonder how far we could evolve in the next 488 years.
It's easy to associate this with younger generations and blame them for our devolution, but the truth is that they're just the manifestation of what the rest of us created.
-And we have arrived...rogun-3575019 January 2018
An attorney contemplates defending his new client.
Final Note: If seeing our youth becoming gang-banger wanna-be’s, acting like redneck/ ghetto trash and being proud of it… if you are educated and cultured in anyway and can see how our country is spiraling out of control into an abyss of stupidity, for god sakes, watch this movie.
…
…
…
In trying to make fun of a future USA, full of idiots and with a narcissistic celebrity president, this comedy is really a documentary. Now take a look at society today: reality TV, Donald Trump is president, ketchup is a vegetable, the “look at me” culture. And “turn in up to 11”. That’s this movie for you – a fucking scary dystopia which I would have laughed my ass off from in the early 90’s but today, Jesus…
… it’s just frightening.
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
You know how stupid the people in this movie looked to you? How dumb, trashy, shallow? That’s what America is looking like to a LOT of the rest of the world these days.
Think about it.
…or dare I show you about some of those Anti-Mask Americans justifying their “independence” and “freedom”.
Anti-mask Americans who believe that it is an affront on their freedom to war a mask in the middle of a global pandemic. To show their disdain for wearing a medical grade mask, they flaunt the law by cutting out the center of the mask rendering it useless.
Silly.
What “got” to me.
Now, this morning I was not intending to write this post. Heck, I wasn’t intending to write anything. I have other issues on my platter. You know, important issues. And this was the last thing on my mind. But…
Well, life decided otherwise.
Darn! That pesky life thang!
I was scanning the news when I just got fed up of all the “pop ups”, Java-scripts, and inserts that were so evasively interrupting my browsing habits. It just seemed like every single American web site had some kind of ad or revenue generating blockade that I had to plow through to get to the “meat” of the article.
It was frustrating as all Hell. I mean it. Half the websites had these big advertisements that would park themselves in front of you and you had to search for the “X” (often hidden somewhere) to turn them off. Then, afterwards, other pop-ups would appear, and event hey would cover the other advertisements on the page. With jumping and jiggling things.
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Sign up for the VIP service, and get free access to editorial reviews and much more!
So I paused, and took a screen shot.
Here it is…
So, what about it?
Why did I take the time to obtain a screen shot? What caused me to do that, and why was I so irked? Can you tell?
Imagine that you were reading a newspaper, or a book, or a paperback. Imagine that it is right there in your hands. If it was a news paper, where would the advertisements be? How invasive would they be? Would they block the headline articles, would they be flashing around and distracting you? When you were mid-way in the sentence, would a big dialog box snap up in front of your line of vision and tell you that you had five seconds to pay three dollars of the newspaper would catch fire?
WTF?
Look, at it from the eyes of your grandparents… those people who have not yet become accustomed to the reality that we so now take for granted…
now…
Oh, boy.
What does it remind me of? Does it remind me of sitting under a tree and reading my favorite soft-back? Does it remind me of sitting in a diner and reading a newspaper while I sip on my cup of coffee? Does it remind me of the great freedom and liberty I have because of all this wonderful “democracy” that America represents for me?
No.
Instead, it reminds me of this scene from the movie…
Scene from Idiocracy. Watching Internet Television.
.
Ah.
But, you know what?
Look closer, and compare it to what I experienced. When I took the screen capture of MSN, the reading area was only 30%. But here in the movie it was around 50%. What does that mean? It means that reality, reality here in America today, is WORSE than what was portrayed in this “off the wall” comedy produced in 2006.
.
So…
But it is more than that.
Why does MSN need to have all these pop-ups and advertisements? Do they need the money? Are they financially strapped? Are they being overly taxed?
No.
In fact the absolute opposite is occurring. They are not paying ANY TAXES at all.
So, they run this business, don’t pay taxes on it. Pay their people enormous salaries, and provide products that you constantly need to pay for upgrades and advertisements.
How can a healthy country allow such levels of inequality, corruption and just outright meanness in public? Why does EVERY Fucking Thing have to be about MONEY today? What happened to the days where restaurants gave out free books of matches and toothpicks, and glasses of water? What happened to work when you automatically had free coffee, free health pans, free uniforms, and other “perks” without co-payments and other fees?
Greed. One person started it, then everyone was forced to comply.
Now only a handful of people have most of the money and the rest of the country are destitute and PISSED!
Well…
Because America is neither healthy or good, and it is run by a corrupt idiocracy that has zero concerns for the welfare of the “common citizen”. That is why.
Who’s running this nightmare?
And it is a nightmare. Look at the news for goodness sakes…
of course, let’s not forget Donald Trump. Did you know that many people in Africa see him is a modern-day equivalent of a mad, crazy dictator?
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
It’s true…
Decrees with flourish
Adi Amin’s numerous decrees were announced on radio and television and published in newspapers with a flourish. One such decree was the expulsion of the Asian/Indian community from Uganda.
In front of international television cameras and newspaper journalists, Amin accused the Indians of being “smugglers who carried five passports”. He blamed Britain for bringing them to Uganda during the colonial rule. Amin claimed that the expulsion decision was taken in the national economic interests of Uganda: “I took this decision for the economy of Uganda and I must make sure that every Ugandan gets the fruit of independence. I want to see the whole Kampala street is not full of Indians.”
Fast-forward 44 years. At a campaign rally, Trump promised to deport illegal immigrants from Mexico, some of whom he called “rapists”. Trump also announced that he was going to build a wall barring them from entry into the US, which Mexico was going to pay for.
“Mark my words,” he said. Afterwards he proclaimed that he “loved Hispanics”.
In similar style, Amin said: “It’s not my responsibility to offer them (expelled British Asians) transit camps! The British high commissioner is here and it is his responsibility." He remarked afterwards that the British “are my great friends”.
For Amin’s Uganda it was a devastating decision. The expelled Asians/Indians were the entrepreneurs, bankers and professional class who had formed the country’s middle class since colonial times. Six months after their departure, the country’s hitherto promising African economy spiralled into recession.
Trump’s America may not suffer the expulsion of unwanted foreigners, but its regional entrepreneurs such as potato and vegetable growers will suffer from the absence of cheap available labour from across the border in Mexico.
-The chilling parallels between Amin, Trump
LOOK . AT . THEM
And other things…
Yada Yada Yada.
Their incompetence, and disdain for the most basic needs of society is bringing about the complete collapse of the American society. And where they did not start it, and they are only contributors, they are the de facto face of what a collapse looks like … moments before the fall.
Well…
“… I am confident that what makes a state strong, primarily, is the confidence it’s citizens have in it. That is the strength of a state. People are the source of power, we all know that.”
-Putin speech excerpt on MoA
Is it?
1527
This was one of the most shocking and horrific assaults on Rome―and we know about it in great detail. For 10 months the city was occupied by the mutinous army of Emperor Charles V, killing, raping, kidnapping and torturing Romans.
Thousands died.
Matters were made worse because a large portion of the soldiers were Lutherans who felt a passionate hatred of Rome’s Churchmen. The altar of St. Peter’s was piled with corpses of those who had sought sanctuary there and for months the basilica was used as a stables by the Imperial cavalry.
Scores of clerics were branded, tortured or castrated.
Today visitors can see the Castel Sant’Angelo, where Pope Clement VII escaped to, safe from the horror below.
Of the assault itself, signs are few.
In the Vatican Palace one can still see, scratched into plaster of a fresco by Raphael, the name Luther, written by one of Charles V’s soldiers. And there is the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s ceiling paintings seem light and optimistic compared to disturbing, broody masterpiece, The Last Judgement.
He painted the ceiling well before the sack but produced the Last Judgement after its terrors.
One of the clearest signs of the 1527 sacking, though, is absence. Many European cities still have a few medieval timber houses but not Rome. Before the 1527 attack it had had thousands. Charles V’s soldiers ripped out timbers, doors and frames to burn as firewood, speeding Rome’s transformation to the city of fine stone homes.
-History.com
America today.
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
And while I am at it…
You know, it’s not just that the United States is being run by idiots, and they have dumbed down the entire population so that they can feel superior to them.
It’s that they are off concocting wars and other misadventures for God only knows what reasons. And it is innocents and children, real flesh and blood folk, that are getting caught up in the cross fire.
And you can listen to my tiny voice out in the wilderness…
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
…but most people won’t hear anything.
All the last week, and leading into this week, I have been getting warnings from friends, and well-meaning family members that China is going to round up all us expats living here, and plop us down into re-education centers. You know, something like the concentration camps that Hitler set up. And that I must flee China now, or face the consequences!!!!
Oh, Lordy!
What a crock of horse manure.
China makes one singular statement that they MIGHT secure CERTAIN foreigners within China because they have been involved in seditious activity, and suddenly the entire American propaganda engine goes into hyper-drive. We must do something now! Our freedom and our democracy is at stake! If we don’t do something now about the “red menace” we will lose our Rights, our freedoms and our very future!
Sheech!
China is not going to do anything. And even if it did, I and about 99.99% of the rest of the expat community inside of China will be unaffected. You all have nothing to fear unless you are part of the NED / NID, CIA regime-change apparatus.
Well, if you are…
…
… bad for you.
I’d scram pronto!
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
But that doesn’t matter to the US government. The idiots running the place think that everyone else is far stupider than them, and they adjust their narratives accordingly. And look at the result. Listen to them all spout the same absolutely insane scripts.
China is a nation run by intelligent people who got to their positions of power through merit. They have wired the entire nation up and can monitor anyone, at any time. And they know exactly who is who, and what is what, and who is doing some bad and dangerous things. They know who is CIA, NED or NID. And if you think that they don’t you are a fucking idiot.
Anyways…
If you are in a nation run by idiots, who have been dumbed down to the point where most people around you are stupider than idiots and who spout off the mainstream and alt-right (or left) narratives then you can expect to see these exact kinds of responses.
“China is going to round up expats and put them in concentration camps!” is exactly the same thing as “Brawndo is what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”
In the movie, Brawndo was a highly favored beverage, and the electrolyte-rich drink was marketed as a healthy alternative for watering plants, resulting in a global food shortage.
-How Fake Energy Drink Brawndo Came to Life | WIRED
Drink Brawndo. It’s got electrolytes!
Conclusion
I wonder if Rome was like this right before the city was sacked. I wonder what the people thought, or if they thought anything.
bibere vinum faciet te fortis et nibh!
My guess is that they just kept on living life normally. Eating their free bread, going to the public games and baths. And reading or hearing about wars in far away lands, while their corrupt leaders lived a life that was far beyond their comprehension.
I reckon that they had no idea of what was going on outside their national or city walls. What they thought of were, most probably, illusions based upon their misconceptions of reality. And as the national leadership become more and more idiotic and self-absorbed, the people also became less informed and unable to adapt to change. Any change. Not just sudden change.
Americans have no idea what it is like to be a conquered people. Here the terms for surrender are being discussed.
I imagine that when the invasion or sacking happened it was sudden. There was probably a long build up, but that the citizens got numb to it. It probably just faded into the background as “noise”. And no one ever really gave a care or concern. They probably just drank their wine and stayed merry in the belief that Rome was never defeated (not true, but that’s not what the citizens thought) and that as long as the Senate was looking out for their interests, all was good.
Rome had much more to lose eight centuries later, in 410 AD. By then it had grown from a small town to a vast metropolis and its population was 10 or 20 times greater. The attack of 410 was a devastating psychological blow to the Romans, who had thought their city invulnerable, but things could have been far worse.
In a three-day sacking only a few buildings appear to have been burned, mostly in the Forum area. Then again Alaric, the barbarian Visigoths’ leader, had no wish to destroy Rome. He wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to help him get a homeland within the Roman Empire for his people.
One building that was attacked was Basilica Amelia―an ancient mall with many bankers’ stalls. All that remains now is its floor. This is fenced off but still visible are a number of small green discs. These are coins that melted into the paving as the building burned.
If Rome was fairly lucky in 410, that would change.
In 455 the city suffered a much more destructive attack by the Vandals, raiding from their kingdom in Tunisia. A century later Rome suffered extensive damage when it was caught in the middle of 20-year struggle between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Empire, when it changed hands several times and was briefly empty of any inhabitants.
-History.com
I am also certain that the sacking was not nice or pleasant. No one wrote about the details of the sacking as everyone who could write were either killed off or sold into slavery (of one type or the other). And as I pine about the mess that America has become, I realize that this is not sustainable. There are only two outcomes possible at this stage…
Further collapse to a level of stupidity and ignorance of the likes NEVER seen in human history.
A war, and sacking, that will completely change the Geo-political landscape. America will NO LONGER exist.
Either way, America has long passed the point of no-return. That point was sometime in the 1990’s. Now, it’s all down hill from here. It’ll be a bumpy road for certain, and quite colorful. And I am greatly, deeply, and profoundly, saddened by it.
And no one is really aware just how horribly bad it actually is.
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Do not believe what the media says. It’s all lies.
Do not believe what you think they are trying to cover up either. Many people have been tricked into this “tar baby”, and just end up propagating the alternative mantras.
Look at the few “raw” facts…
Donald Trump was in the hospital for three days and then was miraculously “cured”. Ok. I know it’s all fucked up, and sounds like a political stunt in a very partisan election year. But… could it have been something else instead…?
Think about it.
What happened when he went to the hospital?
Oh, you know, the “normal” precautions. Suddenly America went DEFCON ONE. Airborne command centers were engaged and all military ICBM silos were manned and the VP and other leadership were shuffled away to secret and secure hardened facilities. Airborne command posts were fully manned and the entire nation was put on the highest alert.
Then, after three days everything went back to normal.
…
So…
…
Odd.
…
To me, as former ONI – MAJ, this appears to me as a…
… staged precaution…
…or…
… clear “dry-run” practice…
…for the “unthinkable”.
And when I say “unthinkable”, I mean exactly that. A launch of a rather nasty nuclear war.
If you all do not realize why I think like this then check out my post about what America has been up to for the last four years, here.
Strange? You betya!
What’s even stranger is the timing of this “sickness”, and the instigation of DEFCON ONE in America.
It happened at the same time when the Chinese military discovered COVID-20 hitting the population centers of China.
Imagine that!
SADS-CoV
More lethal. More contagious. Of a completely different strain than COVID-19, and both "novel" and "never before seen" viral pathogens. Only instead of your lungs filling up with fluid, and crystallizing so that they feel like cement, you die by vomiting to death. (You can also shit your self to death as well. You end up with chronic and painful gastrointestinal diarrhea.)
Both this and the COVID-19 coronavirus are both wildly contagious and you can get it from touching a surface that someone touched days or even weeks ago. Another interesting thing about it (and all the bio-weapons launched against China since 2016) is the enormous size of the virus. It's a honker, big monster.
The Facts
Americans never have any “facts”.
At best, it’s distortions and partial truths.
The American media is owned and run by the United States government. Not only do they control the mainstream media and all “fact checking” of it. But they also control the alternative media as well. They control both the alt-right and the alt-left media.
You will NEVER see real “news” any longer.
All you will see are one of perhaps three major narratives. All which are designed to move you for thinking things or thoughts that run counter to what you are supposed to think. Which is why you WILL NEVER SEE ANYTHING LIKE THIS POSTED ON THE REST OF THE INTERNET.
Only here, on MM were you able to get any of the following “firsts” first, in “real time”…
COVID-19 is an American bio-weapon. The eighth in four years.
COVID-20 secured by China on October 2020 by the PLA.
The big picture about the HK, Thailand, and the Beirut missile attack.
Just here.
Only HERE.
…
And additionally to that…
Not only are you all kept stupefied and ignorant of what is going on through drugs, distractions and economic suppression. The government completely covers up the true and real activities as they happen in real time.
You will never realize what is going on or happening until long after the events occur. If ever. And the reason for this is that in a "democracy" run by public opinion, the opinions and thoughts of the citizens get in the way of what the government is trying to achieve. For good or worse.
This reminds me of some horrific movies.
It does.
Not that the movies depicted cover ups. After all, what kind of a movie would it be if you couldn’t have all the excitement of action and adventure…?
But it did remind me of those 1980’s movies that were trying to warn people that nuclear war was a terrible, terrible thing and that you just cannot assume that it will never happen.
Thoughts that somehow have been forgotten over the years. Instead a new, fresh crop of bright-eyed American neocons have approached the stage. And they, along with their psychopath President are playing with nuclear war, and military action like five year olds with firecrackers.
People! If you keep this bio-weapon nonsense up, you are going to see the combined forces of Asia Bitch-slap the United States into the pre-stone-age.
Only this time, there are no adults to supervise…
Washington has declared war on China. The administration and its allies hope that the war will be “cold,” but have no strategy for keeping it so. I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest.
They came to adulthood after the end of the post-World War II “Cold War” and have no experience of its anxieties. They appear to take its sudden end as predestined – something that was so inevitably right ideologically that it can and should be taken for granted. Their military experience, if any, has been in the contemporary equivalent of the 19th century’s Indian Wars – combat with gun-toting farmers with no air forces, air defenses, navies, guided missiles, or nuclear weapons with which to answer U.S. hostility.
To paraphrase Hilaire Belloc’s riff on Britain’s hubris in its colonial wars:
“Whatever happens, we have got
Close air support and they have not.”
The Cold War was radically different from this. It was a global struggle between two competing ideological blocs and nuclear-armed power centers capable of destroying not just each other but all life on the planet except maybe the cockroaches. It began as a series of squabbles over the spoils of a worldwide war. Each side strove to consolidate spheres of politico-military and economic influence and deny the other access to them.
But each learned to avoid confrontations that might lead to armed combat directly with the other.
Each limited itself to proxy wars aimed at sustaining or imposing its ideology somewhere not in the grip of the other.
Each sought to minimize and contain interaction with the other. That was not difficult, given the utter lack of interdependence between the two and the blocs of nations they formally and informally commanded.
The struggle we Americans have now initiated with China has none of these characteristics. To analogize it to the Cold War of 1947 – 1991 is intellectually lazy.
More important, it is profoundly misleading and delusional. The Sino-American split is not the sequel to a bloody world war.
However politically convenient it may be for Americans to cast antagonism to China in all-encompassing Manichean terms, this is a contest born of contending national self-images and ambitions, not ideologies.
The struggle with China on which Americans have embarked is a bilateral contest in which others may or may not choose to take sides, not one between two committed blocs of nations.
China is both a much less inherently hostile and far more robust rival than the Soviet Union was.
The Movie “By Dawn’s Early Light”
Fear of a global thermonuclear war was very real in the 1980s. At the height of the cold war the Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at the US and NATO countries and we had just as many aimed at Russia and Warsaw Pact countries too.
What people feared was that some minor conflict between the US and the USSR would spiral out of control and we’d fire our missiles at them and they at us which would essentially send what was left of mankind back to the stone age. Movies like The Day After (1983), Threads (1984) and Testament (1983) explored life post nuke war and the picture they painted weren’t nice ones.
But after the Soviet Union began to collapse and the cold war started to wind down in the late 1980s and early 90s fear of a nuclear war between “us and them” began to diminish. Surely with the United States and the Soviet Union on good terms a nuclear war would be out of the question. Right?
The main crux of the movie By Dawn’s Early Light (1990) was that no, in fact the possibility of a nuclear war was actually GREATER now that controls over these weapons were slowly being relaxed in the Soviet Union.
In By Dawn’s Early Light, separatists steal a missile from Russia and fire it back into the country from Turkey making it seem like that NATO was at fault. And an automatic Russian defense program fired off a few nukes of their own towards the US in retaliation for this strike.
What follows are the President of the US and the Russian Premier trying to deescalate the crisis, even as Washington DC is nuked, the President presumed killed and the Secretary of the Interior, the highest surviving member of the government left alive, takes the reigns of the country. ..
And if the real President who is still alive wants to stop the war, the first question the new Secretary of the Interior President asks the military commanders is if we’re winning the war or losing it?
Are we winning the war, or losing it?
The other side of By Dawn’s Early Light is of the crew of a B-52 bomber on the way to deliver their payload of nukes to Russia, and them debating the merits of killing millions upon millions of people for a war that shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
Eventually (spoiler alert) they turn their bomber around and head back home which causes the Russians to turn some of their bombers around too. And while the real President and the Premier see this as their chance to stop the war, the Secretary of the Interior President sees it as a sign of weakness and orders the B-52 shot down.
The American Air Force B-52 bomber crew is being told by the Navy Fighter Pilots that they have orders to shoot them down.
I originally saw By Dawn’s Early Light when it premiered on HBO and bought the VHS of the film when that came out a few years later. But honestly I hadn’t checked out the film in many years. While the special effects of the movie do look a bit dated, I did find that even 20+ years on the tension of By Dawn’s Early Light slowly builds and is maintained throughout the film right up until the very end.
I still found myself tensing up as the crew of the B-52 slowly comes to the realization that tonight’s flight isn’t a drill or the real President debating the Secretary of the Interior President on why it’s not a good idea to continue a war where every time one side fires a shot tens of thousands of civilians die.
While we’re probably not facing a situation like By Dawn’s Early Light in our immediate future, we still live in a world where there are thousands of nukes here in the US and thousands more overseas. And all it takes is one of those falling into the wrong hands to ruin everyone’s day.
So…
What the fuck is the matter with these neocon war-hawks in Washington DC? What is their friggin’ malfunction?
Neocons run America today.
While I genuinely believe that Trump would much rather work with both Russia, China and other nations of the multipolar alliance in lieu of blowing up the world, these aforementioned neocons think otherwise evidenced by Pompeo’s October 6 speech in Japan.
In this speech, Pompeo attempted to rally other Pacific nations to an anti-Chinese security complex known as the Quad (USA, Australia, Japan and India). With his typically self-righteous tone, Pompeo stated that “this is not a rivalry between the United States and China. This is for the soul of the world”. Earlier Pompeo stated “If the free world doesn’t change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”
Pompeo’s efforts to break China’s neighbours away from the Belt and Road Initiative have accelerated relentlessly in recent months, with territorial tensions between China and Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei being used by the USA to enflame conflict whenever possible.
It is no secret that the USA has many financial and military tentacles stretching deep into all of those Pacific nations listed.
Where resistance to this anti-China tension is found, CIA-funded “democracy movements” have been used as in the current case of Thailand, or outright threats and sanctions as in the case of Cambodia where over 24 Chinese companies have been sanctioned for the crime of building infrastructure in a nation which the USA wishes to control.
Pompeo’s delusional efforts to consolidate a Pacific Military bloc among the QUAD states floundered fairly quickly as no joint military agreement was generated creating no foundation upon which a larger alliance could be built.
-Win-Win vs Lose-Lose: The Time Has Come for the World to Choose
The world is on dangerous territory, and the idiots in Washington DC (and they are idiots for even considering the use of WMD’s in all their forms) are going to plunge the world into a darkness that I am truly fearful of.
If you can, watch the 1984 movie titled “Threads”. Learn about which I speak.
The Movie “Threads (1984)”
This is perhaps one of the most masochistic films ever made. You are taken into the personal world of two British families in Sheffield (site of a major NATO installation), who have children that are about to be married. Thousands of miles away, World War 3 slowly starts, and the ultimate horror happens. Thermonuclear war breaks out.
First shown by the BBC on 23 September 1984, Threads was must-watch TV. Accompanied by documentary On The Eighth Day and followed by a lengthy discussion on Newsnight, it’s a grim and unflinching depiction of what would happen to Britain if the unthinkable happened – if a political conflict between the US and Russia were to escalate into full-blown nuclear war.
An uncompromising reportage-style drama, Threads was the first film to realistically depict the horrors of a nuclear winter. Shocking, harrowing and hard to watch, it nonetheless made an important contribution to an increasingly urgent debate about the world’s ever-growing nuclear stockpile.
Threads focuses on two families linked by an unplanned pregnancy. Manual worker Jimmy Kemp (Reece Dinsdale) and middle class Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) must face the fact that they are having a baby, and that their old way of life will soon be over. Their concerns are those of any new parents: hopes and fears for their child, building a home together, saying goodbye to the Friday night pint at the pub. We also follow local government chief Clive Sutton (Harry Beety) as he struggles to put emergency plans into place amidst the growing likelihood of war. It soon becomes very clear that the city is woefully underprepared for a crisis of any kind, but in that very British way Sutton and his officials carry on regardless – unaware that, in the face of the storm to come, all preparations are ultimately futile.
I think it would be useless to repeat all that the other users have said about "Threads" since I cannot do better but agree with everything. This has to be THE most graphic representation of nuclear war.
And I used to think "The Day After" was disturbing.
I was able to cope to the whole movie, but let's say it wasn't easy at all. I can still hear in my head the yells of the panicked citizens as the mushroom cloud rises in the distance when it hits Crewe…
or see the bottles of milk…
or the corpse (which bears a striking resemblance with E.T.!) burning in the firestorm…
or see survivors keeping as gold what is taken nowadays as granted: supermarket plastic bags…
...and what they put inside is simply disgusting.
When I found out my local video store had a copy of this film, I rushed to get it, as I was impatient to see this movie I have heard so much about. The impatience to see the movie was rewarded by nothing more than a really bad aftertaste of radioactive fallout.
I liked the movie not for the quality of the actors, but for the overall realistic representation of the holocaust and for the great job done with a small budget. I give a thumbs up to that.
-airodyssey26 June 2000
Nuclear war is NOTHING to take lightly.
The world, literally, grinds to a halt, in one of the most scientifically accurate depictions of nuclear war since “War Game, The” (1965).
Framing this drama are news reports about growing political tension around the world. We learn piecemeal, through snippets of television reports and glimpsed newspaper headlines, that in recent months a coup in Iran has been followed by a Soviet occupation.
Having just purchased this on DVD I was eager to watch it after waiting years to see it after it was unofficially banned from ever being shown on the BBC again. I was four when it was first shown and my parents switched it off, too frightened to watch it themselves never mind let me see it.
I have to say it is absolutely terrifying and utterly terrifying in the extreme.
This could have actually happened!
I was impressed by the way the film conveyed what it would be like if thousands of megatons of atomic bomb was dropped on the U.K.
Normal life comes to an abrupt stop.
One minute people are shopping in their local supermarket, going to the pub and wallpapering their new flat and suddenly they are plunged into Hell.
Civilization is blown back into the stone age.
The most scary part was the way the authorities were shown unable to cope with the scale of the attack (perhaps why the BBC never aired it again). We always think that it could never be that bad because someone would come to our rescue, someone would maintain control.
But no, the bombs / missiles keep raining down and down prompting one traumatized emergency committee member to scream, "not another one!"
They just did not expect so devastation and are completely helpless. Later soldiers shoot people for food, people wish for death and the emergency committee, those meant to be running things, die in the supposed protective bunker, trapped by rubble.
Ten years later, nothing is back to normal. What young people there are behave like wild animals, raping and fighting and speaking in a bizarre caveman manner.
Since the Cold War ended people have stopped being frightened of nuclear weapons. Everybody in every country should watch this film and realize that if there ever was a nuclear war, still possible with growing tensions between a superpower and its rivals, those left alive would wish they had been caught in the blasts and killed outright.
I don't recommend this for sensitive viewers.
-charlieboy809 September 2005
Unlike the US film “Day After, The” (1983) (TV), the film gives detailed information as to what is happening on a scientific basis. You are shown how a worst-case scenario can happen, and what the effects are, as you follow the surviving members of the two families through the aftermath.
I've always said that no film can really scare you as an adult as films scared you when you were a kid. My benchmark for that being watching 'The Omen' on video when i was about 13, nothing has ever quite lived up to it in the effect it had on me.
Rewatching 'Threads' a while back makes me change my mind.
I remember first seeing it in Ireland on the BBC when I guess i was about 14. Even in Ireland, a neutral country, anxiety about nuclear war was a big thing when we were kids in the 80's.
'Threads' does really get to you, its very unsettling and disturbing. Unlike fictional horror films, 'Threads' is hugely different in one respect - it's real.
This is what would happen, you can't distance yourself by saying it's make believe. There are still thousands of nuclear weapons armed and primed to be launched within minutes, 24 hours a day, everyday. Now we even have a country, the US, that says it's ready to use them, even if no one else does first.
Rewatching it, the dated production values don't detract from the film's power. It seems to bring the film even closer to the ordinary and the everyday. It's the film's ordinariness that makes it so viscerally disturbing - Hollywood special effects would at least have allowed you to distance yourself from it somewhat.
In fact the film is more realistic for not having them. Someone else mentioned the scene of the woman in the shopping center urinating where she stood out of pure terror as she sees the bomb go off a mile or two away from her - that's the scene that stayed with me the most too.
Its depressing to think in 2004 we are living in a world where politicians are again talking about 'winnable' wars using nuclear weapons.
In many things in life you get a second chance if you make mistakes, I don't think nuclear weapons use will give us the luxury of finding out afterwards was it all worth it. Watch "Threads' and see if you think 'winnable' nuclear war is something you want to give yourself or your children.
-BenjAii7 December 2004
What follows is a complex sequence of small scale political escalations, events that are alluded to but never fully or coherently explained. By themselves, none of the steps towards conflict seem irreversible, but together they constitute a crisis.
All this occurs firmly in the background of the characters’ lives, and is largely ignored: TV reports are turned over to something more interesting, newspapers are delivered without headlines being read. It’s only as the crisis deepens that people start to pay attention.
The early 80s were the first time in a generation that full scale nuclear war seemed not only possible but probable.
It’s hard to imagine now, nearly thirty years after its demolition, but in 1984 the Berlin Wall was a very solid and enduring dividing line between two opposing world powers: the countries of NATO, including the US and Britain on one hand, and those united by the Soviet-sponsored Warsaw Pact on the other. Europe was very much at the center of these international tensions, and those old enough to remember the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis just over twenty years earlier knew that political conflict could escalate quickly and unpredictably.
Capable of being launched in minutes, and with a time-to-target of between 4 and 6 minutes, the US’s Pershing II missiles had hard target capability – meaning they could take out weapons silos and command bunkers buried deep below ground.
Both sides knew that a massive and all-encompassing preemptive strike was the only way to win a nuclear war. The stakes were incredibly high. Indecision or delay – of even a few minutes – could mean the difference between survival and total annihilation.
I was about eleven or twelve when this harrowing made-for-TV docu-drama was repeated by the BBC, back to back with 'The War Game'. 'The War Game' didn't faze me much, for various reasons, but 'Threads' - that grabbed me instantly and wouldn't let go.
It was not only horribly real, seeing a lower-middle class family rather like my own suddenly plunged back into the dark ages by a nuclear holocaust, it was also entirely believable (the cold war was still very much an ongoing concern back in the eighties) and shockingly compelling.
I wanted to look away, but couldn't.
I wanted to run from the room in fright, but couldn't.
For better or worse, this film showed in full, unflinching, uncompromising detail exactly what it would be like if your home town got nuked, and gave us graphic realism in spades.
Melting milk-bottles, spontaneous urination, houses reduced to rubble in seconds, burning cats, dead kids, gore, vomit, armed traffic wardens shooting looters, filth, decay, disease…it's certainly not a barrel of laughs, but Mick Jackson's aim was to shut up all the ignorant gung-hos who believed a nuclear war could be "won".
He succeeded, unequivocally. The scene that made the deepest impact on me was the ravaged makeshift classroom with a ragged bunch of shell-shocked adults dazedly watching an ancient videotape of a schools programme (Words and Pictures, in fact) in an attempt to regain their numeracy and literacy skills.
That was a show we used to watch at school. Work it out for yourself. In short, this is a downbeat, depressing, bleak and utterly horrible film, but I recommend it wholeheartedly to everyone. The cold war may be gone, but the threats portrayed are still very real.
-world_of_weird16 September 2004
People had become used to the jargon that surrounded the debate about a nuclear future – IBMs, kilotons, radiation sickness, fallout – but what did the words really mean? What would a nuclear war actually look like? Few in Britain at the time had any idea. Threads would change all that.
If the film was going to be a useful contribution to the nuclear debate, it needed to incorporate the latest scientific thinking and research, and an impressive number of physicists, psychologists and other scientists and theoreticians were consulted during production, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Joseph Rotblat and cosmologist Carl Sagan (who had also conducted experimental research on radiation in the 60s).
But Threads was not just about presenting research; if it was to be effective as a drama it needed a suitable story on which to hang the science. Jackson turned to a dramatist known for his naturalistic portrayals of ordinary British life, Barry Hines.
Hopelessness and helplessness pervade the script. The growing nuclear threat becomes just one more pressure on a society already dealing with high unemployment and degradation of local services. Public protest about the two inevitably become conflated: anxiety about a future of nuclear destruction is interwoven with anxiety for a future without jobs. At the root of both is a fear of society’s impending collapse.
The scenes of death, destruction and disease are so realistic, I had to shower after seeing this film for the first time.
But what is most disturbing is that the film includes the long-term effects of global thermonuclear war, going into weeks, months, years, even decades.
!3 years afterwards.
Words can't describe how this movie affected me in 1985, but I'll try. I happened upon a presentation of "Threads" when I was about 11 years old. As a Navy family, we were stationed in Washington D.C. After viewing it, I was frightened to the point of vomiting. I had nightmares for weeks. The world was a very unstable place at the time with a Soviet government that seemed to change monthly.
The cast does an admirable job here. Dialog is kept to a damaging minimum. There is no soundtrack other than screams of misery and explosions. Very effective. While you can't compare a TV production, there is effective use of stock footage. The interspersed scientific facts regarding the aftermath punctuate the film brilliantly.
While other films about the same topic, like "The Day After" and Testament", were reasonably effective in their messages, I think they failed where "Threads" succeeded. In the aforementioned films, there's a glimmer of hope.
In "Threads" there is no hope, only death, misery and dread.
I believe I saw "Threads" before the TV broadcast of "The Day After" because my reaction was one of slight indifference. After seeing Mick Jackson's and Barry Hines' work, "The Day After" is like a day at Disneyland. No film portrays the world on the brink and over the edge as effectively. Highly recommended.
-huladog557 November 2005
When the unimaginable does happen, Threads becomes something else…
Shocking images blend the mundane with the horrifying: milk bottles melting in the firestorm, bodies burning to ash in the rubble. Nothing is left untouched or undefiled by radiation. Life returns to subsistence levels as nuclear winter settles over the UK. Sickness, starvation and death become inescapable. Survivors hoard bits and pieces of broken objects – all that remains of life before the blast – in dirty plastic carrier bags. A scavenged dead rabbit becomes an unimaginable feast.
The film holds no-one responsible for all this except, perhaps, those at the very top of the chain. It calmly sets out the steps to war, with local officials no more to blame for the chaos than those left dazed and destitute once the firestorm has passed. Ultimately, all preparations to survive are futile, a child’s toy windmill in the path of a hurricane.
It’s the visual images that stay with you: a sudden splash of crimson blood against a grey wall when all before was colorless; children laboriously unpicking precious scraps of fabric one strand at a time; the pristine black silhouette of an undamaged marble tomb – as if death is the only thing in the world that has retained its sharp outline.
All this is delivered to us with a coolness, a deadpan detachment that is sickeningly unsettling. As time passes, characters simply disappear from the story – and we are left to imagine what has happened to them. It’s in the most offhand way that we discover the fates of those in the command center under Town Hall.
The film holds no-one responsible for all this except, perhaps, those at the very top of the chain. It calmly sets out the steps to war, with local officials no more to blame for the chaos than those left dazed and destitute once the firestorm has passed. Ultimately, all preparations to survive are futile, a child’s toy windmill in the path of a hurricane.
The film ends thirteen years after the nuclear attack, and the final frames of the film will burn into you like no other film ever will. There can be no question that this film MUST be re-released in the USA on DVD, so that it’s message will be heard and felt.
My boyfriend had been dogging me for months to watch this movie, which he (erroneously, I think) described as sci-fi. Now, I've never been a fan of sci-fi movies, as I think most of them are over-done, corny, etc. Add to that the fact that the movie was made 23 years ago, and I pretty much decided it wasn't going to be my cup of celluloid tea.
Was I ever wrong. Not only was it the singular most horrifying movie I've ever watched, it's timely as hell, and it's done documentary-style, so there aren't any overblown emotional scenes to detract from its realism. This movie scared me on such a profound level that I actually felt like I was having a panic attack and had to shut it off halfway through, during the "hospital" scene.
Mind you, I've never in my entire life been so disturbed by a movie that I just couldn't watch anymore. I sobbed, hard, for a good 15 minutes and couldn't sleep for most of that night. I have yet to finish the second half.
That said, I can't recommend it to the faint-of-heart. It will hit you on such a visceral level that everything in your reality will seem a little duller and less important after having watched it. I'm still amazed at how the events outlined in this movie are as much a threat to us now as they were in 1984. Twenty-three years later, we are no further from preventing a nuclear holocaust. If anything, the threat is more imminent.
If you can stomach it, you won't regret it.
-brrrnor18 February 2008
In 2020, it feels as if those safer times are ending. This is an important film that has become more, not less, relevant since it was first released.
It’s still one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever watched. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it truly is something everyone should watch.
Not yet convinced?
The United States is run by psychopaths that think that they have been given powers by God, and that they are invincible. They have followers that believe this as well, and they are all in charge of a massive nuclear arsenal and they are running around the world stirring up trouble galore.
Nothing good is ever going to come of this.
It will not be a scene from “The walking dead”. It will be something else. If you live, you might have to wait thirty years before you will see taste pizza again. If might never, ever be able to drive a car ever again, and forget about checking out your Facebook page, or attending any kind of university. It’s all over.
It’s game over.
Forever, and your life will be forever changed.
If you earnestly believe that Donald Trump and company will usher in a better world for you and your fellow Americans, you are delusional. He has been one wrecking-ball after the other, and aside from plunging the entire globe into a global recession, he unleashed a global pandemic and is RIGHT NOW toying with the idea of launching nuclear weapons.
Nothing . good . will . come . of . this.
Reality Check
Most Americans are unaware of the true realities involved. In fact, media in America is a mountain-sized discharge of manipulation and nonsense to give the illusion of understanding and objectivity. While it is none of the sort.
An attack on China is a de faco attack on Russia. Both military have officers stationed in their respective military headquarters.
Any attack on China will NOT be limited to a distant South China Sea. They will retaliate. They will make it personal. America will never be the same afterwards. If you think that America is falling apart at the seams now, can you imagine what would happen with the top 20 cites in smoldering run, zero internet, radio or television, and where every other person has a gun…
…
Think about it.
Look at what is going on now. Look at the “hybrid-war” with China. Only four short years ago, China had our “most favored trading partner status”. And what is not said, and what you just cannot find in the alternative media…
Eight American initiated biological weapons attacks on Chinese food supplies and livestock. Followed by the release of COVID-19 on the most important holiday in China, CNY 2020. It didn't work, so the USA sent a flotilla of two assault carrier groups and five nuclear carriers to the South China Sea...
...which returned with "their tail between their legs" when the directed energy weapons ringing China turned off all the electronics, sensors, engines, and systems on the Naval vessels and aircraft. Planes started to fall out of the sky. Ships became uncontrollable. Nuclear reactors started to scram.
And yet...
After all this. COVID-20 is launched inside of China. At the same time that President Trump gets "sick" and goes into "hiding" and America goes DEFCON ONE.
Russia out-numbers the USA in nuclear weapons, and China is substantially superior to the United States in key strategic military technology (like hyper-velocity weapons, directed energy beams, drone hardware, swarm drones, and captive munitions).
But if you tell these neocons any of this, they shout you down with…
“America is number one”
“God is on our side”.
“America has never lost a war!”
“You are delusional, America is the best!”
And so on and so forth.
The neocons have co-opted the American patriotic conservative movement arguing that blowing up people, places and things are signs of American greatness.
.
Ah…
Still not convinced that these neocon “patriots” don’t believe that a nuclear war is “winnable”…
In addition to a nuclear first strike, the United States and her allies have a decided advantage of quick strike, long range battlefield capabilities because of superior aircraft and carrier strike capabilities. The Chinese have developed and are close to making operation, carrier-busting weapons platforms. A major advantage enjoyed by the US is about to be totally negated by an advancement in Chinese technology.
-Can America Win World War III? A Critical Analysis | The ...
Yes, you read that correctly.
America needs to strike FIRST, using nuclear weapons because both China and Russia have well-organized defensive weapons.
Crazy, eh?
Well, they seem to temper their enthusiasm for war with some caution…
The downside of a nuclear first strike by the United States would be that the US would also take a significant beating as Russian and probable Chinese and Indian nuclear forces would have time to retaliate.
However, the US submarines could do much of the damage, because of geographical proximity, before our enemies could get many of their missiles off the launching pads. If the deep space platform missiles were successful along with the “Rods from God” in targeting Russian and Chinese nuclear submarines, the United States could win a decisive victory.
With regard to the “Rods from God”, does anyone think that the recent destruction of the four chemical plants in China was truly an accident?
-Can America Win World War III? A Critical Analysis | The ...
So…
It’s pretty much all there in black and white.
Conclusion
An odd thing happened in October 2020. The President, Donald Trump was carted off to a hospital for three days and the United States went DEFCON ONE. Then things returned back to normal.
The excuse was that he was sick. That he had the COVID-19. But that he was cured miraculously, and is now feeling better than ever. His die-hard fans and believers are pretty much spit between…
It’s a sign from God that he is the messiah.
See, COVID-19 is not as bad as the flu.
It doesn’t matter what “everyone thinks”. I am not in Middle School, nor am I a member of the American sheeple. I just do not care what everyone else thinks.
COVID-20 (SADS-CoV) was launched, and discovered inside of China by the PLA at the same time that Donald Trump went "into the hospital" and DEFCONE ONE was initiated in America.
I know that all the evidence is pointing to an out-of-control leadership that is implementing long term strategies that require the use of nuclear weapons to achieve.
Trump followers have a near-religious belief in his ability and purpose.
And while it is clear that the Overseers will not permit radical changes to the Earth environment, they will permit a wide degree of latitude in how the PTB and their oligarchy-run governments operate. You can well expect things to get dicey.
Now, I am NOT saying that it will happen. Instead, what I am saying is that all the evidence points to plans within plans that involve this exact kind of human-generated calamity. And absolutely no-one is considering or what is aware of what is actually going on.
Were I to be one of the merit-driven leaders in Russia or China, I would instigate a pre-emptive first strike to prevent a belligerent United States, run by religious fundamentalist psychopaths, from destroying the rest of the world in their zeal for a utopia where Jesus comes down from heaven to purify the universe.
Either way, it’s a sick mess.
Be aware, but be safe.
Do you want more?
Check out my posts on the International Geo-Political scene here…
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I have been writing a bunch of articles (posts) on how to conduct prayer and affirmation campaigns that work. But I haven’t spent too much time on other things that you can do to increase the likelihood of accelerating or amplifying the campaign.
So, in this post we will look at de-cluttering as a way of clearing away the “trash” that often stands in the way between you and your desires.
Your past, and every one you met, every thing you touched, every thought you have are all being swept up and makes an impression upon you, your life, and your lifestyle. In order for you to free yourself from the influences of your past, you need to take proactive steps to clear away the bad (or stubborn) from influencing your future plans.
Declutter to remove inertial obstacles that prevent your intentions from manifesting.
Summary
Thoughts and quanta form attachments with physical things. Thus good and bad thoughts, and their associated quanta can be absorbed by physical things, and thus affect the users and owners of those objects.
When you conduct a prayer / affirmation campaign, the thoughts and quanta of the physical surrounds can have an influence in the success of your campaign.
I suggest that you take the time to de-clutter your affirmation “runway”, so that when the time comes for your affirmations “to take off”, there will not be any hindrances, or obstacles in your way.
Step one
The very first thing that you need to do is get rid of any “hexed”, “bad luck”, “cursed” or problematic items in you possession. Maybe you don’t have any, that’s fine. But if there is something that you don’t feel comfortable with, maybe it’s something stuck in the attic or stored away in the garage, toss it out.
Christine is considered one of the great classic 80’s horror movies, based on Stephen King’s novel and directed by John Carpenter. It is the story about a cursed automobile.
Forget about who gave it to you. Forget about it’s potential monetary value. Forget about any sentimentality associated or attached with it. Just clear it out of your life.
It does not matter if it is “good”, “bad”, “cursed intentionally”, or just unlucky. Get rid of that fucker.
You see, there are no “good” or “bad” attachments. Aside from those relative to our comfort and our structured desires. Think of it as inertia.
If you want to run a race, you try to be all muscle. You cut away your body fat, you get lighter and you exercise. So you can well imagine this effort as a slimming down and streamlining of your affirmation campaign.
Cut off the fat.
Step two. Declutter clothing.
All those things that you don’t use, that occupy space in your closets and in your drawers, form an inertial mass. It is a big rock that makes it difficult for you to make any changes. This inertial mass is a continuity of the present, and if the articles include memories of the past, then the inertial effect is to tie you to that mass.
If you don’t need the items, don’t use the items, or have no attachments to the items aside from “one day I’ll”, or “it cost so much when I bought it”, then discard.
Here’s some general rules of thumb for clothing…
If you haven’t worn it for two years – discard.
If you like the clothing, but you no longer can wear that size – discard.
If you moved to the tropics, but you retain your winter clothing – discard.
Old socks, underwear (and bras) should be replaced yearly. (Do you hear me girls?)
From now on, starting now, come up with a strategy to wear fitting, and stylish clothes and discard your old wardrobe. Now, I am not talking about being a “Jim Dandy” of Town, but rather something quite different.
Replace your clothes and your wardrobe. Invest the thousand or so dollars to do so. Make sure that [1] everything fits, and fits well. [2] That the style is “you” and NOT the latest fashion. And that [3] you feel great, look great, wearing the clothes. Then discard everything else.
Do this by going through your current clothing and setting aside everything that you 1) have not worn for two years, 2) is noticeably stained, and 3) fits so poorly not even a master tailor could adjust it to fit. Package it all up and mark it for the Salvation Army or eBay.
-Building a Men's Wardrobe | The Art of Manliness
If you are a man, you should NEVER buy clothing yourself. You need a female that you trust to help you work on your look, and a good trustworthy tailor to work with. Tell them what you are trying to do. You will NOT regret this move.
There is a significant difference in the spiritual, emotional and quantum “baggage” associated and attached to clothing between the two sexes. Men have a tendency to wear things over and over, and they tend to carry with them a lot of quantum debris and inertia. Women not so much. But women, also have a tendency to have large closets of items that just sit there waiting for the “right” moment to wear.
Both accumulate inertia and resistance to change. Both need to be purged to only what you you need and associate with the GOALS and DREAMS of your affirmation campaign.
Unless you use it, it is just wasted space. Further it is polluting your new efforts to change you life.
Think of it as a big block of frozen shit sitting inside a big tub of water. Slowly it is affected all the water in the tub. If you remove it, the water no longer needs to contend with the pollution. And you will notice that the water level in the tub is lower. You can fill it up with nice fresh, sparking clear water.
Discard what you haven’t used in two years. Don’t pause. Don’t think about it. Just do it.
And do not forget to gain the support of your spouse or the person who will be helping you to pay for all this. I find my clients’ wives are ecstatic and fully supportive of their husband’s efforts to dress better. If you keep your partner out of the decision, however, you could be met with unexpected resistance.
-
Step Three – Declutter things
Not everything is “haunted” or cursed. Often good memories are associated with things and objects. It’s just that we need to be sure that the object provides us a positive to neutral affect in our day to day lives.
All in all, I would hazard to pronounce that about 20% of the items might have some negative effects that would detract from your life. And another 60% might have a neutral effect. and another 20% might have a positive effect. It all depends on who you are, and what YOUR quantum associations are.
You need to remove all the items that you don’t use or need from your life.
So, I would advise that you make an inventory of the things in your house. And just like the clothing above, discard what is not needed. For they do hold and retain quantum connections. And while they might be neutral, the large mass of them will still work to keep you EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.
So get rid of the bad, and do not argue with your family about that. Discard the bad.
Weed out the neutral. Just keep what you like, want or need. (No one needs 6 mop buckets, 15 flashlights, and your great grandparents Christmas tree lights.) If you have a broken toaster, that you haven’t used, but will fix one of these days, toss it. If you have a throw rug from your old house, but have nowhere to put is, discard it. If you are still keeping the old bird cage from the bird that died five years ago, guess what, discard it.
It’s nice to know that that big serving bowl reminds you of your long lost grandmother. If it fills you with happy emotions and thoughts, well then keep it. If you have a nearly new broom, but years of storage has messed up the hairs in the bottom of the broom, and you just can’t get the nerve to discard it, then set that sucker on fire. Unless you are using it, a tool is junk.
I am NOT advising you all to take on a minimalist lifestyle. I am just simply saying that THINGS collect more than just dust. They collect quanta. And quanta, both good, bad or neutral can act like an anchor holding your and tying you to the current life that you are living.
Step Four – Bless your property
Just like evil, bad, or contrary ideas, thoughts and quanta can become attached to things, so can good will.
All, or most religions, will bless things and objects. I know that this is certainly true for the Catholic and the Buddhist religions.
I personally wear three items on me that are blessed. One [1] is a Catholic cross that I wear around my neck. It was blessed by Monseigneur Pete in Erie, PA when I lived at a monastery / retreat for men years ago. (Yeah. Bet you all didn’t know that, did ya?) And I also wear two bracelets. Both were blessed by Buddhists in the temples. One [2] (with large wooden beads) was blessed in TangXia, China, and the other [3] is a red rope bracelet blessed in Wenzhou, China.
That’s the extent of my blessed items for now.
Perhaps if Trump continues on his rampage of destruction and scorched earth, I might need to take a more proactive approach. In which case, I would certainly pay to have a priest bless my household. heck! I might even put in one of those Chinese mini-shrines near my front door.
Many older Chinese, as well as successful businessmen maintain these mini shrines in their homes and in their companies. They make sure that it is continually stocked with fresh fruit and flowers.
It’s interesting, really.
In the United States, I have uncles and aunties that would have their own religious shrines in their upstairs hallways. These small shrines are for their private purposes and for prayer and other blessings. As they are devout Catholics, they use the shrines to run through their “Hail Marys” and “Stations of the Cross” in their daily prayers.
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen.
-Hail Mary - Prayers - Catholic Online
Now, I am not saying that I intend to put a small shrine in my home (I think my wife would kill me), but that having a priest come over and bless your home and apartment might be a good thing to do. Most especially if you have any questions why there seems to be a “big potato” or “dark cloud” or invisible wall that lies between you and your goals and objectives.
It won’t cost too much. Provide a meal and offer a monetary “red envelope” to make it worth their while.
Home alter in a non-Catholic household. Alters are personal affairs and you place upon them what you feel is right, and just in according to your own personal beliefs and feelings.
So…
Try to have items that you always wear blessed. This can be your stinking wrist-watch it you want, or a wedding ring. Or a pinky ring. Or a belt. Or a John Deere baseball cap.
If you feel the need, purify your residence in the ways and manner that your feel appropriate for you.
Part Six – Tattoos
A tattoo is like an anchor. It binds you to a stat of mind and a set of conditions. If you have the ability, I would suggest that you purge yourself of all tattoos.
Tattoos anchor you to a specific set of world-line conditions. Thus are undesirable for practical world-line navigation using affirmation campaigns.
Part Seven -Nature
Nature is neutral.
The best way to shed the inertial quanta that collects upon us or around us is to spend time in nature.
This can be a small flower garden, vegetable patch, or a small pond. This can be walks in the woods, or canoeing on a lake.
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to perform any of the suggestions herein to declutter your life and reduce the quantum inertia, then please spend more time in nature. It need not be something all that dramatic, but it does need to occur.
It could be something as simple as leaving the natural air to flow through your house more often.
Or, it could mean that you start putting potted plants all over your house.
It could be something as drastic as turning off all power to your house for a week, opening up all your windows and door, and just giving your old house a good ‘airing out”.
What ever you do…
…Just remember that affirmation campaigns alone often need little “nudges”, and pushes in certain areas to have your desires manifest. Do what you can to “freshen things up”, and provide “baggage free” opportunity.
Oh, and a nice slice of pie in a good old-fashioned diner wouldn’t hurt.
A fine delicious pie. Go out to a diner, and do so especially if it is something that you do not normally do. To enact change, you must change things, and that includes habits.
Conclusion
Thoughts and quanta form attachments with physical things. Thus good and bad thoughts, and their associated quanta can be absorbed by physical things, and thus affect the users and owners of those objects.
When you conduct a prayer / affirmation campaign, the thoughts and quanta of the physical surrounds can have an influence in the success of your campaign. It can be good, bad, or neutral, but it will have an effect.
I suggest that you take the time to de-clutter your affirmation “runway”, so that when the time comes for your affirmations “to take off”, there will not be any hindrances, or obstacles in your way.
Do you want more?
I have more articles along these lines in my Affirmation Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Most of what you read in the Western press is “China = Bad”. And since this is an election year, anything related to China (the evil devil incarnate) association with the opposition party (=Biden) is fabricated and promoted. Oh don’t be too surprised to see all sorts of tweets, videos, and the like on how China has it’s “dirty little hands” in the wallets of Biden and company. It’s pretty much normal this time of year.
Lies.
Distortions.
More lies.
Insane level of howling and screeching of the lies…
Those of us who know better have either stopped reading the “news” or following our feeds, or intentionally point out the ‘bots and other nonsense spewing (and it is truly SPEWING) forth out of the government-owned and controlled Alt-Right, Alt-Left, and mainstream American and Western press.
Fuck that all!
It’s all nonsense and the last thing you want to read when you get up in the morning and check the news is to find out about what ever the calamity of the day is.
OK. Well, then…
Imagine my surprise when I read this piece of sensibility.
It’s penned by a former ambassador and (of course CIA) well experienced in Asian Geo-politics, and well aware of all the shenanigans going on right now. It is long, but gosh and golly is it spot on correct. It’s worth a read.
Reposed as found. All credit to the author. No editing at all simply because the venue it was pulled from was WordPress friendly and devoid of java-script and for-profit advertisements. Obviously this author is like me. Stop making everything for-profit.
The Struggle with China is not a Replay of the Cold War: Remarks to the Asia American Forum
Washington has declared war on China. The administration and its allies hope that the war will be “cold,” but have no strategy for keeping it so. I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest.
They came to adulthood after the end of the post-World War II “Cold War” and have no experience of its anxieties. They appear to take its sudden end as predestined – something that was so inevitably right ideologically that it can and should be taken for granted. Their military experience, if any, has been in the contemporary equivalent of the 19th century’s Indian Wars – combat with gun-toting farmers with no air forces, air defenses, navies, guided missiles, or nuclear weapons with which to answer U.S. hostility. To paraphrase Hilaire Belloc’s riff on Britain’s hubris in its colonial wars:
“Whatever happens, we have got Close air support and they have not.”
The Cold War was radically different from this. It was a global struggle between two competing ideological blocs and nuclear-armed power centers capable of destroying not just each other but all life on the planet except maybe the cockroaches. It began as a series of squabbles over the spoils of a worldwide war. Each side strove to consolidate spheres of politico-military and economic influence and deny the other access to them. But each learned to avoid confrontations that might lead to armed combat directly with the other. Each limited itself to proxy wars aimed at sustaining or imposing its ideology somewhere not in the grip of the other. Each sought to minimize and contain interaction with the other. That was not difficult, given the utter lack of interdependence between the two and the blocs of nations they formally and informally commanded.
The struggle we Americans have now initiated with China has none of these characteristics. To analogize it to the Cold War of 1947 – 1991 is intellectually lazy. More important, it is profoundly misleading and delusional. The Sino-American split is not the sequel to a bloody world war. However politically convenient it may be for Americans to cast antagonism to China in all-encompassing Manichean terms, this is a contest born of contending national self-images and ambitions, not ideologies. The struggle with China on which Americans have embarked is a bilateral contest in which others may or may not choose to take sides, not one between two committed blocs of nations. China is both a much less inherently hostile and far more robust rival than the Soviet Union was.
Emulating China’s autocracy by closing America to foreign goods, services, people, and ideas, as the United States is now doing, is self-defeating. Modeling China policy on Ronald Reagan’s treatment of the USSR before he met Mikhail Gorbachev, as Secretary of State Pompeo has done, is the path to receipt of a national “Darwin award.” The U.S. contention with a resurgent China cannot be conducted in the same manner as the Cold War. It will not end, as the Cold War did, with the voluntary resignation of an ideologically disillusioned and exhausted adversary.
Before I discuss China and how our contest with it is likely to proceed, it may be useful to spend a minute or two on what China is not.
In Chinese literature, there is a beast called a 四不像that is satirically defined by the “four things it ain’t.” The head and face of a “four ain’t[1]” is slender like a horse, but it ain’t a horse. Its horns are like a deer’s, but different. Its neck is like a camel’s, but it is no camel. Its tail is like a donkey’s, but it’s not an ass. The point is that describing a “four ain’t” by reference to previously encountered animals it does not resemble is worse than no help at all in understanding and dealing with it.
China is the “four ain’t” of today’s geopolitics. [1] It is ruled by a “Communist Party” but is an overachieving participant in global capitalism, committed to free trade, expanded foreign investment, and a market economy guided by industrial policy, not central planning. [2] China is armed with nuclear weapons, but it has sized and configured its arsenal for a retaliatory response to an attack on it by other nuclear powers, not for a first strike, which it has abjured and is not equipped to conduct. [3] China is a threat to American global primacy, but mostly in economic and technological rather than political or military terms, in which it remains decidedly inferior. [4] China is once again the immovable economic and cultural center of its native region – where the United States has for seventy-five years been the resident overlord – but China seeks no “allies” and has no political satrapies or military dependencies.
Crucially, China is not the Soviet Union:
China has no messianic ideology to export. Its appeal derives from its performance, not its ideas. It is happy to be emulated, but justly charged with callous indifference to how foreign societies govern themselves.
China is not engaged in regime change operations to create an ideological sphere of influence. It seeks to prevent the overthrow of its own authoritarian system of governance but does not oppose democracy or promote authoritarianism abroad. Where tested, as in Korea, it often has a better relationship with democracies than with their undemocratic opponents.
China’s relationships with foreign nations are transactional rather than sentimental. It has no “satellites,” “allies,” or entente partners to divert its attention from its own defense. Beijing has no ideological soul mates, committed followers, or dedicated sycophants abroad.
China’s economy dwarfs that of the USSR. It accounts for 30 percent of global manufacturing and continues to grow. China has an economy that is almost one-third larger than that of the United States in purchasing power terms and that is rapidly approaching parity at nominal exchange rates.
China is now the largest consumer market on the planet and the biggest trading partner of three-fourths of the world’s other economies. It is fully integrated into the global capitalist system and cannot be walled off from it.
China already possesses one-fourth of the world’s scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematics workforce. It is steadily increasing its ascendancy.
China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” is an order-setting geoeconomic strategy with no Soviet parallel that dwarfs the nearest American equivalent – the Marshall Plan.
China spends two percent or less of GDP on its military vs. the estimated 9 – 15 percent of the USSR and the current 7.9 percent spent by the United States.[2] Unlike the USSR, if pushed to do so, China has the capacity to more than match any U.S. military spending increases.
Despite much wishful thinking on the part of its detractors, premising a policy on China’s collapse from systemic defects, as George Kennan shrewdly did in the case of the USSR in 1947, is – on the evidence – delusional.
China has not built a nuclear arsenal to match that of either the United States or Russia. It has instead adopted a “no first use” policy for nuclear weapons backed by a modest force de frappe that can conduct a limited but devastating retaliatory counterstrike to any foreign nuclear attack on it.
There are no U.S. arms control agreements, exchanges of information, understandings on mutual restraint, or escalation control mechanisms between the U.S. and Chinese armed forces as there were with the USSR
American military intervention in the Russian civil war lasted only two years (1918-1920). Overt U.S. intervention in China’s ongoing civil war, sparked by the Korean War, began in 1950. Seventy years later, U.S. support for the heirs to Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Chinese regime not only continues but is escalating.
The United States backs challenges to China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and islets in its near seas. By contrast, despite rhetorical opposition to its incorporation of the three Baltic states, America never actively contested the USSR’s territorial integrity.
The armed forces of the United States aggressively patrol China’s shorelines and test its defenses, as they did those of the Soviet Union. But, so far, unlike the USSR, China has not reciprocated.
Equally important, the United States of the 2020s is not the America of the early Cold War.
As the Cold War began, the United States produced one-half or more of the world’s manufactures. It now makes about one-sixth.
For the first time in American history, foreigners do not envy American freedoms. Once almost-universal admiration for the United States has been overwritten by repeated displays of racism, gun violence, political venality, xenophobia, and – most recently – executive incompetence and legislative default in the face of national challenges. No one abroad now seeks to emulate the U.S. political system or believes that the United States illustrates the possibilities of democracy.
During the Cold War, the United States was the uncontested leader of a bloc of dependent nations that it called “the free world.” That bloc is now in an advanced state of decay. America’s international followership is greatly diminished and its capacity to organize coalitions that integrate lesser powers in support of common objectives has atrophied.
Legacy U.S. alliances formed to contain the USSR have little relevance to American contention with China:
US-European alliances like NATO are withering. Though cautious about China, Europeans do not and will not support an effort to “contain” it.
No Asian security partner of the United States wants to choose between America and China.[3] S. “alliances” in Asia embody U.S. undertakings to protect partners rather than commitments by them to come to America’s aid. Such dependent relationships cannot be repurposed to form a coalition to counter China.
The United States is isolated on a widening list of issues of importance to other countries. It has withdrawn or excluded itself from a growing number of multilateral instruments of global and regional governance and is no longer able to lead the international community as it once did.
Americans have repeatedly declined to recapitalize or cooperate in reforming international financial institutions to meet new global and regional investment requirements. This has led China, India, and other rising powers to create supplementary lenders like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank. The United States has chosen to have no voice in these and continues inadvertently to stimulate the creation of still more institutions that can act without reference to American interests or views.
Since 1950, the Taiwan issue has been a casus belli between the United States and China. But U.S. allies or security partners see it as a fight among Chinese to be managed rather than joined. If the U.S. mismanages the Taiwan issue, as it now appears to be doing, it will have no overt allies in the resulting war.
No claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the U.S. in naval conflict with China.
U.S. foreign policy is now as partisan as domestic policy. It is often driven by special rather than national interests and is unrealistic, strategically incoherent, divisive, and fickle.
Partisan oligopolies have swallowed independent media in the United States and reduced the thousands of U.S. correspondents once reporting on international affairs to mere dozens. S. corporate media now treat the news as an entertainment-based cost center and consumer product rather than as a necessary public service or civic duty. These developments and the politicization of the U.S. intelligence community diminish and distort American situational awareness, helping spurious narratives to overwrite facts.
In short, this time is different.
Sino-American relations have a history and dynamic that do not conform to those of the US-Soviet contest. If you have seen one “communist,” you have not seen them all. And the United States is much less well equipped to inspire and lead opposition to China than it was to the USSR.
The US-Chinacontention is far broader than that of the Cold War, in part because China, unlike the determinedly autarkic USSR, is part of the same global society as the United States.
The battlefields include
global governance,
geoeconomics,
trade,
investment,
finance,
currency usage,
supply chain management,
technology standards and systems,
and scientific collaboration
In addition to the geopolitical and military domains in which the Cold War played out.
Short of nuclear war, the struggle the United States has begun with China may not be existential, as the Cold War was, but it cannot avoid being hugely consequential.
Four years ago, the U.S. unilaterally decided that geopolitics are inherently driven by great power military rivalry that precludes cooperation.
In 2016 when Donald Trump became President and appointed war-hawk neocons to all the international positions in his administration.
The policies derived from this militaristic reconceptualization of international relations are generating a series of zero-sum games between adversaries seemingly as interested in hurting each other as they are in raising their own status. The newly pugnacious U.S. stance legitimizes xenophobia and justifies bilateral approaches to foreign relations that don’t just ignore issues like global terrorism, pandemic diseases, climate change, migration, nuclear proliferation, or regional tensions but actually cripple the global governance and international coordination needed to tackle them. The United States is going out of its way to demonstrate its indifference to the interests and sensibilities of its past and potential partners. It is withdrawing from international organizations it can no longer dominate. These actions amount to unilateral diplomatic disarmament and the creation of politico-economic vacuums for others – not just China – to fill.
Future historians will puzzle over why Americans have chosen to dismantle and discard the connections and capacities – other than military prowess – that long enabled the United States to direct the trend of events in most global and regional arenas. When they unravel this mystery, they will also need to explain the simultaneous collapse of the separation of powers structure on which the American republic was founded and on which its liberties were built. The checks and balances that made America uniquely resilient are now on life support. A legislative branch that refuses to take a stand on the issues entrusted to it by the plain text of the U.S. Constitution has been sidelined by an increasingly despotic and bellicose presidency. The American judiciary, once the custodian of constitutional rectitude, is now selected and appointed by reference to political rather than legal criteria. The result is governance with declining legitimacy at home and next to no appeal abroad.
Fortunately for post-constitutional America, China’s political system, despite the stability and prosperity it has fostered, has even less appeal beyond China’s borders than the degenerate and debased U.S. “model” now does. Both China and the United States are now repelling other nations rather than attracting them. If the contest were military and didn’t go nuclear, the United States, with its battle-hardened and uniquely lethal military, would enjoy insuperable advantages. But politics and armed conflict are not the central elements in the Sino-American confrontation. And the zero-sum games in other competitive arenas do not look promising for America.
After World War II, the United States made the rules. American statesmen crafted a world order that expressed American ideals and served American interests. In the post-Cold War period Washington began to contract its commitments and to disengage from the global institutions and norms it had sponsored. It also abandoned the effort to lead an expansion of the rule-bound order it had created. Over three dozen treaties are pending in the U.S. Senate. The last time it approved one was in 2008.
The United States has failed to ratify international compacts that regulate a widening range of arenas of importance to it. These include conventions on the law of the sea, nuclear testing, the arms trade, human rights, and crimes against humanity. Washington has withdrawn from or suspended compliance with conventions on the laws of war and agreements on arms control, combating climate change, and trade and investment. It has ceased to participate in or sought to sabotage a growing list of United Nations specialized agencies and related institutions. Notwithstanding the current global pandemic, these include the World Health Organization. This generation of American politicians does not seem to understand that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
America’s withdrawal from its traditional role in global rule-setting and enforcement deprives the United States of the dominant influence it long exercised through the institutions it created. Other great powers remain wedded to the old American-led order expressed in the United Nations Charter. But America’s exemption of itself from the comity of nations and its spontaneous metamorphosis from world leader to global dropout have left it unable to aggregate the power of other nations to its own. Washington’s resort to abusive language, threats and coercive measures has grown as its capacity to apply its power non-coercively has declined, further reducing the numbers of foreign allies, partners, and friends willing to bandwagon with America.
The European Union remains impotent and cannot fill the breach created by the United States’ sidelining of itself. Rising and resurgent great powers – like China, India, Brazil, and Russia – now have a free hand to reshape and supplement legacy institutions to their advantage, and they are doing so. In some ways, their initiatives are constructive. Unfortunately, in others they are not. This is especially true of their reliance on precedents set at Guantánamo that justify “extraordinary rendition,” “enhanced interrogation,” the criminalization of resistance to military occupation, “targeted killings,” and the replacement of the rule of law with ruthless expediency. Russia saw the example of NATO’s war to separate Kosovo from Serbia as a precedent justifying its separation of Crimea from Ukraine. As America ceased to set a good example, the world became less civilized.
The decline in U.S. clout internationally is made even more consequential by the fact that China has resources, including money, to offer its partners, and – except for military shock and awe – the United States does not. The United States’ budget is in chronic deficit. Even routine government operations must now be funded with debt. America has spent trillions of borrowed dollars on wars in the Islamic world that it can neither win nor end. Its so-called “forever wars” siphoned off the funds needed to keep its human and physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic powers. They also crippled U.S. statecraft by defunding non-military means to advance or defend American interests abroad and curtailing U.S. contributions to the international institutions charged with assuring global peace and development.
The Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and the New Development Bank and their infant sister institutions affirm American-invented global systems and practices. They do not challenge legacy lenders like the Asian Development Bank and World Bank. They supplement such institutions by recreating and recapitalizing them in forms exempt from American veto, sabotage, or stonewalling. The most recent example of such necessity-driven invention is the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement. This effectively nullifies a key element of American vandalism of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It enables the continued orderly resolution of trade and investment disputes between the EU, China, and others without the participation of the United States. Similarly, current international efforts to craft a multi-currency system for trade settlement and reserve management to replace the dollar do not reflect dissatisfaction with its service in these roles. They are driven by universal foreign objections to hegemonic American bullying through unilateral dollar sovereignty-based sanctions.
Coercive approaches to statecraft are inherently alienating. Claims to superiority that are not empirically substantiable are unpersuasive. Asking countries to choose between China and the United States, when China is clearly rising and America is simultaneously stagnating and declining, practically guarantees the progressive eclipse of American prestige and power. Advocating democracy abroad while deviating from it at home destroys rather than enhances American credibility. America’s addiction to debt risks eventual financial collapse even as it limits immediate policy options both at home and abroad.
If the United States succeeds in making its contest with China mainly military, as the military-industrial-congressional complex desires, Americans are less likely to spend the Chinese into national bankruptcy than the Chinese are to bankrupt the United States. A strategy based on the presumption that Asian and other nations are committed to eternal dependence on U.S. military protection against Washington’s enemy du jour cannot succeed.
No country wants to be caught in a Sino-American firefight. If the United States goes to war with China, the outcome is at best uncertain.
A nuclear exchange cannot be ruled out.
Protectionism and xenophobia promise to reduce American prosperity and retard innovation, not make the United States once again competitive. Trade and investment policies based on the rejection of comparative advantage promote inefficiency and stagnation rather than growth. Retreating into the “Five Eyes” technology stockade while barring the gates to Chinese scientists and students is less likely to sustain American international standard setting and scientific primacy than to cede the global commons to China and others. Withdrawal from multilateral organizations forfeits influence in them and yields it to others more open to diplomatic give and take. The United States is weakened, not strengthened, by muscular diplomacy-free foreign policy and the incapacitation of every instrument of statecraft other than the military.
For the first time in our history, we Americans must decide how to deal with a country that not only has the capacity to surpass us but is actually doing so. Unless the United States cures its fiscal feebleness, rebuilds the capacities and competence of its government, upgrades its human and physical infrastructure, and reopens itself to trade, investment, and immigration, America’s roles in global governance, trade, investment, finance, supply chain management, technology standards and systems, and scientific collaboration will continue to contract as those of China and others expand. The United States’ capacity to innovate will decline, as will American well-being and self-confidence. This diminishment of the United States is not the consequence of Chinese predation but of American hubris, political ineptitude, and diplomatic decrepitude. To compete internationally with China, the United States must get its act together at home and, in its foreign relations be everything it claims China is now not – that is: trustworthy, truthful, empathetic, considerate, courteous, and dignified. Above all, America must itself return to living by the rules – old and new – it expects others to follow.
The essence of any strategy is the efficient linkage of resources and capabilities to feasible objectives. Current U.S. China policy is strategy-free. With neither resources nor institutional capabilities to back it, it amounts to puerile fantasy. Washington is determined to crush the China of its imagination, but China exists whether the United States understands it or not.
The American turn against China began as neurosis but has now crossed into psychosis…
… evidencing a loss of contact with reality and inability to interact normally with other nations. This is a product of populism, which habitually disdains facts, embraces politically appealing xenophobic narratives, corrodes discipline and the capacity for self-sacrifice, and rejects expertise…
… in favor of ideologically inspired preconceptions implemented by true believers and untested amateurs.
U.S. China policy at present is a classic example of demonizing a foreign foe to rally support at home and divert attention from festering political, economic, and social problems. This is an approach that is highly unlikely to result in a Cold War-style victory for the United States or the Enlightenment values that gave birth to it. Quite the opposite. All the more so if spurious analogies to a cock-eyed view of the Cold War continue to shape the American approach to competitive interaction with China.
End Notes
[1] The 四不像 [sìbùxiàng] is actually the Père David’s deer or 麋鹿 [mílù], a unique species of elk long extinct in the wild but preserved in the imperial game parks of Beijing and saved from complete extinction by rendition to European zoos before its Chinese remnant herd was slaughtered in the Boxer Rebellion. In 1985, the 麋鹿 was reintroduced to China from England, where a breeding population had been established.
[2] Proposed U.S. spending on national security in FY-2021 totals $1.21 trillion, about twice the Pentagon “base budget.” In March 2020, when this budget proposal was put forward, U.S. GDP was $21.535 trillion and falling. For a breakdown, see https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2020/03/creating-a-national-insecurity-state/
[3] SEATO is dead, as is CENTO. The Philippines is moving toward strategic neutrality. Thailand is now closer to China than to America. Pakistan is estranged from the United States. Iran and Iraq are both anti-American. Japan sensibly prioritizes its own defense. South Korea is appropriately obsessed with North Korea and avoiding Sino-Korean hostility. Even Australia is torn between its reliance on the China market and its distaste for China’s increasingly hegemonic behavior.
Conclusion
It’s pretty much an accurate appraisal of what is going on in the world today, and regarding China.
I am personally stunned that you will find this in the English-language press. As most of those venues have been co-opted by the USA and UK governments.
This is it.
So don’t get so hot and bothered and twisted up into a pretzel. over the latest ‘news” out of America. This is pretty much everything that you need to know right now. And as you can well guess, American “greatness” is in shambles and the childish neocons running Washington DC are dangerous in their ignorance.
But that’s all gonna change. One way or the other.
Do you want more?
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Here, in this post, we will cover some passages that I pulled out of my Affirmation Campaign notebook. Yeah. I’ll bet you all never realized that I have an affirmation “handbook”, well I do. I have a ton load of notebooks and notes all lying around everywhere. Being “old school”, I don’t rely on the computer alone.
One computer crash and you lose everything. One raid by religious fundamentalists in Arkansas and you’ll never see your notes ever again. One lost password, and you will be forever locked out of your writings.
OK.
Well, anyways, this post is a collection of my notes and thoughts on affirmation campaigns. I am including techniques and thoughts that I actually use within my very own personal campaigns. I like to think that others might find these techniques to be of use.
The first technique that I will cover is “font shading”.
Font Shading
I like to use “font shading” to keep track of the weighed importance of a given affirmation.
An example of “font shading” in an affirmation campaign list.
Font shading is very useful in keeping the size of a prayer / affirmation campaign down to a practical size. If you have a large affirmation list, like I do, you will find that it is very time consuming to read the list out loud. Most people keep lists that they can read in under ten minutes. While mine tend to be very lengthy.
In general, if your list is over fifteen minutes long when you read your affirmations, you need to either cut it down or conduct your campaign using the “font shading” technique.
The use of this technique is very simple. As follows…
Text in black color – read out loud.
Text in light grey color – just read silently with your eyes.
It enables the same results in a fraction of the time when conducting an affirmation prayer campaign. Just make sure that the “highlighted” text in black are the most significant important elements of your campaign.
Pacing Techniques
Pacing refers to the system that you use for on / off affirmation campaigns. I have discussed this subject in other posts. Essentially, with each and every affirmation campaign are three elements. Which are…
Reading / reciting your affirmations for a set period of time.
A complete stop with zero affirmation reading for a set period of time.
The start of the follow-up affirmation campaign.
And as I had stated earlier, it is critically important that all prayer / affirmation campaigns follow the same template. You define a set period of time where you read out your affirmations, and then stop. The period that you stop should be approximately the same length as the time devoted to the affirmations. Then once the period of time is complete, you repeat only with revised affirmations.
Here, we are going to look at some of the many variations of this process.
And they are;
Trot
Stroll
Mosey
Gallop
The pacing of this process depends on you and what you intend to get out of the process. It depends on your personality. It depends on your situation. It depends on you.
How you want your life to turn out is wholly dependent on how your conduct your affirmation campaigns.
Now…
Let’s look at the different kinds of ways to pace your affirmation campaigns.
The Trot – (2 month 1 on / 1 off cycle)
The Trot is exactly like it is presented. It is a steady, but relentless sequence and series of campaigns all separated by equal duration breaks. After a while in experimenting with different systems, I (myself) have settled on this pace for me personally. I run a relentless one month on, then one month off, then repeat. For me, it has been working out splendidly, as it permits me to actively adjust thought navigation quickly and get near immediate feedback on the relative success of the campaigns.
The Stroll – (6 month 3 on / 3 off cycle)
This is a more leisurely pace, and a pace that I recommend for newbies to prayer affirmation campaigns. The length of a campaign is one season. It is three months long. Followed by three months off. What is great about this pace is that you can get the best mixture of observed results and learned skills, while at the same time avoiding over all fatigue and depression that things seem to be taking too long to manifest.
The Mosey – (1 year 6 on / 6 off cycle)
This is a much longer affirmation effort. You typically run the affirmation campaign for around six months, and then stop for six months. Because the campaign runs for so long, you need to make sure that your affirmations are at an easy to recite size. Too long, and you will tend to give up quickly. This system is perhaps one of the best systems, and the nice long pause really gives you time to reflect, think and enjoy life. But one of the problems with this is that the pause is so long (six months) that you might forget to start a new affirmation follow-up campaign afterwards.
The Gallop – Sawtooth effort.
This is a rather different technique for pacing your prayer campaigns. It requires some planning. In this technique you use different prayer affirmation lists and then rotate the lists through the campaign.
You have two affirmation lists. (You can call them “A” and “B”, or “Red” and “Blue”, if you want to.) One week you read your “red” affirmations. Then the next week you stop. Then on the third week, you read your “blue” affirmations. Then you stop for a whole week. Then you repeat this cycle. You do this for a minimum of two months.
“Sawtooth” Affirmation campaign.
This system has advantages.
It enables you to cut down the size of your affirmations to something more manageable. The drawback however should be obvious. If the “red” objectives differ substantially from the “blue” objectives, you will end up zig-zagging back and forth in the general directions of your objectives, but have a difficult time arriving there. However, if your objectives are complementary, or mutually exclusive, you will be able to enjoy the objective realization in a shorter amount of time.
Our expectations are influenced by the media, not reality.
Many people put goals and desires in their affirmations based upon their impressions made by the media. This is a danger. It might have you investing in a $75,000 car instead of spending the year cavorting with pretty girls on the beach. It might have you spending thousands of dollars on the latest outfits instead of having your house paid off. It might misdirect your desires to what you SHOULD own, instead of what your heart needs.
Don’t let your decisions be influenced by appearance.
.
Hollywood and media provide dangerous illusions.
The truth is that everyone is different.
People tend to evaluate the same situation differently depending on the environment. This was proven by an experiment where people were asked to evaluate products that were located in 2 areas, one with laminate flooring and another with carpet. Respondents walking on the carpet gave the same products better feedback.
I remember a study that was comparing restaurants. The food was identical, the environment was identical, but one restaurant had heavy plates and massive silverware. The other had cheap plates and light flatware. Obviously the customers preferred the more robust eating environment.
For instance, when choosing a job, you might accept one with a nice office, while rejecting another opportunity with better career growth. So to make decisions that will lead you to financial success, try to make sure that visual attributes don’t affect you.
And this means, don’t let the idea “this is a great job” or everyone knows that you will be happier if you XXXXXXX. It’s all a lie.
Search your heart about what matters to you. Define what it is, and navigate to that objective.
Introductory Transition Mechanisms
If your goal is really “far out”, complex or distant, you might want to break it down into bite sized steps. For instance, if you want to become the President of the Untied States, you might want to start with affirmations closer to your current situation. Then move forward thinking of a series of battles and campaigns to get you where you want to be. Like this, perhaps…
Dog catcher.
Local Sheriff.
State Representative.
Federal Representative.
Federal Senator.
VP of the USA.
President of the USA.
In a like way, you need to be able to map our your most cherished and distant desires so that your objectives are manifested.
What do I mean?
I mean something like this…
2020 through 2026 – local government.
2026 through 2034 – State government.
2034 through 2045 – Federal government.
Plan things out in detail, and have a long term vision that matches your long term plans.
Affirm the NOW
I suppose that everyone has heard the (tired old) saying “live in the now“. But, gosh and golly, is it ever so important when conducting a prayer affirmation campaign.
Mindfulness, or living in the now, is making the choice to focus on our present and live in our experiences. It sounds like something that should be easy, but it takes effort and practice. If you are struggling to live in the now, it might be because of one of these seven things.
-7 Things That Keep You From Living In the Now | Power of Positivity
In the movie “Wayne’s World” there is even a parody of this saying. Where the main character tells his “side kick” Garth to “live in the now!”. It’s actually pretty darn funny.
But…
The point of this should not be lost on anyone.
The "NOW" is a very specific point in your travels on the MWI and world-lines. It is a description of the world-line that you are inside at the moment that you made the affirmation statement.
When you conduct your prayer affirmation campaign you must specifically define the time for the affirmations to take place. You can do this a number of ways, and the way that I recommend is this…
Do NOT state a date, or a time for it to manifest.
Of course, it is pretty much a given that the affirmation will manifest. But it will do so in accordance with the balance (the rest of) your other affirmations, and what ever your current life situation actually is.
If your affirmation campaign has prayers; A, B, C, D and E in it, then the entire campaign will not distinguish the priority of the implementation of any of those prayers. Rather, instead, they will manifest in the greatest likelihood of manifestation given your current navigational vector.
The only way to control this is to say something like. A will happen first, then B, then C, then D, and finally E.
But, all this being stated, there are things that you MUST NOT do.
You should NOT use any of the following terms regarding when the affirmation will manifest…
General dates like “soon”, “near”, “going to happen”, “one of these days”, “eventually”, “after a while”, “later”, and other terms that point to a general time somewhere in the future.
Don’t say an affirmation anything like this…
Eventually, some day, my dream of having a little raise in salary might come true.
Because what you want is things to start NOW. Maybe not manifest NOW, but to start to move things in place NOW.
You see, the moment you verbalize a word, you are generating a thought AT THAT MOMENT. How that thought will materialize in your physical reality is a direct function of the sentence structure.
If you say something like…
Really soon, I will get a big salary increase.
You can guarantee that you set your “world-line navigation system” destination coordinates towards “a big salary increase”. It’s input into your navigation console, and you are already on the path towards that goal.
Thumbs up!
But…
Wait!
What will actually happen?
Well, look at it plotted or charted out, and see.
Pretty soon my dreams will come true.
You stated “really soon”. This modifier is “soft”. Meaning that it is not precise and well defined. In terms of glaciers, really soon could mean 500 years. In terms of an old many, it could mean five years. In terms of an infant, it could mean five minutes.
What you want to do is avoid “soft” affirmations.
You want everything to be immediately encoded (which is automatic), but implemented within a reasonable amount of time. In fact, you want the implementation to be within a reasonable amount of time IN ALIGNMENT with the rest of the prayers during your current prayer campaign.
So I would recommend something along these lines, instead…
I am given a big salary increase.
It’s straight forward, simple, defined and is not modified by any aspect of time.
Now, of course, you can just as well say something along these lines…
Now, my reality is strongly conducive for a big salary increase.
But, isn’t that a bit complex? I would argue that simpler is better. And let the navigation engine move your consciousness to those world-lines properly.
My salary has been increased by a large amount.
This doesn’t place your reality somewhere in the future. Instead, it places you past that event. Which is what you actually want.
All your affirmation is your prayer campaign should describe a point where as your reality is well past the time when the goal or event occurred.
So I must advise to plot your navigation for each specific affirmation such that you are in a reality where that event has already happened in the past. Knowing, full well, that while it has not yet happened, the systems are happening now to bring you to the point.
And…
Well, this is pretty much how all your affirmations should read. Your campaign should describe what your life is like AFTER the affirmations manifest.
If it does not, then you are not doing things efficiently.
There are exceptions, of course. You can describe how the affirmations implement in real time, For example.
Incorporate all the characteristics of success in your campaign
It doesn’t really matter what your affirmation campaign consists of or what details you have within it. The basic elements of a successful life should have some part or role in your affirmation campaign.
Of course, you can go ahead to any website on the internet and you will see such things listed as [1] creativity, [2] resourcefulness, [3] persistence, and so on. And while all those things are certainly important, they are also part of your personality. Something that was formed in your early childhood by the age of three.
I am not talking about that.
Though, go ahead and add these elements to your campaign if you want to. Here’s some links to get you started…
So, if you want to be and have a success, you might want to go ahead and use the affirmation campaign to alter your personality to incorporate these characteristics.
But…
That is NOT what I am talking about here.
I am talking about incorporating those elements that your personality, your experience, your friendships, your knowledge, and your skills have no control over…
Luck
Being in the right place at the right time.
Having the right set of skills and connections when you need them.
A favorable environment.
Awareness.
And, if there is one thing that I know. It’s this. Those business owners, for the most part, just so happened to be at the right place at the right time and they pounced on the opportunity. For you to have the life that you desire it will require a combination of numerous aspects and changes in your life. It will require your resourcefulness, your ability to know that an opportunity has arrived. It will require you to use your skills, and to have the knowledge on how to use the tools at your disposal. And…
It will also include some “luck”.
And “luck” is actually the positioning of a desirable world-line within close proximity.
So, what this aspect of your affirmation campaign is to specify, specifically that the “pivot point” (that will make your affirmations occur) will exist and happen in one of your immediate world-lines.
Luck is always part of my life.
I am always in the right place at the right time.
I have the right set of skills, and connections whenever I need them.
My affirmations have found a fertile and favorable environment from which to grow and manifest.
Ah, but this isn’t just “opportunity”…
Opportunities
You need to be diabolically precise when stating that “opportunities” will manifest for you. You would be surprised at the kinds of “opportunities” used to come my way until I reigned them in and forced them to conform to my desires.
In my affirmations I said that that “opportunities” would come into my life. Yet, I failed to associate those opportunities with my goals. So what happened?
Yeah. You guessed it.
All sorts of “out of the blue” things were presented to me. All were opportunities, but nothing that was of interest to me specifically.
Like…
Given a chance to gather companies to sponsor European Soccer (football) teams. You know, wear their logos on their clothing. A lot of work. But an opportunity.
Given a chance to sell Generic Viagra in Iran. No problem, except that I am an American passport holder. This could get me in a full shit-load of trouble.
Being on a Judge Committee for English language students to debate the differences between ancient Chinese and Japanese history in English.
Create an on-line marketplace (B2B) to sell caskets to funeral homes around the world.
Run a crew of people that would decontaminate public places, hotels, and vehicles from those who had COVID and other infectious diseases.
And many more.
Unless you specify that you want the “opportunities” to be germane to your other affirmation goals, you will end up getting a ton load of useless opportunistic ventures. Sure, eventually with some hard-work and “elbow grease” you can make things happen. But unless they are part of your over-riding goals, you will just ignore these opportunities as worthless.
So, be careful on what you desire as “opportunities”. Connect them with specific results.
I have an opportunity that will make me a large fortune.
I am provided an opportunity to meet the woman of my dreams.
I have an opportunity to buy my dream house at a dirt cheap price.
Always specify specifically what your opportunity will provide for you.
Visualization of your target life.
Oh, it’s not just enough to say the affirmations. You need to visualize you enjoying your target goals.
You need to have a reminder at the end of your affirmation list, to visualize your goals. Visualization will speed up the implementation. Maybe something like this…
.
Visualize you living in the situation that you affirm during your prayer campaign. Doing so will accelerate the manifestation of that situation.
Don’t allow counter productive bad habits.
So, you are spending every day doing your affirmations. You say them out load and you visualize. But when people talk you normally, at home, in the bar, or on the street, you become self-depreciating. They ask you how you are doing and you say “oh, so-so”, or your friends ask you if you have plans or what you are going to do, and you “oh, I don’t know. I’ll just do nothing”.
If you have nothing good to say… then say nothing.
From now on every thing out of your mouth must be an extension of your vocalization. Do not allow anything bad out of your mouth. Do not vocalize anything negative. Do not be gloated into negativity.
Each negative statement erases one affirmation campaign session.
Stifle your depreciating natures, and for good golly sakes STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM NEGATIVE PEOPLE.
Conclusion
I have become VERY GOOD at manifesting my desires. I think that I am doing “something” right. And I like to help others duplicate my success. Thus this series in Prayer and Intention Manifestation.
Never the less…
Every now and then I check out what is going on in the rest of the internet on thoughts regarding things that I am focused on. This includes China, MAJ, American culture, and Intention.
What a big disappointment!
China…. hate, hate, hate, lies, distortions and more hate.
MAJ… nothing. Zero. Na-da.
American culture… cluster fuck going down the commode.
Intention… they all haven’t a fucking clue.
I figured that it was high time to continue my writings on this subject after I read a particularly erroneous piece. I mean, their hearts are in the right place, but boy oh boy, is their advice wrong.
Seriously you need to be careful and not “rubber stamp” other’s mistakes. Here’s an example of one of the “better” websites out there. Here a partial list of the suggestions for affirmations.
I am worthy of love.
I carry strength and resilience with me.
My every step is one of courage.
I have the ability to overcome any challenge life gives me. (Find out how compassion can improve your life: Overcome...
Abundance and love flow from me.
I am pure beauty.
I am a radiant and joyous person.
I am cocooned in the loving energy of the Universe.
I am successful.
I am enough.
-50 Self-Loving Affirmations – Uncover Your Joy
All in all, it’s not really a BAD group of affirmations. It’s just that they are primarily focused on changing the persons attitude about life, emotions and themselves. Not about world-line navigation. This is a pretty common problem that I can see is duplicated all over the internet.
Here’s another example.
This website suggests that you perform these affirmations every evening. I am sure that you will be a very trusting person afterwards…
Ah.
For certain, you will be a more trusting person. But will it buy you an ice cream cone the day after?
As I have said, it seems to me that many of these prayer / affirmation suggestions are not associated with world-line navigation or any sort of defined campaign. Rather they are just nice sayings to make you feel better about yourself.
List of 37 Abundance Affirmations
1. Whatever I can conceive, I believe.
2. If I see it in my mind, I am going to hold it in my hand.
3. I open myself to receiving abundance of the Universe.
4. The Universe provides me with all that I will ever need.
5. I am richly blessed.
6. I am love.
7. I am One with Spirit.
8. My higher self rules over my ego.
9. My spirit dances in step with joy in my heart.
10. I am whole and in perfect health
11. Every cell in my body vibrates with health and positive energy.
12. Beauty is the breath of my soul.
13. I see beauty everywhere I go.
14. I am financially wealthy!
15. Checks arrive in my inbox every single day.
16. My wealth grows in ever increasing amounts.
17. I love my car!
18. I live in the house of my dreams; in tranquil surroundings filled with love, a blessed family and happy kids!!
19. I attract love everywhere.
20. My relationships are harmonious!
21. I work as and when I want to, anywhere I want to.
22. My business is a resounding success!
23. I enjoy absolute freedom!
24. I experience the world in all its glory.
25. I have a wealth of fond memories.
26. My life is one big adventure.
27. I serve the community with love.
28. I help those in need.
29. My teachers inspire me to live in the now!
30. My inner home is a peaceful retreat, a storehouse of practical wisdom.
31. I celebrate life.
32. Inspiration flows easily to me.
33. Opportunities arrive at the right time in the right place
34. I am divinely guided in all that I do.
35. Miracles manifest everyday in wondrous ways!
36. My prayers are always answered, in support of my dreams!
37. Love and gratitude…Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hey! You long term MM readers and affirmation students, can you pick out the mistakes in the list? There’s a bunch, don’t you know, but some are ok.
Maybe I should take a “whack” at it, eh?
I have a wealth of fond memories.
Um. Really? That's what you want in your intention campaign. I mean different strokes for different folks and all that. But, doesn't it imply that you will be living in your past?
Or…
I love my car!
Pretty general. Easy to obtain, but you will have an obsession with a material possession. I cannot see that as being good.
I see a lot of these affirmations as pleasant distractions. They will take you places, and many will have your going around and around in circles. But still, many of those creating these affirmations have their heart in the right place. The results of the manifestations will improve that particular person in some way. Most seem to relate to feelings and emotions that the person has.
Certainly getting a hold of out-of-control emotions is a good thing.
So, you all need not be as critical as I am.
Just be mindful of what you affirm. As this article stated, “opportunities” can be wildly off target. And if you follow these pre-packaged affirmations you might end up going to places that you might not to be. Be careful.
33. Opportunities arrive at the right time in the right place
Be careful.
I hope that in some way that I can improve the dreams and lives of those that this MM venue touches.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my prayer / affirmation campaign index, here…
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Humans are herd animals. We graze upon the grass in yards fenced in by other sheep. All the time being watched over by the farmer and his barn-dogs.
Now, in this post I am gonna talk about an aspect that I have yet to cover. This is, pretty much, and essentially “the other side of the coin”. Or, to put it in more conventional language, what the other half of me is doing.
Ah. Confused?
Well, of course you are. Or you should be.
In order to explain what is going on, or has happened with me, and what is going to happen to you all, you need to understand what our reality is. you need to understand what our universe is. You need to understand what time is. You need to understand what world-lines are.
And with that being understood, then and only then, I can explain things to you all.
Because it’s really a Hell of a lot of work, and just a casual conversation with a “normal” just isn’t fruitful.
Hey! You're the Jackass that says he was a SEAL and has alien implants in his head and can time travel! Yeah. Yeahhhh right.
It’s like that.
No really.
It’s EXACTLY like that.
It’s a twisting of words, by the intensely ignorant who are not listening, have no desire to listen, and substitute their ideas to replace what I actually say. Then regurgitate it in a disparaging manner so as to ridicule my actions, my experience and my exposures.
But, here… for you handful that are actually reading what I write, who are actually following my lesson plans and learning… I am presenting something that I have not talked about much.
Here we are going to talk about a few things.
They are…
The division of consciousness in any particular world-line.
How consciousness splits between the Heavenly realms and the Reality Universe.
What is going on “behind the scenes” with myself as a “MAJ Operator”.
Quick Note
The post concerns a “medical operation” that I underwent.
When ever one of these “adjustments”, “procedures” or “operations” occur, there are usually larger scale events in the physical world going on afterwards. Whether that is the result of the procedures, or whether the procedures are to mitigate the effects of those events, I do not know.
This post describes an event that took place on 14OCT20 in the early morning.
Introduction
Today in my early morning slumber, I experienced one of my “medical procedures” that I have from time to time. It doesn’t happen in the physical reality.
Nor is it tied to a given place or world-line.
It is not tied to any particular world line.
It occurs outside the world-line travel vector (known as time and space), and for most people it is “just” a dream. That is how we interpret it. It is an event that lies outside our physical reality, and which lies outside our dreams, and which lies outside what we know and understand as “reality”.
Many people mistakenly call these events “abductions”. Where they are forcefully taken against their will to strange places or labs for medical dissection, weird sexual experiments and other horrors.
It’s nothing of that type.
But I can see how someone would get that impression.
What I am going to describe is something that I consider to be “normal”, because I have lived with it for the last four decades. But it will sound strange to “normal people”. I have all sorts of things that are going on regarding me. I mean, not just in my day-to-day life, but outside my life (my 30% of consciousness associated with world-line travel) . It’s the realm of what my other 70% is up to.
Consciousness is divided.
The soul divides the consciousness into groups.
10% to 30% is associated with getting experiences on earth. I call this "world-line travel" within our "reality universe".
The rest is off doing "other" things.
Usually, because it has no direct bearing on my day-to-day activities, I pretty much ignore it all. Much like everyone else does. And for most people, that is all that there is.
Your day-to-day life and then you die.
Game over.
.
.
Well, it’s not that way.
Instead, everyone has a big (huge) part of them off doing “things”.
Much of that is in the “Heavenly realms”, but a lot has to do with nearby (to the “Reality Universe”). Because being a human means that part of your travels the MWI in the physical body, and the rest of you do other things elsewhere. It’s normal. It’s what being a human is.
And me, well…
Well…I signed up for all this.
So I am more active in these other areas (I personally believe) that most of my fellow human brothers and sisters. I am an active participant. I am more involved. I am thus a little bit different.
Like how you might have a stud bull, or a prized milking cow. Or maybe how one of your calves won the State fair.
And, as part of my role…
…It’s many things that I have (already) talked about. All pretty much revolving around sentience sorting…
… and evolution…
…and all that is wrapped up within the program that I entered back in April 1981 in the United States Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) for a program that fell under MAJestic operations…
… that I be handed over to a specific extraterrestrial species …
… and that they would do things to me…
… and that it would be for the good of all humanity.
But…
While it was explained to me that I would be in the program for life, and that my role would be an important one, and that I would be exposed to very advanced and top secret technologies and concepts…
…I had no idea that I would still be actively involved and being tweaked well past my retirement years.
…
Narrative
I always know that I am going to have a procedure done when I enter this particular room / chamber. Yeah. It’s mostly plan and painted white. But the room is of complex geometry, with rectangular budges here and there, and some odd wall and ceiling shapes.
It’s like the most oddly shaped room that you can think of. Not rectangular. Perhaps trapezoidal with the protrusions to the room rendering it’s shape intensively difficult to discern.
The way that I remember this room is actually rather silly.
There is this particular panel in the deck. It appears to be a pane of glass covering over a wiring conduit (empty and devoid of wires) of a pretty odd shape. Think of a rectangular “T” shaped cutout in the floor of a white deck, only with the top of the “T” cut off forming a Trapezoidal shape. The bottom leg of the “T” forming a long squeezed extension, with a kind of rhomboid shape. And all covered with a clear thick pane of acrylic or glass. Under the glass is just an empty space. Rectangular in shape. White and plain.
It’s odd. I know.
And that is how I remember.
Every time I see this strange feature, I am able to recall other times that I have been in this chamber and (pretty much) what to expect.
And now, let’s talk about this time…
Prep for the procedure
It’s all pretty conventional.
I find myself in this chamber. I’m alone. So I look around and get my bearings.
I notice the room size, the walls, the strange “cut out” in the deck, and move forward.
A few minutes later…
A large group of short people fully dressed in medical garb enter the chamber (and it’s a real bunch. Perhaps twelve or fifteen.) and they all start laying out all sorts of tools, devices and equipment around an operating table. Three or four come to me and two of them get to each side of me and softly but firmly hold me…
“Oh, he’s one of the good ones.”
And they relax their grip, and I take the injection. And it is an injection, of sorts. I mean there is no needle it is just applied to my skin like the soft touch of a cold metal ball bearing. And I just stand there watching the events transpire.
After a few minutes the effect starts to take hold.
A numbness, a ringing in the ears, an inability to feel anything, and I just kind of “stand there” swaying in the room. My consciousness remains in place in the room, but my “dream body” is carried to the table. (By the two orderly nurses, that stood beside me, on my left and on my right.)
My consciousness is "glued" to that spot. Meanwhile my body collapses into the arms of the other two nurses and is carried to the operating table.
One of the “nurses” (the third one that said that I was a “good one”) asks if I would like to observe.
I respond “Yes. Sure.”
I think this. No physical words are actually spoken.
And my eyesight changes (to what I immediately infer as to the kind of eyesight that the doctors and nurses see).
It’s really, really different. With exaggerated reds and yellows, and glaring white spots. Everything else is in light blues. Like a pastel world. The entire room is bluish, but the table, the equipment and the gadgets on the tray surfaces are all light pink and white.
I watch for a while as they perform some kind of actual operation procedure on my “dream body”. I have no idea what they are doing or why.
It continues like that.
I drift off…
…
I wake up early in the morning. It’s 4:45am. The sky is getting light, and the morning clouds over the ocean are really nice. Red. “Red sky in the morning. Sailors take warning.” It’s calm and I hear the morning birds singing their song. I can even hear the sweep of the brooms of the building cleaning ladies as they sweep the sidewalks and ready the complex for the day.
What in “blue blazes” is going on?
Blue blazes. Unknown. An imaginary place somewhere on earth that is said to be excruciatingly hot. invented by old people . grandma: my goodness , its hotter than blue blazes in here!
-Urban Dictionary: blue blazes
Well?
Do you all think that I am just making this up? That I have too much time on my hands and that I just live vicariously in my Metallicman postings? Nope. I’m telling you all what is going on, how it works (to the best of my ability) and how everything fits together.
This little bit of personal exposure can tell you A LOT about our universe and how it works, if you just take the time to listen.
Consciousness Partitioning
I have covered much of this elsewhere.
The universe is complex, and we reside within a specific reality known as a “reality universe”. Our soul inhabits a “Heaven Universe”. And it is a part of our soul that we call a consciousness. And that is what occupies this “reality universe”.
But…
The consciousness is not 100% dedicated to any given world-line. Instead it puts part of it all over the place. But, for purposes of simplicity, we can say that the physical reality has control of from 10% to 30% of our consciousness at any given moment, and the non-physical reality has much of the rest.
Physical vs. non-physical realities.
So…
In the picture, I showed the physical reality that one inhabits as part of the MWI. And I show a person who’s consciousness inhabits a given body. I write in purple that the remainder of the consciousness is split in that non-physical realm. This is shown as 60%.
Ah.
But it should be 70% you argue.
What happened to the remaining 10%? Well, it’s elsewhere. Some in the Heaven Universe and some off and frittering about all over the many, many multitudes of the MWI world-lines. It’s here, there and everywhere.
Ok…
So what is going on here.
Well, as far as I can figure, and I’m pretty convinced that this is the case, my physical body is snoozing and sleeping as my consciousness moves though the MWI. And other entities are spending time dealing with my non-physical body.
Yeah.
We have two (recognizable) bodies that our consciousness occupies. They are…
A physical body.
A non-physical body.
And they both inhabit the “reality universe” simultaneously.
Reality separation (physical and non-physical)
So, let’s look into this a little deeper.
But first. Let’s make sure that we are all on the same page. OK?
Soul. Soul is what we are. It dwells inside it’s own special universe. We call that universe “Heaven”. I like to call that place the “Heaven Universe”. It tends to stay there.
Consciousness. Soul takes a part of itself and forms a vehicle to travel outside of Heaven with. This vehicle is known as “Consciousness”.
Reality. The universe that soul uses to obtain experiences. It’s called “the Reality Universe”. Each experience creates new associations and entanglements at the quanta level. The soul exports the consciousness that it creates into this reality so that it can grow.
Physical. The physical reality is the part of the reality that we humans can sense and interact with.
Non-physical. The non-physical reality is the part of our “reality universe” that our physical bodies cannot see, or sense.
World-line. The “reality universe” is a series of fixed points in time. Each one is a frozen “snap shot” of every possibility of everything in the universe. Each “snapshot” is a world-line.
Time. Time is the movement of our consciousness. It moves in and out of reality in a sequence. It moves one world-line to another at a rate that is governed by the frequency that our physical brain operates in.
Perhaps it looks something like how the Eastern Religions portray it. If so, maybe it is something more in alignment to any of the many pictorials of the various states of the non-physical realities that us humans deal with. Perhaps like this…
The three bodies and the five Koshas.
As I see it…
The physical world and the non-physical world are both sides of the same coin. Your consciousness inhabits both simultaneously.
Yet, strangely enough, when your consciousness moves about (in wave form) you can observe your physical body asleep in bed, or your non-physical body being operated upon in a operating room.
It seems strange to us. But that is the way it actually is.
And, more intelligent, older, more technology advanced species do not see this as an odd separation at all. They view this as the natural order of things and proceed in their day to day lives without a moments thought to this. They use this separation between the physical and the non-physical to “gate us all in” the “pastures” where we can roam free and graze.
We cannot leave the pasture because we don’t know how to open up the gate.
…
But what do I know?
It could very well be something completely different. But to communicate what I experience, one must recognize the idea that our physical body is covered in sheaths or layers that reside outside the physical. They reside int he non-physical realms, and have their own attributes.
Attributes, that others in various religions, have mapped out.
For me, as a novice in regards to Eastern Religious and Spiritual thought, I simply say that there is [1] a physical body and [2] a non-physical body. This non-physical body is different from the physical one. And as such, the extraterrestrial doctors and nurses provided operations upon it. Operations that were apparently unnecessary on my physical body.
And for simplicity purposes. Let’s leave it at that, for now.
…
Anyways, to fully understand what I have described…
… you must recognize that I am telling you all, in the physical reality, what my consciousness was exposed to. As well as what my consciousness observed while events that transpired within the non-physical reality.
My consciousness observed medical procedures conducted by Type-I extraterrestrials on my non-physical body. It is a common enough procedure for me, and something that I have learned to live with. I do not know what they were doing. I do not know why they were doing it.
I am one of numerous humans that have these procedures.
It is part of my role within MAJestic.
I believe that it is for the good of our species.
It is a unique experience, and sounds fucking crazy to an outsider.
The procedure is something that is common enough (for me), so that I recognize the facility. And the nurse comment is such that it implies that I am not the only one who goes through these kinds of procedures. Whether they are all related to my MAJ program is unknown.
Medical procedures on the non-physical aspects of the body
Well…
You all can read between the line on this.
Other species can operate and live, work and “play” within the non-physical reality, and we (humans) haven’t a clue as to what is going on because our senses are far too rudimentary.
These other species thus have a life, with structures, buildings, work, procedures, and relationships there in the non-physical reality. And if they do, so must us humans.
If a species is technologically advanced, it would make sense that they would be masters of the physical environment. But they would also be masters of the non-physical environment.
And as far as the “medical procedures” go…
What are they? I don’t know. I really don’t understand much of any of this. What I can tell you all is that this procedure was NOT “biological sampling” of a random human for monitoring programs. (That involves other activities and <redacted> involvement.)
They were (and I very strongly believe) that they were making CHANGES to my non-physical body of some type. That this is part of a long series of procedures that has been fairly regular over the decades at a rate of maybe four to five a year for the last forty odd years.
I strongly do not believe, at all, that the procedure is corrective in nature or intention.
This procedure is one of a long series of procedures that is altering myself in both the physical and non-physical realities to become something else. Perhaps a more “metallic” sort of person. And I mean that as something different than a robot. I mean that as on the elemental level. Something quite different that what I was biologically intended to be.
Physical areas in the non-physical realms
Yet…
How can there be a “Operating Room” in this non-physical environment? And why is it so oddly shaped?
I do not know.
But what I actually do know is that there all sorts of physical analogs in the non-physical worlds. And others who have traveled through them (no matter what they refer to them as) have reported the same thing. Call it the “astral plane”, or “the realm of the spirits”, or whatever you fancy, the fact is that there are physical analogs of buildings, structures, and creatures off in the non-physical worlds.
But… Wait!
Maybe what is going on isn’t what I think it is. Maybe what I think has been too unduly influenced by the books that I have read, my Catholic upbringing, the occult, and popular narratives. Maybe, just maybe something else is happening…
Maybe I was not observing my non-physical body being operated upon. Maybe I only thought that that was what was going on. Perhaps I am completely misinterpreting the events.
Or, even yet. Perhaps I am just crazy.
But, for the purposes of clarity and to really unload all my experiences as part of being who I am, I’m dishing this all out to you all. Right here and right now. It’s the truth, and you can learn from it. It can provide you glimpses of what our reality actually is, and what your role actually is.
And maybe, just maybe…
Conclusion
…you can see that your thought generation in the physical worlds, have an effect on your non-physical analog body.
That there are species and races that so-inhabit these non-physical realms with us. And that if we welcome their assistance, and not fight it, we can end up growing, improving and becoming a better person and a more active member of society.
Truthfully, as I have stated in my other posts regarding my post-implantation experiences, the “spiritual side” of our reality is stronger and more robust than anything that we can understand. If we are able to control our thoughts, and use affirmation navigation, not only can we improve the physical lifestyle and comforts that we experience, but we can just as well improve it for our communities.
The non-physical worlds are MORE important than we give them credit for. They define what our physical life becomes. We need to spend more time understanding this aspect of our lives, and paying more attention to our thoughts and our actions. Especially when it involves the lives and thoughts of others that we care about in our communities.
Humans are herd animals. We graze upon the grass in yards fenced in by other sheep. All the time being watched over by the farmer and his barn-dogs.
Pink Floyd – Sheep.mp3
Do you want more?
I have more posts and articles like this in my MAJestic Index…
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Here, we are going to take on some lighter fare. We are going to look at the world of scale figurines. And what a world it is!
Essentially, these are dolls in a certain precise scale that is accurately reflective of the person being depicted. As such they are really marvelous if there is a person or representation that appeals to your sensibilities.
“Rocket” from the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
And since many of these figurines are of limited production builds (maybe less than a few thousand per model), they become collector items, that only get more valuable as time moves on.
These figurines run the range from pop cultural icons, to Hollywood characters, television characters, to historical figures, to fantasy presentations and to everything in between.
Space 1999
Thorin
Scales
Action figures come in all shapes and sizes and although it’s easy to break out a ruler and simply measure one of your action figures, that’s not going to help you to understand the scale references often used by toy companies and long-time collectors. Besides, it’s way cooler to tell a fellow collector on an action figure forum that you picked up some nice 1:10 scale figures. It’s all part of the lingo.
The term scale refers to the size ratio to a normal-sized object. In this case, we’re talking about smaller representations of the human figure. For standardization purposes, toy companies refer to the usual ideal human figure as being 6 feet tall (we’re usually talking about heroic figures such as Batman or Darth Vader, hence the height). Therefore an action figure that is also six feet tall would have a 1:1 ratio. A three-foot-tall action figure would have a 1:2 ratio and so on.
Over the years, some standards scales have been used in the action figure world. Take a look at the most common, starting from largest to smallest.
1:4 Scale (approx. 18″)
This scale is one of the largest common scales for action figures and is technically reserved for dolls if we’re going by the doll/action figure definition, as they often have “real” hair or cloth clothing. Examples of this format can be found in Sideshow’s Premium Format figures and the superhero dolls made by Tonner.
These are very BIG. I just cannot imagine anyone having one of them personally unless you all have a ton of room in your house.
1:6 Scale (approx. 12″)
This scale holds a special place in action figure history as it was the original size of the very first figure to sport the “action figure” moniker, G.I. Joe. This is also the scale of all the figurines posted in this article.
This was the reigning scale for action figures during the first decade or so after G.I. Joe hit the market and many companies toyed with 12″ figures of their own, including the 12″ Star Wars dolls from Kenner in the late ’70s and Mego’s 12″ line of superhero dolls, featuring Batman, Superman and a TV tie-in version of Wonder Woman.
1:9 Scale (approx. 8″)
This scale is pretty much exclusive to the Mego toy company’s World’s Greatest Heroes line of eight-inch action figures that ruled the toy aisles in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Other toy companies were quick to follow, such as Ideal with their famous monsters and Evel Knievel lines. This size became so popular that G.I. Joe himself shrunk down to this size (although a petroleum shortage needed to make plastic didn’t help, either).
1:10 Scale (approx. 7″)
For today’s collectors, the 1:10 scale seems to be the king of the hill. Several action figure lines are being produced in this format from Mattel’s DC Universe to Marvel’s Legends line. Mattel has made an even bigger splash with their Masters of the Universe Classics line that re-imagines the old school fantasy figures in a newer seven-inch scale. This size tends to be more popular with adult collectors than with children looking for play value.
1:18 Scale (approx. 3.75-4″)
Mego started it with their Pocket Heroes line in the late ’70s, followed shortly thereafter by Fisher-Price with their Adventure People line, but it would be Kenner’s massively popular Star Wars collection that would set the unshakable standard for action figures of this scale for almost 20 years. Figures in this scale were less expensive, easier to fit into vehicles and loads of fun to collect. Toy lines such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero did extremely well in this size as did many movie figures, such as Indiana Jones and Tron and figures based on TV shows, like The Dukes of Hazzard and ChiPs.
Although 3.75″ was the standard in this scale, a proper 1:18 scale figure should be 4″, and a recent resurgence in popularity of this size has brought us several new figure lines from Marvel, DC Comics, G.I. Joe and Star Wars.
1:12 Scale (approx. 5-6″)
Chances are if the figure was based on a movie made during the ’90s (Last Action Hero, Congo, Jurassic Park, Super Mario Brothers) their action figures were this size. Throughout the 1990s, figures ranging between five and six inches took over the action figure world, pretty much killing the 3.75″ figures and setting a new standard. Although not very popular today, figures in this scale will never be forgotten.
1:48 Scale (approx. 2″)
It should be noted that with the rise in popularity and collectability of figures such as Lego “minifigs” and other miniature, yet fully articulated, figures from other building sets such as Mega Bloks, the two-inch-tall figure is starting to hold its own and is beginning to command respect in the collectibles world. These figures may very well one day be the reigning scale standard in the not too distant future, so they get an honorable mention here.
1/6 scale – the “GI Joe” scale
Here are figurines that are of the 1:6 scale. The (so called) GI Joe size. I think that they are awesome, but I really don’t have the kind of disposable money to indulge in collecting these figures. I just have to go to Hong Kong (Mong Kok) and look at the figures in display instead.
Gallery
All the following figurines are in 1:6 scale. And we will start with a historical figure.
WWII German Wehrmacht Field Marshal (Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt)
WWII German Wehrmacht Field Marshal (Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt)
And now for some fun…
Ted Theodore Logan
Top Big Names
This world of action figures excites young and grown children for playing and collecting. It also excites me as I just really like to look at these things.
Of course, there are a number of fantastic online resources dedicated to action figures across the internet but it would be impossible to feature all of the great sites in one list. These are 10 of the more exhaustive sites in no particular order.
There is something for everyone on these sites, but do not limit your online experience to just these featured because there are many other online resources in the action figure collecting community.
First lets look at the big American companies that started this hobby…
Hasbro
Action figures simply wouldn’t exist as they do today if not for Hasbro’s influence on the creation of G.I. Joe in the 1960s. Their influence in the industry only grew in the ’80s with the re-envisioned G.I. Joe line and the introduction of Transformers.
On top of the lasting value of its own brands G.I. Joe and Transformers, Hasbro is possibly most recognized for its licensed brands, including Stars Wars and Marvel Comics. Because of these four brands, Hasbro’s action figures make up a huge portion of any modern action figure aisle, and this is all on top of their already dominant toy and board game presence.
Mattel may be best-known for its doll phenomenon Barbie, but their presence in the action figure world has been a growing one. Mattel was primarily known among boys as the manufacturer of Hot Wheels until they stepped onto the action figure scene in a big way in the early 1980s with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He-Man was one of the single most popular figures of that era, and the line thrived for a number of years.
After He-Man’s fall into obscurity, Mattel’s influence in the collector action figure world was rather small until recently, with the revamped Masters of the Universe Classics line and the acquisition of the DC Comics, WWE Wrestling, and Ghostbusters licenses. Mattel is once again a major player in the collector action figure industry, taking up their own fair share of toy aisles.
Bandai may be the biggest toy company of which you’ve never heard. Behind Mattel and Hasbro, Bandai is the world’s third-largest toy manufacturer and has a large presence in the action figure industry as well. The primary difference is that Bandai is a Japanese company, whose influence in the United States is enacted through Bandai America.
Bandai’s single biggest action figure line in the United States is the Power Rangers and its various incarnations. Many of the figures that most collectors ignore as they move through toy aisles are the cartoon and TV show based properties that Bandai thrives on. Despite many brands not taking off with collectors, Bandai’s authority has grown recently thanks to the newly acquired ThunderCats license and its star Lion-O.
From the great Chinese SF Epic; “The Wandering Earth”.
Todd McFarlane’s popularity in the world of comics in the late 1980s and early ’90s helped him launch two major companies, one of which was McFarlane Toys. McFarlane Toys made an impact on the action figure industry which is still being felt in many ways. They were the first to truly make action figures look good. Sculpt and paint techniques were taken to new heights, and that changed the direction action figures took. They finally started to become serious and grown-up.
The one major criticism of McFarlane Toys’ products is that they lacked the standard articulation that kids had become used to. That problem has been remedied with McFarlane’s newest products, as can be seen with the widely-popular Halo line based on the hit video game. McFarlane Toys is not as prominent a company as it once was, though its impact is still felt across toy aisles.
Figures produced by NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) may not be featured heavily in the average big box store’s toy section, but their strictly collector-directed figures feature heavily at toy stores and comic shops, as well as online. Despite NECA being a relative newcomer on the action figure scene, it has become a major player thanks to its video game and movie licensed figures.
The importance of NECA to the industry as a whole can’t be underestimated, as its products bring non-collectors into the action figure world. Video game or movie fans who have never purchased an action figure before are suddenly supporting the industry thanks to the fantastic quality and likenesses NECA’s figures offer.
Hong Kong-based manufacturer Hot Toys makes this list for one very simple reason. They make the absolute best action figures in the world. Although extremely expensive and on a scale (1/6) many collectors don’t collect, the figures Hot Toys produces are the best looking and highest quality on the market.
A vast majority of their figures are based on movie properties, and result in eerily life-like representations of the major characters, down to the real cloth costumes they are wearing. If you have a lot of money to spend and want the very best, look no farther than Hot Toys.
Top 10 Action Figure Websites
01 of 10 Toy News International kirahoffman / Public Domain Toy News International gathers a staggering amount of news from the action figure industry, typically featuring multiple news entries every day. Also, there are tons of galleries and features to enjoy when not reading news updates. Toy News International’s best feature is probably its robust and active forum featuring thousands of collectors discussing various lines, companies, and figures.
02 of 10Seibertron.com Many sites focus on a breadth of lines and brands, Seibertron.com focuses specifically on Transformers. The site features some of the most incredible, far-reaching, and expert opinions on the world of Transformers action figures. There are extensive galleries of every Transformers figure imaginable, a huge forum with an extensive number of collectors, and constant news on every single aspect of the brand. If you are a Transformers fan, there’s no better resource than Seibertron.
03 of 10 Online Action Figure Entertainment Online Action Figure Entertainment maintains a number of interesting features throughout the years, such as editorials, comics, and a strong forum. The reason collectors keep coming back to the site is the variety of reviews posted regularly. The group running the site is made up of long-time collectors with bold opinions on their figures, and they are not shy about sharing them. OAFE reviews are detailed and honest, and there are a lot of them to peruse.
04 of 10Figures.com This website takes advantage of the constant stream of action figure news that some other sites might miss. Every piece of news seems to make its way to the slick homepage, giving buyers and collectors tons of fresh content. There are also active forums, a variety of reviews, and a network of great sites like Yo Joe! and One Sixth Warriors in the Figures.com pantheon.
05 of 10MWCToys.com MWCToys.com goes by many names. It is Captain Toy, it is Michael’s Review of the Week, and it is MWCToys. No matter what you call it, it is the ultimate home of action figure reviews by expert action figure reviewer Michael Crawford. When it comes to reviewing toys, Crawford is an absolute expert in the industry. The photos are incredible, the reviews are well-written, and the number and breadth of toys reviewed are astounding. To top it all off, this is the home of the Poppies, one of the most widely-recognized annual action figure awards.
06 of 10The Toyark The Toyark is a news site with one of the Internet’s most active action figure discussion forums with great photo galleries and related features. News from every genre and brand of action figures is gathered on the Toyark, but collectors seeking more specific sites can enjoy popular stops like HissTank and TransformerWorld2005, a part of the Toyark network.
Saving Private Ryan
Gladiator
07 of 10Pixel-Dan.com The online shopping world for action figures has always been a little behind other hobbies. In particular, video reviews of action figures lagged behind, but Pixel Dan changed all that. This site is the most prominent and professional video reviewer of action figures, and the archive is well maintained. This resource includes news, editorials, and a number of other exciting features.
08 of 10 He-Man.org Everything He-Man and Masters of the Universe can be found here. This site rose up to meet collectors‘ needs. It features everything imaginable that is related to the He-Man universe, including but not limited to, dedicated discussion forums, a plethora of news and features, action figure archives, photo galleries, and a comprehensive encyclopedia. Continue to 9 of 10 below.
09 of 10Action Figure Insider Action Figure Insider is one of the most widely recognized and widely perused action figure sites on the internet. It features every conceivable piece of action figure news, has extremely active and vibrant forums, features well-written editorial pieces, includes a variety of checklists, and has wonderful event and convention photo galleries. Action Figure Insider has been around a while and will likely continue to be one of the best sites about the action figure industry for a long time to come.
10 of 10 The Fwoosh The Fwoosh has a good repository of news about action figures and maintains an active forum for discussion about figures, how to find other forums on a specific topic, and much more. The Fwoosh has its own line of super-poseable action figures and its own YouTube channel for recent action figure news and information.
WWII General Der Fallschirmtruppe
WWII General Der Fallschirmtruppe
Conclusion
Yeah, I think that they look awesome. And while fundamentally they are just really super-detailed dolls, the detail and the appearance is attractive to me. As I have stated earlier, I cannot afford these figurines (or to put it plainer and more accurately) I cannot prioritize these figurines over other items that I cherish. You know like cases of wine, frolics with chicks at KTV’s, and diapers for my youngest child.
So, what I do when I am tired of the “news”, I go out and explore the various sites on the internet. (This used to be known as surfing the net.) And some of the sites that I explore are those of figurines.
Over the years there have been some rather amazing figurines that have been (how can I convey the impact) spectacular in design, detail and appearance. And while I cannot (and it is not my intent) to convince people that these figurines are contemporaneous artistic renderings of popular culture, it is something that I earnestly believe is true.
If you find yourself with some extra time on your hands, a stroll or browse through one of the above websites might be of colorful interest.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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The rewriting of history is a hallmark of tyranny.
And today, just like what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution, “modern” and “progressive” busybodies are active in changing society to embrace their own idea of perfection. And much of that involves erasing history, and rewriting it to fit their ideas of perfection. What ever they might be.
Here is a great story of one such event. Here, a “busybody” is successfully rewriting history to pave the way for more aggressive progressive changes in her realm of control.
Crazies inhabit both sides of the political spectrum. Both are dangerous to the stability that us “normals” need to conduct our lives in peace.
‘Pet Shop Karen’ Calls 911 After Being Told to Put On Her Mask – Towleroad
This past April 22, 2020, was the 131st anniversary of the land run that opened the central part of today’s State of Oklahoma to homesteading by non-Indian settlers. These were lands owned by the U. S. Government and not assigned to any organized territory nor to any Indian nation or reservation. It was the first time and one of a handful of times that land was allocated based on who could get there the quickest. Tent cities with populations in the thousands sprung up in a matter of hours after the guns were fired to start the run. The land runs, particularly the first land run in 1889, constitute an aspect of Oklahoma’s history unmatched by any other state, and, as far as I’m aware, any other region of the world.
For many years, April 22 was marked at elementary schools across Oklahoma by land run reenactments. Kids would come to school dressed in cowboy hats and denim overalls or bonnets and gingham dresses, would line up at the edge of the football field, some pulling Radio Flyers made up as covered wagons. At noon, they would rush across the sideline to drive a stake in the ground, claim a homestead, and eat a picnic lunch.
But this fun, child-friendly introduction to Oklahoma’s unique history is threatened by a handful of busybody killjoys who distort the real story of how the 1889 Land Run territory came to be available for settlement and by the school officials who cave into their demands. I’ve done some digging into the treaties and agreements leading up to the 1889 run, and what strikes me is that the U. S. Government bent over backwards to give the tribes that previously held the land a fair deal.
When I was a third-grader, our land-run reenactment was the culmination of a few weeks of focus on Oklahoma history. We learned to square dance. We studied the map of tribal lands before statehood. We learned about the Trail of Tears. On land-run day, teachers led a re-enactment of the one-room school house, complete with dunce cap. One of the covered wagons, belonging to a young Chip McElroy, was motorized, thanks to the assistance of his dad, Art McElroy, then head of McElroy Manufacturing. KOTV covered the re-enactment that year, and the closing credits of that night’s newscast crawled over footage of one of my classmates relieving himself, pioneer style, against a tree.
All of my own children have participated in land-run re-enactments — at “The Barn” at 109th & Louisville, on Augustine Christian Academy’s grailball field, and at Harn Homestead in Oklahoma City, where Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb signed the homestead claims. It’s a fun event that provides a memorable hook on which to hang a beginning understanding of our state’s unusual origins.
As far as I have been able to find, Adams-Cornell offered no evidence for her claims. The first instinct of a typically risk-averse school bureaucrat, when confronted with a claim of oppression by someone who ticks several intersectional boxes, would be to capitulate immediately, without asking for evidence. To resist in even the mildest terms would bring protests and bad publicity, but immediate compliance would bring praise for virtue-signaling.
There is no question that American Indian nations suffered great oppression and hardship at the hands of the U. S. Government, particularly in the passage and enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. But the guilt that attaches to the actions of Andrew Jackson or, say, gold-hungry north Georgia settlers, doesn’t necessarily attach to the ’89ers who staked claims on the Unassigned Lands. We need to look at the documentation and understand exactly how these lands came to be unassigned.
Indian territory: compiled under the direction of the Hon. John H. Oberly, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by C.A. Maxwell, 1889. Click on the map to view a high-resolution version on the Library of Congress website. The map shows various tribal assignments and cessions, using colored numbers and outlines and a numbered legend in the upper right corner. Significant treaty dates are noted on the map.
The Unassigned Lands were part of the lands purchased from the Creek and Seminole Nations under the 1866 treaties following the Civil War. The two nations had signed treaties with the Confederacy at the start of the war, in violation of their treaties with the U. S. government. Despite official Creek and Seminole support for the rebellion, the Federal government didn’t simply claim their lands as spoils of war. Instead, the U. S. paid the two nations for their western, unoccupied lands, ($975,168 to the Creek Nation, $15,673,385.66 in 2019 dollars; $325,362 to the Seminole Nation, $5,229,283.55 in 2019 dollars, less $100,000 to the Creek Nation for a new reservation), and then settled several Plains tribes on the land, including Pottawatomie, Iowa, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Some of the funds were earmarked for paying reparations to Creek and Seminole citizens who remained loyal to the Union during the war and suffered losses as a result.
When the U. S. wanted to open the Unassigned Lands — lands that had not been reallocated to other Native peoples — for non-Native settlement, they had to get permission from the Creek and Seminole Nations, because the 1866 treaty only allowed for other Native tribes and freedmen to be assigned reservations within the ceded land. In 1885, Congress authorized new negotiations to remove the deed restriction on the land:
Most of the enthusiastic home seekers did not then know of that clause in the treaty of 1866--whereby the surplus lands of both the Creeks and Seminoles were ceded back to they United States for the purpose of "locating other friendly tribes of Indians and freedmen." While no other Indians or freed Negroes were to be located on the land, yet the government claimed that while the cloud was on the title, no white citizen would be permitted to make settlement.
By an Act of March 3, 1885 [48th Congress, Session 2, Chapter 341, Section 8], a commission was appointed to negotiate a new deal with these two tribes whereby the clause as to the "friendly Indians and Freedmen" would be stricken from the treaty of 1866 and the unassigned lands would be, without question, public domain and opened to homestead settlement. The negotiations were concluded and the price agreed upon before the country was opened.
("Colonel Crocker and the Boomer Movement, Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 13, No. 3 (September 1935), p. 275 [21], hyperlink added)
(And who had the land before the Creeks and Seminoles? Nearly all of present-day Oklahoma was part of the land ceded by the 1825 treaty with the Great Osage and Little Osage Nations. The Osage tribes, with a population of about 4,000 in 1807, had villages in western Missouri and a colony along the Grand River that was founded circa 1796 under the leadership of Chief Clermont (namesake of Claremore) and with the encouragement of fur trader Pierre Chouteau.
With the 1825 treaty, they ceded all their claims for a 50-by-150 mile reservation in southern Kansas. A small number of mixed-blood Osage were granted homesteads along the Grand River. The specific territory that became the Unassigned Lands might have been used as hunting grounds — Washington Irving’s party came across Pawnee and Osage hunters and warriors in the region — but don’t appear to have been settled by any tribe.)
At noon on April 22, 1889, guns were fired and settlers began streaming across the border into a region known as the Unassigned Lands, trying to stake a claim on one of the best quarter-sections for homesteading or a good lot in the new townsites along the Santa Fe railroad, like Guthrie, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Moore, and Norman. They were beaten to some of the best land by “Sooners,” who were in the territory illegally, having stolen across the border ahead of the gun, and by federal officials and railroad workers, who were in the territory legally but were legally barred from competing for lots and homesteads. Collectively, these settlers became known as the Eighty-Niners — the original settlers who were renowned for their grit and determination to survive the harsh conditions on the prairie.
A year later, in 1890, Congress and President Benjamin Harrison would approve the Organic Act for Oklahoma Territory, establishing Oklahoma Territory as a non-contiguous collection of the Unassigned Lands, the Public Land Strip (better known as No Man’s Land and the Panhandle), and the tribal lands that had been assigned after the end of the Civil War (e.g. Pawnee, Tonkawa, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie). This excluded the portion of the Cherokee Outlet that had yet to be assigned to another tribe or opened for settlement, and the area that the act would, for the first time, officially designate as Indian Territory: the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes, and the tribal lands overseen by the Quapaw Agency near present-day Miami.
The Cherokee Outlet lands would be added to Oklahoma Territory at a later date. The territorial capitol would be at Guthrie, and the territorial government would be elected by the residents of the former Unassigned Lands and No Man’s Land. Greer County, the land between the north and south forks of the Red River, was also excluded from Oklahoma Territory until the boundary dispute between the State of Texas and the Federal Government could be settled by the courts.
The Organic Act makes references to agreements made with the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation, ratified by Congress on March 1, 1889, and with the Seminole Nation, ratified by Congress on March 16, 1889. The western lands that the two nations had ceded to the United States in the post-Civil War treaties of 1866 could only be occupied by peaceful Indian tribes. In order to open the lands to non-Indian settlement, the government had to negotiate an additional treaty with the Creeks and the Seminoles, which included a significant amount of money.
Pursuant to the 1889 agreement, the US made an immediate payment to the Muscogee Creek Nation $280,857.10, and held an additional $2,000,000 in a trust account at 5% annual interest, to be paid to the tribe semi-annually — $50,000 every six months, in addition to the government’s existing financial obligations under earlier treaties. That’s an immediate payment of $7,760,264.84 in 2019 dollars, and a semi-annual payment of $1,381,532.61. An 1890 tribal census counted 14,800 Creeks. These interest rates were set at 5% at a time when the economy was deflating — prices declined by 3.16% in 1889. In the 18 years between 1889 and statehood in 1907, prices rose only by 2.17%
The Seminoles received $412,942.20 immediately, and an additional $1,500,000 in a trust account at 5% annual interest — $37,500 every six months. In 2019 dollars, that’s $11,409,862.30 immediately and $1,036,149.46 every six months. The 1890 census counted 2,427 Seminoles.
Critics may argue with the amount of money that was paid, or the way in which it was paid. It’s fair to say that the Creeks and Seminoles were not in a strong negotiating position after the Civil War or in 1889, but, nevertheless, the U. S. Government didn’t simply say, like Darth Vader, “I am altering the deal; pray I don’t alter it any further.” If the U. S. Government had simply forced its will without compensation — claiming the land as spoils of war and later modifying its deed restrictions — who would have stopped it? Instead, whether from moral convictions or from concern for its reputation for treaty fidelity in the wider world, the U. S. Government negotiated and paid for the changes it sought.
The result was an unoccupied region of two million acres to which the U. S. Government had clear legal and moral title, ready for settlement by Americans who were desperate for land to farm.
NOTE: I started writing this in April of 2019, hoping to finish in time for that year’s anniversary of the 1889 Land run, but it has been sitting in draft since that time. I had in mind to delve deeper into some details, but at this point, I simply want to publish what I have, as I find I keep referring to the information in online discussions.
Conclusion
It is so easy for us to politicize everything. The progressives are bad, and the traditional conservatives are good, and all that “rot”. But the fact is that most people are just trying to live life in the best way that they know how, and in America today there are no “speed brakes on the roller coaster”. No one is reining in the crazies.
Busybodies are crazies. They are people with serious mental illnesses and they tend to be unemployed because they simply are unable to function within society. They are on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
Progressive crazies tend to be SJW types.
Conservative crazies tend to be neocons.
This is just another story of a busybody, and just because no one is reporting on their lunacy, doesn’t mean that it isn’t going on. It is, and it’s “off the rails” out of control. As this simple article illustrates.
In this case, what’s their disconnect? WTF? Don’t they have better things to do with their time?
Apparently not.
And in our modern contemporaneous life please recognize that the “news” does not report events. They try to manipulate. And much of what is going on all around you is indeed all sorts of social re-engineering by dangerously crazy and malevolent individuals.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Ok. The fact is that I have numerous avenues funneling small amounts of money to pay for my retirement, and little pleasures in life. I guess that life has taught me that you just cannot rely on one source of income. But rather, you need to have a lot of tiny sources of income. The more, the better.
But you know, it wasn’t always like this.
All my life I was told that if I got a job working for a “good company” that I would be set for life. That I could retire with a pension when I hit my middle 40’s and would have a great life with all my medical needs taken cared for.
It did not happen.
My life has been a constant struggle. And on the employment scene, it’s been a “gig economy” long before the rest of society caught up with that reality.
Over the years, I have tried to set up various mechanisms for earning and making money. Most of the time, however, I had (out of necessity) taken jobs working for others. Most of which didn’t deserve me. Today, I have a combination of low-income venues that provide a steady income. It’s not what you read on the internet or see in Hollywood. It’s just enough for a comfortable life, but there are no Maybach or Ferrari’s in my life, thank you.
One of the mechanisms that I use to earn a few bucks is to incorporate a few vending machines to my income stream. And I do mean incorporate. You add these elements of extra work to your daily routine, and you include the revenue income into the family budget for the wife to handle.
It’s a matter of persistence and trial and error. Like anything else, you invest some money, and you learn how things works by serving the machines. Many locations are terrible. Some locations change and cause upsets, and every now and then you “hit a pot of gold”. Don’t poo-poo this.
In my mind anything that puts some extra money in your wallet is something deserving of consideration. Anything.
Here’s a pretty good article on this subject.
The following article is titled “The economics of vending machines”, written by Zachary Crockett | @zzcrockett October 3, 2020. It was edited to fit this venue. All credit to the original author.
The economics of vending machines
The pandemic has boosted interest in vending machine ownership. But just how lucrative is the business? We spoke to 20+ operators to find out.
Three months ago, Jalea Pippens — a phlebotomist at St. John Hospital in Detroit — had her hours cut.
In the midst of the pandemic, the 23-year-old found herself in dire need of a second income stream. One night, while scrolling through search results for “ways to make extra money,” she came across vending machines.
The daily minutiae of owning a vending machine seemed a bit dull: buying bulk candy at Sam’s Club, stocking machines, collecting weathered bills and buckets of coins. But Pippens saw an opportunity to be her own boss.
She partnered up with her boyfriend and another business partner, bought a vending machine on Facebook Marketplace for $1.6k, and plunked it down at a local auto parts store, where it now grosses $400 per month.
“I’d never really thought about vending machines,” she tells The Hustle. “I didn’t even know you could own one.”
Pippens is one of thousands of individual operators who make up the bulk of the vending machine ecosystem.
During the pandemic, the relatively low barrier of entry has attracted a new generation of vending machine entrepreneurs — schoolteachers, nurses, mechanics, students — who measure profits in $1 bills and utilize new technologies to monitor and scale their operations.
But are vending machines really a viable side hustle? How much does the average machine bring in? And what does the job entail?
To find out, The Hustle surveyed and interviewed 20+ vending machine operators all over America.
A glimpse at the market
It is estimated that roughly ⅓ of the world’s ~15m vending machines are located in the US.
Of these 5m US-based vending machines, ~2m are currently in operation, collectively bringing in $7.4B in annual revenue for those who own them. This means that the average American adult spends ~$35 per year on vending machine items.
What makes the vending industry truly unique is its stratification: The landscape is composed of thousands of small-time independent operators — and no single entity owns >5% of the market.
(Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Some big corporations, like Pepsi and Coca-Cola, own their own arsenal of machines. But vending requires so many moving parts and brings in such slim profits per machine that it’s better suited for smaller operators who can minimize overhead costs.
According to a 2020 IBISWorld report, the nation’s 2m in-use machines are owned by 17.6k small businesses, the vast majority of which employ just a few people.
The vending industry is broad and encompasses everything from $0.50 gumballs to — well:
Oddities aside, the majority of vending machines (72.4%) house standard snacks and beverages — what are known as “full-line” machines in vending parlance.
Relatively low startup costs: An operator can find a decent machine and buy inventory for <$2k.
Scalability: Early revenue can be reinvested in expansion to leverage economies of scale.
A largely passive routine: Restocking and cash collection can be reduced to a few times per month.
A flexible schedule: Like the gig economy, vending allows operators to set their own hours.
But starting out in the business comes with its share of hurdles — the first of which is finding the right machine.
A new machine straight from a manufacturer can run from $3k to $8k+ — though used machines can be purchased on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for as little as $300.
As Paul Valdez, a 39-year-old Miami operator, learned, those machines often end up being more trouble than they’re worth.
“I bought 4 machines on Craigslist for cheap and fixed them,” he tells The Hustle, “but they were all so crappy and old that no business wanted them.”
Once an operator like Valdez has secured the right machine, the next obstacle is finding a quality home for it.
Location can make or break a machine’s success — and finding a good one is often a steep challenge for people who are new to the business.
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
Many of the best locations — places with heavy foot traffic, or large worker populations — are already saturated with machines.
Some owners we talked to have to make 100+ calls before landing a decent location. In the end, they often end up paying the owner a commission of 10%-25% of gross sales to drive home the deal.
Other owners resort to buying pre-established “routes” — machines that are already placed on-site somewhere — or attempt to knock out existing operators by offering a better service.
“It can be dog-eat-dog,” says Alyssa Howard, a 28-year-old who owns 22 snack machines in Colorado. “You have to treat it as a zero-sum game.”
The reason for this competition is simple: There is a tremendous variance in how much revenue a machine can bring in, based on where it is.
Good margins, small volumes
We surveyed 23 vending machine owners with various-sized operations and found that the average operator in our sample owned 13 machines that gross $309 per machine per month.
But self-reported revenue per machine per month ranged from just $75 to $650.
Note: This data comes from a survey of 23 operators and isn’t meant to be definitive; some vending machines make far less than the figures listed here; others make far more. (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Most vendors we spoke with noted big differences in revenue across their own machines.
“I have one machine that does $25 every 2 weeks, and another that does $600,” says Everett Brown, a 32-year-old Lyft driver from Minneapolis who vends part-time. “Every location is different; some places suck, and others are gold mines.”
Jaime Ibanez got into vending in 2018. Fresh out of high school, he dropped $2.5k — about half his savings — on a refurbished snack machine and found a home for it at a local barbershop in Dallas.
Today, he owns 35 machines that gross $10k in revenue every month. His best location, a hotel, earns him $2.8k; his worst sometimes only sees $200.
And remember: these figures are pre-expenses. The business comes with its share of overhead costs.
For starters, ~50% of revenue goes toward the cost of items that go in the machines.
Many operators buy their wares in bulk at Sam’s Club and Costco and sell them for roughly 2x the price they paid. Here’s a look at how a typical vending machine’s margins might look by item:
(Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Among the other operating costs reported by vending machine owners:
General liability insurance (~$500/yr for <$100k in annual sales)
Commissions paid to locations (5-25% of revenue)
Transaction fees for card purchases (~5-6%)
Card reader analytics fees ($10/mo)
Storage space for unused machines (~$100/mo)
Gas and transportation ($50-$100/mo)
Taxes (10-37% of adjusted gross income)
Routine maintenance and vandalism repairs ($50-$250/yr)
Even something like logistics can be a burden: Vending machines are extraordinarily heavy — 600-800 lbs. — and often require special equipment to pick up and move.
All costs considered, an operator who makes $5k per month in revenue might take home something like $2k in profit.
To make vending work as a full-time gig, an operator typically must implement economies of scale, building the business up to dozens of machines that collectively generate a livable wage.
Operators like Ibanez are constantly reinvesting in expansion.
Ibanez with a few of his 35 vending machines in Dallas (via Jaime Ibanez)
The biggest input cost of all — the amount of time a vendor spends on-site — has been minimized by technology in recent times.
“I can visit all my machines in 2 days and not have to go back for 2 weeks,” says Ibanez.
Twenty years ago, operators had to drive to each machine on a semi-daily basis and jot down the items they needed by hand. Today, telemetry tools have largely allowed newcomers to operate remotely.
Roughly 70% of today’s vendors use some form of tech (card readers, apps, iPads) to monitor sales and inventory in real-time.
On a typical site visit day, Ibanez will get up at 6am, check his apps for inventory, and load up on his bestsellers — Honey Buns, M&M’s, and Snickers — at Sam’s Club. After restocking, collecting money, and doing an occasional repair, he’s home by 4pm.
This seemingly dull routine has piqued the interest of hundreds of thousands of young entrepreneurs on the Internet.
Ibanez’s YouTube channel, which chronicles his life as a vendor, boasts 362k subscribers and now earns more than his machines.
“People love to see the stacks of cash getting pulled out,” he says.
But something else is driving this fascination: the allure of a semi-passive income has led to a spike in vending during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 boom
Barry and Lori Strickland, a married couple in San Diego, run The Vending Mentors, an educational resource that offers an online course ($297) and ongoing consulting services ($97/mo) for new vendors.
Their journey into vending began back in 1989, when Barry — then a 30-year-old special education teacher — bought a few machines to make extra income during the summer.
Eventually, the couple grew the business to 250 machines and $500k in annual revenue before selling it.
Lory and Barry Strickland have seen an uptick in their vending machine course during the pandemic (Barry and Lory Strickland)
Since the pandemic, the Stricklands say they’ve seen a huge uptick in interest. This year, 200 vendors have signed up for their course.
“A lot of blue-collar workers are realizing their jobs are not as secure as they thought they were,” says Mr. Strickland. “We’re getting tons of interest from people who lost their jobs, or had hours cut, and are turning to vending to take things into their own hands.”
Mr. Strickland says that most vendors he knows have seen a 10-50% dip in revenue this year due to the stressors of the pandemic.
Radical shifts in consumer behavior, physical interaction, and health guidelines have shifted the vending landscape. Vendors who rely on schools have been hit especially hard; other locations, like nursing homes, have continued to perform well.
Despite the shakeup, Mr. Strickland maintains the market is ripe for entry.
“Vending machines are relatively safe compared to food prep — there isn’t as much human contact,” he says. “It’s also a business that a lot of people consider to be recession-proof.”
In particular, the Stricklands have noticed an uptick in Black and Latino vending machine owners — a trend they attribute to accessibility and relatively low startup costs.
VendingNation, a popular private Facebook group for new venders, has grown from 6k to 14.5k members since January — a 142% increase — and many of the new members are from underrepresented groups.
Jalea Pippens with a new machine — one of 15 she co-manages with her partners, Steven Lee and Gabriel McKinnon, in Detroit (Jalea Pippens)
Among them is Jalea Pippens, the phlebotomist from Detroit.
After buying her first machine 3 months ago, she launched Literally Lit Vending with her boyfriend (a nurse), and his best friend.
“The pandemic made us into entrepreneurs,” she says.
Over the past 3 months, Literally Lit has grown to encompass 15 machines all over Metro Detroit. Recently, they landed their biggest deal yet: 5 machines at a steel manufacturing warehouse.
Collectively, the machines now bring in $4k in monthly revenue — most of which is being reinvested into the company.
“When I used to see a vending machine at the hospital, I’d spend at least $5,” she says. “Now I’m on the other side, collecting the bills.”
Conclusion
Yes. I know. I can (personally) make great money with my knowledge and experience and uniqueness. After all, I am a Rocket Scientist, who speaks multiple languages and who lives smack dab in the middle of manufacturing central. In fact, I have interviewed for positions that pretty much were talking about paying me about ten times that of a commercial airline pilot. Which is a lot of money. A lot of fucking money.
But…
Is that all there is?
Money.
What about being your own boss? Having a relaxed lifestyle? Eating fine food, drinking wine and cavorting with pretty girls?
What about those things?
What about “cavoring around”?
What about spending time with your children? Not being stressed out? Walking out in the early morning and setting down to your daily routine without your phone ringing off the hook?
What about those things?
We all have to make a determination on what our life is to be, and we all need to make an individualized determination of how that will manifest. For me, it is the following…
A membership in a community.
Multiple sources of income that I control.
Doing the the kind of work that I love.
Meeting up with interesting people.
Living in a beautiful location.
Eating and drinking good delicious food.
Surrounded with love.
I suggest to the reader to forget about all that Hollywood nonsense.
Think small. Not large.
Think many avenues of income, not one.
Think many friendships and relationships. Not a few.
Think about having a lot of free time, not a little.
And you all might want to consider vending machines.
It will not make you rich. But it will pay for by-weekly steaks, pot roasts, and fine delicious sea food. Not to mention cases of fine delicious wine, and an unlimited amount of cigars.
Just a thought. You all.
Think small. Think community. Think skill. Think resources and relationships. Think about participation. Think about contribution.
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
The American society has devolved into a heartless “dog eat dog” world where it is every person for themselves. I have blamed the progressive “improvements” on this trend, but in truth there are many reasons, and many causes. And a simple black and white card-board cutout will not provide all the answers.
When I see American women today, I feel sad.
It’s almost like they are trying to perpetually trying to stay in their 20’s. In looks. In actions. In dating. In relationships. In everything.
They are not moving on. They are not considering families, generational growth. Growth as a person, and growth in spiritual, mental and emotional venues. They are somehow entranced in this idea of a perpetual “Springtime”, and not looking at the beauty of Summer, Fall and Winter.
There’s a lot that I can say on this level and on this subject, but as a man I am restricted in speaking about what I know. And what I know is this… As a man, you don’t actually start living life until you pass your 50’s. It is there when you really come into your own.
Now…
That’s for men.
For women, it’s different.
Women go through stages of growth. And I find that the woman in her 30’s and 40’s much more “rounded out” and healthier (emotionally and physically) when they were younger in their 20’s. And if they take care of themselves, maintain an active (face to face) social life, can extend this attribute (characteristic) up and into their very senior years.
But that is just me, and a 20-year old won’t have any understanding what I am talking about.
Sigh.
Anyways, there’s a bunch of articles out there about women who have foregone raising a family and having long term relationships in favor of a career or a life of eternal flings. These are sad people. They are lonely, shallow and fucked up in the head.
People, it’s our relationships with each other that enables us to grow.
You don’t have relationships…
…you don’t grow.
Here’s a good article titled “She needs more men!” and posted way back in November 18, 2012 by Dalrock. It is reprinted as found, but modified to fit this venue. I included the pictures of drag-lines for nostalgic purposes, but note that all credit to the original author.
Badger writes about a woman at a dinner party who recently tried to enlist him in her friend’s quest to keep her dating hopper filled with new men:
“Do you have any normal friends for my friend to date?”
Vaguely confused by the hasty presumption that I was a dating sourcer, but detecting an opportunity for a silent manosphere laugh, I replied “you’d have to tell me more.”
“Well, she’s been dating guys from OKCupid and says she just can’t find any normal guys there.”
Now I was irked. It would have been one thing if she said her friend worked long hours with all women and just wasn’t meeting men, or had had trouble getting back on the carousel horse after a breakup.
But she’s swimming in men and is striking out wildly.
And I happen to know that a significant portion of the young men in my city are on OKCupid, so I know there’s a few good fish in that pond.
As Badger points out, the woman is presuming quite a lot in expecting a stranger to fix her friend’s dysfunctional dating strategy:
The fact that she saw me as a possible conduit for her issue of the day smacked of a combination of megalomania and an appeal to the male instinct for problem-solving – “maybe you can help me fix this!”
Expecting me to leap into the coat closet and re-emerge in my Captain Save-A-Ho suit, ready to line up cannon fodder for her chica amiga who couldn’t generate her own romantic sales leads.
What strikes me even more is the widespread denial of the larger issue. Once a woman sets out with a strategy other than one and done marriage, she all too often becomes a ravenous beast with a need to constantly fill her hopper with more men.
Most of these men will be either outright rejected or (worse) added to her stable of beta orbiters.
Strip mining for men.
Strip mining machines are typically stuck for life in the very pits they create. While younger prospectors are starting up in rich ground, as a strip miner for men ages she ends up forever reprocessing less and less promising tailings.
Strip mining for men. A drag-line.
Eventually nearly all of the most promising ore has been lost forever in an unintended environmental impact or has been snapped up by more astute miners.
Even if she does come across a promising nugget, the years and hard mining operations have taken their toll; her battered sluice box can no longer even slow down most nuggets, let alone retain them.
This is why if you come across a site focused on single women (or single mothers), there is a never ending obsession with feeding the hopper. More men. More men. Must find more men. Anyone and everyone is enlisted in the obsessive task of devouring through mountains of men in an attempt to relive the glory days of their early mining experience.
To be fair, the constant need for new romantic prospects isn’t limited just to choice addicted women in today’s Sexual Marketplace (SMP).
Those men who find themselves repeatedly in the first 2-3 stages of the strip mining operation have little choice but to look for new hoppers to throw themselves into.
Some men have figured out the business of dealing with strip miners, and deliberately set out to play the role of hookup, fling, and (as part of a soft harem strategy) boyfriend. A much larger group of men unwittingly end up playing the role of forever scraped aside top soil, beta orbiter, and the sucker who chivalrously pays for dates with the miner while she has sex with rockbanddrummer for free.
But either way there is a critical qualitative difference. Those men who are setting out for a life of sexual variety are very honest about the moral and practical reality of their choice and the continuing need for new ore in the hopper.
They aren’t pretending to be seeking the one, and therefore don’t need to lie to themselves and others about the nature of their operations.
As a result, they are able to come up with effective strategies to keep operational costs down and efficiently retain as much of what they are seeking for as long as possible.
It is worth noting that the entire process is often mistaken for something more quaint due to the denial at the core of the operation. Strip miners work hard to associate themselves with the romantic image of their grandmothers and even sisters who spent a few years in their late teens and early twenties carefully panning for a husband.
Finding a proper husband is no small task, and many women still quietly take this seriously.
They understand that devouring mountains is counterproductive, and instead work to locate rich areas to prospect and carefully sift to avoid discarding the prize or falling for the flash of fools gold.
They don’t attract the attention of the much more visible strip miners because they aren’t devouring mountains, and when they think they have found a good prospect they aren’t about to tip their hand to other miners.
Wise prospectors also understand the vital importance of holding on to their gold once they find it.
Conclusion
It’s a cute story and great narrative about dating.
All men, who have endured a divorce and then were thrust back into the later-life dating scene, has experienced these kinds of gals. Oh not everyone is out there strip-mining for men. Maybe only one in ten. But they are out there.
And it is sad.
In certain ways it’s like the little kid that that uses up a box of tissue to clean his nose. One after the other. Pull out, wipe, and then discard. Over and over again. Not paying attention that the box is running out and the fresh clean tissues are all used up.
Nothing is better in the world than having relationships.
That is with men, with women, with associates, and with colleagues. Relationships are what adds color to our lives and depth to our souls.
I, for one, have a very large and healthy collection of friendships. It was one of the things that I set out to do when I moved to China. It turns out that most people like food, many like to drink and a large percentage love music and playing around. Sure beats staring into a blue glow of a computer monitor late at night.
Men, women, we all need each other.
Don’t be a lone-wolf. Be part of something bigger.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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One of the things that I truly appreciate is how we all somehow come up with solutions to problems. Some of those solutions are truly amazing and noteworthy. As (for example) what Eddie Van Halen did to his guitar when he couldn’t afford a wah-wah petal. And as a tinkerer, and inventor, I just cannot help but be attracted to DIY articles and stories of making… stuff and things.
Here’s an interesting article about narco-submarines. These are miniature submarines that are used to transport contraband (illegal to own objects) to a hungry clientele behind the United States grand wall of isolation. We read about these vehicles and objects from time to time, but this is the first article that I have come across that had some real depth to it.
The following article is titled “Ghost Gliders: Spanish Narco-Submarines” written by H I Sutton, on Mon, 08/31/2020 – 7:38pm. It came from the Small Wars Journal. All credit to the author. Please note that it was reproduced pretty much intact with only minor editing to fit this venue.
Ghost Gliders: Spanish Narco-Submarines
By H I Sutton
We tend to think of (so-called) narco-submarines as a Latin American phenomenon.
Properly speaking they are LPVs (Low Profile Vessels); alternatively SPSS (Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible—I do not use this term).
Locally in Latin America they are known as ‘narcosubmarinos’ or ‘semisumergibles.’ Now we have another Spanish name to add to the list, ‘planeadora fantasma,’ meaning ‘Ghost Glider.’
This is because narco-submarines are not confined to the Americas. Similar methods being used elsewhere, most noticeably in Spain.
The most widely reported Spanish narco-submarine (and I use this colloquial term unapologetically), was found on 24 November 2019 on the Galician coast. The 72 feet long craft was large and carried over 3 tons of narcotics, but it was otherwise like the ones found in the Pacific or Caribbean.
In contrast, the one found in the same area on 13 August 2006 was completely unique. And the same can be said of the latest ‘Ghost Glider,’ found on 27 August 2020. The basic difference is that the November 2019 boat was built in Latin America while the other two were built in Spain.
Different ideas, conditions and modus operandi have led to different approaches in design.
Ghost Glider designs.
Three ‘Types’ of Spanish Narco-Submaries: ‘Vigo’ FSV, ‘Transatlantic’ and LPV, ‘Ghost Glider’ LPV/GFV. Source: H I Sutton, 2020.
2006 Vigo Narco-submarine
An elaborate artisan submarine was found abandoned off Spain’s Galician coast near Vigo on 13 August 2006…
2006 Vigo Narco-submarine
This is about the time that narco-submarines, as we would recognize them today, were beginning to be interdicted in Latin America.
It was a FSV (fully submersible vessel), 36ft (11 meters) long and 6.5ft (2 meters) across. And unlike LPVs, was able to fully submerge, down to a depth of about 10ft (3 meters).
Underwater it was powered by batteries driving two electric motors.
And it had over 1,000 gallons of fuel for surface running. It was estimated to be capable to carrying about 1 ton of cargo. Other aspects were also relatively advanced, including a folding snorkel mast and radar antenna.
Despite its sophistication there is no suggestion that this tiny craft was suitable for transatlantic voyages. More likely it was intended to rendezvous with another ship offshore, pick up the drugs and transport them back to the Spanish shore.
2019 Narco-Submarine
A regular LPV of the style we see in Latin America.
There is compelling evidence that this was designed by the same master boat builder who is responsible for several others. Design details, such as a small splitter plate ahead of the cockpit windows and the V-shaped hull, create a ‘designer’s fingerprint’. This allows us to tie together multiple incidents.
2019 Narco-Submarine
The first LPV from this designer was interdicted by the Colombian Navy on 3 January 2019. Since then at least four more have been found, the most recent being found in its jungle boat yard on 6 August 2020. This last one was unusually large, being about 100 feet (30 meters) long. In fact all of the LPVs attributed to this unknown master boat builder stand out against their peers.
But we should not make too much of the particular designer. If the 2019 narco-submarine could cross the Atlantic, virtually any large LPV could. In overall terms it was not remarkable. This should be more alarming to Law Enforcement than if it was in some way special.
Current thinking, based on publicly available information, is that it was built in the Colombian jungle near the inland border with Brazil. It then sailed all the way down the Amazon to the coast before setting off across the Atlantic. It went via the Azores before heading towards Galicia.
planeadora fantasma
This latest craft sits between the go-fast vessel (GFV) category and LPVs.
Again, it is a unique design unlike those seen in Latin America. It takes a power boat hull, adds a hard RIB collar and then a built-up covered superstructure. It is not currently—based on public sources—possible to say how low it sat in the water. Possibly the collar was part of a ballast system. However we can say that it was intended to avoid detection, hence ‘ghost glider’. It was painted in a way that appears intended to deceive any observers.
Ghost Glider; planeadora fantasma.
The term ‘planeadora’ refers to a speed boat, and ‘planeadora fantasma’ has previously been used to describe the custom go-fast vessels also used off Spain. These craft are often RIBs and several have been specially modified for the task. Most famously the massive 59ft (18 m) seven engine ‘Monstruo’ stopped in 2009.
This latest vessel is about 39 ft (12 meters) long and could possibly carry a few tons of cocaine. The extensive grab rails and aft-sloping cargo hatch suggest that it is designed to be loaded at sea, which makes sense. So like the 2006 Vigo submarine, it is likely intended to meet other ships offshore and then bring the drugs ashore.
It could easy be put into the GFV category instead. But its elaborate construction and emphasis on deception (as opposed to raw speed) makes a strong case for it being a narco-submarine. It is certainly not just a typical GFV.
Going Transatlantic
The Spanish narco-submarine traffic appears to be centered, on Galician drug gangs. This may be skewed by reported incidents, but all three have been discovered in Galicia in the North of Spain. Portugal, Ireland, France and the United Kingdom also appear to be logical landing points.
Narco Sub.
My suggestion is that the Cape Verde Islands and Azores are stopping off points for transatlantic narco-submarines. They likely meet supply vessels in the area.
ACK 3, a Spanish company specializing in defense, intelligence and security consulting which advises European and Latin American military and law enforcement units suggests that language may be a factor. Brazilian crews can communicate with the local population on these islands using Portuguese.
Some of the transatlantic narco-subs may transship their cargo to other vessels along the way. Trawlers operating out of Spain seem the most obvious candidates. But I have not seen any information in the public domain to substantiate this theory. Another possibility is that the drugs are transferred to large cargo vessels heading to Northern Europe or even to North America.
These vessels may be coming from a low-risk port so not be tainted in the way that a cargo ship crossing from Latin America might be.
Interception of a smuggling vessel.
So we can speculate that a Latin American built LPV could set off from Brazil (or Venezuela, Suriname or Guyana) and rendezvouses with a cargo ship off Cape Verde or the Azores. The cargo would be transshipped and the cargo vessel (or fishing vessel) heads north towards Europe. Off the Portuguese or Spanish coast, while still out at sea, it is met by a ‘ghost glider’ like the one seized in August 2020. The transshipping can occur at night, and the drugs are landed in a remote beach in Galicia. Local drugs gangs may only be able to control access to the landing point for a few hours. So some of the drugs may be dropped in pre-determined lurks awaiting retrieval by scuba divers at a later time.
Outlook
It seems that it is now a case of when, rather than if, another transatlantic narco- submarine appears. And even if none are interdicted, it seems a sure bet that they are out there. And together with ‘ghost gliders’ and less exotic means, drugs trafficking organizations are still able to land their products on European shores.
The narco-submarine model for cocaine trafficking presents European law enforcement with a number of challenges. Detection, tracking and interdiction may all be different compared to the Pacific and Caribbean. And the vast expanse of ocean, often in harsh weather, may stretch existing patrol forces; however, SIGINT, UAVs and new satellite technology such as the Hawkeye 360 constellation may prove powerful tools.
Conclusion
Nations and governments use “vices” to control the population. When they ban or tax, or regulate things, people find ways to engage in their vices without government interference. While dug abuse is a big problem in America, it’s not a problem in areas that don’t ban the drugs.
Mexico doesn’t have half the drug problem that America has, but it doesn’t have the same laws either. The same is true for China. Yes, smoking marijuana is seriously against the law, but that is pretty much the only thing that is. You can get just about any medication over the counter without a doctor’s prescription and there just isn’t a serious drug abuse problem there.
Anyways…
I am not advocating the use of drugs.
What I am saying is that governments use up a ton load of money, personnel and resources trying to ban things. While, instead they should be dealing with those individuals who have a physiological problem with drugs. You go after the problem. Not the symptoms.
The world needs to start looking at things in new ways with new “eyes”.
The old ways are failing left and right. The solution to the problems that ails the world isn’t more bans, regulations and restrictions, but rather a complete loss of control by the few at the PTB level.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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"The US federal budget is on an unsustainable path, has been for some time. But this is not the time to give priority to those concerns."
- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
The world is changing. As I have covered in other posts, the technology that mankind is adopting is causing a great deal of social change. But not like one would expect. It’s not just using a smart phone instead of a rotary dial up phone. It’s not just using a Car Ride APP instead of hailing a taxi. It’s more than that…
It is disrupting many “imprisonment” and “stratification” schemes. Schemes that have become so ingrained into society that we (mistakenly) believe that they are a fundamental part of what our society is.
A stratification scheme is one in which a sentience (or a way of thinking and acting) forces upon society a special system of control. It is a system where they have advantage over other groups of people. And they control the access to this system. They let some people in, and leave others out. It's an exclusive system. As the saying goes in America "they control what will happen, and you ain't a part of it".
The caste system in India is a good example of this. But there are many others.
Most especially in America.
Think of any system where you need to go through a "gauntlet of approvals" to get something done. And then discover that the ones who "had it easy", and did not need to fight through that gauntlet (such as the wealthy and the "well connected") were sitting here smug when you finally (after many hoop jumps) arrived. These systems have saturated America today.
It is at a point that a "diversity" movement has organized to give others (who normally are restricted from entering these stratified societies) a chance to "break through" those invisible "glass walls".
These schemes…
… such as the Banking System, and the University System, and the Media System are all under stress and being replaced. (There are many others, such as the Judicial system, the Professional Registration System, and the Internet Paywall systems.) These schemes developed over time as a way for one group of people to have benefit over others. It was a way to control others (not overtly) but through quiet manipulation.
However, they point to some other nation. A nation that they read about in the “news”, and repeat loudly “America is the best nation on the earth!”. “America has problems” they retort, but it is not as bad as the rest of the world.
How do they know this mantra?
The American “news” media told them. That’s how.
Just stay in your little prison you mindless, deplorable debit serfs. Be content with your pathetic way of life. And work! Work! Work! If not, then the system will keep you so drugged up that you will be incapable of rising up and rebelling.
True, to some degree, more or less, the rest of the world engages in petty corruption. A cup of tea here, a few dollars there. However, in America, it is institutionalized and legalized at an enormous wholesale level. All by serious long-time crooks and con-artists.
The Presidential election of 2016 was a choice between two "mafia" bosses;
[1] Democrat - The Clinton Crime Syndicate. Hillary Clinton.
[2] Republican - A New York Casino Owner - Donald Trump.
But, people fought back…
The control of the media was the first battle.
Seemingly overnight, in the 1990’s, all sorts of alternatives to the mainstream media popped up. And the PTB were ending up exhausted trying to fright this “wack a mole” phenomenon. But they eventually won. The alternative media tended to cluster in groups by political extremes. So the PTB, and their government bodies, just simply ended up controlling the multiple media outlets. They now control the narratives for all Alt-Left, Alt-Right, and Mainstream media. And, the battle is not over. They are tightening their control over this medium in all sorts of ways.
The control over who works and who doesn’t is controlled by “the University System”. Over time, now a days, almost all positions except for semi-skilled and unskilled work requires a university degree. It’s pretty bad when a receptionist position needs to have a four year college education to work.
Well, that system is starting to fracture and crash.
And as I see it, it is going down in flames, and very little in the way of alternatives (in America) are replacing it. Overseas, in Europe and China, it’s a completely different matter. I think that I will cover this issue later on in another post, as it is interesting, and very complex.
And the control of the money / Banks is what I just talked about in my latest post. The systems have been set up to permit a small number of people great control over the lives of the rest of us, and it has resulted in ridiculous levels of wealth and poverty. And other nations (better run, stronger, and more capable) are coming up with solutions. Solutions complete with armed police to prevent corruption and abuse of the system.
Key to these new replacements for the paper-backed (not gold backed) banking industry is something called Cryptocurrency.
The following is a complete reprint of the article titled “What is Cryptocurrency?” written by Adam Levy (TMFnCaffeine) on Mar 11, 2018. It was edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
Everything you need to know about this new form of electronic cash.
Cryptocurrency went mainstream in 2017 as the price of bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, soared over 13-fold during the year.
It’s often called “digital gold,” as some of the characteristics of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are similar to the precious metal often used as a store of value. But that comparison doesn’t do it justice.
Cryptocurrency is an electronic cash system that doesn’t rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments.
That definition might seem downright cryptographic right now, but by the end of this overview, you won’t need a decryption key to understand crypto.
Today we’ll cover:
The creation of bitcoin and the blockchain, the underlying technology of all decentralized cryptocurrency.
How the blockchain solves the problems associated with prior virtual currencies.
How cryptocurrency transactions work without central banks.
The function of cryptocurrency “miners.”
How to buy cryptocurrency.
The early history of cryptocurrency
In 2009, a programmer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin, the first ever cryptocurrency. Satoshi also created the blockchain technology, which makes all decentralized cryptocurrencies possible.
The blockchain was created as a solution to the “double-spending problem,” which arises in virtual currencies because it’s easy to duplicate digital information. A person could make a copy of his or her digital currency information and send both the original and the copy to separate parties.
Sort of like using a Xerox machine to make extra stacks of dollar bills.
Before bitcoin and blockchain, virtual currency relied on trusted third parties to prevent double spending. But Satoshi wanted to develop a decentralized currency, which meant finding a way for the network of bitcoin users to verify transactions.
“The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work,” Satoshi wrote in the abstract of the white paper announcing bitcoin.
This was the earliest description of the blockchain.
Why is it called a blockchain?
A block is a collection of transaction data on the cryptocurrency network.
It basically says Person A sent this much to Person B.
The Block-Chain Process.
As well as saying Person X sent this much to Person Y.
In a way, it is like the sales receipt that the chick at Burger King gives you when you buy a #1 Whopper Meal.
It also includes important information that allows the rest of the network to verify the validity of the block — such as the solution to a complex math problem — called a proof-of-work. While the math problem is hard to solve, it’s very easy for others to verify a valid solution. New blocks cannot be amended to the blockchain without a valid solution.
A block also includes a reference to the block that immediately precedes it. Thus, the blocks create a chain linking one to another through those references.
A “block chain” is created by linking all the blocks together.
The reference to the preceding block is accomplished through something called a cryptographic hash function. A hash function takes a set of data and maps it to a string of letters and numbers called a digest. If anything in the data changes, the resulting hash digest will change as well.
Chaining blocks together by using a hash function to reference the preceding block adds a great level of security to the system. To change a block in the ledger, a hacker would have to reproduce the entire chain of blocks following it, since it would create a chain of invalid hash values referencing the previous block.
It is sort of like making Xerox copies of your Burger King receipt and sending the copies (marked "copy") to everyone in your city.
How block-chain works.
How does a cryptocurrency transaction work?
Cryptocurrency is used for direct peer-to-peer payments anywhere in the world.
The speed of transactions varies based on currency and confirmation requirements, but it’s generally very fast compared with traditional banking systems. Where banks can take days to transfer money, cryptocurrency transfers happen in minutes.
Bank transactions = days.
Cryptocurrency transactions = minutes.
In general, cryptocurrency transactions go through the following steps before they get added to the blockchain.
A person requests a transaction, and the request is sent to the entire network.
Each computer on the network collects all concurrent transactions into a block, along with a timestamp for each transaction.
Each computer works on solving the difficult math problem to add the block to the blockchain. This process is called “mining.”
Once a computer finds a valid solution, it broadcasts the block to the rest of the network.
The network checks the solution as well as compares transactions in the block against the current blockchain to prevent double spending.
The block is added to the chain, showing the transaction was completed.
Once a block is added to the chain, that block gets hashed and is used to create the next block. The process continually repeats itself.
As such, transactions are practically irreversible, much the same way as if you give someone cash (hence calling it an electronic cash system). As mentioned, the chaining of one block to another means someone would have to edit the entire chain of blocks to change a transaction.
How the blockchain process works.
Since blocks are continually added to a chain, it’s extremely unlikely someone will be able to propagate an updated chain of blocks to the network before the rest of the network produces the next block and extends the chain further.
Every transaction needs a signature
Just as credit cards use your signature to verify you authorized a purchase, cryptocurrency uses a signature as well …
… a digital signature.
Transactions are secured through a cryptography system called public key encryption. Each user has both a public key and a private key associated with his or her account.
To authorize a transaction, users must prove they know their private key by using it as an input into a cryptographic hash function similar to the one used to link blocks together in the blockchain. That’s called signing the digest. The private key is used to write that “digital signature,” so it’s very important that the private key remains private.
Public Key = Each person in the transaction gets a copy.
Private Key = One (and only one) for each person involved.
What do miners do?
With no central banks deciding when to print more money, a cryptocurrency needs to define how to create new units of the currency. Many cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, distribute new units to miners as an incentive for verifying transactions on the blockchain.
“Cryptominers” verify transactions on the blockchain.
They are paid in bitcoin for their labors.
Miners work to solve the difficult math problem or other proof-of-work systems within every block of the blockchain. They also work to verify the solutions. Running all these calculations have real-world costs, including buying hardware and using electricity.
The difficulty of the math problem for bitcoin blocks is automatically adjusted such that the combined processing power of the network takes about 10 minutes to solve the problem on average.
When a miner successfully adds a block to the bitcoin blockchain, that miner also earns the right to take a reward. The winning miner’s bitcoin address is recorded in the block.
For instance…
The reward started at 50 bitcoins per block.
That number is halved every 210,000 blocks (or about every four years).
The current reward for adding a block is now 12.5 bitcoins, and that number will fall to 6.25 around June 2020.
At some point, the reward for solving a block in the bitcoin blockchain will become extremely small. By 2140, miners will have mined all 21 million bitcoins that will ever be in circulation. At that point, the incentive for miners to update and verify the blockchain will come from transaction fees. Some cryptocurrencies already rely on relatively high transaction fees to offer miners incentive.
Bitcoin miners (cryptominers) used to make their money in bitcoin for mining. Now, their primary source of income is in (high) transaction fees.
Transaction fees are currently relatively small for bitcoin, but if transaction volume doesn’t climb to compensate for the decrease in block rewards, transaction fees will have to increase to compensate miners.
How to buy cryptocurrency
It’s no longer practical to use your home computer, or even a custom-built bitcoin mining computer, to mine bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.
Most people will get a better return by buying it through a cryptocurrency exchange.
A cryptocurrency exchange allows consumers to change their fiat currency, like U.S. dollars, into cryptocurrency like bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency trading process.
A cryptocurrency exchange works just like any other exchange, such as a stock exchange. It matches buyers and sellers based on a book of orders. As orders are added to the book, the exchange matches buyers willing to pay the same amount (or more) than sellers are requesting.
“What is cryptocurrency” revisited
To recap, I defined cryptocurrency as …
"an electronic cash system that doesn't rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments."
Let’s break that down.
“An electronic cash system“: Cryptocurrency has no physical form. Ownership is determined by the digital record found in the blockchain.
“Uses cryptography“: Transaction requests are authorized and confirmed through public key encryption. The blockchain also uses encryption to link blocks to one another.
“Confirm transactions“: The chain of transaction data in the blocks allows the network to verify that a transaction hasn’t already occurred — the double spending problem — and to add new transactions to the ledger.
“A publicly distributed ledger“: The blockchain ledger is available to all the computers on the network. In fact, its publicity is essential to making the entire system work. By keeping an updated transaction ledger on every computer on the network, the system is able to protect against changes to the blockchain and verify transactions and ownership.
“Direct peer-to-peer payments“: Payments never go through a central banking system or trusted third party but instead simply move from payer to payee. This process increases the speed of transactions and reduces the fees associated with transferring money.
Cryptocurrency is a complex new form of electronic cash. With no reliance on central banks to confirm transactions or authorize the creation of new units, it can dramatically reduce the fees and time associated with moving money around the world.
Conclusion
People are still coming up with new applications for blockchain technology and new cryptocurrencies every day. With this basic overview of what cryptocurrency is, you can start developing a deeper understanding of the various currencies available.
"The only stable and viable solution for the species to survive is a new eco-civilisation, based on a global non-market economic system, in which the private tyranny of the market – a global plutocratic elite of profit mongers – and anti-democratic oligarchic political systems do no longer rule the destiny of the people,"
-Dieterich
Make no mistake, banking systems, and the way they operate is changing. Whether it will happen soon (with the e-yuan system currently in use) or in the distant future,(if the PTB that control America has their way), it will happen.
I think that it is important to understand that things are changing and the old way of doing things are being supplanted with better, fairer and more complete systems. And those that lived off the corruption of the old systems are not going to go away peacefully in the night. Instead they will fight. They will fight tooth and nail to keep the status quo.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Well, this year has really been something. Hasn’t it? First the Coronavirus and then everything from killer zombie hornets to the death of Eddie Van Halen. Next thing on the list is Global Thermonuclear War. Well, that’s what the neocons in Washington DC, and Alex Jones are all pushing towards. Jeeze! Can’t we all get a break?
Yeah. Eddie Van Halen died.
I guess when you get older you start seeing your family and friends die off. It’s a sobering reality. And pretty unnerving. I have close friends who have cancer and some who survived it, and some that didn’t. I have friends that have died from AIDs / HIV, and friends that disappeared off the face of the map. I have friends that I no longer talk with regularly, but still consider them an important part of my life.
Change is normal. It is to be expected.
It’s just that some of this change is unexpected (it shouldn’t be) and is a shock when it happens.
Eddie is supposed to be the best guitarist in all of history. I don’t know about that. I would think that Rory Gallagher and Robin Trower would give him some serious competition for that role. But all that is like comparing XO with VSOP. Both are great beverages that you drink during good times. All is good, and everyone is equally great.
Now the thing that I really like about Eddie Van Halen is his tinkering with the mechanics of the guitar and the embrace of new techniques and styles. He used these new changes to change what the guitar is and how it is used. The world has been a better place ever since.
As this fine song illustrates.
Why Can’t This Be Love – Eddie Van Halen
Well, one of the things that I love about Eddie, aside from his fantastic music is his love of hacking mechanical things. It’s one of my pleasures, and I’m not referred to as a “mad scientist” for nothing. Here’s a great article on this subject.
Check it out!
The following is a complete 2020 reprint from a Popular Mechanics 2015 article in Popular Science titled “How the Late Rock God Eddie Van Halen Hacked His Guitar”. It is reprinted as found, and all credit to the author; Eddie Van Halen.
How the Late Rock God Eddie Van Halen Hacked His Guitar
The legend didn’t just transform the guitar forever—he even patented his game-changing innovations. Here’s how he redefined rock and roll, in his own words. By Eddie Van Halen Oct 6, 2020
Eddie Van Halen.
Eddie Van Halen, the legendary guitarist and leader of the pioneering metal band Van Halen, passed away on October 6, 2020 at age 65, after battling cancer. Widely considered to be the greatest guitarist of his generation—and maybe of all time—it isn’t a stretch to say the rock god influenced every modern player who came after him. Van Halen’s wildly inventive innovations, including tapping, or the act of playing the guitar using both left and right hands on the neck, redefined what musicians could do with the instrument—and what rock and roll music could sound like. Van Halen even patented some of his game-changing techniques.
Van Halen wrote this piece for Popular Mechanics in 2015, discussing his patents, rebuilding his guitars and amps, and searching for his signature sound. To honor him, Pop Mech is reprinting the article in its entirety. May he rest in peace.
I’ve always been a tinkerer. It comes from my dad. Growing up, we lived in a house in Pasadena that had no driveway. You used an alley that ran through the middle of the block, behind all the houses, to get to your backyard or the garage. Well, the neighbor behind us had a U-Haul trailer up on car jacks and loaded with cinder block.
One night my dad came home from a gig at three in the morning. He had a little heat going, he’d had a few drinks, so he says, “This thing is blocking me from getting in again.” So he got out of the car and tried to move it. As soon as he lifted the trailer, the jack fell over, and it chopped his finger off.
This was a problem. Besides the obvious reasons, he played clarinet and saxophone. On a sax, you don’t need to seal the hole with your finger. A valve closes over it. But with a clarinet, you have to seal the hole, so he took a saxophone valve cover and adapted it to work on his clarinet.
Another funny thing was later in his life, when he started losing his teeth. You need your bottom teeth to play a reed instrument. Instead of going to the dentist, he made himself a perfectly shaped prosthesis out of white Teflon that filled the gap where his teeth were missing. He slipped that in when he had to play. Watching him do that kind of stuff instilled a curiosity in me. If something doesn’t do what you want it to, there’s always a way to fix it.
Stock Guitars
My playing style really grew from the fact that I couldn’t afford a distortion pedal. I had to try to squeeze those sounds out of my guitar. The first real work I did was in my bedroom. I added pickups, because I didn’t like the sound of the originals.
I couldn’t afford a router—I didn’t even know what a router was—so I started hammering away with a screwdriver. That didn’t work at all. Chunks of wood flew off and there was sawdust flying all over the place. But I was on a mission. I knew what I wanted and I just kept at it until I finally got there.
I couldn't afford a distortion pedal. I had to try to squeeze those sounds out of my guitar.
Most guitar necks are too round on the back, so I took sandpaper and reshaped the neck to be very flat. I actually refretted a few guitars early on because I wanted to shave the fingerboard down and make the neck even flatter. The flatter it was, the farther I could bend a string without fretting out, or choking the sound when the string hits a fret higher on the neck.
The other issue, with Fenders, at least, was the clear lacquer they’d put on the neck. When you sweat, your fingers either slide all over the place or get sticky. I couldn’t stand that, so when I built my first guitar, I used natural wood. My own sweat and oil would soak in to make it smooth. It took a lot of playing to get it that way but, eventually, it just felt so much better than any synthetic product you could put on there. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Vibrato bars (also called whammy bars or tremolos) just didn’t stay in tune. The problem was the nut—the string guides at the end of the guitar neck. On the first album I used a standard, nonlocking Fender tremolo. The string is angled down from the nut to the tuning pegs, creating tension that, after the string slides back and forth when you use the whammy bar, keeps the string from returning to its original slot. I made my own nut with really smooth indentations—big and round like the bottom of a boat. I put a drop of 3-In-One oil in there, too, so the string would be extra slippery. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
On top of that, instead of winding the string down on the tuning peg, creating an angle and causing that tension, I would wind it up so that, from the nut all the way back to the bridge, the string was level. Otherwise there could be hangups in the nut that would make the guitar go out of tune when you went crazy on the whammy bar.
The only problem this caused was when you hit an open string, where your fingers aren’t holding it down. Without that tension, the string would pop out of the nut slot, so I’d have to remember to put my finger on the far side of the nut to hold things together.
Eddie Van Halen working in his garage.
Amps
If it was movable, or turnable, or anything that resembled something that could go up or down, I would mess with it to make the amp run hotter. I opened the amp up and saw this thing. I found out later it was a bias control, which controls the power to the output tubes. I’m poking around, and all of a sudden I touch this huge blue thing and my God, it was like being punched in the chest by Mike Tyson. My whole body flexed stiff, and it must have thrown me five feet. I’d touched a capacitor. I didn’t know they held voltage.
The Marshall amp I brought home from the store where I worked was only good if you turned it all the way up. Any lower and you’d lose the distortion. I needed that, but it was impossible to play anywhere with the volume that loud, so I tried everything, from leaving the thick plastic cover on it to facing it backwards to putting it face down. I’d blow a fuse twice an hour.
I touch this huge blue thing and my God, it was like being punched in the chest by Mike Tyson.
Luckily, I stumbled onto the Variac transformer soon after. I’d bought another Marshall amp, and I had no idea that it was actually a European model. I plugged it in, and I’m waiting for it to warm up and thinking, I got ripped off here, there’s no sound coming out! Pissed off, I came back an hour later to give it another shot.
I’d left the amp on the whole time. I didn’t know it was set on 220, so when I turn my guitar on it sounds like a full-blown Marshall, all the way up, except really, really quiet. That was when I realized there was something going on with the voltage. There were these cheesy light dimmers in the house, and I hooked it up to one of those.
Of course I wired it backwards and shorted out the whole house, so I went down to a place in Pasadena and asked if there was some kind of industrial-size variable transformer that would let me adjust voltage, and they introduced me to the Variac. It’s just a huge light dimmer. I plugged it into the amp and controlled the voltage from that. That became my volume knob. I would set the voltage depending on the size of the room we were playing, getting all that feedback at any volume.
Pickups
My first real guitar was a Les Paul Goldtop. I was a total Eric Clapton freak, and I saw old pictures of him playing a Les Paul. Except his had humbucking pickups, and mine had the soapbar, P-90 single coils. The first thing I did with that guitar was chisel it out in the back and put a humbucker in. When we were playing gigs, people kept saying, “How is he getting that sound out of single—coil soapbar pickups?” Since my hand was covering the humbucker, they never realized that I’d put it in.
When my guitar was black and white, I cut out my own pickguard so it would cover the holes from the pickup I’d removed. But when I painted red on top of the black and white, which is how it is now, it didn’t look cool with that black pickguard. It covered most of the paint job. I decided just to take the switch and cram it in the middle and put a nonworking pickup in the front because I didn’t use it. I wasn’t trying to trick anyone. Bottom line is, I didn’t know how to hook it back up. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
The last real step for me was adding paraffin wax to my pickup. Pickups can have this really high-end squeal, like the annoying screech of feedback you sometimes hear when someone speaks into a microphone. I thought maybe what was causing that with a guitar was the coil windings vibrating. So what I did—and I have no idea where this idea came from—was buy a hot plate and bricks of paraffin, and borrow a Yuban coffee can from my mom to put the wax in.
Of course I ruined a lot of pickups, because the plastic frames would melt before I had a chance to yank the pickup out. But finally, when I had a chance to really keep an eye on it, as soon as I saw the pickup start to heat up and shrivel a little bit I’d yank it out.
Man, the first time I put that in—between the Variac, the beast that Marshall was, and now the pickup not having unwanted feedback—the combination was just ideal. That was heaven to me. When all those things came together, it was like, okay, I’m going crazy with the whammy bar, I got my Marshall with the Variac, there’s no stopping me.
🎸 The Patents of Eddie Van Halen
U.S. Patent #388117. Guitar peghead: Placing the tuning pegs on the opposite sides of the headstocks helps the strings hold tension. It also obviates the need for string trees, guides that clamp down on your strings and hinder string replacement.
U.S. Patent #4656917 Musical instrument support: A bracket that swings down from the back of the guitar, supporting it at a 90-degree angle from your body and letting you play the instrument like a lap guitar.
Eddie Van Halen Patent.
How to Play Like Eddie
(Or at least look a little more like him when you do play.)
Van Halen started manufacturing his own equipment in 2007 under the brand EVH Gear. His newest offering, the Wolfgang WG Standard, launched in the spring. Named for Van Halen’s son, the entry-level guitar is made from extremely lightweight and porous basswood, providing the perfect resonance for musicians who are heavy on the treble and fade. The neck is maple, with a deliberately minimal satin finish.
More Good Stuff
From Eddie Van Halen. Enjoy.
Panama (Live) – Eddie Van Halen & David Lee Roth (on vocals)
Conclusion
I first saw in in 1982, in a Miami concert starring Journey, Sammi Hagar (the Red Rocker), Aerosmith and David Lee Roth / Eddie Halen. At that time in my life, I had just left the Navy and was chilling out in Fort Pierce, Florida with a girl I was living with at the time. And the news of the concert came out and we bought tickets.
It was a glorious time.
Met my first Cuban girls at that concert. It lasted all day, and they turned the hoses on us to keep us all cool from the hot Southern Florida sun. He rocked. It was an amazing time.
…
Memories.
…
You know, you get old and the people that you can share your memories with get fewer and fewer. Pretty soon, I will be another old dinosaur. Already people are unaware of such things as…
Rex fast food restaurants.
They stand incredulous when I say that phones used to be on the wall connected with a wire.
That cameras took pictures with a limit of only 12 to 24 pictures possible.
Water used to be free.
A week’s worth of gasoline was under $5.
Ai!
This is my tribute to a great man, a fantastic guitarist, and a fellow tinkerer and inventor. I do believe that he lived his life well. And that’s it, isn’t it? To live life well, good, make a difference int he world around you and move on to even bigger and better things.
I cannot think of anything better to say than…
Mr. Eddie van Halen, I salute you, you God damn glorious bastard!
I salute you.
AC/DC – For those about to rock, we salute you (Live)
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You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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After 75 years of non-stop narrative that “fighting is the last resort of fools”, and that a “kinder and gentler nation” is at hand, what has America turned into? Instead of being a male-driven patriarchal society, what has the feminization movement brought America to? Is it actually a well-behaved, respectful and fair place?
No.
No it isn’t.
It’s a non-stop sequences of cat-fights, and verbal assaults with regulations on just about every action that you could think of.
It’s true. Have you ever wondered about Social Media? Doesn’t it more resemble two teenage girls fighting in eighth grade than two grown adults having a conversation?
Well. Guess what? It’s a Western phenomenon. It is something that has occurred in nations that have adopted a progressive social structure, the r/K society has developed and all discourse has degenerated to that level. While other nations, more traditional in nature, really doesn’t have this problem.
Guess what else this “improvement” on society has created?
The Karen.
My mom is a Karen whose name is actually Karen. Simply put, I haven’t seen her in over a year because I couldn’t take it anymore. Living with her was just an exhausting nightmare.
Karen’s world revolves around Karen. Nobody else’s issues matter. If you tell her that you had a bad day, she’ll give you 20 reasons why her day was worse. You worked 60 hours this week? Well, when she was your age, she would work 80. You’re in the hospital after having major surgery? She has a pinched nerve in her arm, which is somehow worse. Your boyfriend cheated on you? She couldn’t even begin to tell you about all the heartbreak she’s experienced in her life.
She complains left and right about anything and everything. If you’re taking a week break after just getting back from college, she’ll ask why you haven’t gotten a job yet and claim you’re lazy. If you’re out to eat at a restaurant the food is always too cold or too burnt or too salty. You can only ever go to the places SHE wants to go to, because everything else is crap. My entire graduation dinner she complained about how cold the food was.
She THRIVES in getting attention and constantly seeks it, but she has very few ACTUAL friends. Facebook is her lifeblood and she’s always looking to start something on there. She’s the queen of sharing uninformed, misguided, conservative propaganda, which always starts fights in her comments. Also, if a tragedy happens in the family (like the passing of my teenage cousin), she’ll make a big scene on Facebook and expect condolences from anyone and everyone, and makes note of the people who don’t give her what she wants.
Don’t even get me started on the blatant racism. I’ve heard everything from, “watch out for black people on the subway. They’ll try to take your purse” to “It should be illegal for those Muslims to cover their faces. You should be able to see someone’s face.” One of my best friends is black and she once told me, “He’s one of the good ones. They should all be like him.”
-12 People Reveal What’s It Like To Be Related To A ‘Karen’
So, in nations that have not adopted the progressive societal structure, they are able to have more or less pretty inoffensive comment sections on social media. The people tend to be more respectful and much more polite.
Like…
Poland.
Brazil.
Russia.
China.
Japan.
Ah. America. Home of the pussy-ants pansies beta clucks.
I argue that traditional management of society from the personal level through to the government level is a very important element of the success of that nation. When you try to “improve” it by implementing change, you need to set forth a sequence of trials, and monitor their results carefully. You just don’t set up some kind of movement and force the rest of the world to conform to your madness.
America changed.
And today everything that you see around you is a consequence of that change.
And I, for one, do not like it.
I like family units where everyone has a role. I like polite discussion and discourse. I like to be able to buy something and not pay hidden fees, taxes, or read down a long list of warnings and advisement. I like a world where I can shake someones hand, look him in the eye, and make a lasting contract. I like a world where mothers are respected, and grandparents live in your house with you. I like a world where you are respected as a person.
Sigh.
Ah. There is nothing wrong with human nature, and if you all want to be passive, beta clucks. Fine. But you all will be eaten alive by very vicious, hungry wolves.
This is a great article worth a read. It’s about one of the aspects of what a man is. He’s a person who is not afraid to kick up a little bit of dust from time to time.
Just some guys talking. Right? But you know, don’t you, you know not to cross them or mess with them. Why? Is is because they are going to say things that will hurt your feelings? Is that why you don’t want to mess with them.
Everybody knows the benefits of lifting weights but it isn’t the only game in town that can build your body and mind. Learning how to fight also has a place as one of the key things all men (and wo
men) should do to get the most out of their life experience. Sound like an exaggeration? It’s really not, especially when you consider learning how to fight has been a rite of passage since the beginning of time in many dominant cultures. It is only in recent times that the practice of channeled aggression has been given a bad rap.
The practice of fighting, or learning a martial art, is especially valuable for men, for whom the acting out of aggression, the desire to dominate, the ability to look after ones’ family or tribe, as well as having the camaraderie of like-minded males, is a huge factor in wellbeing and something that modern society constantly deprives them of.
The ability to challenge others, to endure pain, and the knowledge that you can look after yourself physically, are very underrated factors that contribute to high levels of functioning in other areas of life. Learning how to fight doesn’t mean you have to go around bashing heads in but, knowing you could if you had to, can make all the difference between a timid boy and a dominant man.
If you are still not sure how learning how to fight can benefit you, the 12 reasons below should clear up any confusion.
1) Learning how to fight builds unbreakable confidence
Have you ever seen a fighter who looks timid and scared of the world?
Didn’t think so.
The knowledge of knowing you can take anyone on and, in all probability, defeat them in a physical contest can do wonders for self-confidence. You may think this is crude or uncivilized. Nevertheless, we are fighting animals that have survived because of our ability to think and defeat enemies.
Most of the giant ancient civilizations that we know were masters of violence and war, and this is still true today.
Being able to fight gives us the assurance we can take care of ourselves and the people who are dear to us. It also ensures that our confidence is not based on anything external, like possessions or material goods.
Our confidence, therefore, cannot be taken away and is literally unbreakable.
2) Learning how to fight teaches persistence
If you hadn’t already guessed, learning how to fight is tough.
Training to get into fighting shape is brutal.
The actual fighting is dangerous and extremely violent.
Even sparring is rough if you underestimate what you are up against. All of this combines over time to build your mental and physical toughness.
As you go forward and resist the urge to quit, you learn persistence and why it is so valued as the secret of success. It takes persistence to get up when you keep getting your ass kicked. It takes persistence to throw another kick when it feels as though your leg is about to drop off.
Learning to take action anyway will deeply affect your success in other areas of life.
3) Learning how to fight teaches us how to control our emotions
When we are first learning how to fight, things are not going to be rosy.
Our bodies (and, quite possibly, our faces) are going to get beaten up.
We are going to be tired beyond our wildest dreams.
One thing that fighting does during this process is teach us how to control our emotions.
We will no doubt come up against a lot of fear, anger and frustration as we master techniques and get knocked down by more experienced challengers. We may encounter some negative emotions that we have stuffed down since childhood that fighting is finally allowing us to let go of. Though this process is bumpy at best, it is cathartic. Over time, we will learn to do what we have to do to achieve our goals, regardless of how we are feeling.
This mastery of thoughts and emotions is priceless, for lasting confidence and well being.
4) Learning how to fight is a great way to relieve stress
As we mentioned above, the process of learning how to fight can be physically exhausting. Keeping your mental edge during a fight so you don’t get knocked the hell out is exhausting.
There is natural satisfaction that comes from good, honest physical work – however violent – and when we are done for the day we will feel good.
After a few hours you will be soaked in sweat, with muscles shaking, and all you will want to do is eat something and go to sleep. Over time, this routine of hard work and pushing through the pain will eliminate a huge amount of stress from your life.
5) Learning how to fight takes you a long way from your comfort zone
There is nothing more uncomfortable than being thrown into our situation you are not familiar with.
Learning how to fight is no exception in this case.
It is unlikely, upon first entering the gym you wish to train in, you will be met by big smiles and fireworks. Instead, you are going to have to earn the respect of the more experienced people in there.
You will have to work hard and show you are not another person who is going to come for two weeks and then not show up again.
Voluntarily sailing away from you comfort zone like this is courageous act and, in overcoming what you were afraid of in the first place (new people, no experience etc.), you will be rewarded with a level of self-esteem that can never be taken away from you.
Experience stepping out of your comfort zone more and more often and it will rapidly start to expand.
6) Learning how to fight will get you in the best shape of your life
It doesn’t matter how much weight lifting you do or how many miles you run during the week – training to fight is another ballgame entirely.
For one, you will need to work for many hours before you are competent at certain skills, and even then you will be nowhere near mastering all of the nuances that come with real fighting.
The training fighters do to be able to withstand punishment and dish it back out is brutal and your conditioning is going to level up as a result. Sparring or grappling for 3-5 minute rounds is no joke, even for an elite athlete. One huge bonus of all this punishment? You will actually look as tough as you are for once, rather than looking hard but running scared like a lot of bodybuilders.
With the right set of rules governing your training and nutrition, you should be able to stay in shape all year with no extra effort needed.
7) Learning how to fight teaches you discipline
The skill and sport of fighting shares this with all other types of physical competition.
Its takes prolonged discipline to see the fruits of your labor.
This means getting up early to fit in a training session, eating right, living right, foregoing too much alcohol and getting a good night’s sleep.
Having the mental discipline to stick to this routine, despite all of the obvious temptations of instant gratification around you, will set you apart from others as time goes by.
Success is not an overnight thing but, with continuous discipline, it will come to you just as sure as the hands on the clock will continue going around.
8) Learning how to fight will force you to get out of your own head
Too many of us spend days feeling self-conscious and disempowered because we spend too long in our own heads.
From birth and childhood, we have been implanted with a lot of negative beliefs that don’t serve us, all of which are going around in a continual loop in our subconscious minds.
To sit and listen to them for too long is tantamount to throwing all of our hard-earned confidence and self-esteem out of the window.
Aside from consciously practicing positivity, we also need to spend time out of our heads, doing something physical. Hitting the gym can be good. Having sex is good. Learning how to fight is a great way to do this. We have no choice but to be totally present in our bodies and to reject intruding thoughts, or else we might catch a sharp right to the jaw.
Forcing ourselves to be in the moment – rather than withdrawing mentally and emotionally – is great practice for other pressure situations that may occur in our lives, including business meetings or family emergencies.
9) Learning how to fight allows you to express yourself physically
Despite what modern thinking will tell you, men are inherently physical and prone to violence.
The great majority of the victims of this violence will be men. The physical expression of aggression and the thrill of war have long been swept under the rug as the dark side of the human psyche.
In today’s world, our violence is played out in movies, in computer games, in the board room, or in politics.
As entertaining as this, it leaves a lot of men feeling repressed and emasculated.
Learning how to fight remedies this need for challenge and violence completely. Through training and sparring you can express yourself physically in a relative safe, socially-condoned environment, which will make you finally feel like the dominant person that you are.
Don’t believe it?
Go and find out for yourself and report back.
10) Learning how to fight gives you the opportunity to compete for something
Just as men inherently crave confrontation and violence, they also crave competition for something.
In this day and age, most major competition is relegated to professional sports or business.
When you learn how to fight, and decide to fight against others in competition, you unleash that latent part of you. You will learn the reward of real competition and putting it all out there, willing and finding a way to win.
Make no mistake – we all want to win.
This is not ‘bad’ or to be punished.
It is just natural.
Fighting in proper environment can give us the buzz of competition without any unfavorable repercussions.
11) Learning how to fight forces us to take action and master ourselves
We aren’t all born with the action habit.
Some of us are never taught that no-hesitation killer instinct that sets the super-achievers apart from the crowds.
Many of us procrastinate and put things off, mostly because we fear being rejected by those who are close to us.
When we learn how to fight, we have to tackle this inability to take action head on. We have to learn to act, regardless of how we feel, otherwise we are going to get our lights turned out.
This ability to do things when we don’t feel like it is one of the secrets of really productive people that always seem to be achieving something.
Master yourself and cultivate the habit of taking action and you will see huge changes in the direction of your life. All of a sudden, you will be in control.
12) Learning how to fight puts us into contact with more dominant, like-minded individuals
There is a famous quote that states we are a combination of the 5 people we hang out with the most.
Whether this is true or not, the people we spend a lot of time have a huge influence on our thoughts and behavior. Prolonged interaction will make certain traits ‘rub off on you’, whether you are aware of it at the time or not.
Hanging out with others who are learning how to fight then, in an MMA gym or dojo or whatever, ensures you are interacting with like-minded individuals who are aware of who they are inside. Think about the people who fight – dominant, powerful, alpha individuals who set goals and get what they want.
Having that camaraderie, as well as that mindset rub off on you, is never going to hurt anything.
13) Learning how to fight makes you far more attractive
As much as women (and men) protest that they don’t like violence and hate people who fight, its mostly all lies fed by society.
The fact is, people (especially women) are attracted to those who can hold their own physically and win a fight.
This shows in many ways that they are a dominant individual who is more than capable of looking after a family – a very attractive trait.
Most fighters are also very at ease in their own skin and super-confident in themselves, which comes through in their body language and the way they interact with people. This is a far-cry from some weightlifters who compensate for their inner anxieties by building large muscles.
The fact is, women don’t care all that much about big muscles.
They want a strong, confident man who can take care of things and keep them safe.
Want to be more attractive?
Learn how to fight.
14) Learning how to fight supplies us with a powerful, positive philosophy of life that we can carry with us always
Acquiring the will, skill and attitude of the warrior is not all about physical ability.
Most fighting schools, and in particular martial arts, are brilliant for instilling a philosophy of respect, discipline and hard work upon their students.
These ancient philosophies help us keep things in perspective, keep our egos from running wild, and ensure we treat our newfound powers with great respect and responsibility.
This code of honor is not just applicable on the training mats, in the ring or in the octagon – it can be applied to all areas of life and absolutely should be.
Internalizing this philosophy gives us confidence and purpose – a mission that was perhaps not there before. This is the one thing that all mentally strong people have in common – without exception – and will serve you well for the rest of your life.
“Prize fighting is short. You get in, get rich and get out. But martial arts are for life. It’s for life.”
– Conor McGregor
Conclusion
It’s an outstanding article and very true.
Men need to be able to fight. We need that feeling of control and power. We need to feel that we are in control of our life. And when we get that feeling, it reflects upon us, and as a result…
…big changes in our life takes place.
Tony Soprano Enjoying life.
We start to eat better, we find the house tidy at the end of the day, and people tend to respect us more. No. It’s not because we threaten everyone with a punched nose. It’s because we have a self-confidence that we carry with us everywhere.
Men are not women.
Yet we are the same.
I am immensely attracted to a self-confident woman. It’s something that I just cannot control myself about. It’s like Sharon Stone in the movie Casino. Self Confidence is addictive.
For men…
…we can get this through learning how to fight and the discipline that comes with it.
And maybe, just maybe, those “Karens” in our lives would be a tad more respectful to the rest of us.
My sister AND sister in law are both Karen’s. I will show up to restaurants 15 min early to warn them. I tell them if it’s not done to their liking they WILL hear about it and they will make your shift hell. I’m just there as a warning.
I used to work in restaurants and those people made life hell. I do what I can to help. Generally my drinks are better and we get a free appetizer as soon as those two tornados walk in all hell breaks loose. Not enough ice, table is too cold, it’s too loud, etc. I also tip really big because I DON’T want to be associated with the two tornados.
I live overseas so I only see them 2 weeks out of the year. So it’s manageable. I only put up with their attitude because they could take my nieces and nephews away from me. I pick my battles. I need my nieces and nephews to know I’m always here for them and they can talk to me about anything. I can’t risk our relationship being tampered with, especially since I only see them 2 weeks a year.
Remember, being able to fight is not the same thing as fighting. It is a simple thing really.
It makes for a polite society.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my Happiness Index. Here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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There is a lot of movement going on regarding money and banking. Now, normally I don’t touch these subjects at all. As they are not of my interests. But, you know, just because I am not interested in it, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take an interest in me. And it has.
Here we talk about the linkage between monetary systems and sentience. It's not your usual supper-time discussion subject.
The banking system has strip-mined the American middle class.
And now, most of the former American middle class are destitute debit slaves of a magnitude many times greater than anything historically present in the past.
That’s a pretty bold statement. I know.
But listen up.
While Egyptian slaves couldn’t own cars and cell phones, they need not ever worry about food, clothing, shelter or enjoying themselves. Same with the Roman slaves, the Persian slaves, the Irish slaves and the Moroccan slaves.
Now, don’t you all get your hackles up. Sure, there were many injustices that took place. But that’s really a different subject for a different time.
Right now, I am saying as clearly as I can that…
[1] The American middle class is functionally destroyed.
[2] What remains of the middle class are debt serfs that are tied to a system of life-time servitude and jail / prison for trying to leave that system. It’s service-for-self ruling over a mixture of other sentience’s.
[3] And most importantly, do not look at the shininess of your handcuffs as an indicator of “freedom”. It isn’t. Being able to own a gun, drive a car, and eat in a fast food restaurant doesn’t make you any better than an Egyptian slave. The big difference is in “the fight”. Americans are constantly fighting to “tread water” to keep solvent. Egyptian and Roman slaves never had that struggle. They performed their work, and then enjoyed life. Americans perform their work, and then continue to fight for their right to live.
Radical statements, eh?
Yes. I get it. It’s not comparing apples to apples.
My argument is that the entire collapse of the American middle class is the result of failed monetary and banking policies. And why they collapsed is complicated and worthy of consideration. Thus this post.
Usury & Fractional Reserve Banking is an Enslavement of Mankind
(Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to watch or listen to this video at your own leisure. Please go back to watch or listen to the video a few times if necessary so you understand who really owns the world’s wealth and power).
———–
This excellent 3.5 hour documentary produced by investigative journalist, Bill Still, educates the public about how central banks around the world were created by private bankers who loan money to governments by way of usury and fractional reserve banking.
Banks are given the power to loan money out multiples times than what they have in reserve. Generally, 10% is the reserve requirement in the world. This means that that the BANKS CAN CREATE MONEY THEY DOES NOT HAVE !!!
It explains why most people who own homes take a lifetime to pay off their mortgages because of the payments made on interests, not on principal. This also explains why most people can never become debt free & why we cannot eliminate hunger and poverty.
It also explains why we have inflation, deflation, recession, cycles of boom and bust because the goods & services generated in the real economy are simply NOT ENOUGH to be distributed for the vast quantity of money created!
Almost all government central banks are owned by private bankers who loan money by way of usury and fractional reserve lending, where THEY CREATE MONEY OUT OF LITTLE OR NO RESERVE, loans them to governments and charge interests on these loans! While the shareholders of these private central banks become richer and more powerful, governments around the world become heavily indebted to these private money interest groups.
Fractional reserve banking is rooted in fraud, results in massive poverty & reduces everyone’s value in money.
The Federal Reserve Cartel consists of less than a dozen families who own shares in every central bank in the world, as well as private banks. This cartel also owns World Bank, IMF, ECB and Bank of International Settlement. They are more powerful than kings & queens and our politicians serve their interests!
In addition to owning central banks, this cartel also owns large shares of the oil industry in the Middle East and around the world.
Their private banks serve as havens for MASSIVE tax evasion, money laundering, narcotics trafficking & weapons trade.
Professor Carroll Quigley, one of 20th century’s most highly respected historians, whose greatest contribution to our understanding of modern history was presented in his books, The “Anglo-American Establishment” and “Tragedy and Hope”. The latter was written in 1949 but only released after his death in 1981. His disclosures placed him in such potential danger from an Establishment backlash that it was never published in his lifetime. Quigley’s evidence is considered highly credible. He moved in exalted circles, lectured at the top universities in the United States, including Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown, and was a trusted advisor to the Establishment as a consultant to the US Department of Defense.
As per Professor Quigley:
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private. "
The key to their success, said Quigley, was that the international bankers would control and manipulate the money system of a nation while letting it appear to be controlled by the government.
[1:17 hour award-winning investigative documentary — Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to watch or listen to this video at your own timing.]
At the twilight of British Empire, the City of London set up a spider web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions, captured & funneled wealth from around the globe to City of London. With silent backing of USA, Britain’s offshore haven grew rapidly.
Today, it is the world’s dominant financial market. HALF of global offshore wealth is hidden in British secrecy jurisdictions. City of London is run by City of London Corporation, a PRIVATE company private mayor, private police force, private laws and a private Court.
While the sum of debts owed by ALL GOVERNMENTS around the world is approx. $70+ trillion, a staggering of $50+ trillion is hidden in British offshore secrecy jurisdictions!!!
Usury, privately owned central banking, fractional reserve banking and offshore banking deprive world citizens opportunities to healthcare, education, security, justice & better lives. It is essentially a form of oppression through illegal extraction of wealth & resources which rightfully belong to the people. We all need to unite together to fight against & to abolish this banking system. The ability to create money belong to our governments, not private individuals!
If financial corruption and parasitism are not abolished, the world’s citizens cannot truly be free!
Sources are listed below this Article
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The Bank of England was the first central bank created in 1694 by money lenders to loan money to the English Crown which used usury and fractional reserve banking.
The US Federal Reserve, the world’s most powerful central bank, was created in 1913 using the Bank of England as a model. As a matter of fact, all other central banks in the world have been created based on the Bank of England model, by private bankers using fractional reserve banking.
Who are these money changers?
[At 11:00 of video] In the Bible, Jesus called the money changers “a den of thieves” and drove them out of the temple. Historically, when Jews came to Jerusalem to pay for their temple tax, they could only use a special coin, the half Shekel of the Sanctuary. This coin contained half ounce of silver without the image of a Pagan emperor. For the Jews, it was the only coin acceptable to God.
The money changers made enormous profits on these coins because they held a monopoly over these coins which enabled them to charge exorbitant rates.
Since the 10th century, Europe was under the domain of Christianity. Christians in Europe were forbidden to practice usury because the Bible forbids this practice. This lucrative business was mostly taken up by non-Christian Jews who scattered throughout Europe because they were stateless.
Because of their astute money sense, the kings of Europe would often hire these money changers as Court Jews to look after their finances.
In 1,000 AD, the money changers who loan out and manipulate the quantity of money were active in Medieval England. By acting together, they were able to manipulate the entire English economy. These money changers were not bankers per se, but generally were the goldsmiths. They were the first bankers because they kept other people’s gold for safekeeping in their vaults.
The first paper money were merely receipts for gold left with the goldsmiths. Eventually, goldsmiths noticed that only a small fraction of depositors ever came in to demand their gold at any one time.
The goldsmiths started CHEATING on the system. They discovered that they can print more money than they had gold. Usually, no one would notice. They would loan out this extra money and collect interest on it. This was the birth of fractional reserve banking: loaning out money many times than what you have on deposits. If they had $1,000 on deposits, then they can loan out 10 times that amount ($10,000) in paper money, draw interest on it, and no one would notice the deception. By using these methods, goldsmiths gradually accumulated more & more wealth and they would use this wealth to accumulate more & more gold.
In the Middle Ages, Canon Law forbade the charging of interest because the purpose of money was to serve members of society to facilitate the exchange of goods needed to lead a virtuous life. Interest hindered this purpose by putting unnecessary burden on the use of money. Europe forbade charging interest on loans and made it a CRIME called “USURY”.
As commerce grew & opportunity for investments grew in the late Middle Ages, it came to be recognized that to loan money had a cost to the lender, both in risk and in loss of opportunities, so some charges were allowed, but not interest. All teachings condemned USURY AS FRAUD, injustice, oppression of the poor and it is clearly immoral. Fractional reserve banking is rooted in fraud, results in MASSIVE POVERTY and reduces everyone’s value in money.
The ancient goldsmiths discovered that extra profits could be made by switching from easy loans to tight loans. When they made the money easier to borrow, the money in circulation expanded, money was plentiful. People took out more loans to expanded their businesses, but in prescribed time, the money changers would tighten the money supply which made loans more difficult to get. People who could not get loans to pay off their debts were forced to sell their assets to the goldsmiths for pennies on the dollar, enabling the goldsmiths to reap enormous profits by buying up cheap assets. Today, it is still happening; we call this the business cycle or cycle of boom and bust.
[At 23:00 of video] By the end of 1600’s, England had gone through 50 years of continuously wars with France & the Netherlands and was in financial ruins. Frantic politicians met with the money changers to beg for the money necessary to pursue their political purposes. The price was high: a government sanctioned a privately owned bank which could issue money created out of nothing. It was to be the world’s first privately owned central bank: The Bank of England.
The legalization of the Bank of England amounted to nothing less than legal counterfeiting of a national currency for private gains.
Benjamin D’Israeli, former Prime Minister of Great Britain wrote:
"If the history of England is written by one who has the knowledge and courage, one would be astonished."
Unfortunately, nearly every nation now has a privately controlled central bank, using the Bank of England as the basic model. Such is the power of these central banks that they take total control over a nation’s economy. It soon amounts to nothing but a plutocracy, ruled by the rich. It is like putting the Mafia in charge of the army.
Yes, we need central banks, but not in private hands !
The central bank scam is a hidden tax. The nation sells bonds to the central bank it does not have the political will to raise taxes to pay for, but the bonds are purchased with money the central bank creates out of nothing. More money in circulation, means more inflation, which makes our money worth less. The government gets as much as it needs and the people pay for it in inflation.
THE IRONY IS, THAT NOT ONE PERSON IN 1,000 CAN FIGURE THIS OUT AND REALIZE HOW FRAUDULENT THIS SYSTEM IS, BECAUSE IT IS MOSTLY HIDDEN BEHIND COMPLEX ECONOMIC GIBBERISH.
With the formation of the Bank of England in 1694 by private bankers, the nation would soon be awash with money, prices throughout the country doubled, massive loans were granted for just about any wild scheme. Four years later, by 1698, government spending grew from 1.25 million pounds to 16 million pounds. Taxes increased again and again. With the British money supply firmly in their grip, the British economy went from a series of wild roller coaster of booms & busts, exactly what the central bank claims to prevent.
By the mid 1700’s, the British Empire was nearing its height of power around the world. Britain had fought 4 costly wars in Europe since the creation of their privately owned central bank. The cost had been high. To finance these wars, the British parliament had borrowed heavily from their central bank.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild is quoted as saying in 1791: “Allow me to issue and control a nation’s currency, and I care not who makes its laws. I care not what puppet is placed on the throne England to rule the Empire where the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire and I control the British money supply.”
With the creation of the world’s most powerful central bank, the US Federal Reserve in 1913, in the hands of the money changers, power was centralized to a tremendous extent, the money changers were ready for their First World War.
Wars proved to be the most profitable of all because of the enormous sums borrowed by governments and interests that ensued from wars. Nothing creates debt like warfare.
England was the best example. During the 119 year period between the founding of the Bank of England and Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, the country had been at war for 56 years and much of the remaining time, she had been preparing for war.
In World War I, the German Rothschilds loaned money to the Germans, the British Rothschilds loaned money to the British, the French Rothschilds loaned money to the French.
In America, JP Morgan was the sales agent for war materials for both the British and the French. In fact, 6 months into the war, Morgan became the largest consumer on earth, spending $10 million a day. Other bankers like the Rockefellers also made enormous profit as well.
[At 2:13:00] Profit was not the only motive but also revenge. The money changers never forgave the Czar for helping Lincoln during the Civil War. Also, Russia was the last European nation to refuse to give into the money changers’ attempt to create a privately controlled central bank. Three years after World War 1, the Russian Revolution toppled the Czar and instilled communism. Jacob Schiff of Loeb & Company bragged from his death bed that he had spent $20 millions toppling the Czar.
Why would some of the richest men in the world financially back communism, the system that was openly vowing to destroy the system that made them wealthy, namely, capitalism?
The short answer is that the money changers had always supported many sides of conflicts to keep different nations divided. The London Wall Street axis decided to take the risk by attempting to control revolutionary communist groups by feeding them massive quantities of money when they obeyed; and contracted the money, or even financed opposition groups when they get out of control. Lenin began to understand that although he was the absolute dictator of Soviet Union, he was not pulling the financial strings. Someone else was silently in control. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, at the behest of the international bankers who control them were, were creating communism through debt. In case you think that the money changers created communism, got it going and then lost control, in 1992, the Times reported that incoming Russian president Boris Yeltsin was upset that the incoming aid into Russia was siphoned off straight back into the coffers of Western banks as debt service!!!
[2:18:10] It is not a wild conspiracy theory that the money changers had a short range self-serving motive for profit as well as a long range political motive of advancing TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS with the MONEY CHANGERS MAINTAINING THE FINANCIAL CLOUT to control whatever politician might emerge as the leader.
[2:18:30 to ] What is the money changers’ ultimate political goal for the world?
After World War I, the overall political agenda for the money changers began to be clear. Now that they control national economies individually, the next step was the ultimate form of consolidation: A WORLD GOVERNMENT.
[2:19:50] After WWI, the American public had grown tired of the international policies of Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Warren Harding won a landslide with 60% of the vote. His presidency led to an unprecedented era of prosperity known as the “Roaring Twenties”. Despite the fact that the war had brought America debts ten times larger the civil war debt, still the American surged. Gold had poured into the US and continued to do so afterwards.
In the early 1920s, the governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Benjamin Strong, met secretively and frequently with the Bank of England governor Montague Norman. Norman was determined to replace the gold England had lost to the US during World War I and return the Bank of England to its former position of dominance in world finance. On top of that, rich with gold, the American economy might get out of control again, just like what happened after the Civil War. During the next 8 years, under the presidency of Harding and Coolidge, the huge debt built up during World War I was cut by 38%, the greatest percentage drop in US history.
After his inauguration, Harding quickly moved to cut domestic taxes and raised tariffs to records heights. This was an economic policy which most of the founding fathers would certainly have approved. His second year in office, he took ill in a train trip in the West and suddenly died of food poisoning. When Coolidge took over, he continued Harding’s domestic policy of high tariffs on imports while cutting income taxes. As a result, the economy grew at such a rate that net revenue still increased. That had to be stopped. Just like what they had done before, the money lenders decided that it was time to crash the American economy. The Federal Reserve began flooding the country with money and increased the money supply by 62% during these years.
Before his death in 1920, former president Teddy Roosevelt warned the American people (as reported in the New York Times) what was going on:
“These international bankers and Rockefeller Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.”
Just one day before the New York Times on March 26, 1922 the mayor of New York, John Hylan quoted Roosevelt and blasted those he saw as taking control of America its political machinery and its press:
“The warning of T. Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state, and nation… It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive offices, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers and every agency created for the public protection… let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the US government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use leading men of private organizations…
These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspaper and magazines in this country.”
There was a dark side to this prosperity. Business expanded based on credit. Speculation in the stock market became rampant. Although everything looked rosy, it was a castle made of sand. When everything was ready, in April 1929, the father of the Federal Reserve Board, Paul Warburg, sent out a secret advisory warning his friends that a collapse and nationwide depression was certain.
In August 1929, the Fed began to tighten money. It is not a coincidence that the biography of all Wall Street giants of that era, John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Bernard Baruch etc. all marveled that they got out of the stock market just before the crash and put all of their assets in cash or gold.
On October 24, 1929, the big New York bankers called in their 24 hour broker call loans. This meant that both the stock brokers and customers had to dump their stocks on the market to cover their loans no matter what price they had to sell them for. As a result, the market tumbled. That day was known as Black Thursday. Congressman Louis McFadden, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee from 1920 to 1931 knew who to blame. He accused the Federal Reserve and the international bankers of orchestrating the crash:
“It was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived event… The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all…”
McFadden went further. He accused them of orchestrating the crash in order to steal America’s gold. In February 1931, in the midst of the depression, he put it this way:
“I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to reacquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America as the result of World War I.”
Curtis Dall, son-in-law of Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
“Actually, it was calculated ‘shearing’ of the public by the World-Money powers triggered by the planned sudden shortage of call money in the New York Money Market”
Although the American public have never heard that the Federal Reserve was responsible for the cause of The Great Depression, it was well known among top economists. Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize economist said in a public radio interview in 1996:
“The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great Depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by 1/3 from 1929 to 1933.”
The money lost by American during the Great Depression did not just vanish, it was simply redistributed into fewer and fewer hands (Rockefellers, JP Morgan etc.) of those who had just gotten out before the crash to purchase gold.
[2:36:50] Now the stage was set for a really big war (World War II). One which would pile up debt far beyond that of World War I. For example, in 1944, the US GDP was only $144 billion, yet $103 billion was spent on the war! This was 30 times the spending rate of World War I! Equally important, every nation involved in World War II greatly multiplied their debts during WWII! Between 1940 to 1950, Japanese debt swelled by 1,348%!!! French debt grew by 583% and Canadian debt soared 417%!!!
After WWII, the world was divided into two economic camps: Communist central planning economies on one hand versus monopoly capitalist on the other set to fight it out in one perpetual and highly profitable arms race. It was finally time for the central bankers to embark on their 3-step plan to centralize the economic system of the entire world and finally bring about their global government or new world order. The phases of this plan were:
1. Central bank domination of national economies worldwide;
2. Centralized regional economies: European Monetary Union, NAFTA;
3. Centralize the world economy through a World Central Bank, ending national independence through abolition of all tariffs by treaty such as WTO.
The largest holder of gold among central banks is the IMF. It and central banks control 2/3 of the world’s gold supply giving them the power to manipulate the gold market. Before we start to look at the solution to our economic problems, let us take a look at all that gold in Fort Knox. If we do not understand that all the gold has been stolen, we will allow ourselves to be stampeded into the wrong solution: a gold backed currency.
[2:39:30] Most Americans still believe that the gold is still here at Fort Knox. At the end of WWII, Fort Knox contained over 700,000,000 ounces of gold, an incredible 70% of all the gold in the world. How much remains? No one knows. Despite that Federal laws require an annual physical audit of Fort Knox gold; the Treasury has consistently refused to conduct one. The truth is, a reliable audit of whatever remains here has not been conducted since President Eisenhower ordered one in 1953!!!
Where did America’s gold in Fort Knox go?
Over the years, it had been sold off to European bankers at $35 per ounce at during the time which was illegal for any Americans to buy their own gold at Fort Knox. There was an infamous case where the Firestone family set up a string of dummy corporations to purchase gold at Fort Knox and kept it in Switzerland despite never landing on US shores.
[2:40:47] Finally, by 1971, all the pure gold in Fort Knox had been secretly removed from Fort Knox, drained back to London. Once the gold was gone from Fort Knox, President Nixon closed the gold window by repealing Roosevelt’s Gold Reserve Act of 1934, finally making it legal for Americans to buy gold. Naturally, gold prices began immediately to soar, 9 years later in 1980, gold sold for $880 an ounce!
One would think that someone in the government would blow the whistle: The largest fortune in world history stolen! It had been 40 years in the making!
[2:42:15] Just how did the story of Fort Knox gold robbery get out? It all started with an article in a New York periodical in 1974. The article charged that the Rockefeller family was manipulating the Federal Reserve to sell off the gold at bargain basement prices an anonymous European speculator. Three days later, the anonymous source of the story, Louise Auchincloss Boyer mysterious fell to her death from the window of her 10-storey apartment in New York. How did Mrs. Boyer know about the Rockefeller connection to the Fort Knox gold heist? She was the long-time secretary of Nelson Rockefeller…
When president Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, his conservative friends urged him to study the feasibility of returning to a gold standard to curb government spending. President Reagan then appointed the Gold Commission to study the situation and report back to him and Congress.
The Gold Commission reported the shocking revelation to Congress in 1982: The US Treasury owned no gold at all. All the gold that was left at Fort Knox is now owned by the Federal Reserve, a group of private bankers, as collateral against the national debt. The truth is, never before in history has so much money been stolen from the hands of the public and put into the hands of a small group of investors, the money changers (bankers).
[2:45:50] What is the nature of the World Bank and the IMF? Are they about to create a worldwide depression? After WWI and WWII, people around the world are tired of wars. So, under the guise of peacemaking, the international bankers devised a plan to consolidate power even further. Claiming that only an international government can stem the tide of world wars, the bankers pushed forward a proposal for a world government which stands on three legs: A world central bank to be called the Bank of International Settlements, A world judiciary called International Court of Justice to be located at the Hague, Netherlands, and a world executive legislature called the United Nations.
[2:47:00] As President Clinton’s mentor, Georgetown historian Carroll Quigley who has insider knowledge of the international banking cartel, wrote in his 1966 book “Tragedy and Hope”:
“The power of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.
This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at frequent meeting and conferences.
The apex of the system was to be the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations.Each central bank…
South to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulative foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country.
The money lenders create a banking cartel composed of the world’s central banks which gradually assumed the power to dictate credit policies to the banks of all nations. In 1944, at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund were formed. For example, just as the Federal Reserve Act authorizes the creation of a national fiat currency, the IMF has been given the authority to issue a world fiat currency, called “Special Drawing Rights (SDR)”. SDRs are partially backed by gold. With 2/3 of world gold in the hands of privately owned central banks, this means the money lenders can go about structuring the economic future in whichever way they deem most profitable.
[2:36:50] Now the world was set for a new war: World War II.
———–
[At 27:40 ] Let’s take a look at the role of the ROTHSCHILDS in central banking.
The Rothschilds are Jewish descendants who lived in the ghettos of Frankfurt, Germany since 1450’s.
The patriarch of this family was Mayer Rothschild, a goldsmith who took up the family business of money lending & coin exchange in 1763. He had 5 sons who were stationed throughout Europe in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Vienna & Naples. They all became very successful in banking & finance.
By the mid 1800’s, the Rothschilds dominated all European banking and were the wealthiest family in the world. They financed Cecil Rhodes, making it possible for him to dominate the diamond and gold fields of South Africa. In America, they financed the Harrimans in railway; the Vanderbilts in railways & press; the Carnegie in the steel industry, among many others.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THEIR PREDOMINANCE IN EUROPEAN OR WORLD FINANCE HAS CHANGED
Along with Theodore Herschel, father of Zionism, the Rothschilds founded the State of Israel in 1948, shortly after World War II based on Britain’s Balfour Declaration which promised to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Today, the Rothschilds, along with other banking families such as Rockefellers, Goldman Sachs, Morgans, Warburgs, Lazards, Kuhn & Loebs, Lehmans, Schiffs and Israel Moses Seifs own & control the Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF, ECB & Bank of International Settlement.
They own shares of all central banks around the world, as well as top 10 shares in Fortune 500 Companies, including private banks.
The headquarter of their banking empire is Bank of England, located in the City of London, an independent district from Greater London, with its own laws & own mayor.
The Rothschilds own media outlets such as Associated Press, Reuters & Economist.
The Rothschilds financed Britain’s Opium War against China and founded Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation to conduct their lucrative business dealings.
In addition to owning central banks, the Rothschilds also own private banks which control the oil industry in the Middle East. Their customers include some of the world’s major oil companies such as BP, (formerly Royal Dutch Shell), Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Texaco & Gulf Oil.
Their private banks, HSBC, BCCI, among many others, also serve as havens for massive evasion, money laundering, narcotics trafficking & weapons trade.
According to Professor Michel Chossudovsky in his book, “War and Globalization”:
[Note: Prof Chossudovsky has been conveniently labeled as a “Conspiracy Theorist” and pro-Russian because he exposed 911 as a pre-text for the invasion of Iraq. Prof Chossudovsky’s father was an intellectual Russian Jew who left the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and became a UN diplomat for his adopted country, Ireland. Prof Chossudovsky was raised in Switzerland, emigrated to Canada and became Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa. He has nothing to do with Russia.
"...the military planners in the State Department, Pentagon and CIA call the shots on foreign policy. They are in liaison with NATO, IMF, the World Bank, WTO & Council for Foreign Relations."
"In turn, the Washington-based international financial bureaucracy, responsible for imposing deadly 'economic medicine' in the 3rd world and in most countries, maintains a close working relationship with the Wall Street financial establishment."
"The powers behind this system are those of the global banks and financial institutions, the military industrial complex, the oil and energy giants, the biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates and the powerful media and communication giants, which fabricate news and overtly influence the course of world events by blatantly distorting the facts."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
Sources:
1. The Money Masters (money changers or bankers)
(Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to listen to or view this video at your own leisure).
2. Tragedy and Hope, A History of the World in Our Time
(Prof Carroll Quigley has insider knowledge of the bankers who are responsible for WWI & WWII. This book was written in 1949 but only released after his death in 1981. His disclosures placed him in such potential danger from an Establishment backlash that it was never published in his lifetime).
Prolonging the Agony: How The Anglo-American Establishment Deliberately Extended WWI by Three-and-a-Half Years.
The fact that governments lie is generally accepted today, but World War I was the first global conflict in which millions of young men were sacrificed for hidden causes.
They did not die to save civilization; they were killed for profit and in the hopes of establishing a one-world government.
By 1917, America had been thrust into the war by a President who promised to stay out of the conflict. But the real power behind the war consisted of the bankers, the financiers, and the politicians, referred to, in this book, as The Secret Elite.
Scouring government papers on both sides of the Atlantic, memoirs that avoided the censor’s pen, speeches made in Congress and Parliament, major newspapers of the time, and other sources, Prolonging the Agony maintains that the war was deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged and that the gross lies ingrained in modern “histories” still circulate because governments refuse citizens the truth. Featured in this book are shocking accounts of the alleged Belgian “outrages,” the sinking of the Lusitania, the manipulation of votes for Herbert Hoover, Lord Kitchener’s death, and American and British Zionists in cahoots with Rothschild’s manipulated Balfour Declaration.
The proof is here in a fully documented exposed — a real history of the world at war.
Are you overwhelmed yet? Yah. It’s a bit too much heaviness for a great fall day. But you all do need to have a grasp that all of human society is indentured to a handful of very wealthy elite that thinks that the status quo can continue on forever. And that they are setting in motion the beginnings of World War III so that China or Russia will not upset that monopoly.
How to Break the Kneecaps of Wall Street Sociopaths Before It’s too Late: Ferdinand Pecora Revisited
By Matthew Ehret for The Saker Blog
It is more than a little depressing to consider the impending systemic meltdown that immanently presses upon our current world. Since the 1971 floating of the U.S. dollar, a once proud and productive western industrial economic system has been increasingly asset stripped…
If America and the western order is to somehow find its moral fitness to survive and if a world war is to be avoided in the coming near-term future, then certain fundamental banking reforms will be needed.
Among the most important of these reforms will be a breaking up of banking activities into two categories under a renewal of the Glass-Steagall bank reform which was repealed by Bill Clinton in 1999.
These two categories would include:
1) speculative trash and illegitimate usury which must be “deleted” under a debt jubilee and
2) legitimate savings and other useful commercial banking activities tied to “real” values without which society couldn’t sustain itself.
Many readers might immediately scoff at my words, and assert that such a reform were impossible at this late stage of rot and corruption in western society but I would retort with the question: If this were so impossible, then how was it done already at a similar time of crisis only 87 years ago under similar circumstances of economic breakdown, fascism and world war? How have other national resistance movements blocked this sort of misanthropic agenda from succeeding in the past?
In this case, I speak of course of the forgotten Pecora Commission and an often-forgotten war on Wall Street which changed the course of human history.
What was the Pecora Commission?
Many are aware of the economic meltdown of October 24, 1929 that ushered in four years of depression onto America (and much of the western world).
However not many people are aware of the intense fight that was launched by patriots in both parties against the Wall Street/deep state parasite of that age…
… which prevented both a fascist coup against the newly elected Franklin Roosevelt…
… while also crippling Wall Street’s command of American life.
In spite of whitewashing revisionist history books that contaminated the past 70 years, America’s recovery from the depression never occurred without a life or death struggle and this struggle was made possible, in large measure by the courageous work of an Italian lawyer from New York. This man’s name was Ferdinand Pecora.
By 1932, when Senators Peter Norbeck (R-SD) and George Norris (R-NB) spearheaded the establishment of the U.S. Committee on Banking and Currency…
… the American economy was on life support and the people were so desperate that a fascist dictatorship in America would have been welcomed with open arms if only bread could be put on the table.
Unemployment had reached 25%, while over 40% of banks had gone bankrupt and 25% of the population had lost their savings.
Thousands of tent cities called ‘Hoovervilles’ were spread across the USA and over 50% of America’s industrial capacity had shut down.
Thousands of farms had been foreclosed and the engines of American industry had grinded to a screeching halt.
Across the ocean, the fascist regimes of Germany, Italy and Spain were growing more powerful by the day fed by injections of hundreds of millions of dollars of capital by London and Wall Street bankers.
Notable among these pro-fascist financiers was none other than Bush family patriarch Prescott, who provided millions in loans to Hitler’s bankrupt Nazi party in 1932 (and continued doing business with the party through 1942- having only stopped after being found guilty for “trading with the enemy”).
The Committee on Banking and Currency was a relatively impotent body when it began in 1932, but when Senator Norbeck called in Ferdinand Pecora to lead it in April 1932, everything began to change.
A first generation Italian-American, Pecora was forced to quit high school after his father was injured in order to support his family.
Years later, the young man found work as a clerk in a law firm, and managed to work his way through law school, passing the bar in 1911.
His unimpeachable reputation earned him the animosity of powerful NY financiers who ensured that his successes in prosecuting brokers never resulted in attaining Attorney General…
… where he made a name for himself shutting down over 100 illegal brokerage houses that speculated on fraudulent securities during the depression.
Within days of accepting the Washington job as Chief Council of Norbeck’s committee (for the meager salary of $250/month), Pecora was granted broad subpoena powers to audit banks and drag the most powerful men in America to testify in the committee’s hearings.
In his first two weeks, Pecora made headlines by auditing the books of major Wall Street banks and pulled in pro-fascist National City President Charles Mitchell (then preparing to advise Benito Mussolini) to testify.
Within days, Mitchell’s team of expensive defense attorneys could do nothing but watch in despair as the powerful financier admitted to short selling his own bank’s stocks during the depression…
… scamming depositors with purchases of Cuban junk debt…
… and avoiding taxes for years.
Mitchell was forced to resign in shame followed days later by NY Stock Exchange Chair Dick Whitney- who left the court in handcuffs.
This crackdown on Wall Street’s abuses were highly publicized and put the spotlight on the criminal schemes used to gamble with savings and commercial bank deposits on securities and futures markets which led to the orchestrated collapse of the bubble economy in 1929 (ironically much of the bubble built up during the “easy-money days” of the “roaring 20s” was centered in the housing market).
Pecora’s crackdown also set the tone for the incoming Roosevelt administration.
Unlike the previous 1911 Pujo Commission, which also exposed Wall Street’s abuses of power, the Pecora Commission was supported by a President who actually cared about the Constitution and amplified Pecora’s powers even further.
When FDR was told that supporting Pecora’s exposures of financial crimes would hurt the economy, the President famously responded with “they should have thought of that when they did the things that are being exposed now.” FDR followed up that warning by encouraging the attorney to take on John Pierpont Morgan Jr.
Rather than controlling an American institution as many believed 70 years ago and today, J.P. Morgan Jr. was actually running an operation that had earlier been created in the mid-19th century as part of a British infiltration of America. As historian John Hoefle pointed out in a 2009 EIR study:
“The House of Morgan was, in truth, a British operation from its inception. It began life as George Peabody & Co., a bank founded in London in 1851 by American George Peabody. A few years later, another American, Junius S. Morgan, joined the firm, and upon Peabody’s death the firm became J.S. Morgan & Co. Junius Morgan brought in his son, J. Pierpont Morgan, to head the New York office of J.S. Morgan, and the New York office became J.P. Morgan & Co. From its original role in helping the British gain control of American railroads, the Morgan bank became a leading force in the oligarchy’s war against the American System, using the deep pockets of its imperial masters to become a powerhouse in not only finance but steel, automobiles, railroads, electricity generation, and other industries.”
By 1933, the House of Morgan grew into a multi-headed hydra controlling utilities, holding companies, banks and countless other subsidiaries.
Senator George Norris showcasing a chart of Wall Street power
When J.P. Morgan jr. was called to testify, the banker carried a midget on his lap in mockery of the “circus of the commission”.
As the questions began however, the arrogant banker was caught off guard by Pecora’s proof of Morgan’s secret “preferred clients lists” of politicians whom the banker owned and who received stock offerings at discount rates.
Named among the thousands of traitors on this list, Pecora revealed former president Calvin Coolidge, Coolidge’s Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (a Schacht-Hitler supporter from the start), financier Bernard Baruch, Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts and Democratic Party controller John Jacob Raskob.
Raskob was not only a major speculator but was also the leader of the American Liberty League which tried repeatedly to overthrow FDR between 1933-1939 and worked to ally America with axis powers from 1939-1941.
Morgan’s god-like ego was brought down to the level of mortals when the flustered banker was only able to answer “I can’t remember” repeatedly when asked if he had paid taxes over the past 5 years.
As it turned out, by the end of the trial, it was revealed that NONE of the subsidiaries of the House of Morgan paid any taxes during the entire period of the depression, and were caught gambling with depositors assets from commercial accounts.
These revelations didn’t sit well with a population dying of starvation across the streets of America.
Similar displays of corruption were made of the heads of Kohn Loeb, Chase Bank, Brown Brothers Harriman and others.
Faced with these revelations, The Nation magazine famously reported
“If you steel $25, you’re a thief. If you steal $250 000, you’re an embezzler. If you steal $2.5 million, you’re a financier.”
Pecora’s ally Sen. Burton Wheeler said
“the best way to restore confidence in our banks is to take these crooked presidents out of the banks and treat them the same as we treated Al Capone.”
FDR Drains the Swamp
With the light cast firmly upon the dark shadows where vile creatures like J.P. Morgan and other financial gremlins reside, the population was finally able to start making sense of what injustices befell them during the years of post-1929 despair.
While not every banker went to prison as Wheeler or Pecora would have liked, examples were made of dozens who did and many more whose careers were shamefully ended.
Most importantly however, this exposure gave Franklin Roosevelt the support needed to drain the swamp and impose sweeping reforms upon the banks.
In the first hundred days, FDR was able to:
1) Impose Glass-Steagall banking separation (forcing Wall Street banks to break up their functions and preventing speculators from gambling with productive assets)
2) Create the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that protected citizens’ savings from future crises
3) Create the Securities Exchange Commission to provide oversight to Wall Street’s activities and on whose body Pecora was appointed commissioner in 1934.
4) Unleash broad credit through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which acted as a national bank bypassing the private Federal Reserve, channeling $33 billion to the real economy by 1945 (more than all private commercial banks combined)
5) Impose protective tariffs on agriculture, metals and industrial goods to stop dumping of cheap products in America and rebuild America’s physical economy
6) Create vast public works, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, Grand Coulee dams, Hoover dams, St Laurence development and countless other projects, hospitals, schools, bridges, roads and rail under the New Deal that acted in many ways then as China’s Belt and Road Initiative has in our modern age. Unfortunately, Roosevelt died before this new form of political economy could be internationalized abroad in the post-war years as an anti-colonial program.
Ferdinand Pecora’s Commission shaped the dynamics of America so intensely by its simple power of speaking the truth, that efforts to run a fascist coup against FDR using a general named Smedley Butler also came undone before it could succeed.
Butler played along with Wall Street’s plans for some months before deciding to publicly blow the whistle in congress.
Butler exposed the intension to use him as a “puppet dictator” leading thousands of American legionnaires in a storming of the White House displacing FDR.
It is often forgotten today, but in the early days of the 1920s-1930s, the Legion was modeled on Mussolini’s fascist squadristi and even its leader Alvin Owsley made explicit in 1921 saying:
“If need be the American Legion is ready to protect the institutions of this country and its ideals, in the same way as the Fascists have treated the destructive forces threatening Italy. Don’t forget that the Fascists are for today’s Italy what the American Legion is for the United States.”
Butler’s startling revelations amplified FDR’s popular support and inoculated much of the population from the fake news pouring out of Wall Street propaganda agencies spread across the media.
“Under the surface of the governmental regulation of the securities market, the same forces that produced the riotous speculative excesses of the ‘wild bull market’ of 1929 still give evidence of their existence and influence. Though repressed for the present, it cannot be doubted that, given a suitable opportunity, they would spring back to their pernicious activity.”
Pecora went onto deliver one more warning which current generations should take seriously
“Had there been full disclosure of what has been done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the bankers’ stoutest allies.”
Today’s oncoming economic meltdown can only be prevented if the lessons of 1933 are taken seriously and patriots who actually care about their nations and people stop legitimizing the casino economy of fictitious capital, derivatives, debt slavery and anti-humanism that has become so commonplace across the governing strata of the technocratic and banking elite today trying to control the world.
This elite, just like the financiers of the 1920s, doesn’t care ultimately for money as an end but sees it merely as a means for imposing fascist forms of governance onto the world population.
In the same way that FDR’s Wall Street/London enemies sought a world government under Nazi enforcers then, today’s heirs to that anti-human legacy are driven by a religious-like commitment to “manage” a new collapse of world civilization under a Green New Deal and World Government.
So why accept that dystopic future when a brighter one is offered us by the Multipolar alliance today led by Russia and China?
We all have a choice
And that choice is simple.
We can continue on the path where all your labors are converted into physical paper. Where that paper is owned by a handful of people. And they rent that paper out to you, and utilize all sorts of systems that control how you use that paper, and how that paper works.
Or…
You can embrace a completely different system. One where there just isn’t any paper, and no one is in control of that paper. It’s a modern version of hard cold gold. You work, and you get a digital equivalent of gold.
Obviously the people who control that paper do not like the idea of others leaving their long-standing monopoly. And they are willing to institute a complete nuclear armageddon to make sure that they retain their role.
Interesting times are coming.
But I, for one remain hopeful.
And why am I hopeful?
Well, it’s a sense of community, worth and value. It’s a place and a situation where you are no longer controlled by individual forces sitting behind wood lined offices in remote skyscrapers in far away cities. Instead, where you live in a place where everyone has value and worth and contributes to the greater good.
And to get there…
…America needs two things…
[1] A civil war
[2] A conflict that will defang the “arsenal of the money changers”.
Which brings up where we are in all of this. When is this all going to happen? Is it just yet another promise [1] that “someday” things are going to change, or [2] prepare for the worst because the end of the world is coming
Which is what I have been saying all along.
People! You are all in the middle of this period of change. You are smack down right in the middle of it all. The globe is changing it’s monetary policy. One side does not like it, and are fighting tooth and nail to destroy everything around them. (Let’s not get side traced in all the roles of the various players in this), and the other side (mostly Asia) is plowing forward with the implementation of a new way of doing things.
So relax.
Change is happening.
Oh, and just in case you don’t believe me, there’s this…
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio on capitalism’s crisis: The world is going to change ‘in shocking ways’ in the next five years
Veteran hedge-fund manager says capitalists don’t divide the economic pie well, so the system isn’t working effectively for all
Ray Dalio certainly is no radical idealist, but in his frequent writings and media appearances the veteran investor consistently calls for Americans to rewrite their longstanding contract with capitalism so that it is fairer and more generous to more people.
Which is pretty much the entire point of this post.
- Metallicman
Otherwise, he predicts, life in the U.S. could become more difficult: mountainous debt that stunts economic growth; fewer opportunities for ordinary citizens to get ahead financially; and a worldwide lack of trust in the U.S. dollar that diminishes Americans’ purchasing power and could lower their standard of living.
Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, which has made him a billionaire. So it’s not surprising that he champions capitalism as a proven way to expand economic growth and living standards.
“Capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie,” he says.
Then Dalio stands this tenet on its head. Capitalists don’t divide the economic pie very well, he says, and so today the capitalist system, the foundation of the U.S. economy, is not working efficiently and effectively enough for all.
“Capitalism also produces large wealth gaps that produce opportunity gaps, which threaten the system,” Dalio says — a system that has been and still is key to the health and success of U.S. business, workers, government and investors alike.
Unless the U.S. takes steps to make systemic repairs designed to provide greater opportunity for more Americans to achieve personal growth and financial security, the consequences likely will be painful for the country, as Dalio explains in this recent telephone interview, which has been edited for length and clarity:
MarketWatch: You have written and spoken about three big domestic and international problems facing the U.S. over the next five to 10 years and how a failure to address these challenges could threaten America’s standing in the world. What are these three pressing problems?
Ray Dalio: I look at it mechanically, like a doctor looking at a disease. If asked what is the issue here, I would say that it is a certain type of disease that has certain patterns which are timeless and universal, and the United States is broadly following that progression.
There are three problems that are coming together, so it’s important to understand them individually and how they collectively make a bigger problem.
There is a money and credit cycle problem, a wealth and values gap problem, and an emerging great power challenging the existing dominant power problem. What’s going on is an economic downturn together with a large wealth gap and the rising power of China challenging the existing power of the United States.
It’s a fact that there has been a weakening of the competitive advantages of the United States over the last couple of decades. For example, the United States lost a lot of the education advantage relative to other countries, our share of world GDP is reduced, the wealth gap has increased which has contributed to our political and social polarization.
But we haven’t lost all of our competitive advantages. For example in innovation and technology, the United States is still the strongest, but China is coming on very strong and at existing rates will surpass the United States. Militarily, the U.S. is stronger but China also has come on very strong and is probably stronger in the waters close to China that include Taiwan and other disputed areas. Finances for both countries are challenging, but for the U.S. more so. The U.S. is in the late stages of a debt cycle and money cycle in which we’re producing a lot of debt and printing a lot of money. That’s a problem. As a reserve currency status, the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.17% is still dominant though its being threatened by its central bank printing of money and increasing the debt production problem.
‘The United States is a 75-year-old empire and it is exhibiting signs of decline.’
MarketWatch: Focusing on the money and credit problem, excessive debt can be a killer for businesses and families, but most people don’t seem to recognize that debt plays havoc with their country’s finances as well. Government runs the money printing press, which buys time, but eventually something’s got to give.
Dalio: If you look at the history — for example, the Dutch Empire, the British Empire — both experienced the creation of debt and the printing of money, less educational advantages, greater internal wealth conflict, greater challenges from rival countries. Every country has stress tests. If you look at British history, the development of rival countries led them to lose their competitive advantages. Their finances were bad because they had accumulated a lot of debt. So, after World War II those trends went against them. Then they had the Suez Canal incident and they were no longer a world power and the British pound is no longer a reserve currency. These diseases almost always play out the same way.
The United States’ relative position in the world, which was dominant in almost all these categories at the beginning of this world order in 1945, has declined and is exhibiting real signs that should raise worries. There’s a lot of baggage. The U.S. has a lot of debt, which is adding to the hurdles that typically drag an economy down, so in order to succeed, you have to do a pretty big debt restructuring. History shows what kind of a challenge that is.
I just want to present understanding and facts. There’s a life cycle. You’re born and you die. As you get older you can see certain things that are symptoms of being later on in life. To know the life cycle and to know that these symptoms are emerging is what I’m trying to convey. The United States is a 75-year-old empire and it is exhibiting signs of decline. If you want to extend your life, there are clear things you can do, but it means doing things that you don’t want to do.
‘Wealth cannot be created by creating debt and money.’
MarketWatch: Let’s put it bluntly: Is capitalism broken?
Dalio: I wouldn’t say broken as much as I’d say it has problems that have to be fixed. As I said, I’m not ideological, I’m mechanical. I look at everything operationally like a machine and what has been shown is that capitalism is a fabulous way of creating incentives and innovation and of allocating resources to create productivity. All successful countries have uses for it. For example, communist China has chosen capitalism, which has been essential to its growth.
But capitalism also produces large wealth gaps that produce opportunity gaps, which threaten the system in the ways we are seeing now. Wealth gaps give unfair advantages to the children of rich people because they get a better education, which undermines the equal opportunity notion. As the number of people who get equal opportunity diminishes, this reduces the possibility of finding talented people in that population, which isn’t fair and undermines productivity. Then the have-nots want to tear down the capitalist system at a time of bad economic conditions. That dynamic has always existed in history and it’s happening now.
The capitalist system is based on profit-seeking being the resource allocation system, which generally works well but doesn’t always. So, capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie, but they’re not good at dividing the economic opportunity pie. Socialists are generally not good at increasing productivity and the size of the economic opportunity pie, but they are better at dividing the pie.
We now have too much emphasis on distributing wealth and getting it from producing debt and printing money, and not enough from increasing productivity. Wealth cannot be created by creating debt and money. We have to be productive together, so we have to look at the good investments that we can make together that make total sense, like in education, and create equal opportunity in order to be productive.
We have to be in this together. The system needs to be reengineered to do this. But if we don’t do this engineering well, we’re going to spend in an unlimited way and deal with that by creating debt that won’t ever be paid back, and we will risk losing the reserve currency status of the dollar. If we get into that position — and we’re very close — things will get much worse because we are living on borrowed money that’s financing our consumption.
‘Within the next five years you could see a situation in which foreigners who have been lending money to the United States won’t want to.’
MarketWatch: About the dollar being threatened as the world’s reserve currency — what does “close” mean, and what would the decline of this status mean for Americans?
Dalio: Within the next five years you could see a situation in which foreigners who have been lending money to the United States won’t want to, and the dollar would not be as readily accepted for making purchases in the world as it is now.
We have to realize that we’re spending more than we’re earning. Every individual, every company and every country has an income statement and a balance sheet. The income statement is how much is your earnings are relative to your expenses. If your earnings are greater than your expenses, great, you will increase your balance sheet. If your earnings are less than your expenses, then you have to draw on your balance sheet.
The United States doesn’t have a good income statement and balance sheet in dealing with the rest of the world. It is running a deficit to the rest of the world that is financed by borrowing money so that we are producing liabilities. Our living standards are based on our spending, not on our income statement or balance sheet. If the U.S. loses that ability and it doesn’t force itself to be more productive, one day it will lose that ability to borrow and then will have to cut spending, which is painful.
When that pain happens at a time when you have the population at each other’s throats over money, that’s a toxic combination. People can’t take a downturn and have less buying power. So, necessarily the poor will have to be getting money from the rich and the rich are going to want to prevent that, and then if it gets bad enough, that it messes up productivity.
‘When the causes people are fighting for are more important to them than the system that binds them together, the system is in jeopardy.’
MarketWatch: What steps do politicians and business leaders need to take now to create and implement reforms that will fortify the U.S. balance sheet and the dollar’s status?
Dalio: In brief, productivity and equal opportunity are most needed. If we could at least agree that we must have these things, that would be great. What we have now is a situation in which we’re fighting each other, we are not providing equal opportunity, and we are losing our productivity gains.
One of the greatest problems is that everybody’s fighting for their cause. When the causes people are fighting for are more important to them than the system that binds them together, the system is in jeopardy. This seems to now be happening. Everybody has their cause and they’re almost losing sight of the overall picture. Democracy depends on compromise. It’s the notion of compromise and working together and being able to have a negotiation to get what the most people want rather than have one side beat the other.
You really have to take the relative parties and make them agree on what’s going to be best. The group has got to be bipartisan and they have to be knowledgeable. Bring together parties of opposing ideologies who are also knowledgeable, not just smart but who are on the ground, to come up with a plan together that all can support so that we’re productive, increasing the size of the pie and dividing it well. It would be great if whoever the president is could draw upon people from both parties and different perspectives.
MarketWatch: As Americans prepare for a presidential election in November, the three major problems you mentioned earlier would seem to be important factors for voters to consider.
Dalio: Yes. The world is going to change in the next five years in shocking ways in relation to the three big issues we have been talking about.
First, there’s a debt-money cycle — what is the value of money? What will happen to the debt? Will the dollar retain its value? The finances of this — who is going to pay for it? How? What will work? That’s number one.
Second, the wealth, opportunity and values gaps will have to be dealt with. Are we going to be at each other’s throats in a way that is harmful or are we going to be working together even if things get worse?
Third is the rising of a great power in China to challenge the existing power of the United States. Will this be well handled?
We will be dealing with these issues in the next presidential term, which will have a huge effect on our outcomes. The last time those three things existed as they do now was the 1930 to 1945 period. That’s the last time you had zero interest rates and money printing. That’s the last time you had the wealth and political gaps as large as they are today, and it was the last time you had rising powers challenging the existing world order. This and many analogous times before it help to give us perspective.
‘Worry as much about the value of your money as you worry about the value of your investments.’
MarketWatch: These and other domestic and international challenges will clearly affect Americans financially. What would be a smart, proactive strategy for investors to both protect a portfolio and take advantage of market opportunities?
Dalio: First, worry as much about the value of your money as you worry about the value of your investments. The printing of money and the debt should make you aware of that. That’s why financial asset prices have gone up — stocks, gold — because of the debt and money creation. You don’t want to own the thing you think is safest — cash.
Second, know how to diversify well. That includes diversification of countries, currencies and assets, because wealth is not so much destroyed as it shifts. When something goes down, something else is going up so you have to look at all things on a relative basis. Diversify well and worry about the value of cash.
Americans look at the value of everything in U.S. dollars, but they don’t look at the value of the dollar. You’re in an environment where you have to be cautious about that, because the easiest way out for government is to do what the U.S. just did, which is to borrow and print a lot of money. They don’t have to get it from anyone, because when they raise taxes they have to get it from somebody and that somebody squawks. The population doesn’t pay much attention to the debt and the printing of money. They all appreciate the giving of money. So you hear the population say, “I need more money,” and get angry if they don’t get it. So you’ve got to give them more money, and it’s easier not to take it away from someone else.
The following is a completed reprint from The Organic Prepper titled “Open letter to the stressed out preppers” by Daisy Luther. Reprinted as found and modified (minor editing) to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
A Personal Letter to Stressed Out Preppers Who Are TIRED of This Apocalypse
Dear Friends:
2020 has certainly been quite a year so far, and a defining one for the preparedness movement. No longer are our stockpiles of rice, beans, and hand sanitizer objects that make us strange. Our stashes of TP would make us the envy of the neighborhood if, of course, anybody knew we had it.
So many of the things and beliefs that made us figures of mockery in the past are now proving their value. We’re learning, with a mixture of relief and perhaps dismay, that we weren’t so crazy after all.
This has been a year in which so many things have occurred that proved preppers have things right that it’s positively exhausting. We’ve had a pandemic, civil unrest, food shortages, increases in crime, exorbitant unemployment, and we’re facing an economic collapse, or at the very least, an economic crisis.
And we’re tired.
Maybe everyone doesn’t feel this way. Maybe you’re perfectly fine and you live on your back 40 and have been completely untouched by any of the above-mentioned crises. Maybe your finances are just fine, you never got out much anyway, and you’ve still got 8 years’ worth of food socked away to supplement the things you grow. Maybe you’re reading this as you spin goat hair into yarn from which you’ll make this year’s mittens. Maybe you have no relatives, friends, or loved ones in the path of danger. Maybe your area isn’t prone to a single natural disaster.
If this is the case, I salute you. I really do. Good for you.
But for most of us, this is not the case. A lot of us are tired.
And I mean tired.
I’m sure there will be plenty of folks in the comments who say, “Daisy Luther is such a whiner” but whatever. I’m just going to come right out and tell you how I feel about this.
This year has been difficult.
My life changed completely. The lives of people I love changed completely. I lost some people I cared for deeply to the virus. I watched people in my family frolic around blithely ignoring the virus for which they’re in a peak risk group for death. I watched my country get torn asunder by everything from the pandemic response to racial injustice to perceived insults or losses of rights. I have a family member who lives in a riot zone but due to work and finances, can’t just relocate. (Although those folks on the internet always make it sound so damned easy to just quit your job then up and move to the boondocks to raise sheep.)
I have friends who have developed such extreme political views on either side that I don’t even know what to say to them anymore. I still love them. I still know they’re good people or we wouldn’t have been friends in the first place. But what the heck, y’all?
Then we’ve got hurricanes and the worst wildfires ever in history and floods and droughts and snow in September and murder hornets and the Olympics got canceled and there was some radiation leak in Russia and police brutality, which you will say is alleged or real, depending on your personal perspective. Oh yeah, and the US Postal Service has gone to heck, a lot of kids can’t go back to school so they’re surfing the net while they’re supposed to be “distance learning” online, and Netflix is playing a child porn movie to prove that kids are getting sexually exploited.
Our presidential candidates are (in my humble opinion) like a choice between your favorite sexually transmitted infection, syphillis or gonhorrhea. And regardless of whether syphilis or gonorrhea wins, all hell’s going to break loose (or break looser because it’s already pretty freakin’ bad in a lot of places) before and after the election that may not even happen the regular way because of the pandemic.
And we preppers who were ready for an emergency are sitting here scratching our heads thinking, “Heck fire, I wasn’t actually prepared for ALL OF THE EMERGENCIES AT ONCE.”
And it’s going on and on and on.
And that’s the other thing.
This stuff is going on and on and on forever. Ad infinitum. We are still in the middle of a global viral outbreak that we don’t completely understand and lots of places are still under major restrictions. A lot of folks don’t have their jobs back and a lot never will. We have been dealing with this particular disaster since at least February and the mental toll of dealing with the restrictions, the loss of income, the isolation, and the loss of freedom has been harsh for many people. There are folks who are just plain mad that they didn’t get the apocalypse they signed up for and they haven’t gotten to shoot any marauders and quite frankly, lockdown is boring as heck.
Lots of us have family members and people in our inner circles who are chomping at the bit to get back to “normal” when things simply are not normal. We’ve got loved ones who want to head out to parties and who want to throw caution to the wind and who flat don’t give a hoot what they bring home to Grandma. We’ve got loved ones who are using this entire scenario to say how we’ve overreacted. We’ve got loved ones who still get aggravated when we bring home more toilet paper.
When we were prepping for all this stuff most of us never expected that our families who were also prepping for this stuff might not be on board with this specific scenario. We never thought we’d have to argue with children and spouses and friends and lovers about things like quarantines and masks and not eating all five years’ worth of the good snacks like Oreos in the first 6 months. We didn’t consider that we might not be able to replace our Bluetooth headsets or that we’d need them for work or that we’d have to have our offices in our homes or that our kids’ teachers (on Zoom) might see their BB guns in their bedrooms and send the SWAT teams after us.
We can’t go to church but we can go to riots.
We aren’t supposed to travel yet mysterious busloads full of “protesters” show up in other states and that’s just hunky-dory. The borders are closed except they’re not really and the restaurants can’t serve you except they can sort of and we can’t go to the beach but we can line up for a vaccine once the promised injection, untested for long-term side effects, is ready.
This is the worst apocalypse ever because it’s so dad-gum boring and it’s going on for-freaking-ever.
That’s the thing that nobody warned us about. This monotony just goes on and on and on. It would be one thing if we were out there fighting for resources but in reality, we’re all just standin’ in line at Wal-Mart with our masks on waiting for our turn to get zapped with a thermometer to see if we are allowed to go inside. If it weren’t for wifi we’d all be crazy by now. Or – let’s be real for a moment – maybe it’s because of wifi so many people are crazy right now.
Social media is a jungle – an outright vicious and bloody jungle – and may the most audacious mofo win because those of us who still retain our human decency are not going to be able to hang with the people out there flinging wild ungrounded insults like poop in the monkey cages at the zoo.
And folks – I hate to say it but we’re still on Round One.
We’re going to be dealing with this bizarre altered reality for quite some time. This virus ain’t over yet or if you don’t believe in the virus, then consider that this government response isn’t over yet.
We’re going to have to hope our children who are going to school in personal bubbles aren’t going to have OCD and chronic anxiety for the rest of their lives. We’re going to have to learn to make do without all the imports that no longer seem to be populating stores.
We never really expected that a huge part of survival would just be waiting and adapting to the new world around us. Not this new world anyway. This isn’t one we can shoot our way out of or buy our way out of or wait our way out of. We have to adapt to the new economy, the new precautions, and the new suspicions. We have to adapt to a different type of supply chain. We have to move into survival mode as we watch civil unrest and riots break out in the most unlikely places, although it’s not really the survival mode we ever expected. We have to adjust to the nearly constant state of offense and unrest. We’re going to have to teach our children to be bold and fearless despite a system that wants them to be afraid. We’re going to have to forge a path through a labyrinth that is nothing like the one we expected when we began prepping for serious events because this event was so wildly unpredictable that nobody could have seen it happening the way it did.
But this is what we do.
We’re preppers. Preparing for the unexpected is our thing. Even when the unexpected is long-lasting, monotonous, boring, and stifling. Even when our family thinks we’re overreacting. Even when everything changes and things don’t get back to “normal.” Even when we’re just sitting there right on the edge of chaos wondering if today is the day that things will erupt in our neck of the woods.
Every.
Single.
Day.
For.
Months.
The way this unfolded isn’t the disaster any of us expected but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt. How well we’re able to handle it will tell us a lot about how mentally prepared we actually are. How we manage our friends, families, and expectations will help us determine how things might go in a future, more Mad-Max variety of apocalypse.
Take this as the learning experience that it is. And don’t be lulled by the boredom into a false sense of security.
Because this is not over. Not by a long shot.
Hang in there, my friends. Whether we have to pull our loved ones along by their collars, whether we have to buy our supplies and stash them away on the sly, whether we have to prepare all on our own, we have to deal with the apocalypse we’ve been given, emotionally and physically.
It’s going to be a long haul, but we’ve got this. I don’t know if you’re feeling the same way that I am, but just in case you are, I wanted you to know – you’re not alone.
Daisy
Conclusion
I’m throwing a bunch of stuff out there at you all. But pay attention please.
Human society is changing.
It is a sentience sorting effort.
Service-for-self people have established long-duration systems known as “banking” to segregate society into a kind of modern serfdom.
Technology, and other societies (namely Asian) have created alternatives systems to the “banking system” and are going ahead with it’s implementation.
The service-for-self people are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the status quo.
They are causing internal dissension, and conflict in the United States.
They want to start World War III internationally, and have unleashed a global pandemic to that end. (Which pretty much backfired.)
You are all at the beginning phases of this change.
It will get worse.
People will die.
But, after the dust clears in about ten years, it will be a softer, quieter world.
So be positive and hopeful. The damage will not be uniform, but will be in clusters. As long as you are part of a community that “carry your weight”, be helpful and a Rufus, you will be fine.
The future belongs to the people that make things and contribute to the good of society.
Do you want more?
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Empires are a real pain in the ass, don’t you know. They are always off concocting one war or the other. Bombing places into oblivion, and just threatening others with all sorts of trouble. They collapse trade, invention, scientific development, society, religion and the environment. But yet, it all continues.
What stops all this madness?
Internal collapse. That’s what historically ends the insanity.
You can tell a empire from a normally peaceful nation by it’s “telltales”. Which are uniformly, and historically stable;
Military bases everywhere.
The most powerful military in the areas that they occupy.
The use of their currency for financial transactions.
On-going wars or conflicts.
Justification for war using “righteous and just” excuses.
Disruption of trade.
Now, it’s pretty obvious to everyone (except the most bone-headed ignorant) that the USA today is a military empire and it is going “down” shooting as it collapses internally. The signs are all there and obvious.
But we are not going to talk about THAT, right now.
John Whitehead.
We are going to talk about something else. We are going to talk about the crimes of the empire when it is still functioning. Because, as soon as it collapses, everything is forgotten and forgiven (apparently). And that is really, really bad, and a serious problem. For how can you learn form your mistakes if you always conveniently forget the past?
“Oh, let by-gones be by-gones.”
Now, one of the big things about these military empires is that they are always invading the “little guy”. They are always invading and taking over smaller and peaceful nations. Either directly or indirectly (like the CIA and it’s many tentacles).
Hey!
Fun fact! Did you know that the United States is currently fighting eight simultaneous wars right now? Yeah. It is. Bet you cannot name them all. And you also wanna know something else? They are all smaller and unable to defend themselves from the nuclear super-power.
Harry Dunn
Well…
Perhaps it’s time for me to butt-in and say a few word about all of this. Eh?
The scarlet pimpernel.
When the British Empire was at it’s peak, it too invaded nations on the slightest whim. And the excuses were the same as they are today “because we should take precautions”. And so, let’s look at one of those little nations states that the British Empire overran and conquered…
The following is a reprint of an article titled “British Invasion of Madagascar” and Authored by John W. Osborn, Jr.. It is reprinted as found with only minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author and his work.
British forces were compelled to invade the island Madagascar off the coast of East Africa amid fears of a Japanese invasion.
By John W. Osborn, Jr.
“The first I saw of Madagascar and the last after adventurous months ashore was the eerie color of the soil,”
…a British novelist turned security sergeant would write a decade later.
“It gave to the sky, the vegetation, and the people a strangeness, even a deathliness which still shadows my recollections of the island. For the soil and the dust which rose from it to cake our skins and clothes, our eyelids and nostrils was not brick-colored or terra cotta but the color of dried blood.”
Lying 240 miles off the southeast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, at 226,658 square miles Madagascar ranks just behind Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo in size among the world’s islands.
But with a population in 1942 of just 3.4 million, it had one of the world’s smallest densities, five persons per square mile.
Only 25,000 were French, the rest a mixture of African with ancient arrivals from Malaya and Polynesia dizzyingly divided into 18 sub-ethnic groups such as the Antandroy, the “people of the bush brambles,” and the Tsmimihety, the “people who do not cut their hair.”
Madagascar
Though discovered by Europeans in 1506, its French rulers did not bother to take possession until 1897. Under the rule of Vichy collaborators, the island was ignored and isolated for most of the war; however, events in the Pacific brought it briefly into the action.
As World War II raged on all over the globe, the people of Madagascar lived their lives in peace and tranquility. Knowing full well that they were safe as being uninteresting and of little importance int he grand scheme of things.
When he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor in his London headquarters, the leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, asked an aide what he thought the consequences would be for France.
“The Indian Ocean becomes a major theater of operations, and Madagascar suddenly takes on strategic importance. The Japanese will try to seize it,”
…the aide astutely answered.
In Japanese hands, the magnificent harbor of Diego Suarez at the northeast tip of the island and the naval base a mile to the south at Antisare could choke off Allied supply lines to India and Egypt.
De Gaulle appealed to the Allies to take Madagascar, but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill vetoed the idea.
“Our hands are too full,”
…he cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and told his chief of staff,
“Madagascar must still have low priority.”
But then the Japanese captured Singapore and Burma. They landed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. With Ceylon threatened, the British war cabinet decided on July 12, 1942, to seize only Diego Suarez rather than all of Madagascar.
“The rest of the enormous island was of less strategic importance,” Churchill later explained. “With the memories of Dakar in our mind, we could not complicate the operation by admitting the Free French. The decision was taken for a purely British expedition.”
Churchill called the campaign for Madagascar …
“our first large-scale amphibious operation since the Dardanelles.”
Operation Ironclad got underway just 12 nights later, winter clothing seen loaded amid rumors of a commando operation against occupied Norway. Rear Admiral Neville Syfret commanded the aircraft carriers Illustrious and Indomitable,the battleship Ramillies, a pair of cruisers, nine destroyers, six corvettes, and an equal number of minesweepers.
Maj. Gen. Robert Sturges commanded 13,000 troops.
During the effort to gain control of the port of Diego Suarez on the island of Madagascar, British soldiers come ashore with their equipment on May 5, 1942.
“It was the nearest I would come to realizing a conception of ‘adventure,’”
…Sergeant Rupert Croft-Cooke later wrote. He had already had his share of extraordinary experiences, working in a circus, traveling with a horse-drawn gypsy caravan, and wandering Europe in an old bus. The writer was now heading for the strangest of all.
The convoy rounded the Cape of Good Hope, spent five days docked in Durban, South Africa, to load supplies, then headed north into the Mozambique Channel separating Madagascar from the African mainland.
Facing the British would be 8,000 unenthusiastic local conscripts along with Foreign Legionnaires and tough Senegalese soldiers from West Africa. “We were told in a whisper that we had agents ashore keeping us informed of every defensive measure of the enemy,” Croft-Cooke wrote. The top British agent on Madagascar since November 1940 was Percy Mayer, a businessman whose work took him all over the island, while his wife, much admired in what passed for society with her looks and piano playing, tapped out his messages to Durban in their bathroom.
“But,” Croft-Cooke recalled, “when the last night came and we realized that in the small hours, the landing would start, the prospect, viewed in the tropical sunlight, suddenly seemed forlorn, uncertain of success, exceedingly dangerous.”
The campaign for Madagascar opened at 4:40 amon May 5, 1942, with the attack at Diego Suarez.
Fairey Swordfish and Albacore aircraft from the carriers bombed shipping at anchor in the harbor and destroyed most of Vichy’s 30 aircraft on the ground, while the fleet shelled the town and paratroopers descended.
Caught in town, Percy Mayer rushed from his hotel room into the street. Unluckily for him, he ran right into a Vichy patrol. When he was searched, secret messages were located on him. He quickly found himself in a cell at Antisare’s naval base, told he would be summarily executed, and was at least offered a priest.
Only the air strikes had been real. The naval bombardment had been star shells and signal rockets, light instead of heat, the “paratroopers” merely dummies. The real attack was taking place on the island’s western side, at Courier Bay and Ambarata.
“Firing at night is not to be contemplated, the entrance to the bay being considered impossible,” a French staff report confidently concluded. Royal Navy minesweepers were nonetheless able to skillfully navigate the shoals, reefs, and mines and then drop buoys for the troopships to follow.
After coming ashore on Madagascar, British soldiers of the King’s African Rifles assemble on the beach.
Commandos and East Lancashire regulars proceeded to scale the 50-foot cliff overlooking Courier Bay. “We moved up to a gun position which we could see clearly in the moonlight,” a Royal Artillery captain serving as a forward observer related.
“Strangely enough, all was quiet and deserted, no sentries were posted, and no sign of life of at all. As dawn broke, we saw some buildings and went in to investigate. There we found the gunners all in bed.”
There was little initial opposition. “In sweltering heat, loaded like pack mules with ammo and grenades, we marched against a hot wind across the 8-mile isthmus to Diego Suarez,” one Commando remembered. When the Commandos and the Lancashire troops reached Diego Suarez at 4:30 pm they finally met bitter resistance.
Sergeant Rupert Croft-Cooke and the 29th Independent Brigade, in the meantime, had come ashore at Ambarate. He dragged his motorcycle to shore, kicked it to life, then joined the advance up the single, dusty road 21 miles east toward Antisare.
“There was no sound of firing, no glimpse of the enemy,” he wrote. “Ten miles or more distance were covered before we saw anything but red earth and florid vegetation.”
“Soon after noon, the battle started,” he continued. He had been traveling 20 yards behind the Bren carrier that the 29th’s commander, Brigadier Fredrick Festing, was riding in. Known as Frontline Frankie, he was, as usual, hundreds of yards ahead of the column when firing suddenly broke out. The British rushed to cover behind the roadside trees and bushes. After five minutes, one of a half-dozen supporting Valentine tanks clanked up. As he walked toward it, Festing saw Croft-Cooke and yelled, “Been fired on much, sergeant?”
“No sir, not at all.”
“I’ve got to speak to that tank,” Festing said and started whacking the turret with his walking stick. More irritated than impressed, Croft-Cooke rode back down the road to rejoin his security section.
The prospect of a Japanese invasion of Madagascar threatened the security of British interests in the western reaches of the Indian Ocean and along the coast of East Africa. However, Vichy French resistance to the British occupation of the island resulted in some difficult fighting before Madagascar was secured.
Festing drove the Vichy defenders back with armor, then a bayonet charge. Hours later, descending a hill and coming to a bridge across a stream, the British vanguard came upon a dilapidated corrugated iron building with a sign that said “Robinson’s Hotel.”
It was actually a store.
“In every village of Madagascar, we afterward learned, there was a Chinaman’s store, usually a tin shanty,”
Croft-Cooke recalled. It was quickly taken over as field headquarters for Festing and Sturges, with Croft-Cooke in charge of the guard detail. All the while, the ancient Chinese proprietor served tea, chattering in his unique brand of French.
Three miles from Antisare, the surprised British ran into a network of pillboxes and trenches the Vichy soldiers called the Joffre Line. Percy Mayer, still sweating out his appointment with the firing squad, had reported on it, but the information had never reached Sturges.
“The firing was now intense and from all sides,” Croft-Cooke related. “Our own artillery and the French 75s were audible in the universal racket of mortars, machine-gun and rifle fire.” Festing threw in his armor, only to have it stopped by a 2,000-yard-long antitank ditch. The last four of the Valentines and two of the six light Tetrarch tanks making up the rest of the operation’s armor were knocked out by artillery fire. Their crews leaped out and fought Senegalese soldiers hand to hand to reach safety. Festing recommended Captain Peter Palmer, killed trying to save his wounded driver, for what would have produced the campaign’s only Victoria Cross, but he was instead awarded the Military Cross.
A long day came to a merciful end at 6:30 pm. “Now, it was deep night, and the crowded stars of the southern hemisphere shone brightly,” Croft-Cooke wrote. To prevent snipers from crawling up in the darkness, the British set the surrounding grass on fire. “I watched the blazing hills and the black shapes of our men against them, and tried to realize that this was a battle, and not merely a rather fantastic night in a strange country.”
Sturges prepared to launch a predawn attack, expecting “a good scrape which would end when we were at breakfast in Antisare.” Actually, he was having his breakfast at 7:30, still at Robinson’s. “It was quite clear that the attack had failed. It was an unhappy moment,” he admitted.
There were more unhappy moments to come. Despite the fires, snipers got through—a naval signalman sitting next to Croft-Cooke fell forward without a sound, a bullet between his eyes. Then, Robinson’s came under heavy artillery shelling, sending everyone but the Chinese owner dashing to cover. Sturges headed back to the coast to board Syfret’s flagship Ramilliesat 2 pm, “hot, begrimed, and unhappy,” in Syfret’s words, and requesting a diversionary seaborne raid against Antisare.
In less than 30 minutes, the destroyer Anthonywas setting out to race 100 miles around Madagascar with Captain Martin Price and 30 Royal Marines. One of them was Syfret’s valet, who begged to go, Syfret agreeing only with reluctance. He later admitted, “I did not expect a score to survive the night. The next hours were not happy ones.”
Lieutenant Commander John Hodges took the Anthonyinto Antisare Bay in pitch darkness at 8 pm, hoping to make a surprise landing, but searchlights on shore came on. Hodges steadily maneuvered through a gauntlet of fire at 30 knots toward the docks. With no time to stop, he overshot the dock, reversed in by the stern while Price and his Marines jumped off, and then headed full speed back out to sea.
Price divided his Marines to seize objectives. Those rushing the gate at the naval depot where Percy Mayer was taken for execution came under rifle fire. Grenades tossed in response soon had the commander emerging with a white flag. A bugler beside him started to sound the ceasefire. The Marines, mistaking it for an alarm, knocked him down and then apologized. Inside, 50 British prisoners taken in the morning’s failed assault on the Joffre Line were liberated, but not Percy Mayer. Luckily, he had not been shot: sensing defeat, the French had ostensibly paroled him.
Price armed the prisoners and soon had Antisare under control, and despite Syfret’s fears, he had not lost even a single Marine. “This was a brilliant diversion,” wrote Churchill. Price was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for it. Sturges ordered a final assault on the Joffre Line at 8:30. Phone calls from Antisare reported that Price’s raid had broken Vichy morale, and at 11 pm, the burst of signal rockets illuminated the black sky, announcing that the Joffre Line had fallen.
The last holdouts in Diego Suarez gave up in the morning. “It was as though we had won a hard game of rugger, and neither team appeared to have any ill feeling,” Price commented.
Rupert Croft-Cooke saw nothing sporting about the score in losses, for 105 British had been killed and 283 wounded, while Vichy French losses were 145 dead and 336 wounded. “There was little for triumph in our entry,” he wrote. “We were angry at the idiotic obstinacy of the French, who had fought and killed many a good fellow. And why? Because an octogenarian marechal at home had ordered them to do so.”
Another soldier was just as angry: Charles De Gaulle. He was in Washington, D.C., to mend relations with President Roosevelt when a reporter awakened him at midnight for a comment—the first word he had received of the invasion. For the moment, the British preferred to deal with the local Vichy authorities. They would find them as hard to handle as De Gaulle, but for a different reason.
A Grumman Martlet fighter aircraft of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm No. 888 Squadron flies past the old Queen Elizabeth-class battleship HMS Warspite off the coast of Madagascar.A Grumman Martlet fighter aircraft of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm No. 888 Squadron flies past the old Queen Elizabeth-class battleship HMS Warspite off the coast of Madagascar.
When the police, customs officers, teachers, and other assorted necessary functionaries were summoned to the town hall in Diego Suarez and asked by the British to continue working, they protested, one of them asking how it would endanger their pensions to, ironically, collaborate with the occupiers.
The British made the gesture of threatening to jail them so they could claim later they served under duress. Croft-Cooke, for one, could not hide his disdain for such people “who, thinking that their pensions might be lost or their good name obscured in the eyes of their government, refused to admit the one consideration which should have counted with a Frenchman as it did with an Englishman: the defeat of the Boche who sprawled across France and of the Jap who occupied Indo-China.”
Croft-Cooke got on with his own security work, freeing imprisoned Gaullists, rounding up Vichy sympathizers for questioning, and starting a dogged pursuit of two German agents. He even governed for a while as an acting district officer. “I came to like the Malagasy, his innocent mendacity, his primitive timidity, his talent for storytelling, his indolence, courtesy, and sweetness,” he later wrote.
In the meantime, the British left the French in control of central and southern Madagascar, to his irritation. He wrote in 1953,
“One day, I suppose, we shall be told why it was that having taken the only strongly defended port in Madagascar, we remained precariously within an area of 100 square miles before attacking and controlling the rest of the island.”
Three years before, Winston Churchill had explained why. In the fourth volume of his World War II history, The Hinge of Fate,he included a telegram to Admiral Syfret regarding Madagascar. “It must be a help and not a hindrance. It must be a security and not a burden. We cannot lock up field troops there for any length of time,” it read. Syfret had, in fact, concurred. “I think, as far as our occupation of Diego Suarez is concerned, the French will adopt a policy of live and let live.”
Before long, though, the Japanese again forced Churchill to change his mind, this time directly.
“We had settled down to life in that scruffy little seaport as though we would remain there forever,” wrote Croft-Cooke. On the night of May 29, 1942, sudden explosions in the harbor shattered that tranquility.
Ramillieshad a 20-foot hole blown it its side. An oil tanker was sunk. “Where had they come from? What did it portend?” worried Churchill.
It had been a Japanese midget submarine. Attempting to escape after doing the damage, it ran aground on a reef, the two crewmen swimming ashore to be cornered and killed two days later.
During the next two months, several more midget submarine attacks destroyed 34 ships totaling 150,000 tons. The (erroneous) assumption—the midgets actually launched from Japanese fleet submarines—was that the Japanese were operating from the ports still in Vichy hands: Majunga on the west coast, Tamatave on the east. The premier of South Africa, Jan Smuts, put particular political pressure on Churchill, cabling, “Madagascar is the key to the safety of the Indian Ocean. It all points to the necessity of eliminating Vichy control from the whole island as soon as possible.”
The British first responded with bombing missions into Vichy territory by the South African Air Force. One aircraft with a pilot named Jones went down, and Croft-Cooke was sent on a rescue mission to get him back. Jones, though, had salvaged a machine gun from his wrecked bomber and was leading his crew to safety when they were suddenly faced with a French officer and 40 men.
As operations to secure Madagascar continue in November 1942, British soldiers dismantle a roadblock that has been erected to impede their overland progress.
“I must ask you, gentlemen, to consider yourselves my prisoners,” said Jones, firing a burst from the machine gun into the air. The Malagasy accompanying the French officer scattered.
The Frenchman responded, “I surrender unconditionally.” With his prisoner in tow, Jones reached the coast to be picked up by the Royal Navy. Croft-Cooke also found the German agents he was hunting. After receiving a tip, he nabbed them before dawn while they were sleeping in a hut.
“The west coast ports were needed for control of the Mozambique Channel where our convoys were molested by the U-boats. The governor-general remained obdurate. Further operations had to take place,”
…wrote Churchill. In the end, the decision was finally made to occupy the remainder of Madagascar in a three-stage operation named Stream Line Jane.
Stream would be a landing at Majunga, followed immediately by Line, a march on Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, finishing with Jane, a landing at Tamatave. A convoy of reinforcements including the famed King’s African Rifles (KAR) sailed from Mombasa to rendezvous in the Mozambique Channel with Croft-Cooke and the 29th Brigade on the night of September 9, 1942.
Another writer, Kenneth C. Gandar-Dower, was with the reinforcing troops that night. He had flown a rickety two-seater from England to India, later exploring Kenya and the Belgian Congo and publishing accounts of his exploits. The war provided him more opportunity for exotic adventure as a correspondent covering first the invasion of Ethiopia and now Madagascar.
“The world was dark and empty for us—and Madagascar,” he wrote of that night at sea. “I did not know what lay ahead.” What did lie ahead was an episode that would go down in British lore as the Battle Before Breakfast.
The invasion force appeared off Majunga at 3 am. “Between the troopships, something was moving, a little black blob that seemed to have no shape,” Gandar-Dower wrote. “After a while, I realized it was not alone. There was another, and another, and another.”
They were assault craft carrying East Lancashire troops and Welsh Fusiliers to the beach nine miles out of town. When daylight came, his ship moved to 400 yards from shore, and he watched “little figures crawl slowly up cliffs of white chalk, following the convolutions of a winding track, halting, going on…. It was if we cut away half an ant hill, replaced by a pane of glass, and through the glass, were watching ants at war.”
In fact, he was watching a feint attack like the one at Diego Suarez.
Croft-Cooke was coming in with the real landing force, headed straight for the docks. “It took an hour and a half to reach the shore,” he related, “and before we had done, dawn had arrived. We could see Majunga in the rosy light of sunrise, a white city among palms. At first, it seemed peaceful enough, but as we were within earshot, we could hear the sound of machine guns, and we knew the French were resisting. We caught a glimpse of the Commandos hurrying up a narrow street and saw our men along the white sand of the beach.”
The Commandos landed at 5:20, quickly overwhelmed the machine guns then swarmed into the town. Croft-Cooke followed, pushing his ever-present motorcycle through the surf and sand. “The fighting was almost over, but a few shots were still audible to give me the illusion of taking part in a fight for the town,” he recalled.
The Commandos met only scattered resistance as they occupied the bank, post office, and residence of the regional administrator, and in 90 minutes, the battle—such as it was—ended with a dozen British dead. Commandos trying to flank the town had run into a far different, more determined opponent.
“As we traveled up the river,” Fred Munson remembered, “the tide began to go out, and we began to run aground on a sandbank. The river was full of crocodiles, so before we could get into the water to lighten the craft and push them off the sandbanks, hand grenades were thrown into the river to keep the crocodiles at bay.”
In Majunga, the garrison commander, Major Didier Martins, got caught in bed at the time of the attack but managed to get himself slightly wounded in the left elbow and, no doubt for the benefit of his Vichy superiors, made a show of presenting himself with a theatrically oversized sling.
“Did my men fight well?” he asked.
“Magnificently!” the British commander played along.
As at Antisare, finding a bugle to call surrender proved difficult. A young British officer was sent to the Martins home for a white flag. He found Madame Martins hysterically barricaded in her bedroom.
From outside the door, the officer explained why he was there and assured her that he was not going to rape her. The door finally creaked open, and a trembling hand passed out a broomstick and bed sheet. “A curious gaiety spread through the town at lunchtime,” Croft-Cooke observed. “We were openly welcomed, and the hope was expressed we should occupy the capital before long.”
By then, the KAR and a South African armored car column had set out 250 miles southeast to do just that. They covered 131 miles in just 18 hours, only to be slowed to a crawl by the first of some 3,000 roadblocks Vichy forces were eventually to put up all over Madagascar. The KAR worked around the clock dismantling the obstacles and met their only serious opposition 150 miles from Atananarivo, at the mountain village of Ariba.
Senegalese troops kept the KAR under heavy machine-gun fire until a sergeant named Odillo, whose British officer had been killed, led his platoon around the Senegalese and then came screaming down on them wielding three-foot-long, curved panga machetes.
“After firing to the last, one of the Senegalese would jump out and try to scuttle through our lines. We dropped a number of them like rabbits,” the KAR colonel said. Four of the KAR died in the fight, while the eight wounded were laid without rancor or bitterness alongside Senegalese casualties, though neither would accept being put next to a Malagasy conscript.
British colonial troops fire their field artillery pieces toward Vichy French entrenchments on Madagascar. Defending their government’s sovereign territory, the Vichy soldiers were defeated after several sharp fights with the British forces. This action took place near the village of Ambositra.
After 13 days, the column reached Atananarivo to be met by a Special Operations Executive operative, Royal Navy Lieutenant Peter Simpson Jones, standing by a Renault in a crisp, new tropical suit. He and a companion had delivered a radio set to another agent, but their dinghy had capsized in Madagascar’s notoriously shark-infested waters while they were rowing out for pickup. The companion drowned, but Jones was rescued by a fisherman. At his court-martial, at which he was sentenced to five years in prison, the Vichy prosecutor had suggested, “Don’t you think in the next world war,you might do better to join the artillery?”
Percy Mayer’s piano-playing, radio key-tapping wife, who spent several anxious weeks expecting arrest, was also safe. Governor General Armand Annet had fled, and with no one to take the surrender, a British officer walked into the radio station to politely request airtime for a not quite historic announcement:
“At 5 pm, our troops occupied Atananrivo. Everything is quiet. That is all.”
Five days earlier, the Jane portion of the operation had taken place. With the surf at Tamatave too rough for landings in the dark, the plan was to intimidate the town into surrender with an overwhelming show of naval force. “They might bluff up to the last minute, but not beyond it. The guns would never have to fire,” Gandar-Dower believed, but he was proven wrong—for three minutes.
That was how long the British bombardment went on after the French had rejected a 10 AM ultimatum. They hoisted a white flag at 10:03. Gandar-Dower sloshed ashore, bowler hat on head, camera in one hand, typewriter in the other, to witness a great deal of activity—soldiers in firing positions, rushing about, kicking in doors–but no action. “It was,” he wrote, “like a Hollywood assault, which was being held up by the failure of the other side to put in an appearance.”
An old woman shuffled up to him to ask if the battle was over. It was, he said, and soon he and the British were marching into town, at their head, a young lady “in the shortest of bathing costumes and pair of first-class legs.”
Even though Stream Line Jane had been successfully completed, the campaign for Madagascar would drag on for six senseless weeks. With a mix of defiance and delusion, Governor General Annet had sent off a crazed cable to Vichy: “Our available troops are preparing to resist every enemy advance with the same spirit which inspired our soldiers at Diego Suarez, at Majunga, at Atananarivo, where each time the defense became a page of heroism written by La France.”
British troops affected widespread landing don the West coast of Madagascar, including the ports of Majunga and Morondava. At Majunga, opposition, which was only slight, was soon overcome and the civil and military authorities arranged the surrender of the town. British Bren gun carrier on the road in Majunga, Madagascar, Oct. 5, 1942. (AP Photo)
He had fled 190 miles south to Finanarantsoa, and the KAR had set off in pursuit. Gandar-Dower followed in a confiscated Citroen truck, bicycle, and pirogue, admitting, “We saw little of the war, but met with a great deal of curious adventure.”
Rupert Croft-Cooke was having his own adventure with a lieutenant and a half-dozen soldiers searching for a French lieutenant with 100 conscripts. Along the way, they had encountered crocodiles, chasing them off with rifle shots. They later came upon a female English missionary, alone, forgotten, and resigned to staying after over 40 years.
“Five hours of being paddled up a crocodile-infested river in Madagascar to a collection of native huts does not prepare one for such an encounter,” Croft-Cooke wrote. Then he and the lieutenant finally had their discussion with the French officer:
“You have, of course, some soldiers?” the Frenchman asked.
“Yes,” the British one replied. “We have some soldiers.”
“Naturally, they are armed?”
“Naturally.”
“Automatic weapons, I presume?”
“Tommy guns.”
“You have, perhaps, some other forces in the area?”
“We have.”
“With some artillery, no doubt?”
“Certainly.” It was back at the coast.
“Ah. You will excuse me a moment.” He immediately wired Annet, “Occupied today by British forces armed with automatic weapons and supported by artillery.”
The campaign became one more of annoyance than action as the stubborn Vichy put up hundreds more roadblocks. “When I shut my eyes and think of Madagascar, I see one enormous roadblock,” Gandar-Dower remembered.
The French laid melon-sized rocks exactly 20 yards apart for miles and erected 18-foot stone walls. In the last significant action, the KAR turned an attempted ambush on itself, marching 30 miles around to attack from the rear, killing 40 and taking 800 prisoners. The Malagasy, always quick to run from battle, were now running away for good, deserting in droves. Even worse for the Vichy, law and order were breaking down. Croft-Cooke was an official witness at the execution by firing squad of a Malagasy for the unprecedented murder of a French settler.
After a five-week march, the KAR reached Finanarantsoa, only to find that Annet had fled another 190 miles southwest. With the KAR still in pursuit and after almost being killed when his staff car was strafed from the air, Annet finally sent his aide, Captain Louis Fauche, to negotiate surrender. In a 650-mile march, the KAR had routed 6,000 defenders for a loss of five British officers killed, six wounded and 20 Africans killed, 76 wounded.
Fauche agreed to surrender with the curious condition that it did not go into effect for another 10 hours, until 12:01 amon November 6, 1942.
The reason turned out to be, to the very end, about career concerns. Having the campaign last for exactly six months qualified the French for medals, promotions, and even cash awards, but any chance was dashed days later. To cap the fruitless futility of it all in Madagascar, the Germans occupied Vichy France.
Churchill was modestly satisfied with the campaign for Madagascar. “We had gained full military control over an island of high strategic importance to the safety of our communication with the Near and Far East,” he noted. “The Madagascar episode was in its secrecy of planning and tactical execution a model of amphibious operations. The news arrived at a time when we sorely needed success. It was in fact for long months the only sign of good and efficient war direction of which the British public were conscious.”
De Gaulle was angered at being left out. Kenneth Gandar-Dower, by contrast, later wrote, “It was for me a fascinating experience, an isolated six weeks of strange adventure.” He admitted that it was “certainly more than an exercise, but very much less than a war…. The French consciously or unconsciously conducted their defense according to formula. The first was ‘maximum results for minimum expenditure.’ The second: ‘resist as long and as fiercely as you can without loss of life—either French or British.’” Gandar-Dower’s exotic adventuring and writing ended when his transport was torpedoed en route to Ceylon on February 12, 1944.
Rupert Croft-Cooke soon left Madagascar for his next and last wartime posting, India. He spent most of his postwar life in other out-of-the-way locales, including Morocco and Tunisia, after serving six months in prison for homosexual activity in England in 1953, but he was through with Madagascar. He later wrote, “I shall never go back to Madagascar with its blood-red earth and creeping shadows.”
He continued with his prolific, if ultimately forgotten, writing and in 1953 published his account of events in Madagascar titled The Blood-Red Island. Tragically, Madagascar would become that, and not just from the soil. An uprising in 1947 against the French was crushed with perhaps 100,000 dead, and independence in 1958 was marked by more violence and tribal strife.
Empires come and go.
No empire stays around for long. They all have a half-life. This is simply because humanity cannot exist, let alone thrive under an empire. It just cannot.
Empires come and go.
Some thoughts…
It is easy, so very easy, to get caught up in the history of the past. So and so, directing troops of Mr. XYZ and using the artillery of ABC attacked the hamlet of ZZZZ. So exciting. So interesting. So fascinating.
And the geo-political issues… well it is often simplified to “it had to happen, as other decisions were in motion”. Like “we had to invade Madagascar to stop the Japs (the Japanese) from invading Africa, or the Middle East, or the Mediterranean sea.” It was a necessity. They all argue.
Now…
Pause.
Think.
Look at a bigger, a much bigger picture.
No, I’m not talking about the Japanese Empire fighting the British Empire. Or the Russian Empire fighting the German Empire. Or the American empire fighting the world.
Nor, am I talking about the bankers and their control of the finances of the world. (For they tend to be the major players in all this nasty wars and fighting nonsense.)
I am talking about something, much bigger.
Something much bigger than earth-wide politics.
There are so many people, involved in so many aspects of human society that it is one big enormous mess. Everyone is fighting and striving for the bits and crumbs left over on the ground. The “news” is off yelling and screeching one narrative after the other in rapid and rabid succession. And even though you have a kind of allegiance to one side of a complex social-economic coin, the truth of the matter is something else entirely.
We are all puppets.
The American oligarchy has created factions that they pit against one another so that the peasants (debit serfs = you) will not rise up and kill them all.
And with all this confusion going on…
…and all this turmoil, just how can anyone sort any thing out?
The owners of the Earth have a say on what goes on…
What if you were an extraterrestrial looking at this entire event. What if you were watching dispassionately. What would you think about all of this? What would you think of the British invading a tiny island (ok, maybe not so tiny) off the coast of Africa?
What would you think?
Why was the UK busy invading Madagascar?
Why?
Why was the British busy invading Madagascar?
Why, indeed.
What was all this about?
At that time, the entire globe was plunged into war. Empires fought empires. And there were a bunch of them. Don’t you know.
And afterwards…
The British Empire collapsed in stages.
Leaving only two empires remaining. The Soviet Union Empire, and the United States Empire.
In the late 1980’s the Soviet Union Empire collapsed, and that left the United States Empire that maintained sole dominance of much of the globe.
From the 1980’s to today (2020), forty years…
It’s been non stop military wars, military development, military bases. All either open or covert. And while all this has been going on, the internal structure, and balance of what America was founded upon has rotted away. And what is left?
Nothing much.
Americans (and the rest of the world) are “burned out”. They want all this fighting, bickering, and torment to end. They just want to live their lives in peace.
And now today…
You all have a Casino owner for a President, and a cabal of war-mongering neocons that are gonna show the world that America is still the toughest bully in the world. Meanwhile, the media is full of fear, fear fear to control an increasingly upset population of debit serfs, and modern slaves in the urban centers.
Conflict is all but certain…
All of the indicators are pointing to this in alarm!
From 2020 through 2025, will be a very testy and trying time for America and for Americans. However, things will start to get much better and by 2030, everything will be just fine.
We know what is going on.
We know what is happening and why.
But…
You know, if I was an extraterrestrial, and my species was in charge of the earth I would look at things quite differently. I really would.
An extraterrestrial head’s up.
In fact, I would not care at all about the details. Let the humans fight among each other. Let them sort things out. My concern would be long term and everlasting damage. But even at that, there would be some leeway provided.
I would do the following…
I would isolate the biggest troublemaker (the USA from the rest of the world).
Economically, and by trade.
By treaties with other nations.
Keep the citizens of that nation fighting among themselves.
I would allow the nation to collapse.
No support for new technology.
No intervention of any type.
Instead, I’d make new alliances with healthier nations.
In fact, all things being equal, I would permit limited global war engagement.
Sometimes it’s better to kill the rabid dog before it infects others.
Isolation of the battlefield(s) to the American nation.
Permit and encourage shunning or isolation of the rabid nation.
Change the system
I would permit and encourage the development of other forms of commerce.
And, other forms of finance.
And, other forms and systems of society.
Allowing traditional governance with a heavily monitored presence.
Now, with this under consideration, is that not what is going on now?
Sentience selection and sorting. A fight for the dominant sentience for humans. Shall it be “Service for self” (The American neocon, and Oligarchy preference), “Service for others” (Which is more Buddhist, and representative of China, and Russia.) or a continuation of the current state with a segregated humanity. One that has two sentience’s for mankind; a ruling “Service for self”, and a subservient, servant class “Service for another” sentience?
What is going on today…
Let’s look, shall we…
For Americans
it’s confusing. The rabid dog is barking up a storm, jumping around all over, and has started to rollover and over on the dirt, causing you and your fellow fleas great discomfort. To make matters worse, some fleas actually cheer the dog on. Telling everyone else that they have never had it so good, and that the dog must bark to preserve their “flea society”.
It’s all a big mess on the back of that nasty rabid dog.
You are here.
So to understand how to survive and get through the next couple of decades, understand that you all (if you are Americas) are fleas on a very sick and rabid dog. He’s running around everywhere, barking up a storm and digging holes all over the yard. The other dogs are afraid of him, and the farmer has got his shotgun out because he doesn’t want his prized poodle, and collie torn up by the rabid pit bull. Will he pull the trigger?
For the rest of the world
Well, you are a flea on the back of one of the other dogs in the yard. You know that the farmer probably will not shoot your dog. But that crazed rabid dog has been barking and snarling at your dog for some some time now. If the farmer does not shoot, the crazed rabid dog will tear your dog to pieces…
Whats going to happen?
Well…
Time is our friend. Not our enemy.
And the invasion by America of another nation will only accelerate the coming end of the United States. Not delay it.
MAKE NO MISTAKE. Things are falling into place as they should. And do not get too caught up on all the details, and the lies spewing forth from the dying nation.
A big reminder…
What you think the universe is, what you think reality is, and what science is … well, it’s all wrong. The reality that we inhabit is quite different than what you all think. And when I say that things are happening and following a plan because that’s the way it is …
… well, believe me. OK.
Strange coincidences…
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The signs of decay and collapse of the American Empire are all around us. I have written about this in other posts. It’s not a popular subject. Americans take “greatness” and “exceptionalism” for granted. They don’t care if the garbage gets collected, just as long as it disappears. They don’t care who designs and make the cars as long as they are available. They don’t care about education, as long as the proper check boxes are checked off on your social scoring balance sheet.
America is collapsing everywhere.
And the lack of skilled talent, and collapse of the educational and support systems that use them, and the rampant corruption at all levels has created a very toxic environment. It is a place where things are breaking down, and there just isn’t anyone remaining who can fix and repair them.
You know it’s really bad when…
…fucking bridges fall down!
I mean, this is ancient technology. If pre-historic Romans and Egyptians could build bridges with their bare hands, what’s stopping modern American society?
Social progressivism.
What is the real cause behind this collapse?
What is behind all this; what is the root and reason for all this collapse? Is it a particular political party? Because that is what all the articles seem to point towards…
…it’s the “democrats” fault. It’s their damn social progressivism.
It’s OUR COLLECTIVE FAULT. We have allowed and permitted lazy and corrupt millionaires to let America fall apart and denigrate. We allowed them.
It’s our fault.
Own up to it.
Our fault?
This level of collapse, and destruction is not due to one person or a group of people. It is due to the structure and the very fabric of our society.
The American nation, and everything that it stands for, created this situation. You cannot deny it. No one president, no one group of people, and no one situation created it. America has evolved in a natural progression. It is natural. It is organic.
Deal with it.
This is the truth.
A Republic that allows other forms of governance does not last long.
Mob rule is a guaranteed path to an oligarchy.
Oligarchies always turn into military empires.
Military empires require dumbed-down, illiterate slaves/servants to operate.
And when you are standing around, take a good long hard look at your life. When you are paying $10 for a fucking simple cup of coffee. When everything you do is taxed and regulated, and any projects that are make “for the good of society” just spins around and around like some 5 GB movie that you are trying to download.
There are better ways.
There are more efficient ways.
But first you need to kill off all the slime-balls that have their hands in the till. All of them. Not punish. Kill. And make examples of them. Then you need to put new systems in place. Systems that will never allow a repeat of the past mistakes.
Until that day comes, the dysfunctional America will continue to stay dysfunctional. And all these plans for a railroad from Alaska to California, HST all over the nation, moon bases, walls on the borders, high technology transports, and college of the future are all just…
…wishful thinking.
For they will never come to fruition. Not until you start training and employing people who actually fucking make things. And the way the United States is today, that will NEVER happen.
Making things.
The future belongs to the nations that make things. Not to the nations that destroy things.
Which brings me to what America is today…
The following is a complete reprint of an article titled “2 + 2 = 5 means more bridges will collapse” and written on 4OCT20. It is reprinted as found with only minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
Reality is true even if you don’t want it to be. And it has certain characteristics, which include the fact that you need to do engineering right.
There has been a lot of talk about how Mathematics is racist, and that Math is sexist.
Well, math also describes the way the universe works, and if you want things like electric power, electric vehicles, better internet and computers, and bridges that don’t fall down, someone had better understand the math and the physics.
The FIU pedestrian bridge designed by FIGG Bridge Engineers collapsed in March of 2018 while it was still under construction. Six people died. Faulty design, due to incorrect calculations of load factors, was blamed.
Last month, the Federal Highway Administration placed FIGG on immediate suspension of any projects that involve federal funding. The FHWA also proposes that FIGG be debarred from any federally funded work for 10 years.
I am not an engineer, but clearly there was something wrong with either the design of the FIU bridge or the construction, or both.
The other thing wrong was that FIU spent something like 12 million dollars for a bridge that could have been built for less than 1 million.
There was a federal grant!
I don’t know how to gauge the quality of their designs, but when you get bridges designed incorrectly, they fall down.
They usually don’t fall down before they are in use.
Harris County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to change the engineer of record on the Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge after a review found one portion that had not yet been built contained a potential design flaw.
The @HCTRA plans to temporarily stop construction on the Ship Channel Bridge replacement project. An independent consultant found a design issue with the curved portions of the pylon legs. (1/2) @KHOU#KHOU11 Photos courtesy: HCTRA pic.twitter.com/ICdRu0zVR0
— Chris Costa (@ChrisCostaTV) January 7, 2020
In removing FIGG from the project, TxDOT cited a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the 2018 Miami bridge collapse. The report released in October cited load and capacity calculation errors by FIGG for the pedestrian bridge’s design.
And no amount of bafflegab is going to change that.
Feminist bafflegab.
America is not supposed to be like this.
You have to understand that America, as founded, was the most amazing nation ever to grace this good earth. There are many reasons for this, but nothing can say it better than this…
America's founders embraced a previously unheard-of political philosophy which held that people are "...endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights.." This was the statement of guiding principle for the new nation, and, as such, had to be translated into a concrete charter for government. The Constitution of The United States of America became that charter.
Other forms of government, past and present, rely on the state as the grantor of human rights. America's founders, however, believed that a government made up of imperfect people exercising power over other people should possess limited powers. Through their Constitution, they wished to "secure the blessings of liberty" for themselves and for posterity by limiting the powers of government. Through it, they delegated to government only those rights they wanted it to have, holding to themselves all powers not delegated by the Constitution. They even provided the means for controlling those powers they had granted to government.
This was the unique American idea. Many problems we face today result from a departure from this basic concept. Gradually, other "ideas" have influenced legislation which has reversed the roles and given government greater and greater power over individuals. Early generations of Americans pledged their lives to the cause of individual freedom and limited government and warned, over and over again, that eternal vigilance would be required to preserve that freedom for posterity.
-Footnote: "Our Ageless Constitution,"W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
You see, America today in no way resembles what our Constitution says it is supposed to be. It has turned in to a huge enormous monstrosity.
"Allow me, just now old enough to apprehend the freak show for what it is, to put something radical to my conservative forbearers:
Little about the presentstate of American life is worth conserving. Nothing of what the Founders envisioned remains."
-Andrea Yung
We Americans, living in this mess, move along with the flow and ebb of the political and social winds. Often making the most absurd statements, and rationalizations. Thus this fellow that I was chatting with.
He then went on to say that “We need to police the world. We need to spread democracy... ...the rest of the world is one big shit-hole, seriously.” And then asked me, “Have you ever seen the Mexican side of the border?“
America is very beautiful once you leave many of the urban areas. The sky is often awesome, the roads are wide and often clear of traffic. Many of the houses are large and spacious. When compared to other nations, the United States appears to be (hands down) the most desirable place to live. So it is natural to assume every other place is a hell-hole.
Now this is coming from a guy who doesn’t even has a passport, has never tried to get a visa, and his only experience outside the borders of our country was by watching reruns of Baywatch.
Ah. that old “no one has it better than us Americans” argument. We are so fortunate. Eh. Well, it plays well in Peoria. And it’s a good conversation stopper. As we, as Americans, have all seen the “Save the Children” commercials. That money-generating venture brought images of poverty into the living-rooms of Americans for decades.
So the argument seems to have some validity.
Seems to.
Being older with some experiences…
But, you know, I am from a different generation. I grew up in the 1970’s, and at that time between all the smoking blue haze we came to appreciate the strengths of the American system. We did so cranking Jimmi Hendrix, Robin Trower, Yes, Jefro Tull, Alice Cooper, Boston, Manfred Mann, Traffic, Uriah Heep and Three Dog Night.
"I'd love to change the world... but I don't know what to do.
That 70s show was a television comedy that sort of reflected what it was like living and growing up in the 1970’s.
And…
We knew, since the Vietnam war was still fresh in our minds, that America should be for Americans. We did not need to be off throwing money, and wasting lives in some off-the-beaten track for some globalist oligarch.
We knew that America was wasting money in Vietnam. We knew that people were dying there, and many of them were friends, or relatives. We knew that what ever benefit would come of that war, none of us would ever see that benefit.
We knew that the war was just pissing away American resources.
Americans in Vietnam. We fought and died there for “democracy”. When the truth was that it was an effort with the wealthiest in America to game the situation for their very own personal advantage.
We, almost my entire generation, felt betrayed by those older than us. Those who ended up throwing away lives in far off rice paddy’s, and making laws against marijuana that everyone was obviously breaking. What was the matter with these people? We asked.
Why can’t they just let us be? Why do they have to take too much of our money, regulate too much of our lives, and go off fighting wars that are too far away? Why?
Things were so different the. We weren’t expected to apologize for being born. We weren’t ashamed of our nation. We were American gosh darn it!
Well, that was only the tip of the iceberg.
A few more years passed. Ronald Reagan did put the breaks down to some degree, but he made some other blunders that (sad to say, eventually) set the stage for what was to come…
President Bush Senior spent most of his Presidency trying to undo the good works of Ronald Reagan. In many ways he was very successful.
First, was President Gerald Ford Bush (Senior) who made it his life’s work to undo “Reaganomics”, and implement The New Global Order. Then came a succession of socialist criminals, such as Clinton, Bush Jr and finally Obama.
Each one, in their own way, contributed to the state of affairs that America is enduring today. Each one played a role. Each one created the situation leading to all the complaints that we Americans have about “our” government.
They snipped the brake-lines to the American Constitutional government, and it has been in free-fall ever since.
Free-fall.
Ahhhhhhhhhh.
Those of us, still trapped in a rapidly decaying world try to grasp for straws trying to make out some sense of reason to the hordes of pink-haired ignorance, the black-thugs of Antifa and the BLM that seem to want to put average Americans in concentration camps.
So we listen to the news. Many, well meaning of course, have no idea just how tainted it really is. They believe the news.
America is full of the manipulated, living inside an echo chamber created by the military oligarchy to control and subdue the “citizenry”. Meanwhile, as the military empire trudges on, the quality of life of the peasants (oh I mean “citizens”) falls dramatically.
Nothing works any longer.
When a nation can no longer build bridges and walls…
… homes, and houses won’t be far behind.
Conclusion
Should I bring up China? Yeah. That nation run on merit that is populated with engineers? That are building bridges and High Speed Rail at a breathtaking rate? Nah. It’s far too easy.
China is a merit based nation of hard workers.
And…
America is what?
A nation run by a corrupt Casino owner…
Is a $500 scoop of ice cream served to you by an unkempt and illiterate moron just as good as a $1 scoop served by an attractive cheerleader / honors student?
Not until you start training and employing people who actually fucking make things. Instead of accountants, stock brokers, bankers and bean-counters who can count and look at spreadsheets. The world needs people who make things. Not people who stand by and approve of what others say.
If you were trapped on a desert island, who would you want to share it with? A handyman with a set of tools, or a a stock broker who doesn't have electricity for his computer?
America is deep into decay. And you all know what?
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
Well, the much promoted debates on television between Donald Trump and Biden has finally concluded, and all of us who watched them were disgusted. Very few left feeling better about ourselves, about our nation, and about where the world was heading. Instead, it actually reminded us of something quite different. It reminded us of two dirty old rats fighting for moldy turnip greens on the deck of a sinking ship.
That’s what it was like.
It was disgusting, horrifying, and just awful. But don’t worry. Trump just announced that he has COVID-19. And meanwhile…
Anyone who cannot see that the United States is in a state of decay and collapse is delusional. The USA is a mess, and the best leadership that the two parties can come up with are these two sorry washed-out clowns. It’s… well, pathetic.
Words fail me.
Perhaps, you might well appreciate what is going on through a song, eh?
Conrad Harris – Paradise (Tiny Tim on vocals.)
Yes.
It’s sort of like this.
You, yes you, are sitting in the front row seat to the collapse.
Now, maybe it will be quiet and peaceful. Maybe it will be calumnious and frightening. But, it will be a collapse. It is well beyond the point of recovery. The nation is collapsing in upon itself, and the best thing for the rest of the world to do is… stand back and let the whole thing implode.
Can you imagine Xi Peng acting like Donald Trump did?
Can you imagine Mr. Putin acting like Biden did?
I cannot. I see no leadership in either of the “preferred” candidates. I see just comical satire that has been streamlined into some kind of sick cartoon. It doesn’t matter who started the entire fiasco. Donald Trump appears to be the culprit. But the entire situation reeks of failure.
Instead, we were treated to a glimpse on the terrible, and misguided distortions of what some crazy people think is “how you rule the world”. And, people, It is dog-shit frightening.
If the world is to be handed over to these two clowns, then let me off the boat. The world is in for a shit-load of hurt on a mega-scale.
One thing is certain, and should be absolute crystal clear by now, the USA has ceased to be a leader in world governance. Further, it is under a state of collapse that is astounding in it’s magnitude and breadth and scope. And even beyond that, the general collapse of the American society on all levels; social, economic, financial, business, family, religion, morals, ethics, educational, and governance is so profound that no one can deny the truth.
The USA and the illusion of the “Strength and power” of the United States is over and long gone.
Jesus. Watching the debates was like watching two feral dogs in a remote countryside village fight over a leg of maggot infested mutton. It was that bad.
It was like watching two village dogs fighting.
It was that terrible.
Terrible.
The only thing that could recuse the participants would be either [1] a sudden war or [2] if one of them ended up with a life-threatening illness.
When Donald Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center in a car this afternoon, he simply had Secret Service agents drive him around the block so he could see his cheering idiot supporters outside the hospital, only to drive him right back into the hospital. If this stunt left a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not the only one.
Dr. James P. Phillips, who works at Walter Reed, tweeted this: “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential “drive-by” just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.
Which brings me to the latest in my SHTF series on the collapse of America.
The following is titled “Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true”. Written by JO (Jan Oberg) on September 30, 2020. Reprinted with minor alterations to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true
The unique, dominating position of the United States in the post-1945 world is well-known. It maintains this position thanks to both a very large historical goodwill capital and former glory in the eyes of generations around the world – and thanks to rampant militarism and imperialism that has destroyed the good ‘America’ that it used to be.
The world’s major division the next few years will be this: Are you on the side of [1] continued US global dominance or [2] do you want to see a new multipolar world with more balance and the US in the role of a partner among equals?
In my view, the US no longer has the capacity to lead itself effectively.
Nor can it find solutions to its own multi-dimensional crisis be it the economy, democracy, climate change, warfare addiction, social polarization, racism and on top of it all the Covid-19 crisis.
Not being able to lead itself, no one should wish that the US should lead the world. Neither does it have any right to.
Reread that sentence. Any nation that cannot handle its own domestic matters, cannot lead the world. It is like putting a pyromaniac in charge of a fire department.
While its allies, friends and admirers are increasingly turning skeptical, others turn away and look for other partners be it China, Russia or Iran.
While the friends of the US should try to help it out of its addiction to its outdated self-image…
… the designated enemies, of course, cannot help the US…
… as it simply would not listen. Strangely, these countries also need the US and have sought and still seek constructive cooperation but in vain.
The fact is that no one threatens the US (and certainly not Russia with less than 8 % of the military expenditures of NATO. The US has become its own worst enemy but blames others for its problems.
Sadly, it seems that there is not one ministry of foreign affairs among the EU /NATO countries that has even thought of developing a strategy for the post-US dominated West.
Countries such as China, other BRICS and many others are building a new world order. Will the West, therefore, loose completely, or will parts of it still be able to save what can be saved and transition into the future multipolar world order?
The chances of a “yes” to that question is diminishing by the day.
The list of twenty points below was written long before the Presidential candidate debate on September 29 (it would be an offense to children to say that they behaved like children). But that debate only confirmed these points – and the simple point that it doesn’t matter much whether the next president of the US will be Trump or Biden.
It’s the system, stupid!
And it is rapidly coming to an end.
It’s a valid intellectual-theoretical point that one cannot apply characteristics from psychology – basically the science of the individual – to much larger aggregates such as people, nations or the global system. That’s the fallacy of levels.
That said, let’s anyhow try to just a bit of such “psychologizing” to make it more familiar to the reader.
All empires go down, sooner or later – the latest was the Soviet Union, and the US/West has not been able to cope since its beloved enemy disappeared. All empires emerge, grow, reach a peak point, climax – and then begins to lose it to move to relative decline (others coming up) and then fall. Rather much like the individual life.
Over-reachor you never get enough – there is no one and nothing you don’t want to try to influence, dominate or control.
Hubris – we can get away with everything, we are big and powerful. May be right for a time, then reality catches up.
Exceptionalism– we can do things nobody else can because we are those we are – and we can tell others not to do what we ourselves do. We are above the law that others must follow, we fight wars for good while others fight for evil and are evil. Because we are good and have God on our side.
The unbearable lightness of routine – it’s all gone so well for so long thanks to our pervasive mind- and lifestyle-shaping influence through the media, film, culture, arts – Hollywood and all that. For as long as the rest of the world sees you as an ideal to imitate, – Americanization – everything goes smoothly.
The Number One problem– meaning that if you are (or believe you are) Number One in a rank order, there is no one to look up to and learn from so you end up becoming a teacher, master, dictator, more or less arrogantly “downwards”. If you are No 37, there are 36 others to learn from – how did they do it better than we did? However, sooner or later, the “pupils” stop listening and obeying the Master – His Master’s Voice, so to speak.
Mission activity or ‘mission civilisatrice’ – you try ad absurdum to shape others in the image of yourself; they shall become like us. Our national thinking is universalizable. The world should adapt to us, not we to the world. Remember who was The First World – (the Second and the Third) earlier?
Legitimacy in the eyes of others slowly disappears – you may get away with some bad acts once or twice, but when it becomes a habit, others begin to think. As time goes by, your normative power is eroded, and you rely increasingly on naked force – the military. My country, right or wrong: Send the marines!
Overmilitarization– the system needs a war more or less regularly; that means you need images of enemies (invented or real) all the time. Like a drug addict needs a fix. The US surely cannot do without enemies. The problem is that that military colossus called the Military-Industrial Media Academic Complex (MIMAC) always wants more – also in times when the economy cannot carry that burden. (Like the Sovjet Union in the 1970s and 1980s couldn’t). And the Coronavirus weakens the economy even further.
Increasing autism, denial of the real world plus Group Think– “everything worked so fine in the past, it cannot be true that we cannot just continue what we used to do. (So, let’s start a new Cold War, this time against China). Group think means that a small group of people over time build a common worldview that repels any new thoughts from the outside and become convinced that it’s right and everybody else wrong. The problem is that they don’t know they sit in that restaurant on US Titanic, the music playing so well…
Socio-political metal fatigue – something has been strong for a long time but suddenly there is a crack, and then comes another. The unthinkable, or at least unlikely and unforseen, suddenly happens repeatedly. And old tools can’t fix the problems.
Lack of vision and lack of the pioneering new dynamics– of the type that makes other want to follow you voluntarily. Little by little, everything signal you send out is negative or destructive.
The old positive life energy ebbs, and paranoia enters – like the increasingly old crumpy person who feels that the world turns its back and become unreasonable. Is there any important country in today’s world that the Trump US is not running some kind of conflict with, even friends and allies? Enters paranoia – “The whole world is against us… we see enemies all around – the world doesn’t understand us anymore. But we shall teach them a lesson…”
Stagnation and anti-intellectualism– you continue to do what worked before, such as solving every problem with the military and increasingly becoming unable to think. To the person who has only a hammer in the toolbox, every problem in the house is about hammering…So, don’t allow anything new, don’t tolerate diversity, and crack down on critical voices.
The normative and cultural power vanish– the perception by others of the Empire’s values as good and fair and as part of a vision crumbles. They embark on a future without the Empire’s diktat and/or protection and build a new world order (that the US will not hear about or let its subordinates participate in).
Over-extension through self-aggrandizement– you engage in conflicts and wars which you don’t stand a chance to win, increasingly losing a sense of reality and of your own strength vis-a-vis others.
Addiction& uni-dimensionality – since the only power scale in which you are “second to none” is the military, you use that where other means would be much more effective and cheaper as well as create respect worldwide. Diplomacy fades – lacking carrots, use the big stick.
Decadence, illusions and lies – the Secretary of State, Pompeo, is on record boasting that it is part of the American tradition to “cheat, steal and lie” – in other words, moral decay. Fake and omission, a struggle about what reality really is mounted.
Psychopaths and kakistocrats increasingly win influence = Pathocracy! Kakistocracy means government by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens. The tempo with which norms and expectations of normal behaviour is broken overwhelms the world. Leader senility may play its role too – remember Breznev? And then, somebody usually turns up in the chaotic developments and declares that s/he is the saviour.
Democracy and people’s participation in it crumbles – most citizens sense what happens but in disbelief. Mobilization of counterforces to save what can be saved, become more difficult by the day.
“And faster than you may expect”?
One should hesitate to appear too sure about predicting the final end. Sometimes terminally ill people live longer than medical expertise predicted. Taking the risk anyhow, I would say within the next presidential term 2021-2026 or at the latest by 2030.
When the cracks are frequent enough and big enough, the decline and breakdown accelerate exponentially. Remember the end of the Cold War in 1989 when border guards just opened the gates and people started moving freely.
In a Danish academic book from 1981 (1) I predicted the fall of the West thus:
“The Western world is on its way down and the present crisis is not just cyclical and also not just a crisis of capitalism (it is not exclusively economic) but a sort of civilizational crisis. The global system that has existed with Europe-US as its center and developed over the last 400-500 years is going through convulsions of a deeper nature than is normally perceived.Neither liberalism nor Marxism which are both Western thought systems and neither the US nor the Soviet Union appears as attractive models to the rest of the world. They are in deep crisis themselves – socially as well as economically – while Japan, China and a series of new growth centers and regional larger powers are rising, particularly in Asia.The wealthy, overdeveloped countries are approaching certain ‘objective’ limitations in terms of nature, raw materials, exploitation of human beings, the sheer size of the systems as well as management problems, social pressures, etc.Armament and the increasing militarization of various types of social structures everywhere is an (attempt at) “rejuvenation treatment” in the old- age phase of the West, a sort of compensation for diminishing power in other areas.”
Perhaps another song is in order…
Conrad Harris – All of me (Tiny Tim on vocals.)
Conclusion
Those governments, businesses, academia and others who (in these years) hold on to the US Empire (as the leader of the “free world”)…
… will become a periphery in the future world order.
…
…
Why chain yourself to the anchor of a sinking ship? But that is what Australia is doing. That is the the United Kingdom is doing. Is that really an intelligent thing to do? Is it in the best interests of the citizens that they are supposed to represent?
America is like this big, enormous, and beautiful ship that is sinking into the deep dark oceans. It’s because the interior of the ship has not been maintained. That the hull has rusted out and the engineers and Captain do not have the skills needed to fix it and prevent it from sinking.
The future belongs to the builders, the makers and the contributors.
Not to those who hold on to the old methods, suppress any new methods, and praise themselves for tabulating and monitoring the spreadsheets in support of their activities.
"A majority of Americans are bracing for the possibility of a politically-fired civil war, and more than half are already stockpiling food and other essential items to survive and fight back, according to a new survey shared with Secrets.
In the survey, 61% said that the United States is nearing a second civil war, including a shocking 41% who “strongly agree” with that assessment.
And 52% are so convinced that it is just around the corner, or after Election Day, that they are putting away food and other essentials, an historic expansion of the prepper movement that has been brewing for years, now driven by fear and coronavirus-induced shortages."
And the other 48% who have not prepared at all will now understand the process of natural selection first hand.
-Powder keg: 61% say United States ‘on verge of civil war,’ 52% already preparing
And the final song for this theme shall be…
Conrad Harris、tiny tim – Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear (Remaster)
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